Hi everybody. Don't mean to be a downer, but felt, in the peak of summer, it would be nice to share an image with our summer guests. How thoughtful of me, you might say!

A helpful gesture. A visual answer to the frequently asked question, "What's it like up here in winter."

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of "guiding" a wonderful group of visitors from Michigan around our magnificent peninsulas. They were here for a week or so and had planned meticulously. In fact, in one week, they probably accomplished more visits and stops than we have in 10 years. Everyday was a new adventure. Acadia, Monhegan, Kennebunkport, Portland, yadda yadda yadda, and right in the middle of their visit, me!

We met at their vacation abode, "Sur le Mar," not a bad vantage point for Harbor views, and we walked around town a bit, in thick fog, by the way.

It didn't take long for the "Winter" question to come up.

Now, let me preface with this tidbit of information. These were folks from the Ann Arbor area of Michigan and the just south of Buffalo snow belt. I didn't know that when my prerecorded message began. They let me run with it just long enough to be polite, then dropped the hammer. I should have known, growing up in the hills of central Pennsylvania, that it was a set up. But these were classy folks — they let me off easy.

Rain, snow, sleet, ice, winds, snow turning to rain, rain turning to snow — you know the drill.We have it all, including no snow and extreme snow! I explained that winter here is like a multiple choice question in a high school cafeteria lunch line ... there's no wrong answer.

Winter on the coast is about as predictable as traffic on Route 1 — You never quite know where it comes from or how long it will last.

Happy trails from the coast of Maine.