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Midcoast Maine Fishing Trips Made Easy

Maine is known for its wealth of outdoor activities, so it can be intimidating when you grew up sort of an “indoor” person and then begin spending time in Maine. I was never a camper and didn’t have a lot of family hiking experience as a kid. I don’t know how to sail and never had friends with boats. You know what else I’d never done?

Fishing.

Midcoast Maine fishing trips can be easy to plan! Find out how to do it hassle-free and have a great family day. When our 8-year-old son began asking about learning to fish, we balked. My husband had never fished, either, and we started off by buying him a silly fishing rod Dan saw on the internet and going down to our neighborhood lake in Virginia. The rod became hopelessly tangled after five minutes and no fish were caught.

I started thinking how there must be so many places near our home in Maine to do just this, but I didn’t know who could help us. Putting aside the obvious problem that we don’t know how to fish, we also had no boat, no fishing licenses, no gear…and no idea how to obtain some of these things. Sure, we could have done lots of internet research and gone to sporting goods stores. Still smarting from the last fishing rod failure, however, I knew that was not going to work out. Having a solo successful midcoast Maine fishing trip seemed pretty unlikely.

Maine Outdoors Saves the Day

Luckily, I stumbled upon Maine Outdoors on Twitter and followed the links back to Don Kleiner’s site. Lo and behold, while Don takes out very experienced fishing enthusiasts and is a Master Maine Guide, he also helps inexperienced novices like us, via his fantastic offering of a half-day family fishing trip.

Contacting him through his site was a piece of cake, and I was able to easily reserve our trip on the day of my choice through his online reservation system. Shortly thereafter, he was in touch via e-mail with all the preliminary details. Namely, all my husband, father-in-law, and two boys would need to do was show up at the appointed location at Megunticook Lake at the reserved time. They didn’t need gear, licenses, or even bottled water for staying hydrated!

Sadler House June 29, 2017 Leave A Comment Permalink

Vacation Rental Maintenance Checklist

Every spring break, while Virginia is bursting into bloom and people are getting out their shorts, we pile into the car with boxes of supplies and luggage and start the 12 hour drive to Maine. When we get there, it’s often raining and there’s almost always snow on the ground. It’s not exactly the average person’s dream spring break getaway, but it’s our chance to do vacation rental maintenance on our home, which has seen many guests since our last visit at the end of the previous summer.

Why do we insist on spending a week at our vacation rental each year during what is commonly referred to as “Mud Season?”

Well, beyond the fact that we love seeing friends we’ve missed since August and visiting restaurants we haven’t gotten to eat in since last summer, there’s checking up on our house. While we certainly could hire our wonderful cleaning service to do a deep cleaning, there are some things only the owner can really take care of. Namely, you’ve got to walk in with the eyes of someone who left the house months before, and start spotting things that are not quite right. Read more →

Sadler House May 17, 2017 Leave A Comment Permalink

Find the Best Midcoast Maine Beaches

One of the first questions I get from first-time visitors to midcoast Maine is “where are the best midcoast Maine beaches?” Although there are lots of midcoast Maine beaches, finding just the right one for you and your kids can be tricky if you aren’t in-the-know. It’s taken me a couple of years to find the most convenient, fun, and relaxing beaches in our orbit of the midcoast. Plus, naturally, your ideal beach will depend on what you and your family most like to do. Therefore, I’m going to tell you about some best bets in our area. This isn’t all the midcoast Maine beaches, by any means, and I hope others will share their favorites in the comments.

I’ve included a map here to help you locate all of these spots. The addresses are pretty vague in some cases, due to their locations off of major roads, but plugging the name of the beach into your navigation will often help you pinpoint the parking areas more precisely!

To get started, here are my top five go-to sunning spots, plus one everyone else loves, but we have yet to visit.

Sadler House December 18, 2016 2 Comments Permalink

Midcoast Maine Food Trucks and Shacks

Watermans Beach Lobster Table

UPDATED as of May 2019! Please check websites and Facebook pages to determine who is operating in 2023!

As much as we all love a great restaurant meal, it’s no secret that some of today’s greatest food is being served through a window. There is no place where this is more true than in midcoast Maine, where lobster shacks have long been a huge draw for visitors and a way of life for locals. There’s more than just lobster to be had at these casual spots, though. Nowadays, visitors to the midcoast of Maine can find every type of cuisine from Thai to tacos being sold outside. For visitors who want to enjoy the weather, or who are on a budget, or who just can’t stand barking at their kids through one more seated meal, a lobster shack or a food truck can be a godsend.

