Oh, Maine. How excited I've been to meet you my whole life. Back in August, my friend Emily and I took a birthday drive up from Boston with our sweet little Noodle, and ended up in Camden, Maine. I'd never heard of any towns past Portland until the legendary Camden Harbour Inn offered us a very special birthday overnight to celebrate Emily's twenty-fifth, and we immediately decided to take them up on their generosity.

We were welcomed into a very personalized guest space—a dog bed and food bowls for Noodle, customized menus at our seven-course meal, and the friendliest staff around every corner.

Summer in New England is sweet. A breeze on the marina, a sailboat leaving the docks every ten minutes, and lobster rolls abound—the day we explored was unapologetically hot. As soon as I realized I was craving a lemonade, it was the only thing on my mind. A local dockside restaurant came through, with cooling winds blowing in from the seaside and a refreshing lobster roll on cold, crisp lettuce.

Although we spent the day exploring all the town of Camden has to offer, most of our time was spent relaxing at the Inn. Between our five-course meal at their award-winning restaurant, Natalie's, and our champagne breakfast the next morning, I think it's safe to say we were spoiled. My favorite part about our meal was the customized butter palette for our bread—we got four pats of butter, and chose four different salts to flavor them with! My favorite, of course, was the spicy salt. 

Even outside of summer, Camden Harbour Inn is the epicenter of Camden tourism in any season. Fall activities at Camden Harbour Inn include:

• Leaf peeping & hiking Mount Battie – Camden Hills State Park offers over 30 miles of hiking trails, including a glorious hike up to the summit of Mount Battie. Once you reach the summit, look out over the emerging fall colors in the leaves against the crisp blue of Penobscot Bay below, dotted with evergreen islands. Climb the spiral staircase to the top of the Stone Tower at the summit for an even better view of your surroundings. Back at Camden Harbour Inn, warm up with one of Mixologist Trevin Hutchin’s signature hot toddys, made with Papas Pilar Dark Rum, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, birdseye chili, slice of fresh ginger, star anise, bar spoon honey, juice from half a lemon and hot water.

• Wine Tasting at Cellardoor Winery – Visit Cellardoor Winery to taste the only wines made from grapes grown completely in Maine – the vendange 2012 estate-grown brut sparkling rose and the just-released blanc de blanc. Cellardoor Winery also produces a number of additional varietals and blends using grapes grown in California and New York and blended on-site at the winery in Lincolnville, ME.

• Shopping around Camden – cute independent shops include Owl & Turtle Bookshop & Café, a 45-year old local, independent book shop; Swans Island; Long Grain restaurant and the Stonewall Kitchen shop.

Photo: Camden Harbour Inn

As we come into December, my desire to head back to Camden to experience a New England winter is already well-established. Ice skating and skiing on The Camden Snow Bowl—the only place in New England with skiing views of the Atlantic Ocean—sign me up! 

Based on feedback from followers while we were traveling, I know a bunch of you love Portland and northern Maine, and I would encourage you to go just a little ways farther and see what Camden has in store for you. Whether it's the view from Mount Battie, sailing on the Atlantic, or skiing at the Snow Bowl, Camden is truly a place for everyone.

Thank you to Camden Harbour Inn and Parasol for partnering on this post!

I’ve been a West Coaster all my life. I won’t say I’ve seen all there is to see, but I know it like anyone knows their home. I’ve driven up and down its beautiful coastline more times than I’ve flown to New York City, which is will be nine this year. However, New York was the only place I’d been on the east coast at all, and as soon as I heard I was visiting Boston, I was excited to change that.

Emily and I left from Indiana at nine o’clock on a Saturday morning, with Syracuse, New York as our destination for the day. Crossing state lines I’d never seen before was thrilling despite the familiar road signs and similar scenery.

Columbus, Ohio was a place I was slated to visit last year before plans fell through. It’s never been a place high on my list (Midwest metro areas tend to blend together), so driving through seemed like an appropriate way to see the city for the first time. I’ve heard it’s home to amazing botanical gardens and a booming German village, both places that sound right up my alley. The only thing I really noticed was the striking art-deco LeVeque Tower as we passed. 
 

Columbus Eats: Mission Coffee  |  Portia's Cafe  |  The Suisse Shop

As soon as we crossed into Pennsylvania, the scenery changed from Midwest quirk to colonial charm. It was like we had driven into a different time period. All I could think about was Felicity Merriman as we drove by farmhouse after farmhouse. Her life and family may have been set in Virginia, and a hundred years before western Pennsylvania was developed, but she's my tie to the colonial days.
 

Pittsburgh Eats: Big Dog Coffee  |  Randita's  |  La Gourmadine Bakery
 

Upstate New York is almost exclusively open forests with bare trees, broken up by hunting stands high up in the trees, which were surprisingly close to the roadway. It seemed so quaint to see signs for Manhattan—the City for the rest of the world is just their metro area. The prospect of driving in New York City terrifies me, but from 300 miles away, it doesn’t sound as daunting. There are also a ton of American Revolution historical sites in upstate New York. Most of the major battles were fought on its grounds. Near Buffalo, Old Fort Niagara is rumored to be haunted by a fallen French soldier, and also housed something like 1,200 German soldiers during World War II as a POW camp.

