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Pumpkin Pie French Toast is one more way to celebrate the cool, crisp fall days we love from September through November. This is a perfect breakfast treat for autumn mornings and the day after Thanksgiving. That is if you have room for anything the morning after turkey day!

I’m not a coffee drinker so I am not overloaded with ‘pumpkin spice’ everything when September rolls around. And, I’m not a pumpkin pie fan, either, so a little pumpkin + spice goes a long way with me. I was not really certain I would enjoy this particular French Toast, but we like to try new things when we can. Luckily, we had some repeat guests here and we practiced on them. (Two thumbs up was the response.)

Generally we ‘cook without a net’ as it were, just following directions and hoping for the best. There are innkeepers who gasp at the idea of trying out new recipes without first making them 5 times to get them perfect. We like to get opinions in the wild. Give it a try and let us know how it tastes is our motto. In 15 years there was one recipe that was actually awful. We’ve never made it again. Kind of sad as it was something with blueberries and it was tragic to waste so much yumminess on a bad recipe. Live and learn.

OK, it annoys me no end when someone with a recipe blog yammers on and on before getting to the recipe part, showing 27 photos of the thing from all different angles and saying how the whole family gathers around and the scent of whatever wafts through the air and even the dog comes in to beg for scraps. So, without further ado I give you the Pumpkin Pie French Toast recipe…

Enjoy! Invite some friends over!

Fall foliage in Freeport is one of the most beautiful times of year. Sure spring is wonderful when all the new buds and flowers start popping out all over. And, yes, winter is lovely as well with the fresh coat of new snow every other day. Summer? Well, summer is not my favorite season, but it is grand in its own little way.

But, fall? Love it! The colors, the crisp air, the flannel! All good. I’m going to leave you (get it?) with these photos to encourage you to visit Maine this fall.

Plan a fall vacation now! Best foliage along the coast is generally the 2nd and 3rd weeks of October. We have a fun foliage package that includes a lobster boat cruise, dinner, and chocolate lobsters! It’s been a crowd fave for years.

Why fall in Freeport?

• Lobster shacks are open until Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples’ Day).
• Coastal drives are less crowded now.
• Apple orchards abound for cider and donuts, not to mention apple picking.
• Check out the Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival for zany activities (pumpkin boat races, pumpkin toss, pumpkin painting) and great food.
• Freeport’s Fall Festival drew over 40,000 attendees last year and is expanding again this year with new locations around town. Come for the music, food, and amazing crafts.
• Camp Sunshine’s Pumpkin Fest on the LL Bean campus is a fun family-centric activity with face painting, pumpkin carving, and a costume parade with pumpkin lighting.

Check the availability calendar here and start dreaming. Recent research shows people who are planning vacations in the next few months are all around happier than people who aren’t. (No, I didn’t ask who sponsored the research, I’m just going with it!)

We’ll be trying new recipes this fall - Pumpkin French Toast is one of them. See you soon! Fall foliage in Freeport is only here for a short time. Don’t miss the gorgeous colors and yummy lobster.

Looking for more ideas? Check out the Maine Pumpkin Trail.

M is for Museum

The museums of Maine are far-ranging in depth and scope. I’ll try to sort them out here into some semblance of order! I know I’m going to miss dozens, but you can let me know about them and I’ll add them later on. Not included in this list individually are the historical society museums in every little town and city across the state. That’s where you go to track down the comings and goings of the citizenry back to the start of the village.

It’s not always easy to select the correct box to put each museum in. This museum has wicked good art, but it also has an interesting side building with toys. Is it ‘Art’ or is it something else? Forgive me if I put your fave in the wrong bucket! Do I include the homes of famous people if they are open for visitors? If they were collectors does their house go under ‘Historic Sites’ or ‘Art’? Maybe both?

Maybe I’ll just start and let the museums sort themselves out -

Art Museums of Maine:

• Portland Museum of Art (Portland)
• Ogunquit Museum of American Art (Ogunquit)
• Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland)
• Bowdoin College Museum of Art (Brunswick)
• Bates College Museum of Art (Lewiston)
• Colby Museum of Art (Waterville)
• Abbe Museum (Bar Harbor) *one of those multiple option museums - Native American art, but also a museum of Native culture
• University of Maine Museum of Art (Bangor)
• LC Bates Museum (Hinckley) *another museum that spans the genres - art, local history, family history

Car Museums:

You know I can’t do a post about museums without hitting on the car museums!

• Owl’s Head Transportation Museum (Owl’s Head) *also has planes and motorcycles
• Motorland (Arundel) *combo of car museum and sales and repair
• Goldenrod Garage (Freeport) *not a museum at all, but oh, the cars!
• Seal Cove Auto Museum (Mount Desert)
• Stanley Museum (Kingfield) *Stanley Steamer-centric
• Boothbay Railway Village (Boothbay) *car section, even thought mostly about trains

Odd Museums:

You’d know one if you saw it!