Here’s the thing, though…how do you locate these little gems? So often, the informal addresses or teeny tiny nooks where these great places are located make them tough for the visitor to find. I’ll be the first to admit that I hate looking like an idiot, driving around and thinking “Is this that pier? Is that the alley?” It has taken us a couple of years to scout out all the good pass-through-window food in Rockland and we still have some places to check out.

I’m going to make this easy for you.

Buoy Park in Rockland – a great place to eat!

What follows is a list (by town) of the midcoast Maine food trucks and shacks I’ve been able to find out about in the areas around Rockland, Camden, Rockport, and South Thomaston. I hope this gives you the courage to patronize some of these delicious establishments. Eat like you’re in-the-know and enjoy!

In order to fully take advantage of the food truck and food shack offerings, though, you need to understand a few unwritten rules. The main one is that these hardworking folks have basic hours, but those may change day to day due to weather or other random circumstances. This is what they need to do to stay in business, so just take advantage of their social media postings and, when in doubt, call them! The hours I’ve listed below are probably correct, but I cannot guarantee them.

The other plea I would make to you is to be nice. Sometimes they’re mobbed and sometimes they’re not. I’ve seen visitors get super crabby about waiting a little extra time for their order or not getting their straw. Every one of these people behind the window is working in a hot, small space and churning out the best food they can at the fastest rate they can manage. If your order is a little long in coming, enjoy the view and be cool. It’ll be worth the wait.

Please note that most of these food trucks and food shacks judge opening and closing by the prevailing weather each year. Wherever I have noted “seasonal” you can assume that means roughly late May to early October, but during those times you may want to double-check to see if they are open.

Lastly, if you’re heading to Portland, be sure to take advantage of Maine Food Truck Tracker to figure out what great trucks may be available there!

Disclaimer: I realize this doesn’t cover all midcoast towns and cities. Just managing this area was a good initial challenge! Listings south of Damariscotta are a work in progress.

With that said, let’s start at home base, shall we? Read more →

Sadler House May 14, 2016 12 Comments Permalink

New in Rockland, Maine – 2016!

New in Rockland - 2016 If I’ve learned anything about Rockland, Maine in the time we’ve been here, it’s that it will constantly be changing. I thought a lot of new things had happened in 2015, but posting a round up of what’s new in Rockland for 2016 is an even bigger task!

Fond Farewell

Change is good, but it’s still sad to say goodbye to some of the old businesses that made way for the new. Most notably from our point of view, favorites The Thorndike Creamery, The Blackboard Deli, Comida, and The Brown Bag are no longer with us.

The good news is, some very exciting new people have come to occupy a few of the old spaces. Furthermore, there is a spectacular new art attraction in town for me to tell you about. Without further ado, here are some wonderful new developments coming in downtown Rockland, Maine! Read more →

Sadler House March 31, 2016 3 Comments Permalink

Wi-Fi Password Sign For Cabins – Free Printable

I have never been the camping type, despite my long stint with the Girl Scouts. Sure, I did my share of slogging through the woods and sleeping in tents, but I’d really prefer a well-furnished cabin than a campsite by the lake. I’m a grown-up now and I get to decide!
WiFi Password Sign - Free Printable

Some would say it’s not a vacation if you take your computer. My husband, however, actually left on a ski trip once with two laptops and no clothing in his luggage, so you can see what side of the argument we are on.

Still, many luxury vacation rentals happen to channel the pleasures of cabins in the woods without sacrificing the modern conveniences. If yours is just such a cabin, I’ve got the wi-fi pun for you!

Wi-Fi Password Sign for Cabins

Download and print this just so you can make your guests laugh – and they will be laughing (instead of crabby and crying) because they will be able to access your wi-fi. I’m sure the Girl Scouts have some sort of “Connectivity Skills” badge, anyway.

Click here to download the sign. You can either scrawl in your password with a Sharpie or use a free photo editor like Picmonkey to easily add your password using type. Anything goes, as long as people stay calm and log on!

Do you happen to need a wi-fi password sign for a beach house? Try this one! We also have a coastal-themed “No Smoking” sign.

