Summer 2020 Maine Travel Diary.

     It was the highlight of my summer to get to spend a week home to Maine a few weeks ago. After the crazy and uncertain year that is 2020, I will never take trips back to my hometown for granted, ever again. I don't have a full Travel Guide to share today... just a personal Travel Diary with some photos from a special week, and a few thoughts and memories!

     My parents and I started my trip home by spending three days in Rangely, which is a tiny mountain and lake town in the northern part of Western Maine. It's about three-ish hours north of my hometown, Kennebunk. We went to Rangely once when I was in elementary school, but I hadn't been back since. While Rangely has beautiful views and a lovely lake, it's very small and it's not convenient to anything else in Maine. I think it's a great weekend trip spot for Mainers to check out, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend someone from out-of-state who wants to see Maine prioritize a Rangely visit- if that makes sense? (I just think there's better parts of the state to see if you're not from here.) But with that said- my parents and I got to experience the most stunning mountain scenic view called Quill Hill while we were there! Quill Hill was such a highlight that I'll be giving that its own blog post soon. It was so amazing it would be worth a day trip up to Rangely just to see it- I swear. Anyways- here are a few Rangely pictures:

     We then headed back to my hometown, where we spent the rest of the week. It was the most quiet trip home that I think I've ever had. I didn't do any shopping at my favorite local stores, or eat indoors in any beloved restaurants. Instead there was lots of time spent at home or outdoors at the beach, but honestly having such a low-key week was just what I needed to de-stress from this year. I was able to see my three closest friends (socially distanced), and a few members of my mom's family outdoors with masks as well!

    One huge highlight of the trip was going kayaking on Kennebunk Pond with my friend Katie! Katie is my oldest friendship (we met at ages seven and eight) and I hadn't gotten to see her the last few times I've been home, so it was much overdue. Even better was that we got to take her kayaks out on Kennebunk Pond! It's a small pond in the  neighboring town of Lyman (kind of funny it's named after my town but in Lyman), and my mom used to take me to their little beach to swim when I was very little. I have some precious memories from being a young girl listening to an Enya cassette tape in my mom's station wagon and her driving us out on a hot summer day to Kennebunk Pond! I hadn't been there in at least 15 years, so it was a treat to see it as an adult with a dear friend. The sky was cloudy the whole time we were out there, but the rain held off until we were done kayaking. (Also- kayaking is a great social distancing activity, just saying!)

    Another big highlight was seeing my first ever sunrise on the beach! It's kinda crazy that I'm from a coastal town yet had never seen a beach sunrise before in almost 26 years of life. (Probably because I didn't become a morning person until long after I moved away from Maine!) Anyways, I decided to do it one day while I was home. Despite the fact I wake up at 3:30 five days a week normally for my day job, I could barely get out of bed by 5 that morning I chose to see the sunset. I made it to the beach after it was already starting to get light out, but I sat on the jetty at Gooches Beach (my favorite spot in Maine) and watched the rest of it, white listening to worship music on my phone. It was amazing!

    And the last highlight was taking family photos with my parents with a photographer. We hadn't had professional photos done together since I was in middle school- talk about overdue! I don't have the finished photos to share with y'all today, but I am already excited to see some of them printed up next time I go home. Hopefully it won't be quite so many years before we do photos again, and maybe sometime we can get some with my mom's extended family too!

     There was something really weird about being home during the pandemic. Obviously it felt very real to me here in Charlottesville, but there was something extra chilling about being in the place I grew up and seeing things look so different this summer- between the mask wearing (my parents and I wore them around each other the first two days I was home as well, even though I had tested negative prior to flying) and certain businesses being closed this summer.

    I've shared before on the blog in this more vulnerable personal post that I have mixed feelings about my hometown- there's a lot of hurt from my past that I've been able to move past from living and working out of state. But this year definitely gave me a new appreciation for home. I wasn't sure for awhile if I'd get to see my hometown, family and close Maine friends this year. It was truly a blessing that I was able to. I definitely won't take future trips home for granted. It's so uncertain right now with COVID if I'll go home for the holidays, so at least I had this special week this summer.

     If you'd like to see more from my hometown- I have a complete Kennebunk/Kennebunkport Travel Guide here, and a smaller one focused on winter activities in the Kennebunks here as well. And here's a post I wrote about my experience flying this summer during the pandemic!


     God Bless,


     xoxo Annaliese