Downeast Magic occurred in Calais, Maine this weekend

Back in June I traveled with my sister to Lubec, Maine for The Bay of Fundy Marathon. This weekend we traveled to Calais for a little magic.

Lubec is right on the Canadian border with the main road, Rt 189, crossing into New Brunswick and onto Campobello Island. To get to Lubec we took US Rt. 1 which goes along the coast and through every little town along the way. The road to Calais is Rt. 95 from the Boston area up to Bangor. From Bangor we took Rt. 9 east to Calais.

downeast,airline route,maine

Rt. 9 is known as “The Airline Road.” It is the main east/west corridor from New Brunswick and Maritime Canada into Central Maine and Bangor. I have always been told that the road got its name from airline flights from Europe using the road as a visual navigation aid as they flew across the state on their way to Bangor International Airport. Bangor is the closest US airport for commercial jet liners. Bangor grew from a small local airport to an SAC Air Force base with a runway to land B-52s and KC-135s on.

With its many curves and turns, Rt. 9 travels east through the vast forest, swamps and bogs of Eastern Maine. In the old days the road carried many trucks and due to the turns, hills and steep banks it was known as a dangerous road to travel. Over the past twenty years the road has been widened in many spots and seemed much easier to drive than I recall from my youth.

I marked up the map above so you could easily see the roads I’m talking about. Round trip to Lubec was 876 miles. I did not record the miles to Calais, but it was probably about the same.

Why Calais, Mon Ami?

St. Croix, new brunswick,downeast,calais My niece was getting married in Calais, where her fiancé is from. The location was the unassuming International Motel. From the road this looks like any other motel in a rural location: comfortable but basic. The secret this motel hides is their vast lawn down to the St. Croix river.

This photo is at low tide before the wedding and doesn’t do the view justice. The motel has better photos on their website. During the ceremony the tide was as high as the spirit of the bride, groom and assembled family and friends. The bride and groom are both graduates of Maine Maritime Academy, so I’m sure they picked the date and time to have the tide just right.

James and Kim love to hunt and fish. Living in Alaska they fished and hunted

Ring Bearer

extensively and did very well. Their dog “Guy” accompanied them on these hunting and fishing trips and made the trip to Downeast Maine for their wedding. Guy wasn’t there just to look good, he was also the ring bearer! With a single command from James, Guy walked down the “aisle” with a birch branch in his mouth with both wedding rings tied to it.

A man has got to have a lot of trust in his dog to trust him with the wedding rings!

The ceremony was beautiful, and captured their personalities and values. The wedding party lasted until Midnight with much dancing and merry-making. A great time was had by all.

It was wonderful to spend time hanging out with my parents having drinks and talking and just being together. All of my immediate family was together. It was another magic moment in Downeast Maine.

I could write a novel length post on the evening. So many fun and memorable moments. But those are family moments best shared amongst ourselves. The wedding was beautiful, everyone had a great time and in so many ways it was a classic wedding and family get together.