Down East Magazine

During a tour of his garden last summer, Eddie Woodin flitted from one topic to another. “Oh! A hummingbird at the feeder!” he exclaimed from a bench in “Firefly Alley,” a squiggly, tree-lined grass path where he encountered a throng of glowing beetles one evening. “That’s a male. Ruby-throated.

Before you check out the CrookedSpoon, in Thomaston, it’s helpful to know two things. First, this is not a spot you can pop into any old night of the week. It’s only open on Monday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. Nor does it attempt to cater to every palate. Typically, the choices consist of a house focaccia, a salad, an appetizer or two, a couple of pastas, and a dessert.

SponsoredVisit Maine Southern Maine’s beaches range from Kennebunkport’s Goose Rocks Beach, known for its white sand and tide pools, to bustling Old Orchard Beach, with its iconic pier and beachside amusement park. Whatever your preference—gentle waves or swells worth surfing, watchful lifeguards or nearly abandoned coves, arcade prizes, or hidden sea-glass treasures—you can find it along the southern shoreline.

Growing up in Casco, Steven Brooks loved to scour the roadside for treasures with his dad. “I remember driving around with him and he’d pull over and say something like, ‘There was a perfect bungee cord back there,’” Brooks says. “He would always see the potential in discarded things.” After his father passed away, in 2004, Brooks enrolled in art school in Florida, where he studied sculpture.

Although Maine was still a northerly extension of Massachusetts in the 1700s, it already possessed a nascent identity of its own, born out of rugged terrain, hardscrabble living, and remoteness from Boston. European-descended inhabitants, who increasingly displaced Native tribes over a series of armed conflicts, had also started to grate against their overseas rulers.

You don’t have to be a Mainer to understand the importance of lobster season. Around here, lobster and summer go hand in hand. Even if you’re not keen to crack into a whole lobster or enjoy a lobster roll, Maine’s lobster shacks are worth the journey. Between the ocean views, fried-seafood baskets, whoopie pies, and local charm, there’s usually something available for everybody.