June Newsletter - Travel

Maine!

Maine is truly a gorgeous state, beautiful nature that surrounds you everywhere. And calm - it has the lowest violent crime rate in all the United States. The people are so nice, whoever you talk to.

That’s where Mindy’s son, Yehonatan, chose to settle with his wife. They have a lovely suburban home, and it’s a pleasure just walking out into their backyard, which is surrounded by woods. They’ve had deer visits in the yard (no bears, as of yet). There are squirrels and chipmunks visiting them all the time, and birds, including guinea fowl, wild turkeys, robins, cardinals, bluejays and more.

It was super fun spending time with our granddaughter Eva. We could write this whole newsletter just about her, but we won’t. 😁

We visited a synagogue that is very socially active, with events, a Sunday school, daycare for young children, and of course services and activities around the holidays. The security was strong, but when we asked if they had bumped into ANY type of antisemitic issues, they said... no.

We hiked a good number of nature reserves, like Fuller Farm Preserve, Pleasant Hill Preserve, Scarborough Marsh, the AMAZING Saco Heath Preserve, and the adorable Shaw Cherry Hill Farm, with their wooden bear sculptures and children’s storyboard signage along the trail. We took Daisy for runs (she has a HUGE amount of energy) on some of our hikes - she LOVES to go into any puddles and ponds she can find, and there were a LOT of them! Including that big pond sometimes referred to as… the Atlantic Ocean. We took her to Pine Point Beach in Scarborough a few times, both when the tide was high and when it was low. What a difference between the two. The ocean level changes about 4 meters between low and high tide!

We had a Seder with just the family, and Mindy even made gluten-free matzos from casava flour. (Yeah, we know that they're not pretty, but they did the job!)

Our favorite time of the day was when we went to pick up Eva from daycare – check out the picture where she pulled Mindy’s hat down in front of her eyes… 😁

Scarborough Marsh

Known as the largest saltwater marsh in the world, this marsh is fed by four rivers and several creeks. Three of the rivers in the Scarborough Marsh feed into and create the Scarborough River, which flows into Saco Bay and the Gulf of Maine.

Eastern Trail
(The section seen in our photos and video)

This off-road section of the Eastern Trail offers over 8 miles of flat easy trails connecting Saco, Old Orchard Beach, and Scarborough. The northern end of this section traverses the Scarbrough Marsh providing scenic views and wildlife watching.

Saco Heath - Honored by Down East magazine as Maine’s “Best Overlooked Gem!”

Saco Heath formed when two adjacent ponds filled with decaying plant material called peat. Eventually, the two ponds filled completely and grew together to form a raised coalesced bog, where the surface of the peat is perched above the level of the groundwater. Located in a rapidly growing area of southern Maine, the 1,218-acre preserve features a self-guided hike along a woodland trail to a boardwalk through the heath’s varied peatland communities. In the spring, the heathland plants bloom, spreading a carpet of lavender, pink and white across the heath.