• Fawcett’s Toy Museum (Waldoboro)
• Umbrella Cover Museum (Peaks Island) *yes, just like it sounds
• International Cryptozoology Museum (Portland)
• Vintage Snowmobile Museum (Turner) *does this go here or with the cars?
• Antique Snowmobile Museum (Millinocket) *yes, TWO museums for snowmobiles!
• Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum (Bowdoin College, Brunswick) *could belong under ‘History’
• The Telephone Museum (Ellsworth)

Lighthouse Museums:

Many lighthouses have a museum attached telling about the history of the local area.

• Maine Lighthouse Museum (Rockland)
• Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Museum (Pemaquid Point)
• Portland Head Light (Portland)

Historical Museums:

• Maine State Museum (Augusta) - Maine history through the ages
• Victoria Mansion (Portland)
• Longfellow Museum (Portland)
• Old Fort Western (Augusta)
• Kittery Naval Museum (Kittery)
• Maine Maritime Museum (Bath)

Children’s Museums:

• Children’s Museum of Maine (Augusta)
• Portland Children’s Museum (Portland)

I know I am missing so many more. There are museums at almost all the historical sites around the state. Every fort tells a story if even there are no plaques and markers. Every lighthouse has seen its share of tragedies and rescues. Let me know if you’ve found a museum we need to share!

Looking for more museum ideas? This is the state list of museums.

Ready for vacation? We’ve got the maps so you can plan your Museums of Maine road trip. Check here for availability.

K is for King - Stephen King

Stephen King’s Maine is both beautiful and haunting. Driving around the backroads and through the cities you can see inspiration around every corner. Oh, you can’t? Well, take a look at that innocuous storm drain, the one right down the street. You see it every day. Then imagine looking down one day and there’s a clown looking back. Yeah, that kind of inspiration.

Come along on a drive around Maine, Stephen King’s Maine. Oh, before we take off, lock that door will you?

Maine is known for its writers. It’s hard to swing a lobster buoy without hitting a writer. Famous, not-so-famous, totally unknown, Maine has a writer on every corner. (I should know, I’m one of them.) Maybe it’s something in the air. Or the water. Or the long winters. Whatever it is, Maine ranks right up there in number of libraries per capita and someone has to fill those shelves.

Maine’s most famous author?

Is Stephen King Maine’s most famous author? Depends on who you ask. Some people have never heard of him, but will go into raptures about Edna St Vincent Millay or Katherine Hall Page. So, depends on your audience. For this piece, we’ll focus on Mr King.

Driving Stephen King’s Maine

Here’s a short tour of Stephen King’s Maine. These are places you can visit that are either mentioned in his books, obliquely referred to, or are possible points of inspiration.

1. West Durham Methodist Church - Runaround Pond Rd, Durham, Maine (childhood church)
2. Governor Percival Baxter’s pet cemetery - Mackworth Island State Park (possible inspiration for Pet Sematary?)
3. Worumbo Mill - Lisbon Falls (most of the mill has been torn down, SK mentions working here)
4. Railroad Diner - Lisbon Falls (possibly the inspiration for the diner in 11/22/63?)
5. Dysart’s Truck Stop - Bangor/Hermon (inspiration for Maximum Overdrive)
6. Thomas Hill Standpipe (aka The Standpipe) - Bangor (aka Derry)
7. Paul Bunyan statue - Bangor
8. Mount Hope Cemetery - Bangor (actual filming location in Pet Sematary)
9. Bangor International Airport - Bangor (Langoliers)
10. Stephen King’s house (photo above) - Bangor
11. Z-107.3, Bangor’s radio station has this list of places to see.
12. There are also guided tours you can take in Bangor. SKTours is one of them.

If you find yourself sitting dockside enjoying a cold beer and a lobster as a summer fog rolls in off the ocean, engulfing the horizon, shoreline, boats, the house next door, you’ll realize how incredibly scary ‘The Mist’ is in real life when the whole world is suddenly muted and impossibly gray and you truly cannot see your hand in front of your face.

Ready for vacation? (We promise - no sewer drains on our property!) Check here for availability.

L is for Lighthouse

You could spend a month tracking down the lighthouses of Maine by car, foot, boat, and plane and you might still miss one or two. Sure, they’re on the coast, but there are over 3500 miles of coastline in the state and you could be forgiven for missing a turn off here and there. And, lets not forget Ladies Delight, a landlocked lighthouse in Lake Cobbosseecontee aka Cobbossee Light.

