The Maine Idea (we rock puns here!)
As it happens so many times when planning a trip - factors beyond your control play into the decision of which destination to visit. My son is 17 and we had planned to visit Europe for 6 weeks this coming summer. However with SARS-COV-2 variants still popping up, we decided to make different plans.
This is where The MAINE Idea came from. One of my families’ MAINE (so sorry. I cannot help it.) reasons for travel is following the food. Whatever is local and in season we want to try. More often than not, searching out food is our way of discovering the destinations’ history and culture while supporting locally-owned businesses.
The trip we are taking this summer is my son’s high school graduation trip. He is autistic and joining a trip full of neurotypical high school graduates around Europe sounded like nails on a chalkboard to him, so we decided to go as a family and discover Europe in a way that makes him comfortable. We are hoping this experience will help him go by himself or in an escorted trip with one of the suppliers that I have found that have a huge percentage of solo travel that is immersive, sustainable, and eco-friendly.
Back to his trip, every country he wanted to visit involved food culture - Italian, French, Czech, and German. All the foods. When looking at a Plan B, we knew it had to revolve around food. We are huge oyster and seafood eaters so Maine quickly jumped out as a front runner.
We love Maine oysters and lobsters, we hike wherever we go, we don’t mind driving, and we are excited about getting away from the heat here in Texas.
Maine (I have typed Maine to the point where I think I am spelling it wrong) checks all those boxes, plus some. We don’t have a lot of time — just 2 weeks — but we hope to make the best of it and support local farmers along the way.
On June 24, 2022 is the The Maine Oyster Festival in Freeport, Maine. We have done some research and this sounds like an amazing way to see many of Maine’s oyster producers that we may never be able to visit. But we plan to try, and they make it easy.
The Maine Oyster Trail has a passport and rewards program, which will allow us to support even more oyster farmers on our trip around the state. Their website allows you to type in locations and the type of businesses and then it gives you a map. Once you arrive, you complete the check-in and receive rewards merch like a hat or tote. Cool huh?
We plan to keep to the coastal highways and will do an out-and-back trip through Maine as we make our way up to Acadia National Park then back down to Portland on our way to our flight out of Boston.
More coming in June as we kick off our adventure!