It took me a while but I wanted to post about my camping vacation. I
don;t think I mentioned it, but we went to
Ogunquit, Maine. I never heard of
Ogunquin before and I have only been in Maine once, about 14 years ago
and my last longer camping trip was also at least 10 years ago. But when
WMM
posted about the town I knew it was just the place for us. Thank you
WMM!.
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| at the campground |
We are not hard core campers by any means and even if we use the tent and not
the trailer, we sleep on cots and we go out for most lunches and dinners. Our campground
had a heated pool and a store where you could buy essentials and get
coffee in the morning. We had hot water and coin showers and the
bathrooms were clean, but it took me about three days to get over the fact that it was
not exactly hotel standards. After I accepted that it is what it is,
everything got better and at the end of our week there I though I
would not mind staying longer.
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| Going out to dinner in York, ME |
Ogunquit is close to the beach and variety of seafood restaurants,
museums and, nature walks. Most days I would wake up around 8 AM and go
for coffee, sit on the deck and catch up on blogs. Then we would
make breakfast and hang around the campground.
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| Ogunquit beach |
On sunny days we went to
the beach, otherwise we visited local museum, walk the
Marginal
Way, visit lighthouses and eat a lot of lobsters (sorry to all of
you who are vegetarians, but I love seafood). In the afternoon we went
to the pool and on most evenings we have campfire.
I have to admit, I was skeptical about the Museum and I thought the collection cannot be too interesting and I was expecting some of those slightly kitchy seascapes and such but I was pleasantly surprised. I found the collection very interesting, you can see some of it here. Good lesson for me about having preconceived notions.
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| View from the front of the Museum |
The grounds are stunning and the building itself is an architectural treat.
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| From the sculpture garden, I loved this |
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| The quality of light itself is worth a visit |
I thought this bridge looked a little medieval in shape, something like from a picture book about knights.
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| Bridge at Perkins Cove |
The lighthouses also look almost too cute to be real...
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| Lighthouse in York |
Overall, we had a blast and my 9yo daughter cannot wait to go back camping. But as for myself I am happy to be packing again. Tomorrow we are leaving for a week on Cape Cod, MA. No camping this time. We are renting a place at
Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster.
It will only be me and my younger daughter. My husband, unfortunately, will not be able to join us. Because of that, I picked a place with plenty of activities on site, including 3 day tennis camp for my daughter. That will give me 4 hours a day to walk on the beach or just relax by the pool! I am very excited by this prospect. And I will finally be able to wear my maxi skirt from Anthro. It is super comfy but my husband hates it, so this is my only chance, lol.
***
Have you been to Maine or Ocean Edge?
Do you have book recommendations for summer reading on the beach?
Do you ever go on vacations without your spouse/partner?
I may be able to post from vacation but most likely I will take a break and I will be back in a week.
But I will definitely be reading what everybody is up to!
I live on the Cape, and own an Ice Cream shop in Chatham, (a lovely & charming town). I love Maine and your pictures are beautiful. I'm sure you will be very happy at Ocean Edge. I've been to many weddings and functions there. Enjoy the rest of your vacation!
ReplyDeleteIt is so nice to see pics of maine.When we first came to the states from germany the first place we lived was york beach/maine. We lived in the oceanhouse,which is right across the beach from york beach.
ReplyDeleteThe pic of the lighthouse is where we often went to eat our ice cream. Is this the nubble light house?
Ahh the memories!! I miss it and the lobsters too.
Ina, you too? I lived in Maine yonks ago.
DeleteOh I loved it there, you two are steeping me in nostalgia, there's anything like a quant New England town.
ReplyDeleteOh, wish I knew you were here as I could give you more coastal Maine advice! I live on a harbor about 10 miles north of Ogunquit. Total heaven. I just read Betty Fussell's " My Kitchen Wars", a memoir from the 90's.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these pics. It looks beautiful there! Sounds like you had a really good trip. I know what you mean about camping - my husband really wants to go camping, but he means "real" camping, i.e. no showers, no toilet, nothing but us and the woods.
ReplyDeleteHave a great vacation!!
AJC, your photos are gorgeous -- love the lighthouse! And who would guess that you had been CAMPING!!! You look so put together and CLEAN (the striped dress is particular is so pretty on you) -- back in the day (college, yikes!) when I went camping, I avoided all mirrors and cameras because I knew I looked so scary!
ReplyDeleteHave fun in Maine, your daughter must be so happy to get you all to herself for a few days!
Oh -- I bought the strawberry valentinas this morning -- popped back in my size! I remembered reading your review about loving them!
Yeesh. Looking at my comment, so many exclamation points. I will have to watch that... (Trying hard not to add them here...)
DeleteAJC - so happy you loved it! Ogunquit is one of my happy places! Such a lovely town with such friendly people!
ReplyDeleteLane - I am going to look up that book right now! I did not know we are so close!
AJC - take lots of pictures - we have never been to Cape Cod, but have vowed to go there next summer!
It looks lovely there, so quaint. I've never been to Maine and I always thought it was quite barren with few trees so I'm surprised at your photos. I've learned something new today and it's not even noon.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful vacation. I love New England too. Funny, but I am a non seafood eating vegetarian!I'll let you know if you are missing anything exciting in our neck of the woods. Enjoy!
ReplyDeletefirst i want to thank you for your kind comments and generous offer of help. suzanne is blown away too. thanks so much!
ReplyDeletewhat we do w/o wwm?
my best friend always tells me that when you can get room service camping then she'll try it! hahha.
i love to camp, the dirty/gritty type but your trip sounds wonderful and how great to explore a new part of the good ole usa!
i recently got a comment from a reader chastising me for having never left the country but there is so much here i've yet to see. to each their own i suppose.
have a wonderful, relaxing trip on cape cod. never been, want to though! xo
I've never had an opp to go on holiday in New England, though I've always wanted to! Thanks for sharing your trip!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all of the photos of your trip, ajc! It looks like you actually had a pretty enjoyable time, even if it wasn't a hotel stay.
ReplyDeleteI have never been to Maine, or to Cape Cod, but would love the opportunity to go some day. Have fun on your trip! :)
I've never had the opportunity to be in that area but always wanted to visit. Thanks for showing it really is as wonderful as imagined!
ReplyDeleteThank you everybody!!! I was trying to make a small change to this post and then I was not able to re-post it from my phone. Sorry it had disappeared like this, without warning, but back it is, no comments lost!
ReplyDeleteI am back from Cape Cod and we had a wonderful time. We did not see much because I was very lazy and we mostly stayed by the pool. I highly recommend Ocean Edge Resort. They had so many activities going on, it was a perfect place for me to relax and for my daughter to stay busy, all at the same time. We both played tennis and she tried golf, I swam laps while she played water polo, we watched movies by the pool and roasted marshmallows on the beach. While she was at the camp, for part of the day, I could cycle on one of the most scenic bike trails I've seen. We ate tons of seafood and ice cream. I managed to read 3 books!
I don't think I ever came back from vacation more rested.