We’re happy to give you a copy of the Lighthouse Guide with directions on how to get to over sixty lights along the coast. Using White Cedar Inn as your home base gives you the ability to drive to, or catch a boat to, over 20 lighthouses. If you’re also going to Downeast Maine, you can stop along the way to pick up a few more, then catch 10 more in and around Mt Desert.

How to find a lighthouse

There is no better day for getting inside a Maine lighthouse than Maine Open Lighthouse Day, which occurs every September. Use the link above to find which lighthouses are open and how to easily get to them. Although the lighthouse tour may be free, you may need to pay for a boat to get there.

If you’re not planning on traveling on that one day in September, use the light house guide to find your favorites.

A few of our favorites

These are a few of our favorite lighthouses of Maine you can get to within an hour’s drive from White Cedar Inn. The Casco Bay area affords a view of 6 separate lighthouses within about 10 miles of each other. 3 of them you can walk right up to and touch. 1 is out on Ram Island Ledge and almost impossible to get to. 2 more are located on shore, but not accessible. You can drive by them, but there is no place to stop.

Spring Point Ledge Light and park. This light is at the end of a granite jetty. You get to it via Southern Maine Community College roads.

Bug Light and Park. There is an outdoor museum of liberty ship info here. It is also the site of the kite festival every spring.

Portland Head Light is at the top of the page.

Other lighthouses you can see

Doubling Point on the Kennebec River. View this one from shore or on a river cruise with the Maine Maritime Museum.

Nubble Light aka Cape Neddick Light. About 1.5 hours south. Go to Fort Clary in Kittery on the same drive to see the Whaleback Light.

And, the lighthouse on the back of the Maine quarter - Pemaquid Point.

Pond Island and Seguin Lights can be seen from Popham Beach or on the Kennebec River cruise.

Of course you’ll want to stop for lobster along the way. Just ask! We have maps and can point out our lobster faves!

Ready to vacation? Check here for White Cedar Inn availability. See you soon!

A is for Alewives

Every spring the alewives return to Maine streams and ponds to spawn. On any given day during the April - June migration see them at at the Damariscotta Fish Ladder. The access from the ocean to the pond behind the dam is maintained by the Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder Restoration organization. They host an annual fish fry to help pay for the cost of repairs and additions to the ladder. Come July, the process is reversed and the young alewives begin the journey back to the ocean where they live until mature enough to return to their home pond.

The drive to the fish ladder is pretty straightforward - from White Cedar Inn head north on Rt 1 to Damariscotta/Newcastle. Turn off Rt 1 at Rt 129 (Bus Rt 1). At intersection, go straight onto Rt 215. Stay on there until you reach the fish ladder on the left (approx 2 miles).

Make a day of it

While you’re out near the fish ladder, stop by at Alewives Fabrics for some great quilting fabrics and notions. Lots of cool Maine fabrics!

Hike through the Great Salt Bay Marsh Trail to the shell middens.

Return to Newcastle for lunch at the Newcastle Publick House, or Damariscotta for a meal at King Eider Pub or Schooner Landing. Continue on Rt 129/Rt 130 to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. Climb the spiral stairs into the lighthouse, view the museum, wander the grounds of the park.

Also along this peninsula, stop at Ft William Henry.

Not tired yet? On your return from Pemaquid Point, take a right on Rt 32 and head for New Harbor. Stop at Shaw’s for an al fresco lobster dinner and hop on the Hardy Boat Cruises for a puffin watch tour (May - August). These tours are guided by a naturalist who works on the island all summer following the large variety of sea birds that nest there. You’ll see puffins, cormorants, black guillemots, razorbills, and more. Seals and dolphins are often seen while cruising the Muscongus Bay. Artists set up on the pier to paint a view of the scenic fishing harbor.

Or, continue on scenic Rt 32 to the Rachel Carson Salt Marsh Preserve for a walk along the shore. Afterwards, turn off at Round Pond where Muscongus Bay Lobster and the Round Pond Lobster Co-op are open in the summer. The Granite House is the perfect stop for ice cream.

Continue on to Rt 1, turn south and head home. Ask us for a map and we’ll highlight the locations in this post so you can find them.

Ready for vacation? Check here for availability at White Cedar Inn. See you soon!

What’s not to love about breakfast pizza? It’s a throwback to college days when there was always a slice or two left over from some bash or other. It’s a kid’s favorite school lunch. It’s easy peasy for dinner, too. So, why not have a piping hot breakfast pizza for a little nostalgia and a lot of flavor.

This one is made with crescent roll dough, but you could easily make your own dough, or buy it from a local pizza joint. (Yes, pizza joints sell the dough!) I keep saying I’m going to grab some from the Tuscan Bistro when the dough guy is making a delivery! Plan ahead a little and pick up some dough on the way home from work this week.