Summerguide 2012
The unconsidered state is not worth visiting. Looking for a post-midnight cocktail? Hit up Grace for their five-alarm, jalapeño-infused tequila concoction (aptly named the “Heated Affair”). Or how about a casual celebrity encounter? Stroll the Old Port waterfront and you might just run into Anna Kendrick, Liv Tyler, or share a laugh with Bob Marley. Fancy something less tangible, like the Maine mystique? Keep reading–you’ll find it between our lines.

For instance, you’ll find vintage Hollywood glamor as close as Bar Harbor–so world famous the New York Times published its summer guest list every year–where a Downeast vacationer made an unforgettable entrance at dinner one summer evening with the Hope Diamond adorning her neck. But that wasn’t the most beautiful thing she kept hidden in her Briar Cliff mansion (see our story on page 96).

Find your 15 minutes of Maine. If you could ask Commodore Edward Preble, he’d tell you about coming face-to-face with “Cassie,” the infamous Casco Bay Sea Serpent, when he was just 18. According to Loren Coleman, curator of the new International Cryptozoology Museum on Congress Street, this was the first of many documented sightings of the legendary Maine serpent. (As for Preble, he couldn’t be scared away and built a stately mansion in Monument Square. He later went on to defeat the Barbary pirates and command the USS Constitution.)

Did you know John Lennon once went house-hunting here with Yoko Ono? You never know the company you’re traveling in, and what phase of their life they’re in. T.C. Boyle, who everyone connects with the West Coast, sent us an email about his East Coast existence (no word if he actually “saw Cassie”). In fact, he confesses, “I’ve had many adventures in Maine. It’s a great state.” What are your 15 minutes of Maine? Maybe you’ll experience them in Ogunquit, at the intimate boutique venue called Jonathan’s, which features after-dinner entertainment with performers like Judy Collins (July 25) and Richie Havens (August 29), once a mesmerizing opening act for Woodstock in 1969. In one way or another, everyone’s trying to get to Maine. Here, we find ourselves at the end of the earth, with something inside us yearning for more. That’s why you’re here.

Maine is your oyster. Keep turning the pages, and the beauty of Maine will open up to you, like the stunning panoramas of 33 Dream Islands for sale this summer. Did you know John Mellencamp once toured one of our Dream Islands (Clapboard Island, off Falmouth), looking for a summer retreat? Or that Bill Buckner, after the soul-crushing 1986 World Series, had a lengthy stay at the Isaac Randall House in Freeport to cleanse himself of bad luck? Maine is that kind of place–a soothing balm, a healing salve. The city of Portland is like a magic home page for the state, an “Athens in the Wilderness” from which we can launch our own summer adventures. And to help you enjoy Maine, you don’t need the Hope Diamond–just download Portland Magazine’s new app to discover the Maine you’ve been dreaming about. Like Virgil, we’re a good guide.