Spending winter on the coast of Maine was a curveball I definitely didn’t see coming. Quick update: Hewbrocca and I moved from Brno, Czechia, to Boston in 2018, and had every intention of returning to Europe in a few years. In fact, we had just extended the lease on our fancy, tiny, high-rent downtown Boston apartment for one more year, hoping it would be our last, when along came 2020. You know the rest. Count us among the city dwelling pandemic fleers who packed up and headed out, in our case to the tiny town of Camden, Maine (population, under 5,000).
Winter of 2020/2021 turned out to be a mild one by Maine standards. Being on the coast means less snow and warmer temperatures than further inland, which is fine by me. I was worried Maine might be a repeat of the endless gray skies and landscapes we thought were behind us when we left Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1996, but it turns out the sky is clear and bright more often than not, and the sunrises we get to see out our window every morning are almost always Instagram worthy (#nofilter!). And when it’s gray, it’s still pretty awesome.