Lakes
“Awakening early in the morning to catch a breathtaking sunrise over a Maine lake that makes me feel like God is up there with a paintbrush loaded with colors nobody has ever seen before. Flyfishing for brookies deep in the North Woods and sucking in air so crisp and clean I think I have never really had the experience of breathing before. Freezing in silence to admire a massive bull moose dipping his head into the pond to nibble water plants. Rising, we make eye contact, and I feel small and humble.”
Hank Leonard, Blacksburg, Virginia

Home
“Walking up from the barn after chores into my grandparents’ kitchen, redolent of leftover ham, onions, and bacon sizzling in a cast iron skillet on top of the Palace Crawford as biscuits bake within. It’s ten below zero at 4 p.m., no wind, and dark as a pocket. Grandpa says to Grammy: ‘Pleasant day, deah.’ She sighs. ‘Ayuh.’ ”
Anne York Agan, North Ferrisburg, Vermont

Roots
“I’m sorry that you will probably not want to print this but the real Maine is found in all the nooks and crannies of all the communities where the tourists aren’t.”
Madeleine Martel, Lewiston, Maine

“The polite folks who always hold the post office door open.”
Dorothy Healy, York Harbor, Maine

“Maine is the crowd of pink-cheeked families sipping hot chocolate as they watch the fireworks at L.L. Bean on New Year’s Eve, and it is the warm-fleshed families making s’mores around the campfire under the August stars.”
Hannah Olson, Wiscasset, Maine

“Maine is one of the few states where you can track your family back thirty-seven generations. Where else could you still be living in a home that at one time belonged to your great-great- grandfather? People who have roots in Maine never leave and if they do, they come back. Why is no secret if you have ever lived there.”
Sonny Perkins, Houston, Texas

Ocean
“The one feature of the Maine coast that fascinates me is the vertical dimension of its tides. Having frequented the sandy shores of the mid-Atlantic states, one can appreciate the horizontal reach of the tides in these latitudes but not necessarily the rise. If God speaks to us in a whisper, so then does the ocean reveal her treasures during the quiet of low tide.”

Waterfront
“I was born and brought up in the midcoast so I always think about the men and women I knew: fisherfolk, boatbuilders, saltwater farmers, homemakers, small businessmen and women. The work ethic, the stubbornness born of hard-scrabble lives, the kindness, the generosity, and the caring about each other.”
Phil Moody, Windham, Maine

“Lobstermen, lumbermen, waitresses, teachers, etc. — They bring to me the wonderful value system of hard work, honesty, humor, and devotion to their families and
neighbors.”
Lois Doran, Belgrade, Maine

“Maine to me is the people who live in the fishing villages and towns and make their living from the sea. They are proud of who they are and what they do. Their skills are handed down to them from many that have gone before them. The villages are small, but contain all the attributes of a close and loving family.”
Judith R. Talbot, Woolwich, Maine

Seafood
It’s hard to separate the state of Maine from its most recognizable export. The word Maine is, for all intents and purposes, synonymous with lobster throughout most of the world. And our fruits of the sea are a large draw for the millions of tourists traveling here each year, tourists who relish that roadside lobster roll or look forward to that carton of fried clams on a hot summer’s day. But even after the mercury drops and the shacks shutter for the winter, seafood is still a way of life in Maine. Tens of thousands of us make our living from the sea — lobstermen, scallop divers, clam diggers, crab pickers, salmon smokers. A $740-million industry, it is essential to our economy. And we Mainers actually eat it. Year-round. (By May we probably won’t want to even look at a shrimp again until, well, the next Maine shrimp season starts in December.) To Mainers seafood is more than just delicious. It’s early mornings. It’s frigid waters and subzero air temps. It’s dangerous, gritty, hard work. It’s the precious twenty-five miles of coastline out of 5,300 that remain working waterfront. By Kathleen Fleury

1. Fried clams
2. Steamed lobster
3. Seared scallops
4. Clam chowder
5. Crab rolls
6. Steamed mussels
7. Raw oysters
8. Baked stuffed haddock

“Digging a hole in the sand on a small island to build a clambake fire, piling seaweed over it to steam clams, lobster, and corn, and sitting on the rocks to eat it with friends and family before we all row home for the night.”
Maryann Lindberg, Lincolnville, Maine

Farms
“It is the smell when the barn door is opened for the first time every year.”
Jeanne Klump, Centennial, Colorado

Villages
“The difference between a convenience store and a village store? A convenience store is just a place to buy milk. A village store is where fishermen and first-shift workers meet at daybreak to sip coffee and shoot the breeze. It’s where young parents talk first words, first teeth, and how much sleep they’re getting. In a village store, a conversation about a worn-out fire engine or a neighbor struggling to pay medical bills turns into a fund-raiser. A village store is a community. It sells milk, too. By Virginia M. Wright

“The real Maine is its people: down-to-earth yet creative, full of common sense and wry humor, willing to say ‘yes’ to a request for help, but nobody’s fool. When I stop at a store in Maine I know I will have an interesting exchange with someone before I leave.”
Jane Soulos, Sarasota, Florida

Seasons
“The climate (harsh cold winter) may have something to do with making no room for frivolous energies.”
Lynn Gilpatrick-Bernier, East Bay, California

“Going to Maine is like my favorite fleece: the people and the memories just wrap me up in warmth and it feels like home.”
Susan Weeks, Dayton, Ohio