go on a whale watching boat trip. it’ll take an afternoon, but i had a great time!

My goodness. Where to start? I have gone to Maine for two weeks every fall for the past 10 years. I know the mid-coast area (Freeport to Camden) best but I love to explore the whole state! My best advice – get off of Rt. 1! Maine has some fabulous backroads that will get you where you need to go and you will feel a lot better about the trip! Get a good map (and Delorme makes the best) and pick a route. The backroads are rarely crowded and usually rewarding.
Maine has wonderful state parks – someone before me mentioned Wolf Neck Woods – I love to do the full trail there on a crisp autumn morning! Also on the coast are Popham Beach and Reid State Park – neither of which is crowed on an autumn day. Look for sand dollars at Popham – you will surely find dozens. And for a completely different Popham Beach experience, try the Morse Mtn Road trail. (You may have to do a bit of research to locate it but it is worth the work.)
I love walking in Maine and there are many trails that are easy challenges (!) including the trails at Josephine Newman Sanctuary in Georgetown (on the way to Reid State Park) and Fernald’s Neck Preserve near Camden. Mt. Megunticook and Mt. Battie in Camden Hills State Park are a bit more challenging but there is nothing like the view of Camden Harbor from the top of the trail on a rich, colorful autumn day.
Away from the coast, I love to visit the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village – the last remaining Shaker community in America. The last time I was there, there were 7 Shakers living in the community. It is a beautiful and peaceful place.

In western Maine, I love to take the drive to Rangeley Lake State Park (good camping here). On the way up Rt 17, look for the signs for Coos Canyon (in Byron). It’s one of those spots with lots of rocks and autumn color. Grafton Notch State Park, on Rt 26 near the NH border is also a good place to visit.

If you want to do the Lobster Pound thing (and most people do, though I must admit, I am not a fan of lobster), check out Haraseeket Lunch and Lobster in South Freeport (you can see it across the harbor when you are on the Haraseeket Trail in Wolf Neck Woods). Or try Five Islands Lobster near Reid State Park.

For a truly special meal, try Robinhood Meetinghouse in Georgetown. And I have always been able to recommend the mussels at the Starfish Grill in Brunswick.

I know I have been rambling on here (and making myself anxious as I must wait til the end of September to get to Maine again myself) but I know I’ve left out so much – the Common Ground Fair and the Fryeburg Fair and Portland and the ferry to Monhegan and the pitcher plants on the trail at Quoddy Head. Still, I must admit that if I could only recommend one place to anyone who wanted to visit Maine, I would send them to Pemaquid Point. (But probably not on a weekend – it loses a bit of its magic in a crowd.) Follow Rt 32 from Waldoboro, enjoy the scenery along the way, stop at Shaw’s Lobster for lunch and then work your way down to the tip of the peninsula for a breathtaking and soul-soothing respite on the rocks of Pemaquid. I took my mother there once and she fretted that I would fall off of the rocks and be swept out to sea (there are many warnings about this very real possibility with newspaper clippings to back them up) but I told her that if I were to die at Pemaquid Point then she would know that I had died a happy woman.