New York provides a plethora of cultural events – Broadway shows, numerous art centers and concerts tempt tourists and locals every day. It can be exhilarating, as well as tiring to get the most of New York. Bankers, tourists and people from all over the world make the city as buzzing as it is. Flying to New York does not mean New York is the limit – especially if you are a fan of idyllic scenery and traditional American lifestyle and history. For those, wishing to experience a taste of real American life, the city of Eastport is the perfect solution.

Conveniently located near the Canadian border, Eastport has plenty to offer. Eastport is inhabited by a number of artists, writers and public figures, who add to the city’s eccentric, yet homely atmosphere. If your cheap flights package did not include accommodation – well – this is great news. Eastport is full of charming little Bed & Breakfasts, family-owned hotels and economical accommodation for the whole family. There are also a few luxury spots, for those who like to holiday in style.

Eastport is the easternmost city in the United States, and the ocean and surrounding nature are simply incomparable to anywhere else in the country. Incorporated back in 1893, the city’s local history museum offers a unique collection of traditional American memorabilia. The downtown includes 29 structures on the National Historic Register, and the one of a kind architecture makes a great contrast with the remarkable vistas of sea and islands.

Traditional American food are all available within walking distance from the city’s main streets. Many eateries offer locally caught seafood, for an enriched gastronomic experience. Picturesque natural landscapes surround the city, providing relaxation and inspiration. Activities, such as kayaking, whale-watching, fishing and hiking are easy to organize, and are a great way to experience a unique, active holiday. The city is for the romantic souls too – there are a number of idyllic rocky beaches, perfect for spending quality time with a loved one.

You can also hire a fishing boat and explore the surrounding islands or go deep-water fishing. There is a farmers’ market every Saturday, where you can find local produce and experience the peaceful lifestyle of the Eastport residents.

Eastport is an exclusive location, offering an unforgettable holiday for everyone, who wishes to experience more from their American holiday. Whereas areas, such as New York, LA and Las Vegas and very commercial and mainstream, a holiday to Eastport can guarantee you a vacation that not many have experienced. Eastport is a flourishing city; its inhabitants are friendly and eager to share their city with tourists. Make sure you get the most out of your cheap flight deal to New York, and experience the hidden gem of America.

The popularity of ocean cruises is soaring and as the competition rises, the prices fall which is great news for the budding tourist. The USA is home to a number cruise ports. So many cruises start from Florida coast and advance towards a number of places within the Caribbean. New England, USA is also a hugely popular starting point – they tend to head the wonderful ports along the coast of Mexico, along with the tropical islands of the Western and the Eastern Caribbean and South America.

Cruises come in many types. They are categorized on the basis of number of people going, their luxury features, whether or not the cruise is for relaxation or adventure purposes. They are differentiated by their size, capacity and age. Naturally the price can differ greatly so bear all this in mind when choosing the company for your ocean cruise.

The weather can also play a huge part in your cruise. Generally people go cruising in summers and winters only, guaranteeing the weather they’ve been dreaming about. And with so many operators these days, ocean cruises are reaching every corner of the world. But without doubt the favorite destinations are Alaska, Bermuda, Hawaii, Eastern, the Southern and the Western Caribbean. But if you want to go cruising at much cheaper rates then looking mid-season is a great option. If you plan your trip in early spring, the demand is at its lowest, and promotions are found everywhere.

Cruises ships area intricately designed by globally renowned architects. They are crafted to offer immense pleasure and great luxury. They are specifically carved for people who love traveling. Think of your ship as a floating 5 star hotel – complete with different bars, restaurants and clubs. There are endless areas to keep you entertained, often including tennis courts and swimming pools, movie theaters, even opera or ice-skating!

Building on the popular themed cruises for romance fans or singles, niche market cruises for people like book lovers, wine aficionados, adventurers and sports enthusiasts are gaining steam. Once a slow time in the cruise industry, more people are choosing to leave the worries of home behind and take a holiday cruise. Another trend is offering more for your kids. Ships have expanded from day care type services and games to nature programs, language classes and port excursions.

So no matter what your preferences or budget is, you can find an ocean cruise to suit your needs. Prepare yourself for a trip of a lifetime.

