Here’s a picture of the view from the balcony outside my room at the Comfort Inn in Belfast, Maine, where I stayed Sunday and Monday of this week. Belfast is a city of about 7,000 people, on the coast, the shire town of Waldo County, a county with about 35,000 people. The downtown has a natural-foods co-op, a movie theatre, a couple of bookstores, a few art galleries, a vegetarian restaurant, and a store that sells environmentally friendly products for the house.
I looked at a propery in nearby Swanville, a small town to the north, with the same ZIP code. It is a property that apparently photographs very well. I was thinking of it as a possible inexpensive get-away place for occasional weekends. I thought from the photographs that I had seen on the internet that it would be on a hill, with a long driveway and an expansive front lawn, that it would have some privacy, and would be at least in OK condition. Actually it is close to the street, has a short driveway, and is not far from the houses on either side. It looks a little bit sad and not in the best of condition. The price is realistic for what it is, no great bargain.
I think I might like to retire to Belfast in a few years, but to a house close to the downtown. There appears to be no such thing as a rush hour there. When I drove the forty-five miles to Augusta on the way home this morning, I saw very few cars on the road.
The nearby town of Searsport also has a very attractive small bookstore, Left Bank Books. Hamilton Marine Supplies, also in Searsport, was an interesting place to browse, even though I don’t have a boat. I resisted the temptation to buy rain gear, fireman’s boots, and a foghorn.
