Brian and I took our first vacation (beyond a few very enjoyable long weekends) since our honeymoon in 2015! We had a couple considerations when deciding where to go: limited time off, finding a week that worked with our work schedules, Landon care, physical limitations as my hips weren’t at 100 percent yet, and we wanted to drive. Although Glacier National Park in Montana tops our dream vacation list, we couldn’t drive there and I wasn’t ready to physically handle that trip, which we imagine will be hiking and camping intensive.

We split our honeymoon between Maine and Vermont and loved Maine. We’ve talked for years about going back and decided this was the time to make it a reality. We started planning our September vacation in early March and the reality of it was nearly perfect.

Our first stop when we arrived in Maine was Highroller Lobster Co., which uses creative and fun lobster recipes. We both chose the lobster taco, which is wrapped crisp shell made entirely from cheese. Highroller has oodles of sauces to choose from, and we both opted for lobster ghee, which is ghee boiled with lobster shells to impart a mouth-watering lobster flavor to it. We also had a few types of aioli (I think garlic and cilantro-lime).

The next day, we purchased some fresh lobsters to make for lunch and dinner then traveled up the coast to spend a few nights in Boothbay Harbor. Brian booked us at a terrific resort right on the water that included use of canoes, kayaks, paddleboards and bicycles, and had other amenities like mini golf and grills. We spotted bald eagles, kayaked with seals, and visited local seafood shops and cooked our own lobster. Brian even harvested gigantic mussels from the shore that we cooked up one night! Several had small pearls in them, which made them rather risky to our teeth to eat, but the flavor was outstanding. We also spent a morning hiking at a local park. The forest reminded me of an enchanted fairytale. Boothbay was such a peaceful, picturesque area and the resort was fantastic.

In 2016, we discovered the Maine Island Trail, which is a group of islands off the coast of Maine that the Maine Island Trail Association stewards. Most of the islands are available for public use, with a few privately owned islands available only to MITA members. We opted to dedicate part of our trip to kayaking around the islands and tent-camping on them. Brian crafted an ambitious three-day, two-night route for us that totaled nearly 20 nautical miles.

Our first day of paddling we had what a local called a slack tide that had the ocean completely flat. Most of our local paddling is on flatwater and it’s never been anywhere as flat as the ocean was that first day. We also had the pleasure of kayaking amid at least a dozen seals and huge schools of mackerel and herring. Avian life included loon, osprey, bald eagle and a number of unfamiliar diving birds.

We spent our first night on Bangs Island, which had a terrifically appointed campsite. We dehydrate our own camping food so enjoyed a meal (consisting of dehydrated rice or pasta, meat and a huge pile of veggies, all of which we rehydrate using our camp stove and then we add olive oil and a mix of garlic powder and Creole seasoning for healthy fat content and flavor) while watching the sunset and drinking mediocre box wine. We realized after dark it also had a raccoon infestation problem. They scratched at our tent until wind gusts scared them away. Those same wind gusts, however, nearly caused the tent to collapse on us, making for a sleepless night.

That wind also blew in extremely choppy waters that we battled the final two days of our adventure. We paddled out to Jewell Island, one of the outermost islands on the trail, beyond which is only open ocean. It was a site to behold. Our cameras didn’t capture the magnitude of the cliffs and the vastness of the ocean before us. Jewell Island also is home to lookout towers and an underground bunker from the world wars. Portland was a bigger harbor than Boston at the time, which made it more susceptible to U-boat attacks. We got to walk through the spacious bunker and climbed up one of the watch towers before enjoying lunch then heading to our next destination.

We had a tough time paddling away from Jewell Island, where we had hoped to spend the night. Given the strong headwinds and the distance we had to travel the following day to get to our takeout spot, however, we opted to move onto a different island, Little Cheb, to spend the night. Little Cheb was nice and well-maintained, but not of the same caliber of the other islands we spent time at with their rocky shores and spectacular sunsets. After a night there, we packed up the next morning and paddled back to our takeout spot, which was a mighty physical challenge for us both.

After some confusion with our kayak outfitter, we finally made it back to Brunswick, where we transitioned to our Harpswell AirBnB–the same host we used on our honeymoon in 2015! Their space was lovely, comfortable and we both enjoyed cleaning up before heading out for a hearty meal.

We spent the next day with good friends who live in northern Maine that came down to visit us, splitting our time between Brunswick and Portland. We browsed the terrific Brunswick farmers market, discovered some truly terrible mead, but some respectable Oktoberfest, and tasty, but outrageously overpriced lobster. Brian and I once again stopped at a seafood market in Portland to purchase some fish before we headed back to our B&B to grill it and enjoy our final seafood dinner of the trip, which included Brian shucking his very own oysters.

Our final adventure of the trip was beach horseback riding on Casco Island! I haven’t been on a horse in years, and certainly not since before my hip surgeries. We took the Casco Bay Ferry out to Casco Island and enjoyed a ride through the island, including beaches and forested trail, with our knowledgeable guide giving us local stories and a brief history lesson about the bay. Our horses were rescued Percherons and a little bit dopey, but very sweet, and it reignited my desire to find a local barn and make riding a regular part of life again.

We truly cannot say enough good things about Maine. We desperately needed a long break like that filled with some of our favorite things but, of course, were thrilled to get home and reunite with Landon.