Although comprised of six sprawling states, I soon discovered that the region has a distinct beauty throughout which is exactly as picturesque as I had imagined. The land where the Pilgrims first landed and settled back in the 1620’s, New England still exudes a timelessness which suggests what it might have been like all those years ago. Quaint towns like Mystic and Providence are home to the ‘picket fence and pinafore’ appeal for which the region is famous, the recreated farm village in Providence looking like something straight out of The Waltons, complete with a working general store selling eighteenth century style goods. Our tour manager was incredibly knowledgeable, and the Escorted Tour itinerary covered a host of really special places.

The New Hampshire wilderness was incredible, with the views over the White Mountain region revealing classic expanses of unspoilt landscape. We also got a good look at Mt Washington, and indulged in some Montpelier Maple Syrup tasting.

All our train and coach transport was booked and sorted: one of the key advantages of an Escorted Tour. Transport is certainly important, as the beauty of a journey across New England is as much in the getting there as the destination. Views from the train window were spectacular as we crossed into Vermont, the whole landscape vibrant with color. Maple trees alight with the coppery tones of fall huddled en route, the entire landscape a rich tapestry of auburns and gold which were positively swoon-worthy.

Maine was next, the largest of the New England states. Glacial lakes, dense forest and unpopulated expanses sprawl back from a rocky coast which measures a massive 3500 miles and is dotted with magical lighthouses and islands to the north, including the charming Eastport, the eastern most point of the USA. Standing on the rocky headland looking out over the immense sprawl of the Atlantic I felt like a true literary heroine (Jo March eat your heart out).

Once downtown, you can stand in view of the water and judge whether tide is high or low, just for the sake of knowing. Stop in the new Moose Island Bakery for a cup of coffee and a fabulous pastry; the kind that requires time to slowly savor it. In a chair on their patio you can watch the activity at the breakwater that could include lobster boats unloading their catch or folks fishing off the pier.

If you pick up a copy of the latest Quoddy Tides you can read about regional happenings that can range from fisheries information to local church raffles, news from nearby Canadian Maritime islands, or Nettie Thurston’s latest recipe ideas for the latest seasonal fruit or vegetable. You might want to finish your coffee while window-shopping along Water Street in the numerous galleries and antique store windows, look for bargains at the thrift store, check out the Passamaquoddy model at the visitor center or marvel at the variety of eateries. At the far end of Water Street you can visit the Peavey Library that features a sunny reading room with comfortable chairs where you can peruse a variety of magazines or a book of your choosing from the stacks. Before you know it, it is lunch time. Which cafe looked enticing today?

There is a wide variety of wildflowers on display at this time of year that offer an entire palette of color. Perhaps what makes the Lupines so intriguing is the colorful variety they display on their own. Purple tends to be the dominant color but spikes of fuchsia, pink, lavender and near-white also punctuate the patches of flowers found in fields, hillsides, roadside clearings, and open lots. If you are lucky enough to also be down-wind of a grouping of the tall and showy flowers, you will also be treated to a softly sweet fragrance.

As members of the plant family Fabaceae, Lupine have lots of relatives in the floral world throughout America, including the well-known Bluebonnets from Texas. The flowers are held on tall spikes, sometimes more than a foot in length that are lifted by the plant to waist- or chest-high. Once the blooming is over, seeds are produced in long, bean-like pods on the plant. They easily reseed themselves for next year’s show.

The thing about life way Downeast is that we all know absolutely that an individual or a small group of friends working together can make a difference that will benefit the entire community. Stop anyone who lives in Eastport, and they will give you examples of this magic. The arts center, the childrens’ string program, the art scene, the food pantry, were all born from the small dreams and mighty effort of the people of Eastport, Maine.

And so it was that The Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra (PBSO) was born. When the season begins in the spring, musicians gather on Thursday evenings at the Eastport Arts Center to practice. Conductor and music director Trond Saeverud (also concert master of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra) leads the community orchestra, an artistic collaboration of musicians from Washington County, Maine, and Charlotte County, New Brunswick, which celebrates its third anniversary this spring.

