Maine Trip 2018

Would you believe me if I told you that before this year I hadn’t done much traveling outside of the American Midwest? That I’d only been to roughly 11 states in my entire 28 (now 29) years of living? What a waste! So let me tell you about our trip to Maine.

With my resolution in January 2018 to travel more, and a seemingly destined meeting with my boyfriend, this year has certainly been the year I learn to travel. 16 additional states have been added to my list along with countless National Parks and scenic destinations that I may have never known about before.

Travel

So I’ve told you about a few trips before this year: My trip to the southwest in February, where we spent most of our time in New Mexico. Then in June we headed north to Mount Rushmore for my birthday. We took a day trip to Kansas City to do some exploring, and now to the northeast, where we spent most of our time in New Hampshire!

I’m not going to go into every little detail about the trip, which would probably make this a four part series. I’m going to show you the highlights reel, share some fun pictures with you and provide more insights on the things I learn about while traveling. Not only do I learn things about my boyfriend and the place we are traveling to, but I learn plenty about myself as well.

But without further ado…our Maine trip!

So we named it our “Maine Trip” because that is where we were planning on spending most of our time. But you know the phrase, we plan and God laughs? That’s exactly what happened. Mostly we had general areas that we wanted to explore and Chris knew I wanted to do some shopping, but we didn’t have a ton of final destinations that we HAD to go to. That probably sounds really scary for when you’re planning a trip, but honestly it takes some pressure off. There are not a lot of time constraints, no “we have to make it here before this day” type of situations. It’s a more organic way to travel.

Wedding

Taking time off from work isn’t always that easy for me, especially in the fall. We have the back to school season and then a minor lull while we get ready for the holiday season. Chris’s brother was getting married the first weekend in Oct, so that provided me with more reason to take off work right afterwards. So technically our first destination was a wedding! We were both participants, with him being the best man and I helping out on the sidelines. This wasn’t the most relaxing of transitions into a vacation but it was so wonderful to meet more of his family and be able to actually get to know them instead of a “Hi, how are ya” type of conversation.

And We’re Off!

Right after the reception, we had our car packed and we drove about sixteen hours to Ohio. This first part of the trip I’m going to breeze over because the guts of our trip were spent in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Had Lobster rolls for the very first time.

Woodstock, Vermont

I absolutely fell in love with this little tourist town that we briefly drove through, and then spent some more time in on the way back. Cute little shops on their main street, I even got to stop by their local library for a sale they were having. A lot of creative artistry exists in that town, I saw more than one pottery shop and of course the bookshops helped to win my heart. I told Chris that if we ever need (ie. an afford) a summer home, that’s exactly where I’d like to be.

New Hampshire, White Mountains

We originally planned this trip in order to watch the leaves turn color. I’ve mentioned that Chris is a photographer before and usually that’s the only time constraints we put on ourselves. #1 being about to have daylight to take pictures and #2 beating any bad weather that may come our way. I mentioned that I learn different things every trip and a lot had to do with photography on this trip. Even at home since then I’ve developed more skills, but now I feel like I’m tuning my eye to what I actually want. How to make my instagram more cohesive and what kind of behind the scenes shots I can take for Chris. I digress.

The White Mountains were actually where we saw the most color. We were anticipating a little more in Acadia when we got there and ended up turning back around to New Hampshire before we got rained out. Which comes to my other tidbit of travel learning. Rolling with the punches. We were a little late in the season but we did end up finding a campsite in which to camp out. But guess who forgot our tent poles? So purchasing a new tent was put on the to-do list. Then the one night we actually did camp, it ended up raining. And thankfully the tent and the gear we brought all held up.

Maine, Bangor

Of course I, the ever Constant Reader, had to visit Stephen King’s house while in Maine. I felt a little stalker-ish at first and then realized that we weren’t alone. Others were there taking pictures and the amount of fans that had been there before me had worn his more parking grass thin. It was so amazing to be able to do something like this, and I plan on making a point of seeking out more literary sites for our next trips. Maybe I’ll even put together a map of book lover locations. You’ll just have to wait and see.

Maine, Portland

This section of the trip felt like it was exclusively for me, but I know Chris enjoyed himself.  This was another town that we fell in love with together. We (him more so than me) are huge foodies. We could have eaten at a different place every meal for a week and kept finding more. The first restaurant that we went to was called Central Provisions. The atmosphere was amazing and fed into the overall experience. Chris and I selected three small plates to share and honestly if it wasn’t so late I could have ate four more. Highly recommend for anyone in Maine or heading there.

The next day we stayed in town in the morning to do some more shopping. We purchased some souvenirs and some gifts for his nieces. I got to try oysters for the first time at Eventide Oyster Co. Oddly enough I was craving brussel sprouts and I have never had such good brussel sprouts in my life. If you’re wondering if I liked the oysters, then yes! I did. I love love love trying new food and am usuallypleasantly surprised.

Maine, Bar Harbor / Acadia

We honestly didn’t stay here as long as we anticipated, like I said before. The leaves weren’t turning color and Acadia ended up not being the type of landscape that we were looking for. We spent a little time at the beach since I had never been to this coast. Another really cute tourist town, but our main (hehe) goal was to find a good place to shoot. We headed back to New Hampshire the next day, but I would love to come back here, maybe next year, just to see the little shops and get a vibe for the culture.

Heading Home

On the way back we stopped in Des Moines at Zombie Burger, which is one of Chris’s favorite burger places. (I know you didn’t expect so much food in my blog.) Traveling like this is 100% not easy, but I wouldn’t change a thing about our trips. We bond so much differently when we’re in a car together, experiencing something new together. It makes coming home to the mundane everyday seem a little bit more special.

I know we already in talks for another trip, but where would you guys suggest we go? Leave a comment below or come find me on instagram! I’ve been posting more consistently, more heartfelt content so come connect with me. I can’t wait to hear where we should go next.