Fourteen days on the road with five people is quite a bit of time. After leaving Niagara we travelled through Vermont and New Hampshire to arrive in Maine for a bit of a rest. The house we rented in Maine was absolutely perfect. I would like to say it was my brilliant foresight to schedule the 4 night stay in the middle of a two week trip, but no, that is just how our itinerary worked out. Open, airy, and enough rooms for everyone to recharge, and this cannot be emphasized enough, in their own room.
I should mention I had absolutely no idea where begin a search to stay in Maine. I knew I wanted to be on the coast. Upper coast? Middle Coast? Down East, where ever that is? We are huge fans of vrbo.com. With 5 people in our family, if we are staying in one location more than 2 nights, we look for a house; more rooms, and more importantly, more bathrooms for everyone. So the search was on…in December of last year. Tim and I have very different approaches to vacation. His approach is to spend less than $10 on lodging, if a hobo is included in the box he wants to rent, even better. I, on the other hand, find where I want to stay and then begin rationalizing the ridiculous expense. It’s called compromise.
The house I found checked all the pre-requisites for approval, four or more bedrooms, 2 or more bathrooms, a view of the coast. As I have mentioned before, I do have quite a knack for finding not only the most expensive lodging, but also the most difficult to get to. That is Tim’s favorite part of any vacation, trying to navigate and park our bus through narrow streets with no parking. 
The house I reserved was on a island…that needed a ferry. Tim loves me. The needed ferry added a new obstacle we had never encountered before. We survived and now are more worldly for the experience.
Every since I can remember I have had an obsession with Maine. Maybe it was the Stephen King books, maybe it was the fact that it was just over there being all mysterious and away from everything, regardless I have been obsessed. While searching for a house, I had a very specific type of house in mind. The list of wants includes a porch, at least two stories, and a widow’s walk. After searching tirelessly for two weeks, I had to settle for a house without a widow’s walk, but did have a tower room. This house had quite a bit to live up to. Hopefully, the pictures would be accurate. We all know the internet has to be true.
After the very peaceful ferry ride, we disembark onto Islesboro Island. Of course our house was on the complete opposite end. This wasn’t too bad. The island is only 15 miles long and 3 miles wide. Driving through the aptly named narrows, made my excitement go through the roof. After a few wrong turns (not our fault, the house had 2 addresses and instructions included turn by the garden and follow the line of birch) we pulled into the drive. The house was very private and waiting to be explored.
Walking into the house was like stepping into a magazine. There we no window coverings so Penobscot Bay was visible from almost every room in the house.Next was room acquisition. The girls chose rooms on the second floor facing the bay. Joseph had a choice of either the tower room (lip quiver) a room on the first floor. The tower room was up 3 flights of stairs with the last being narrow and winding. After brief but intense negotiations, I volunteered to “take” the tower room. The tower room with nearly a 360 degree view of this end of the island. I managed to remain strong. Falling a sleep under a hand- quilted quilt with the windows open and a slightly chilly breeze carrying the salty air was simply rejuvenating to the entire body as a whole.
“The devils in the details” often leads to accents and decorative choices to be either overdone or mixed or just seeming cluttered. Every detail of this house was subdued and absolutely perfect from the solid wood doors to the color pallate to the honey bee tiles in the secondary bathroom.
The clawfoot tube facing the bay to the dining table with eclectic distressed chairs. Even the books on the bookshelves were perfectly varied. The history of the island sitting next to a book about horror movies. Books in the bathroom, and on the coffee table were all equally varied and interesting. Too bad 4 days was not long enough to read them all.
We were in the house for four days. One day we used for exploration. The island graveyard was the first stop. I am not macabre, but I am fascinated by old cemeteries, but that is a different post. I do not understand the boats anchored in an ocean parking lot. The lobster crates were everywhere. A haunting fog hugged the surface of the ocean creating a ghostly backdrop. The heavy damp salt air added enough play for the senses to create the perfectly creepy atmosphere. I could almost feel the horror story being written around us. As the slow drizzle started, we drove back to our house and allowed the cool rain to dump us completely into the only relaxation of the entire 14 day road-trip.
After the four days of complete relaxation, we packed up and headed back to the ferry. We had our time apart in a borderline magical house on a small, quiet island. Yes, the mosquito were terrifying and the spiders were a tad threatening. However, we did have a small amount of time to just be. Be a family, be alone, to be together, and have a moment in time that vacation is not completely perfect chaos.
We were headed from tranquil, peaceful woodlands of Maine to history rich Salem, Massachusetts followed by viewing some of the most insanely designed homes to ever grace the country. Stay tuned for the Temple’s exploration of New England.
