last weekend we met a bunch of our old portland friends for a camping trip at hermit island in midcoast maine. i had never been there, though i've loved visiting nearby popham beach and morse mountain over the years. when i venture away from mount desert island it always strikes me how many incredibly gorgeous pockets of maine there are that i've never seen, and that idea both inspires me and overwhelms me a little. i want to see them all! but it never seems like we have enough time. plus, my local digs are pretty nice as is.
hermit island is gorgeous. six different beaches, nice campsites, a store with everything you forgot, showers. there is a snack bar too, but we never visited it so i can't say much about that. the whole place has the feel of something out of the 1950s. we did not bring bikes, but i wish we had. people bike everywhere, and it would have come in handy because our site was a bit far from the bathroom. we reserved our site in early march - i hear it can be fierce trying to get the site you really want. i have my eye on some of the true oceanfront sites for next time - they were pretty spectacular.
interesting aside: earlier in the summer, the kids and i had the opportunity to participate in a book talk with author gary d. schmidt on his new book okay for now, through the awesome local island readers and writers program. we loved him, and have gone on to read several more of his books, most notably lizzie bright and the buckminster boy, which coincidentally takes place in phippsburg, me - right where we were last weekend. we took a little detour to see some of the places in the book, and the kids were very excited. it was an inspiring read for us and i recommend it.
on the way home we stopped in to my friend erika soule's store, rock paper scissors, in wiscasset. she recently merged two stores into one, and it was gorgeous and well curated as always. i am always blown away by her sense of color and design. (i wrote about it here way back when.) if you are ever in wiscasset, do yourself a favor and stop in. you will not be disappointed. i have never seen anything in her store that i haven't wanted. it can be a dangerous way to feel about a place.
all in all, a super nice 42nd birthday weekend.
have a great week everyone!
