Bee Travel
Finding more than Nemo in the ocean
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
Water's a funny thing. With summer just around the corner, I've been thinking a lot about water lately, all those beach vacations just waiting to happen. Water is one place we love to congregate when summer heats up. Water... We need it; we use it; and there are things we love and hate about it, too.

Who doesn't love the sound of water rustling on the shore? It casts a spell in summer especially and draws us to shores throughout the world. We don't like water surprises, like tsunamis. And storms - well, hurricane-like storms - aren't exactly welcome either. Still, there's a scary excitement in thunderstorms. We don't so much fear them as love to fear them, with their wild scattering of lightning followed by the safe, if visceral, pounding of thunder. Summer thunderstorms are the best.

There is something hypnotic about the ocean especially, a scary expanse of water. We fly over it; we sail it; we dip our toes at its fringes on beaches warmed by sun, then cooled by moon-led, moonlit tides. Romance aches to bloom under calm seas highlighted by a moon brightly shining, glinting like billions and billions of diamonds afloat. Summer, beaches, water...a magic combination.

I visited Bar Harbor, Maine, but once. The memory has lingered wonderfully since. Summer on this portion of the Atlantic Coast is a little briefer, making it just that much more precious. Words like "bracing", and "salt air'', are used in descriptive literature. This area is the playground of Presidents, best relished in the dead of summer, its green backdrop a distinct differentiation from coastline further south.

I loved that you could see tides in the estuary from your window at the inn or motel along the Bar Harbor coast. I loved that you could stroll into town and into a shack grayed by sun, salt and sea air and smell where you were. Inside, lobsters boiled in huge vats of salted water, a crop reaped from the water that alternately lapped, slashed, froze and relented along this coast. I loved driving along coast roads that accompany the water, a relentless tandem splitting wet from dry. Such waterful companionship holds endless miles of fascination for me.

What holds fascination for me may as well for you. Best known of its parks, the Acadia National Park welcomes visitors to explore 27 miles of cliffs, cobblestone beaches, not to mention mountains and forests tucked within its watery confines. With 3,500 miles of Maine seacoast to explore, let summer take your whimsy by the hand and lead you along its shimmering border on Route 1. That's more coastline than California! Take it in by car, by RV, by schooner, by whaler or by foot on the East Coast Greenway, coastal equivalent to the Appalachian Trail, whose northernmost terminus is Calais, Maine, on the New Brunswick border.

Summer comes late to Maine's waters and stays but briefly. Its watery treasures particularly delight in the season. Make the most of the coast with a visit to Maine's most plentiful resource - water.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry in various capacities. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)