I'm back from a 3 days road trip to Maine. The coast of Maine is a place my parents and I used to go when I was very little. Actually, I first saw the sea in Old Orchard Beach when I was only 1 year and a half! I'm a beach bum ever since and I never get tired of it! We took route US2 in St. Johnsbury through the White Mountains and then we took SR26 in Bethel, ME. We went through several towns and villages and we saw some beautiful mountain sceneries.

We stayed in Saco in a place called Bay View Villa (207-286-8762). It is a convent run by nuns so the place is sparkling clean and we didn't really mind the shared bathroom thing really. Breakfast is included and lunch and dinner are available at a very reasonable price. This huge bulding is right on the waterfront, has a semi-private beach and lots of benches and chairs to sit around and relax. The prices are very reasonable : our room was only 45$USD. Even during the summer, they have rooms for as low as 45$ (single) and 70$ (double) which is really cheap for an oceanfront accomodation, but you have to reserve pretty soon because it is a popular place in the summer time!

I never went to the ocean during the winter (or early spring) and one thing really struck me : the color of the water! It was bright blue and it was so beautiful! We had two wonderful sunny days so I took long walks on the beach and found lots of sand dollars. On Sunday, we drove route 9 following the coast from Saco to Rye, NH. I especially enjoyed the stretch between Ogunquit and Rye : huge manors, high cliffs, lighthouses,... Cape Neddick and Cape Porpoise were my favourite lighthouses. We ate seafood in Camp Ellis in a place called Wormwood's (the shrimp scampi is +++).

Unfortunately, we had a hard time getting back to Canada, it was raining and snowing and we had to make lots of detours because some roads were closed (accidents, weather conditions), plus many people were driving really, really...really slow! Finally, we ended up visiting areas such as Jay, Peru and Mexico, it was kind of fun but it took us 7,5 hours instead of 5!

Gen:o)