By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    By Memorial Day weekend, my inner tourist starts to
emerge and I find myself making a mental checklist of all of the events
and places I want to check out in the approaching summer months.

    It is not unlike me-a true Type A personality-to sit
down and make a list of objectives for the summer. The lists always
include outdoor concerts, festivals, and possible road trip
destinations.

    The Greater Portland area has a respectable offering
of outdoor concerts from artists both local and far away. In my
opinion, there is nothing better than an outdoor concert. For one, you
usually don’t have to pay admission to drop in on a concert in the
park. There is no need to reveal the contents of your purse to a
stranger and you don’t have to flash a neon bracelet to a bouncer if
you want to leave and come back.

    Free concerts also offer an opportunity to check out
a band or a musician that you otherwise might never see because who
wants to shell out money for an act you don’t have any strong feelings
about? For example, in years past I attended a Don McLean concert and
an America concert, both in Maine for L.L. Bean’s Summer Concert
Series.  

    The only thing I knew about America was that they
sang a song about a horse having no name. I went to the concert with my
boyfriend at the time and I actually recognized a lot of their songs.
Once they took the stage, we also realized that earlier in the evening
we had overheard the band members discussing whether or not they should
purchase some chino pants while in the area.

    The Don McLean concert is a fond memory for me as
once again I forced the aforementioned boyfriend to come along, but
many members of my extended family including aunts, uncles, grandmother
and cousins also attended. We squished into a small patch of open space
on the lawn and sang our hearts out to American Pie, which if memory
serves me, he played three times throughout the evening.

    Getting back to past lists, I also made an attempt
to take in some culture via various festivals, whether it was an
outdoor art show or a Greek festival. I know at least one list included
the Yarmouth Clam Festival and although I strongly dislike seafood, I
jotted it down because it seemed to be one of those true blue Maine
events.

    I haven’t made any summer lists recently, but I am
always thinking about road trip destinations. Contradictory to my
tendency to make lists, I also love to just pick up and take off to a
new place. It never fails to surprise me that there are still so many
places in Maine that I have yet to see.

    Hopefully, I will have a chance to visit some of
those new places this summer. Among those locales are some traditional
tourist destinations, but I also like to wander off the beaten path so
to speak.

    Just because I have a Maine license plate, it
doesn’t mean that I don’t also brake for ice cream stands and carry a
camera to capture the sun as it slowly disappears where the ocean and
horizon meet.