Down East

We spent 10 days in "down East" Maine which, for us out of staters, means the eastern half of the Maine coast. Why "down east"?  According to Down East Magazine, "When ships sailed from Boston to ports in Maine (which were to the east of Boston), the wind was at their backs, so they were sailing downwind, hence the term 'Down East.' And it follows that when they returned to Boston they were sailing upwind; many Mainers still speak of going 'up to Boston,' despite the fact that the city lies approximately 50 miles to the south of Maine’s southern border."  Above Lubec, the rest of Maine slopes inland to the northwest and the rest of the Atlantic coast belongs to Canuckistan.  This is a very rural area with no cities, no significant museums or historical sites, few restaurants or theaters but lots of forests, rivers, blueberry fields, estuaries and fishing villages.  It's lovely but hard to make a coherent narrative out of.   So I'm going to switch into full photo-journal mode to give you my impressions of  Down East.

 The coast is rocky and rugged with packs of wild schnoodles and those seagulls you remember from "The Birds"

Lobster are quite big in this area

 

And hugely advertised.

Wild flowers abound...

... as do old cemeteries

Every town has a church or two...

...mostly white with pointy steeples...

... some bigger than others.

Lots of quaint houses

...and a few more impressive ones.

We took a boat tour of the Pleasant River estuary

...saw some fishing shacks in need of repair...

... and a few birds.

Canadian geese just passing through on their way south.

Quoddy Point Light sits as far east as you can go in America

The other side of the bay is Canada