Where is Mid Coast Maine?
Ask people from Michigan just where their hometowns are and you are likely to get a visual presentation. Michiganders often will hold up their right hand and explain that at the base of the thumb is Detroit, the middle of the palm is Lansing, the gap between the thumb and forefinger is Saginaw Bay and the fingers are the western part of the state. Of course they then might have to explain the UP or Upper Peninsula. Pointing at the right hand they can tell you where they live using this portable map.
I have begun to explain Mid Coast Maine with my portable map, my right hand with fingers pointed downward. My four fingers represent the four peninsulas of the Mid coast. With palm facing my audience, my forefinger is the Phippsburg peninsula extending south from Bath. My middle finger is the Georgetown/Five Islands peninsula, south of Woolwich. My ring finger is the Boothbay peninsula. And my little finger is the Pemaquid peninsula which extends south from Damariscotta.
These four major peninsulas (peninsulae? if I remember my junior high Latin) lie between Casco Bay and Muscongus Bay and are what most people consider Mid Coast Maine, the jewel of the Maine coast.
I then explain that these peninsulas are connected by US Highway 1 which runs across my palm where my fingers are attached. There is no "point to point" highway nor ferry for that matter. To get from South Bristol to Boothbay Harbor for example, a mile or so across the water, requires driving about 16 miles up to Route 1, a few miles down Route 1 and then another 12 or so miles down the next peninsula to Boothbay Harbor.
Between these two peninsulas is the Damariscotta River, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean. This river is the most beautiful stretch of water anywhere and is the subject of a great new book by friends of mine, Barnaby Porter and Al Trescott.
At the head of the Damariscotta River is the community in which I live and work, the twin villages of Damariscotta and Newcastle. I first found The Greatest Place on Earth to Live fifteen years ago. But that story will have to wait for another blog.
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