Maine

It would be quite easy to get lost in the state of Maine. The state has lots and lots of wilderness. The state is divided into eight geographic regions but most have one thing in common—an abundance of woodland. Even the state capital, Portland, is not a very big place, but that does not mean Maine is not worth visiting. It is, in fact, an added reason for going.

Many agree, including former president George Bush who kept a retreat in Kennebunkport in the southeastern corner of the state on the coast. The southern half of the coastline is where most of the people live with the north and western part of the state, which is surrounded by Canadian provinces, being repositories of natural splendor. Despite its "outdoorsy" reputation, Maine also is known for its scholars.

Weather

The Maine tourist office describes the weather in Maine as "invigorating" and "conducive to productive labor." That means it is cold most of the time and people do not sweat much even in the summer. The climate there is divided into three regions with the north being the coldest, obviously, the south getting somewhat less snow in the winter, and the coastline north to south being somewhat cooler thanks to its relationship to the Atlantic Ocean.

Being a state so filled as it is with trees, fall is a prime tourist time and the state offers daily foliage reports beginning in October. Since temperatures seldom rise above 70 degrees even in the summer, a visitor can expect to need a heavy coat while watching the leaves turn a golden color.

Notables

Luckily Maine is a great place to find a good, warm winter coat. Freeport is home to L.L. Bean, one of the most famous outdoors and clothing companies in the world. The company was founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean, an outdoorsman who was tired of coming home from hunting with wet feet, so he invented the "Maine Hunting Shoe," still a best seller, and the rest is history.

Maine also is known for Bowdoin College and its graduates, who include Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Aside from them Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin," often cited as a contributing factor to the Civil War, was the wife of a Bowdoin professor and wrote most of the novel while on campus. Another Bowdoin and Maine contribution to the Civil War was Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Anyone who has seen the movie "Gettysburg" remembers him as the hero of the battle for Little Round Top. He went on to be the president of Bowdoin College and later, governor of Mane.

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