ferry

If you’ve seen the movie Dan in Real Life, then you pretty much already know what Peaks Island is like. It’s a small, northern spot with not much going on except for a whole bunch of family time / weddings. While it is mostly residential, there are a few restaurants, an ice cream place, and the world’s only umbrella cover museum. You also get to take the ferry from Portland, and that’s always a treat (~$7 per person).

We got off the ferry and immediately started walking. No time for ice cream or umbrellas! We wanted to get the whole experience. We began walking through a neighborhood with spunky houses, got intrigued, kept walking… and eventually found ourselves saying “where the fudge are we?” Handy Google Maps told me that we had already walked half way across the island. So then we had to get to the other side to see what was there. The paved road turned into a gravel road, which turned into dirt, and eventually looked like a driveway through the woods. Minor panic set in as we had no idea where we were and the houses were getting a bit creepy looking. All was well in the end though because the road did lead somewhere (unlike Rattlesnake Mtn)!

The other side of the island was completely beautiful. Super quiet.. the epitome of Northern summer vacation spots. So picturesque. Although we were hoping for a bar / lobster joint, we unfortunately did not find one. But the houses were lovely and we kept walking, this time going along the outer part of the island.

It took a little longer than we anticipated, but when we were almost back to the ferry landing we saw this secret path!!!

It led is to this really pretty pebble / sea glass beach. You could see the whole bay and all of the surrounding cottages, very pretty at twilight.

Afterwards, we got about 10 glasses of water from one of the restaurants near the ferry. Make sure you know what time your ferry leaves because we almost missed it (times are different for weekends and certain months).