One Traveler’s Journey Through Maine: Lobster, Coastal Charm, and Finding Joy in the Moment

Growing up in the prairie lands of Canada with her feet planted firmly, Cindy Baker readily admits she’d make a terrible sailor. But stepping out of her comfort zone is something she pushes herself to do because she’s come to realize it’s where she discovers her happy place. That’s how she found herself, eyes fixed on the horizon to steady herself, cruising Bar Harbor with a local lobsterman as his boat chugged away from Maine’s picture-perfect coastline.

An award-winning travel photographer and journalist who writes the blog Travel Bliss Now, Cindy’s been on a mission to get her happy back after experiencing a series of family tragedies. It sounds trite, but living through that darkness revealed that life is short. When she thought about spending more time in her life doing what makes her happy, one thing came to mind: travel. So, she quit her job and rearranged her life to do just that.

“I love to learn about the world,” said Cindy. “Just experience all that there is out there, and it really changes your whole mindset about how you want to be spending your time.” For her, that means being around nature, exploring the streets of dynamic cities, enjoying a cup of coffee in a café with character and watching local life go by, or sinking her teeth into an apple cider donut at Portland, Maine’s famed The Holy Donut, while on a small group guided tour of the Pine Tree state.

Decadent dessert sits in the top five list of what makes her happy. “Well, this is the eye trouble for dessert thing,” Cindy said. “The Holy Donut is a shop where I think there's now about four shops, but it was started by a Portland woman who felt like the city could use a better donut. She makes them with perhaps a surprising ingredient that is a crop staple in Maine, and that's potatoes.” While it’s not the kind of thing you’d want to have after a big meal, it suited Cindy just fine for a mid-morning snack.

Maine’s coastline, especially its ruggedness, tugged at her curiosity. The state’s famous lobster did too. Cindy found bliss in both things. She also found her sea legs on that lobster boat in Bar Harbor, learning about the profession and watching a local lobsterman haul lobster traps from the bottom of the ocean, the heavy cages streaming salt water as they were pulled to the surface.

The lobster demonstration gave Cindy the chance to spend time with a local and understand what their life is like year-round and experience it in a hands-on way. “I learned so much about lobster fishing. Most of the lobsters are caught within three miles of shore. It’s quite a difficult way to make a living, although a very rewarding one,” said Cindy. Throughout the tour she indulged in three lobster rolls, made New England style.

An avid traveler, a guided tour of Maine put her in touch with local experiences she might not have discovered on her own. For instance, oyster farming. A morning spent at a Portland oyster farm gave her a much closer look than most people get when it comes to the adored bivalve, where she also learned the proper way to tuck in to these local delicacies with an oyster shucking demonstration. “Oyster farming is a really tough business,” said Cindy. “It's subject to the weather, the climate. The owner mentioned that they pretty much lost all their business during the pandemic.”

Most of the people who work at the oyster farm have second jobs to make a living of it. Much of their time is spent weeding and cleaning. Yet many told Cindy it’s the best job they’ve ever had. “You know, there’s something about people who have such a passion for what they do. It really inspires me,” she said.

Her observation speaks to her own pursuit of joy and finding it in travel. She’s always impressed when she sees someone who discovers what that is. “I think many of us search for, you know, what is our why? What is it we really love? And then you see this person who just lights up showing you how to shuck an oyster.

“I think a guided tour like this is perfect for solo travelers,” Cindy said. “You know, you meet other people, and if you want to do your own thing, you can do your own thing during the free time.” Happy with her own company, she also appreciated joining other travelers for dinner to share experiences they’d had throughout the day. Not having to worry about the logistics of getting from one place to another and researching experiences was key for her, as was traveling with a small group of people as curious about Maine as she was. “I met lots of lovely people on the trip, had lots of good conversations, so I think it's the best of both worlds for solo travelers. You’re not spending time figuring things out. You’re spending time in the moment, enjoying the destination.”

Slown down. That’s something Cindy keeps in mind when she travels. As a blogger, she’s familiar with steering people toward what to see and do, but she’s also learned to take that hat off. “I can kind of poke fun at travel bloggers because we make all these lists of the top 10 things you have to see. Sure, we put those things on the list because they're worth seeing,” she said. But she also encourages you to take some pockets of time in your schedule where you're not rushing to the next thing. The Roaming Coastal Maine journey gave her that opportunity.

Like in Camden, a classic New England small town with a pretty harbor, 19th-century homes, a strong community, a waterfall and a park. “It has a Main Street with all kinds of cute shops. And again, lots of opportunity to go in and chat with local people.” Surprised to find a lavender shop in Maine, Cindy followed her curiosity and discovered lavender soaps and sachets from flowers cultivated from a local farm.

Books rank high on Cindy’s bliss list, and Camden’s Public Library – an anchor in the community and a National Historic Landmark – reeled her in. Another place for her to learn about what was happening in town. Something else caught her wandering eye, too. “I had a cupcake that was absolutely to die for. A lemon cream cupcake… it was funny because it was not something I needed in the moment. But I couldn't resist looking in this cupcake shop. So, I ate this cupcake while I was walking, and kind of made a mess, and it was all just fun and wonderful.”

Visiting Maine’s harbor towns offered a perfect location for photography. Cindy wandered down every pier and around every corner, peering down little laneways. Clear blue skies, old lobster traps and fishing shacks reflected in the water served up perfect settings for reflection photography to capture the local atmosphere.

Yet it was nature’s call that drew Cindy to Maine. She clearly heard it at Acadia National Park’s Thunder Hole, a carved-out inlet along the rocky eastern shoreline of Mount Desert Island. “When the ocean swells, it makes the sound of thunder as the water hits the sides of the cave and I thought it was just a wonderful place to sit and watch the ocean crash on the rocks and into this cave,” she said. On a mountain peak, Cindy looked out over the ocean, dotted with coastal islands, and noticed the leaves starting to turn. In a few weeks the trees would be blanketed with the jewel tones of New England’s famous fall foliage that draws visitors to this part of the country – an invitation for her to return.

“That really brought me joy,” Cindy said. “And then, well, yeah, there's the lobster!”