Maine Themed Gift Ideas

As I look at this picture, I remember my single days when I made my first trip to Maine alone to visit old friends who were building a home there. This was in the early 1970's. I stopped at Portland Lighthouse and when I went in to visit, was greeted by an elderly gentlemen who kept watch over the lighthouse and it's visitors. He had a beautiful colorful large parrot, and took a picture of me with the parrot on my arm after climbing the lighthouse.

I also remember a few years ago when my husband and I decided to drive home from Maine to New Jersey hugging the coastline at least in Maine, and stopped at each lighthouse along the way. We have been to many of the lighthouses in Maine, including one that is on the farthest point of land jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean on the East Coast of the United States.

Lobsters, Lobster fishing and Maine go hand-in-hand, or maybe that's hand-in-claw, but however you say it, it's a rare person who goes to Maine and doesn't take advantage of at least one lobster dinner. You can do this both "fancy" and "plain". We love going to lobster shacks and getting lobster cooked and taking it back to our place, or we have a favorite place we go that has picnic tables outside with all throw-away dishes and utensils. We usually go to one dinner out at a nice restaurant, too. Yes, we get at least 3 lobster meals a week while in Maine.

Prices vary...and vary between hard-shell and soft-shell lobsters. You see, a lobster sheds it's shell. When it sheds, the new shell is soft and roomy so he has room for growth. The shell hardens over time, and his soft body inside the shell grows to fill out the shell, then it sheds that shell, and...well you get the idea..it's an ongoing cycle in the life of a lobster. But it's important to keep in mind when buying a lobster for dinner....hard shell gives you more meat and consequently cost more, but a soft shell can give you good meat as well, maybe even a little sweeter...but don't determine how much meat you're going to get by how the lobster looks, a soft shell will not be completely full, and the claws, for example, will be full of water in the space between the meat and the shell, and that water weighs something...for this reason the soft-shell should cost less than you'd expect for it's weight...but always ask and compare the prices taking into consideration the difference between a soft and hard shell lobster.

We have eaten both hard shell and soft shell lobster, and each has it's advantages and disadvantages...but both are delicious

One of my favorite memories on Maine is a year when we took our children out and gathered lots of blueberries at a special spot we found near Pretty Marsh in Maine, and then we hiked the trail through the woods to Pretty Marsh, went down the wooden stairway to the somewhat rocky beach, and gathered mussels. We cooked the mussels in a pot of water over the campfire and had them as part of our dinner, and enjoyed eating the fresh picked blueberries. Mussels that you gather tend to have more little pearls than the ones that you buy in the store, but they are good. Before you gather, you have to make sure there have been no "red tides" caused by toxic organisms in the area, or you could become quite sick.

Maine Blueberries are such a big part of Maine that there's a little tourist spot with a round building shaped like a blueberry and everything inside is somehow related to blueberries and the color blue.

If you'd rather REALLY head to Maine, and not just look at videos, there are a few different Frommer's travel guides for Maine...you can put them on your gift wish-list, or give them to someone you know is planning a trip. These are among the best travel guides. There are other varieties of the Maine guide, one that has a day-by-day guide, one that you might like if you're planning to travel all the New England States, and others...this link will take you to the full list.

One year we decided to travel in central and northern Maine with the intention of finding moose in the wild. We had a little luck when we traveled a very narrow road with trees along each side, in fact so narrow that our first sighting of a moose was a female with young who ran out in front of us, bumping her rump on the front side corner of the car...she was fine...we were driving slow and she bumped us, after all. Gave me a good scare.

We asked where the best places would be to look for moose, with visions of moose standing in water with their large antlers set off by the sun, or moose in the woods along the side of the road...but were told to "head for the salt piles at the DOT (Dept. of Transportation)" which we did, and indeed, saw moose every time we passed, licking the salt in the piles. Not quite as "romantic" as our visions of grandeur, but we saw our moose.

Before we left to hunt for Moose in Maine, the girls in my husband's office gave him a stuffed moose, just in case our trip was in vain:-)

Another great memory, which I recorded in much more detail with some great pictures, was stumbling upon a Cranberry Bog while in Maine, with an elderly couple using an antique cranberry sorter...for more information and pictures, visit Cranberry Sauce, from Bog to Table.

When I searched for Maine Cranberries, I came across a mystery series I'd never heard of...that takes place in Maine. There are several books in the series, these would make a nice gift...I'm adding it to my wishlist.