Sadler House February 8, 2016 1 Comment Permalink

Wi-Fi Password Sign – Free Printable

Okay, so I’m old enough to remember saying “Surf the web.” Is that so wrong? I happen to have noticed that most of our guests (with the exclusion of the children) are also “of a certain internet lingo age.” Therefore, you must all forgive me for having a little fun with Ye Olde Wi-Fi Password sign.

Free Coastal WiFi Password Sign If admitting you remember AOL isn’t too embarrassing, and you like a good coastal joke, feel free to print as many of these as you want and hang them in your vacation rental for your guests to enjoy.

Hey – nobody is laughing at you when they urgently need the Wi-Fi is all I’m saying.

Free Coastal Wi-Fi Password Printable

You can either print these and use a Sharpie to scrawl the password on them (all laid back-like) or you can just pop over to picmonkey.com, open this file, and use their type function to superimpose your password in our image so that it looks a little slicker. Then save the file again and print it. I found this is perfect when printed on letter size photo paper and trimmed to 8×10 size.

Click here to begin.

Surf’s up, even if your AOL is down…

Hey – any chance you need a coastal-themed No Smoking sign? Check out ours!

Sadler House February 3, 2016 Leave A Comment Permalink

National Toboggan Championships!

Far from closing down in the winter, the midcoast is a hotbed of activity at the beginning of February, thanks to Camden Winterfest and the U.S. National Toboggan Championships. The activities include snow sculpting, skiing and snowboarding, and a polar plunge, among other fun winter pastimes.

There is even a snow plow parade and everyone is treated to fir eworks over the Camden harbor.

My brother and me with my mom in Minnesota – 1975

What I dream of doing, though, is flying down the toboggan chute. When I was a kid, my dad used to take us sledding (in Minnesota, Colorado, and Nebraska) on a plastic toboggan that rolled right up. That thing FLEW. We had so many great winter days on that toboggan.

The U.S. Toboggan Championships at the Camden Snow Bowl are a festive, grown-up version of that.

Sadler House January 31, 2016 Leave A Comment Permalink

Vacation Rental Decor You’ll Love

Vacation rental decor has evolved.

Remember when you used to browse the listings and be faced with one house after another, all furnished with somebody’s cast-off recliner and mismatched sheets? Those houses are still out there, but there’s no reason for you to stay in one of them when there are so many owners using their great taste and creativity to create wonderful settings for your vacations.

Vacation Rental Decor for Everyone

We all drool over the homes in the design magazines and populate our Pinterest boards with their zillion dollar dream rooms. But is staying in an adorable or inspiring or luxurious setting just a dream for most of us? Isn’t that stunning decor by designers and for designers?

Not anymore.

In my time as a vacation home owner, I have met so many wonderful people who have inspiring vacation rentals in the perfect places. I asked a few of them if they’d be willing to share just one of their favorite rooms with me and explain how (and why) they put the space together that way. The best part is, these are homes you can go and rent, yourself! See how these extraordinary ordinary people are bringing the style to the homes that host your trip.

Vermont Chalet
California Beach Cottage
Texas Beach House
Maine Coastal New Englander Read more →

Sadler House January 18, 2016 3 Comments Permalink

Vacation Home Expenses: Budgeting for Your Dream

I didn’t grow up with people who had vacation homes, so it seemed pretty ballsy to our friends and family when my husband and I started planning to buy our dream home in Maine. Naturally, a major concern was whether or not we could afford it. With all the time it took us to save the downpayment, I had years to crunch the numbers on our future vacation home expenses from here to Sunday. I figured out how much mortgage, tax, and insurance were likely to drain us monthly. I estimated how much more we’d need to add to our emergency savings. I did the figuring about how much it would help us if we could rent the house weekly to other vacationers.

Oh, I did the math.

Vacation Home Dreams Meet Real World Expenses

In 2013, we realized our dream of buying Sadler House, and I signed a thousand papers with very sweaty hands. With some self-control, we managed to buy a home that was within the budget I had allocated to us. We crossed our fingers and moved forward.

We’ve owned and rented this beloved home now for more than two years, and I have learned about expenses that even my copious calculations didn’t previously anticipate. All in all, we’ve been very happy with our decision. Based on my experience, however, I thought I could spare some future owners a little grief by sharing a list of expenses to consider when they budget for their own dream vacation homes.

First, the obvious. Read more →

Sadler House January 14, 2016 2 Comments Permalink