“The world is a book. Those that never travel read only one page.” St. Augustine.
Are you getting ready to travel? Summer is coming, and that is a good time to hit the road or take to the air. Depending on where you live, you may have been locked away for months with cold and snow, but now sunshine and warm weather are calling. If you are traveling with school-age children, summer may be the only time available.
I think I mentioned that when I was growing up, our family would leave for a month, traveling to different parts of the country. We would strike out and drive until early evening and find a campsite. Sometimes we would stay for several days, and sometimes we would leave after a night. In the 1950s and 1960s, most campsites were “primitive” since there was no water or electricity available at the site. It was a lot of work at times – I was the proverbial Gunga Din – my job was to get water so Mom could start supper while my brothers and father set the tent up and arranged everything. I have many fond memories of those times.
When my wife and I started a family, I wanted to carry on the tradition. The problem was that I did not have a month’s vacation. We started off taking two weeks, but that did not work out well, so we ended up spending a week camping. Now, if you ask my family how that worked, they will say not well. They are not much on camping, and it seemed that Mother Nature was not on our side. I think we experienced every possible weather condition except snow. Believe it or not, we lived through a waterspout in Narragansett, Rhode Island. We were staying at a site with a small bay and the water was sucked right out of the bay leaving the fish flopping around until it played itself out and dumped the water back in – exciting times. The thunder and lightning from that storm are etched in our minds. I think the final straw was the storm that passed through Portland, Maine, shaking the pine trees and rattling the dishes. But even with all the misfortunes of the weather, when we start talking about vacations, those are the memories we have. Those are the times we laugh about – “Remember when!” I think being together was the best part of the time.
Now, after this last storm in Portland, we decided to spend our time in a house. I’m not sure when it started becoming a thing, but short-term rentals were not easy to come by in the 1990s. This was long before the internet and Airbnb. We would find places listed in the newspaper want-ads – go ask your grandparents what that was. Sometimes we would stop at a real estate company to pick up a catalog with some listed.
We loved the ocean, and I remember the very first house we rented for a week. It was on Drake Island outside of Portland, Maine. I remember picking up the key at the real estate office along with the directions. When we got to the house, we were a little more than confused. It was a normal house in a neighborhood. Hey, what did we know – we were from Eastern Kentucky! We opened the door, and the first thing we thought was that we were breaking into someone’s home. There were family pictures on the wall and dishes in the cupboards. The family pictures were a little odd in that they were a complete timeline of the family growing up. Mother and father are joined by children of various ages. Then to ones with fewer children as each left home. Additional pictures of grandchildren with the grandparents through the years followed by one less grandparent as the mother was no longer around. A little sad, but this was a home filled with love and memories. After we were assured we were in the right place, we settled down to enjoy our new spot. We were about a block from the water and thought we were in heaven. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we returned the next year.
Instead of staying in a motel, renting a house has several advantages. It is easier to sit around a living room and visit at the end of the day while watching the tide come in and taking advantage of local cuisine. We often went to the local fish market and were able to buy lobsters or mackerel that had been harvested that morning.
Availability was always an issue, and we were forced to move to other houses. We wanted to be close to Portland, but short-term rentals were hard to find, especially those close to the water. Some were closer than others, but the farthest we stayed was almost an hour out of Portland. The house on Pemaquid Point was on the water near a lighthouse, so it was practically perfect. The distance was an issue, though we stayed there two different years. It was a little rural to the point that we could see the Milky Way – something not often seen in the city.
Finally, we were able to find the perfect house. There were three houses side by side, and we used two of the three at different times as we were now traveling with children and grandchildren. The houses were just a short 15-minute drive into Portland, and with high tide lapping the house abutments on one of them, we felt right at home. The house was on a bay in Cape Elizabeth, and in the morning, we could watch the lobster boats while cruise ships and sailboats floated by. The quintessential Maine coastal view.
From these houses, we could visit the sights in the area. We could sit on the grass on the Eastern Prom and enjoy an Italian Sandwich from Amato’s, or visit the Portland Headlight. We could go deep-sea fishing on the Ugly Anne, shop in the local markets, or enjoy a minor league baseball game.
Probably our favorite place to visit was Two Lights State Park. Here we could get lunch from the Lobster Shack at Cape Elizabeth – me a lobster and my wife a hamburger – sit on the rocks and watch the tide come in and go out. We could, honestly, sit there all day and just watch the waves crashing on the rocky coast. For us, there is probably nothing more grounding, more relaxing than watching the rise and fall of the tides with the seagulls flying overhead, knowing this has been going on for millennia and will continue long after we are dust. Most of all, we could enjoy each other’s company. Two Lights is our must-stop whenever we are in the area.
We like to travel to different areas with different environments, but as a go-to place, we love the ocean and mountains of New England. Years ago, I read a study that people tend to feel more connected, more at peace, in areas similar to where they were raised. If you’re born and raised in mountainous regions, you may be anxious in the flat prairie lands of Nebraska or Kansas. If you were raised in those areas, the mountains may feel claustrophobic. True? I’m not sure. Another study seems to indicate that those who are drawn to the ocean are more extroverted, while introverts are drawn to prairies. Pop-psychology? Maybe, but I do know that mountains and oceans are much more relaxing for us. Maybe, for me, it’s the fact that most of my ancestors immigrated from the highlands of Scotland and the surrounding islands to an island in Canada and then to Maine.
Whatever it is, whatever you like, wherever you feel most renewed, go! For relaxation and renewal, go to those places that fill that need. At other times, go to areas that are the opposite, places that will change your world view, places that will challenge you and inform you. We can get stuck in viewing the world through one set of eyes, based solely on the familiar. Traveling to unfamiliar locations can help us see that the world is not one place but that people are much the same.