With a low-to-no-budget hotel room on our horizon, we decided to pull off in Buffalo for a look at Niagara Falls. I’ve always wanted to go, but it seemed for some reason like a pipe dream that would never be accomplished—a silly thing to think for someone in the midst of traveling the world. My only advice for visiting Niagara Falls is this: investigate the park situation before you get there. We happened to go when it was closed for the season and all of the viewing points were closed off. We saw a corner of its majesty and didn’t want to accidentally end up in Canada, so we turned the car around, less than impressed. With one final state line to cross, we set out the next morning with Starbucks and a dream.
 

Buffalo Eats: Public Espresso + Coffee  |  Ashker's  |  Wheatberry Bake Shop
 

Massachusetts was a different shade of green than what I’m used to in Washington state. Beautiful and bright, and nothing like the vibrantly melancholy evergreen that anchors our hillsides. Around every corner is another level of idyllic meadow or river or town that I'm not used to seeing on our country's younger coastline. I've been to Colorado a dozen times. I've driven the Oregon coastline up and down and down and up. Maybe I have seen it all. When I road trip, I expect to zone out pretty quickly and get into whatever else I'm doing, whether it's a podcast or a crossword or belting out an entire Broadway musical. Things on the east coast felt new and exciting, and I couldn't peel my eyes away from the windows. It was nice to take actually take a journey instead of spending a quarter of the time and just flying over it all. Although we were anxious to get to our destination, it set the gears in motion to plan a more substantial road trip next summer. Of course, to somewhere new.

I wrote about road trip eats for Urban Outfitters last month: click below to read my tips for snack-packing!

Every city comes with a million recommendations from locals and travelers alike, filling up most of your itinerary with so much food that there’s no way you’ll make it home without an extra pound. I had about 15 restaurants to hit during my two days in Providence, and while that wasn’t even a little plausible, I narrowed down a few of the places I felt most comfortable dining alone, from casual to formal, should you ever find yourself in need of a bite in Rhode Island’s capital city.

Small Point Café

Small Point Café, housed in the Downcity Arts district between Symposium Books and the Queen of Hearts clothing boutique, has been around since 2010 and it’s easy to see why there’s a constant hum of customers and activity. In addition to a stellar coffee menu brewing fair-trade beans, there are plenty of breakfast and lunch sandwiches to sustain your afternoon exploration.

Most of the sitting customers were art students meeting for group projects, solo flyers typing away on their laptops, or a pair or trio catching up over chai. Sitting down to breakfast or lunch on your own won’t even get a second blink, but I felt very comfortable asking others patrons for the wifi information or other restaurant recommendations. Rhode Islanders are happy to share about their state.
 

The Duck & Bunny

I went on a day where the wait staff was very “dude-heavy,” as Mike the barista informed me once I inquired. An adorable “snuggery,” as they call it, their specialty is cupcakes and afternoon tea, which struck me as slightly hilarious considering everyone working there was a guy in all black with tattoos and facial hair.

I sat at the barista bar with a cheese and spinach crepe for brunch, and was surprised by the flurry of activity at 11 a.m. on a weekday. The phone was ringing off the hook and customers were coming in and out of the door for cupcakes to go. The barista’s friends filtered in and out as well, making it easy to integrate myself into conversation. It was a wonderful, welcoming experience in a light and bright environment.
 

Birch

Birch was a restaurant that changed my life while in Providence. It came with glowing reviews from both the tourism board and locals I met around town, and I was not disappointed. Expect a much more formal dining experience than at breakfast cafes or lunch spots: the eighteen-seat, 500-square-foot dining room makes for immediate intimacy. If you aren’t used to dining alone, this may be a good setting for you. Close quarters with strangers means less awkward stares and more casual conversation when you’re literally brushing shoulders.

The space itself is beautiful and a mix of modern and rugged. A large mirror is angled from the ceiling, which doubles the space through the reflection and bouncing light. The two bartenders for the night were also the two waitresses, happily chatting to each other and to dinner guests. With the U-shaped, counter-height table surrounding the bar, everything goes on right in front of you. Behind the scenes commonalities—servers drying and returning silverware to storage—somehow adds to the experience rather than detract from it. Friendly protesters at a theatre across the street provided some short term dinner engagement while I snacked on my pre-appetizer, a gift from the kitchen—an absurdly good crispy asparagus spear, dipped in the dreamiest garlic cream. It was exactly what I was hungry for, and I could have eaten ten.

The lone asparagus spear set the stage for an unforgettable meal. As a vegetarian, I had one (occasionally two) selection for each course of the four-course meal, but I thoroughly enjoyed three of them, which I count as a success. Dessert almost came in second behind an heirloom cornmeal dish with mustard flowers and some other deliciousness with vegetable broth, but the cherry blossom jam tart with beeswax ice cream took the cake, if you will. It would appear that gifts from the kitchen are frequent—I finished my meal with a melt-in-your-mouth homemade whoopie pie placed in front of me. Once I realized everyone around the table was receiving one, I loved the lack of exclusivity. Everyone feels special leaving Birch.