Mainly Maine

I chose #5 from Mama Kat's prompts this week: What was the occasion? Write about the last time you stayed in a hotel.

The last time we stayed in a hotel was this past Fall. September to be exact. We stayed at The Beachmere Inn, in Ogunquit Maine. As a matter of fact, we stay at this hotel every year in September, because my Hubbs is a darling, dear, sweet man who loves me more than anything in the world. Even more than golf. Or so he says. ;~)

Ya see, I have this thing about the Northeast coast. Especially the Southern Maine coast. Most specifically, Ogunquit and the surrounding areas of York and Kennebunkport. I don't know why. Maybe I was a bawdy bar wench salty old sea captain in a former life. Whatever it is, when we hit that stretch of highway right around Portsmouth NH and I roll my window down and take my first breath of that sea air, my mood changes completely. It's as if all of the cares and woes of the world, just melt away.

September is my "birthday month" and our anniversary is in October, so our annual trip is a kind of shared celebration of both. The family that owns and runs The Beachmere Inn are some of the nicest, kindest, most thoughtful people I know and they are the consummate "innkeepers". Because they found out about our little joint celebration each September, they have a special little treat waiting for us in our room when we check in. Every year.

I was drawn to it when I vacationed there with my family growing up. I rented summer cottages there with friends in the years following high school and through college. We loved and laughed and played there both as a young family and sometimes, just as a couple. The day after we said our last goodbyes to our youngest daughter, my little family needed to be in a place where we could begin to grieve and to heal, so we we packed a bag and headed to Maine.

It is my place of solace and peace. It is my place of renewal and reflection. It is the one place, other than my home here in NY, where my soul feels most at home. The brilliant blue skies, the golden sunrises and the sweet salt air of Maine, co-exist equally and interchangeably along the spectrum of my memories. The joyful, the reflective, the silly and the sorrowful.

Ogunquit is a Native American word that means Beautiful Place By The Sea. They must have read my heart when they named it, because that is indeed, what it is.

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