The orchestra’s mission has grown in its short lifetime. As usual, several PBSO concert series will be given throughout the year, on both sides of the international border. They have arranged three orchestra weekends for the Summer Keys music program in Lubec. They will play a concert for the Machias Bay Chamber Concerts series this summer. As a means of outreach to students and a wider audience, a quintet has been formed which can perform at smaller venues, including libraries and schools.

PBSO begins its 2010 season with a series of concerts in Eastport and Machias, Maine, and St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Concerts will be held at the Eastport Arts Center on Saturday, April 24, at 7 p.m.; at the University of Maine at Machias Performing Arts Center on Saturday, May 1, at 7 p.m.; and at the Van Horne Ballroom of the Algonquin Hotel, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, on Sunday, May 9, at 2 p.m. (Atlantic Time).

The program will include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, described by orchestra member and PBSO board member Helen Swallow as “very Beethoven: stirring, then cheerful and lyrical, dramatic and sometimesthunderous.”

The orchestra will be joined by trumpet player Ray Phillips of the Farmington Community Orchestra to play Proclamation, a contemporary composition by Ernest Bloch. “It is short and shiny and gorgeous,” says Swallow.

The third piece in the concert was written by PBSO conductor Trond Saeverud’s grandfather, Harald Saeverud, a beloved and revered composer in Norway. They will play his Sinfonia Dolorosa, written in a time heavily influenced by the German Occupation of Norway during World War II. Trond Saeverud conducted the Bangor Symphony playing this work last year.

Tickets to the concerts are $10 per person or $20 for families and are available at the door.

For more information, refer to http://www.eastportartscenter.com/constituents/passamaquoddy-bay-symphony-orchestra/ or to the orchestra’s Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pbsorchestra.

One of the highlights of the Eastport celebration is the arrival of a U.S. Navy ship to Eastport’s port, a tradition going back to 1905. This year, the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate U.S.S. De Wert will make the call to help folks celebrate Independence Day. Free tours of the vessel will be available to all.

The De Wert is named for Hospitalman Richard De Wert, who was killed in Korea in 1951 and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism while serving with the 7th Marines.

You’ll also be treated to another fireworks show, this one over the bay on July 4 (can’t have an Independence Day without lots of fireworks!), as well as the Grand Independence Parade, an antique auto show and plenty of water sports, games and contests for the whole family.

Overlook Park will be the site of a range of free entertainment, much of it geared for the kids. Everything from cupcake-decorating contests to pet shows will be held.

And several races for children are also set, with prizes going to the victors.

The event is the largest of its kind in Maine, bringing together Americans and Canadians. It isn’t just a celebration of America’s independence, either, but a memorial service to those who have given their lives for freedom.

Eastport welcomes visitors who want to come out and celebrate. Click on http://www.eastport4th.com/ to find out more.

The chowder house itself dates back to 1968, but its roots extend into the previous century. You’ll find this rich tradition all over the restaurant, as we believe your dining experience should be one to remember for more than just the excellent food.

Of course, the food is the primary concern. We recommend you start with a bowl of our famous chowder, and there’s something on the menu to please every palate. You’ll find the prices are quite reasonable, too, with just about everything on the menu coming in at less than $20. And you’ll find quite a variety there, so if you can, come back often to see what the catch of the day is.

Eastport, of course, is where the canning industry in the United States began. Sardines were the choice back in the 1870s. Canning them from a process copied from the French put Eastport on the map. So, too, did canning lobsters.

William Martin started the first cannery at a location called Martin’s Dock – the very site of the Eastport Chowder House today. The cannery operated for several decades, in good times and in bad, but like many canneries in Eastport it suffered from a lack of demand and had to be closed. In 1968, Jack and Betty Stinson bought the property and opened a restaurant on it called, appropriately, the Cannery, and in their nearly 10 years of ownership it thrived.

New owners came along and the restaurant did very well for a while, but then business slowed and, in 1989, the Cannery had to be closed. However, in 1996, the Eastport Lobster and Fish Company bought the property and undertook a major restoration of the structures and even the wharf on which they were situated. That undertaking was so successful that, in 2002, a retired restaurant operator, Robert Del Papa, who was also retired from the Coast Guard, leased and then eventually bought the property, calling it the Eastport Chowder House and reopening it as a seafood restaurant catering to the entire family.

