Maine is much closer to home for Dan and I, and somewhere we both spent plenty of time growing up. That said, getting the chance to live there, and right by the coast, made us realize anew how much we love the state. Dan worked in York and we lived in Kittery, just about a two mile walk from downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. My dad, stepmom, and sister were only a 30 minute drive away so we were able to spend a lot of time with them.

Kittery is an adorable little coastal town in southern Maine with so much to offer. The downtown area is tiny, but fun to walk around, and Portsmouth is a great city just over the bridge. We enjoyed some of the town’s events that they put on, like the weekly farmer’s market that was within walking distance to our apartment. There are also numerous trails through the woods with views of the bays along the coast that we had a great time exploring. The Kittery Outlets offer lots of shopping options which we took full advantage of when finishing up our Christmas shopping.

York is the cutest, classic Maine town with so much to offer in terms of unique small business, restaurants, and town events. One of our favourite small businesses to support is the Sandpiper Cake Shop, run by a friend of ours from high school. She’s made many incredible cakes for our family including the fun Halloween one which you can find in my pictures to the right!

We didn’t take too many trips in the area while we were in southern Maine, mostly just to visit family. We took a couple of bigger trips to Montreal and Denver during our time there, but more locally we spent a lot of time in Portsmouth and we squeezed in one overnight trip to Acadia National Park. It was a bit of a drive, but we enjoyed driving along the coast on the way there, stopping in Camden, Maine for lunch and to explore a bit. Acadia was incredible, but we will definitely need to make another longer trip up there to fully appreciate the park.

Some great trips to make from southern Maine would include:

• Portsmouth, New Hampshire
• Hampton, New Hampshire
• North Conway, New Hampshire
• the Isles of Shoals (New Hampshire & Maine)
• Portland, Maine
• Camden, Maine
• Acadia National Park & Bar Harbor, Maine
• there are also many beautiful lakes in NH and ME that are worth checking out: Lake Winnipesaukee (NH) & Sebago Lake (ME)

Many friends and family visited us while we were in Kittery, including our friends Christy & Nick with their twins who I used to nanny. They made the trek down all the way from Montreal just a day after the twins’ second birthday! We had so much fun with them, cooking up tasty Trader Joe’s food, going to York Wild Animal Kingdom, walking around Portsmouth, and shopping at the Outlets. They even treated us to one of the most amazing meals that either of us had ever had at Cava in Portsmouth. Their visit was a highlight of our time in Maine for sure.