Maine - The way life should be

A beautiful morning at Old Orchard Beach

North-east of USA is the place, where I lived the longest of my post college life. For around 5 years, in fact 4+ in Connecticut and around an year in NJ, and never thought of visiting Maine. It was one of the biggest mistakes. Since 2011 till 2016, we never thought about Maine. It was a sin.

Thou, the mistake was rectified, and sin was about to get washed away, as soon as we got back to the region, sadly not to Connecticut thou. It was New Jersey. It was Wednesday, a weekday and I was yet to get assigned to my new organization, and was just getting bored. The thought came in to roam around, I shared about visiting Maine and planned to start on Friday, my wifey suggested, why to wait till Friday, lets start tomorrow. 15th, 16th and 17th of September were the dates, to leave lasting impression. Since 2 out of three days were weekdays, getting confirmed hotels were not a big task. 

Plan:
Day 1: On 15th, start by 10 AM, to avoid office traffic, reach directly to somewhere beachfront in Maine, spend evening on beachfront resort, dine and wine, sleep on time.
Day 2: Wakeup early and watch sunrise, breakfast, go to two lights state park and other sightseeing, head back to another hotel somewhere in south-eastern part of New Hampshire.
Day 3: A day trip to Boston, downtown, Boston Tea Party museum and head back to home.

.

Execution: 

Day 1

Woke up at normal time, packed some food, drinks, hit the road around 10, by 11 AM already crossed NYC, almost no traffic on I95, while crossing, NJ, NYC, CT, RI, MA and NH. Bingo, on time 3:40 PM checked in at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. 

Old Orchard welcomed us with shockingly chilling weather, temperature substantially low, than where we came from. Old Orchard Beach is a typical beach town, calm, serene, slow and early sleeping. By 6:30, only the pubs were in action, rest of the town turned into a Ghost Town. even beaches were empty, for which cold weather could be a reason. The town can also be termed as town of oldies, where life, post retirement, can be enjoyed.

We roamed around the beaches for an hour or so, then went on to roam around the town, nothing much to notice about. We returned back to beach, enjoyed moonlight from the shore. It started becoming unbearably chilly, so came back to hotel room, bought some excellent Red wine. Ordered some food.

The hotel room was over decorated, looked typically from some other era. Relatively smaller rooms, but comfortable and with all amenities, it offered comfort. However, the small size, pushes the occupants to go outside. We had dinner on time 7: PM, set up the alarm and slept before 9 PM.

The surfer is into the sea, way before the world at this part wakes up

Day 2:

One of the best ever days of my life, if not the best. Woke up early, rushed to beach, with all my cameras and accessories, way before sunrise. Beach was calm, only few people around, some surfers were already in the sea thou, and a lot of tiny babies of notorious sea gulls. Had few clicks, but surprisingly, was not too keen to shoot anything. I just wanted to soak in whatever the environment was offering. There were few customary clicks thou. We saw black sky, turning blue, then orange, then golden and finally it was proper Sunshine

We came back to the hotel, had complementary breakfast and much needed coffee. As already warned by the hotel staff about the slow service, we expected them to be slow. They prepare fresh customized breakfast, with limited staffs. The slow service and wait was worth it, the breakfast was awesome.

Driving was another joyful part in Maine, no traffic, no rush. Drove around half an hour, through the broken landmasses of North East, reached two lights state park, and guess what? Spend rest of the morning, there. 

The gate of Trust:

Since we reached early in the park, we were probably the first entrants. The main gate of the park was open and had unique set up. There was a board beside the gate and the board says, "Please pay the "Entry fees" for car in the box". Overwhelmed by the trust over the visitors to the park. $10, we paid the fees and parked our car.

Later in the day, one staff came to be at the entrance. However, it was a great experience to see the kind of trust they have on the visitors.

Calm, Serene and Beautiful:

The Atlantic Ocean in this part of the world was much different than what we were used to see in relatively southern part of the North-East. The rocky beaches, chilly weather, cold ocean water. Thou we carried cameras and accessories, apart from customary few clicks here and there, they turned out to be just extra baggages. We enjoyed the atmosphere. And the feeling is still fresh.

It was one of the best days spent, doing nothing but soaking the Sun and it's warmth beside the Atlantic Ocean, enjoying the cool breeze watching the blue skies. "Panch Tatva" (five elements) of life at the same time.

Reluctantly, we decided to leave the place and then Went on to see some beautiful locations on the way and headed back to our next night halt in Seabrook, New Hampshire. 

The Night Halt:

New Hampshire Inn gave us surprise, the booking was not confirmed, thou booking.com said otherwise. Luckily, there were plenty of rooms available, and I got mine on the same price. The hotel suite was really BIG. But we were too tired to enjoy the luxury, mainly due to day long exposure to chilly wind. We had a small little portion of dinner and Zzzzzzzzz dozed off.

Day 3: 

The luxury, which we did not enjoyed earlier in the evening, we tried to compensate in the morning. The luxurious buffet breakfast was apt for our much needed intake, when our tummies were roaring to crush anything reaching inside them. New Hampshire Inn, offered a variety of items, healthier to nasty. I can always recommend it.

Bonus Tour- Boston is one of the historic cities of Modern America, so the weekends are full of visitors. Also, Boston is one of the busiest cities of North east, only after NYC. So the plan was to hit the roads early, to avoid heavy traffic, and we hit the road early. Busiest cities have their unique problems like parking. So we had to pre-book a parking spot, to keep our vehicle safe and enjoy the day.

Within an hour or so, we were in our pre-booked parking lot at Congress Street, near symbolically significant Boston Tea Party Museum.

Boston Tea Party, we have read in our history books. It is considered to be one of the most significant incidents of the history of Modern America, which freed them out of clutches of colonial masters and America became the America what it is today. 

The tea party museum is just as any typically American museum could be, but there are little differences too, the actors dressed in previous era. There is a lot of story telling and knowledge sharing, theatrical performances,  acting and dialogues, where you can also participate, theatrical performances and the boats. A good one time watch, if you have little interest in the history. We also participated in throwing "Tea Bags" as a symbol of. Just to remind you, the Boston Team Party was a revolt, where the tea boxes were thrown in the sea as a symbolic gesture.

We roamed around the Boston city for few more hours and saw few more man made architectures and left around afternoon. 

Super Bonus: On the way back, we decided to pick up the "Biriyani" from our favorite Biriyani spot in Norwalk Connecticut, the iconic "Paradise Biriyani". My favorite Goat Biriyani and my wife's favorite Paneer Biriyani. I do have ranking for their Biriyanis.  1. Goat, 2, Paneer 3, Chicken and 4 Veg. Our plan was so perfect, that we reached before time 4:45 PM, it opens up at 5:00 PM. And as per their tradition, they won't allow you in, even if they are open from inside. However, funny thing is they accept on-call orders. So I parked my car in their parking lot, picked up mobile phone and ordered the delicacies.

The last leg was still left, to cross the weekend traffic of the "City", New York. We received a call from our "Ghumakkar" gang, they were planning for apple picking on Sunday. We wanted to go back and soak in Maine, catch up with some sleep, before Sunday fun with friends. We were home around 6:30 PM, again on time.

Maine remained inside us forever.

Maine was a plan, thought in hurry yet executed perfectly, thanks to my companion. Maine teaches us how to slow down and enjoy the small things in life. Life is one and not to waste most of our prime by not enjoying it. Maine takes you away from tall buildings, traffic clamor, people running around like headless chickens, pollution to a  serene, calm and another world, where there is stillness, where you can feel the moments.

Maine justifies it's tagline, the way life should be.