Looking back on 2017, my second year of blogging, I continue to be excited with the direction of my blog, and motivated to expand and grow my content. There is a never-ending selection of adventures available in Maine. But, before I jump into 2018, here are ten of my favorite activities from this past year, and links to the blog posts I wrote about them.

(1) Getting to Know Me | 30 Odd Questions #Blogfest . I was a blog hop newbie, but this year I participated in one hosted by Emily’s World and The Doglady’s Den. I met Debbie from The Doglady’s Den during the annual A to Z Challenge. I enjoyed learning more about other bloggers during this blog hop as well as sharing a little bit  about myself too.

(2) A Tour through Maine’s Textile History at the Pepperell Mills in Biddeford. Growing up in the Biddeford/Saco area, you are always in the shadow of the old mills and connected to them in some way. For me, three of my grandparents worked in the mills so I enjoyed the chance to tour the buildings. The guide was wonderful and fully engaged in telling interesting stories about “back in the day”.

(3) Ten Things I Learned on My First Trip to the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity Maine. Visiting this fair has been on my to-do list for a long time, and it almost snuck by me again this year. But, on a last-minute whim, I headed up to Unity and finally attended my first Common Ground Fair. It is an amazing display of local food and shines an important spotlight on all the wonderful things happening in the local Maine food scene. I’ll be back next year for a longer visit.

(4)  Four Hikes During Our Weekend at Northern Outdoors in The Forks, Maine.  We continued to do a lot of hiking this past year. There are so many gorgeous trails in Maine, and I was especially excited to get up to The Forks. In addition to seeing Moxie Falls, we also hiked some amazing trails on my first visit to this beautiful area. We ended the weekend exhausted but happy.

(5) Hiking Maine | Finally made it to the not so secret Seawall Beach in Phippsburg. While the Forks was a weekend adventure, there were many day hikes this past year that were also memorable. For this year in review, I’m highlighting our trip to Seawall Beach in Phippsburg. The entire midcoast area is overflowing with gorgeous oceanside hikes and all are worth a visit. Seawall Beach is especially unique in that the only way to get to the beach is to hike. It’s worth the trip.

(6) #AtoZChallenge | Reflections of a two timer and what comes next. When I kicked off my blog, I participated in a blogging challenge to help get things off the ground and build my content. I loved the challenge and it pushed me to see and do many wonderful things in Maine. For year two, I participated in the challenge once again, this time with a focus on things “made in Maine”.  I had some posts that were especially fun to put together during the challenge, but for this year-end summary I’m focusing on my recap post that highlights all of that month’s adventures in one place.

(7) Cabbage Island Clambakes | A True Maine Experience. For our anniversary this year, we knocked off one of my bucket list items and headed to Cabbage Island for an authentic Maine Clambake. It was a perfect summer day in every way and something I hope will become an annual tradition.

(8) Looking for a new podcast? Ten with a Maine connection for you to try.  I am a podcast convert. I love listening to them and decided it would be fun to compile a list of local Maine podcasts to check out. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to keep up with them all, but every now and then, I’ll binge a few of them again. There are some fun episodes.

(9)  Celebrating Small, Local Businesses with the MicroMaine Trolley Tour. I enjoy learning new things and discovering fun places so the MicroMaine tour was a double win. It focused on smaller, less traveled locations and showed me a few of the hidden gems in Portland.

(10) Five Things I Learned at the JoJo Concert at Port City Music Hall.  This year I took my daughter to see one of her favorite singers, JoJo, when she came to Port City Music Hall. There are some wonderful, small, intimate venues around Portland that provide a fantastic concert experience. Port City Music Hall is one of them.

This is just a small sampling of all the fun things that happened this past year. It’s nice to reminisce, but even more fun to look ahead and plan for new adventures in the coming year. I’m looking forward to more opportunities to experience Maine to the fullest in 2018. Wishing everyone a healthy, happy and joy filled 2018.