Top Travel Days of 2024, Spending My 60th Birthday in Camden, Maine
I honestly loved every minute of the three-day weekend Lisa planned around my big birthday in mid-coast Maine this past August. Hanging out with 20 of my closest friends and family, we biked to Owl’s Head Lighthouse, walked the breakwater at Rockland Harbor, saw the Andrew Wyeth paintings at the Farnsworth, savored our lobster rolls overlooking the water at McLoons, and had many cocktails on the rooftop lounge of our hotel, 250 Main. But Lisa really outdid herself on my actual birthday, organizing a hike up Maiden Cliff in Camden Hills State Park and then renting a private schooner, the Schooner Olad, for some 6 glorious hours that afternoon. Our captain and crew were wonderful, gliding the century-old vessel out through the many islands that hug the shoreline. Thankfully, the weather was sublime, the waves were mellow, and we even swam when we docked at an island for our lobster feast. They cooked the crustaceans the old-fashioned way under seaweed on an open fire, and when bitten into, probably the best lobster I ever tasted! On the sail back to Camden, we savored the sunset, glass of Don Papa Rum in hand. That’s what I call a Dream Day!
I’ve been writing about New England since 1994, even authoring a book titled New England Seacoast Adventures, so it’s rare when I find out about a classic resort on the New England coast I’ve never visited. But that was exactly the case this past weekend when I brought my family to 
Sad to be leaving the 
We currently have a group of 15 family members at the 
Returning from Acadia National Park one summer with the family, we wisely timed our return drive to coincide with the annual 
Maine’s 2,500-mile stretch of granite coast is custom-made for sailing. No other sport gives you the freedom to anchor in a pristine cove, hike on an anonymous island, and sleep with seals by your window. Some 2,000-plus pine-studded islands, more than in the Caribbean or Polynesian archipelago, welcome sailors from around the globe. If you’re feeling a wee bit intimidated to tackle the sport in these salty waters, take a refresher course at 
“Heave Ho!” went the cry as all hands pulled down on a thick rope to haul up the mainsail. “Heave Ho!” the crew chanted again and the schooner headed upwind, all sails gleaming white against a cloudless blue sky. The Captain took the wheel as the boat quickly gained momentum passing another anonymous island crowned with pines and rimmed with the ubiquitous Maine granite. Behind us was the vast expanse of the Atlantic, dotted with multi-colored lobster buoys and lined with the only mountains on the coast north of Brazil. The crew were passengers from around America and Europe who delighted in the chance to hoist the sails, bilge the pump, even take a turn at the wheel sailing this big boy.