In 2006, an outdoor deck was built onto the chowder house. It’s a great place to sit. Quite often, you can see eagles, dolphins, seals, and, if you are very lucky, whales.

You are also encouraged to take a walk to the Lobster Room on the pier to find out how they are caught. If you do, be sure to ask to see a left-handed lobster! Trust us, you’ll be glad you did.

For more information, call 207-853-4700 or log on at http://www.eastportchowderhouse.com.

The indigenous Passamaquoddy tribe have called the area home for at least 10,000 years, and some archaeologists peg the figure at closer to 20,000 years. Europeans first showed up on these shores in the person of French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who in 1604 founded St. Croix Island settlement of Acadia. Today, the site sits near Calais.

Those early explorers did not have an easy time. Champlain’s group had to endure a hard winter with no fresh water and diminishing supplies. Reports indicate 40 percent of the men died of scurvy. The survivors moved on to Port Royal, in present-day Nova Scotia.

The area was much explored by traders and fisherman throughout the rest of the 1600s and much of the 1700s, but the next major settlement to be founded in the area was set on Moose Island in 1772 by James Cochrane of Newburyport, Massachusetts. It was, naturally, a fishing port, with residents following Cochrane from Newburyport and relocating from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The settlement thrived over the next quarter of a century. On February 24, 1798, the Massachusetts General Court incorporated Eastport, as a town, from Plantation Number 8 PS, the name naturally deriving from the fact that Eastport was the U.S.’ easternmost point. It wasn’t until June 21, 1811, that the town of Lubec on the mainland was set aside as its own municipality.

The early 1800s were quite a time for the young city. From 1807 to 1809, the area was the site of extensive smuggling, a direct result of President Thomas Jefferson’s Embargo Act. That prompted the U.S. to build Fort Sullivan atop a hill in 1809 – which the British then took on July 11, 1814, during the War of 1812 by a fleet under the command of Sir Thomas Hardy.

After the war, England wanted to keep control of the island, asserting that it was on their side of the international border established in 1783. That didn’t last long, as control of the island was returned to the United States in 1818. Still, border disputes between the U.S. and Canada continued to plague the area, until finally, in 1842, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty settled the issue.

Things finally settled down for the area. Farms grew that produced hay and potatoes. But it was the sea that was the lifeblood of Eastport. The town’s large harbor features tides of about 25 feet – and most importantly for the town, it remained ice-free all year. Sardine fishing became a huge industry with the development of canning factories; by 1886, no fewer than 13 factories dotted the landscape, each operating long hours during the fishing season, and in total about 5,000 cases were produced every week.

The town grew so much, in fact, that it was incorporated as a city on March 18, 1893.

The turn of the century and the first part of the 1900s would not prove kind to Eastport. The sardine industry declined, and many were forced to move away. It became so bad that the city went bankrupt in 1937. Yet Eastport survived – there were always more fish to be caught, and it still had that ice-free harbor. In 1976, the Groundhog Day Gale did massive damage to the waterfront – and still the city survived, thanks not only to fishing, but to a new industry that has become a strong pillar of the area: tourism.

Today, Eastport, like many areas on the east coast of the U.S., is as much about tourism as it is anything else, including fishing. July 4 celebrations draw thousands – and a U.S. Navy vessel – every year. There’s also the annual Maine Salmon Festival every September, and numerous other events throughout the year.

The Eastport Local Foods Buying Club aims to connect local farmers and food producers with customers on Moose Island. The buying club provides easy access for consumers and keeps costs at a minimum.

Several farmers and producers are involved. Links to their websites are provided, if they have one:

• Tide Mill Organic Farm of Edmunds
• Gardenside Dairy of Jonesboro
• Chandler’s Sugar Shack of Topsfield
• Dogwood Herbs of Perry

Offerings include organic chicken, pork, beef and goat meat, goat’s and cow’s milk, goat’s milk cheeses, cow’s milk cheeses, organically grown vegetables, maple syrup, soap, herbal balms and creams and more.

Items coming soon include grass-fed lamb, seaweed, sea salt, blueberries and much more.

For details contact Amy at eatlocaleastport@yahoo.com or call 853-2367.