August 2015

As a final hurrah before we officially started moved into our NYC apartment, we visited Boston and then took the car to travel up to Maine for a weekend. We were only able to get away for 3 days, so we didn’t quite make it up to Acadia National Park, but we stayed at state parks near Portland and Freeport. The entire area has some great camping grounds, and so we planned on staying for 2 nights at Winslow State Park and another at Wolfe’s Neck.

We brought our trusty $20 tent from Wal-Mart, paid $20 for the campground, and set up camp. The campground itself had some great exploring, but we were also within a stone’s throw distance from Portland, so the next day was spent exploring the (hipster) city and eating some delicious seafood. Lobster dinners (which included a lobster, corn, and usually a “side” of clams” ran for about $18 total, a quart of clam chowder for $4, and a bucket of steamed clams for $11. Couldn’t get enough of it.

 

The next day we took a ferry ride to Peak’s Island to spend the day there. The entire island is bikeable, with some great secluded beaches to explore and relax on. We rented bikes for 4 hours ($15) and circled the island many times (each continuous loop was approximately 45 minutes), each time discovering a new hidden path to a pond or cliff or beach. I loved all the rock sculptures that were left by hundreds of tourists on the shore. The island is self-inhabited too, so there were definitely some grocery stores and restaurants from where we could grab bites to eat, ice cream, and very cheap wine.

 

Sleeping in a tent, without any materials, does a number on your back (one of my friends who I would consider a more “hard-core” nature explorer brought an airmattress and pump the first time I went camping with her. Meanwhile, I only brought a pillow and blanket to cover myself with…). The last night at Winslow Memorial Park was magical, as I laid out on the grass at night and watched the Perseid Showers- just like in the movies where the high school kids laze around during summer break. Three months of sleeping on the ground and an overabundance of mosquitoes, however, led me  to pack up my bags early and head back to Boston a day earlier. We’d tasted the beauty of Maine, and would be planning on coming back to visit Acadia anyway.
Cost Breakdown:

Gas: 1 tank.

Lodging: $10 per night/pp

Attractions: 1 ferry ride to Peak’s Island ($12), all other nature free

Food: a meal ran around $12, and we mostly ate high-quality seafood. We made our own snacks and breakfasts (and sometimes lunches if we were out in nature) instead of eating out.