Casco Bay’s rocky shorelines and forested islands are a beautiful sight in summer. However, you can’t see them by car. You have to take a ferry on the oldest ferry service in the country. Just a few miles from downtown Portland, you can see secluded coves, lobster boats, lighthouses and wildflowers in front of summer cottages and fishing piers.

To the islanders, the ferries are a lifeline, carrying kids to school on the mainland and residents to doctor’s appointments, cars, groceries, building supplies and mail. Almost without fail, the ferries of the Casco Bay Line make their regular daily runs through all kinds of weather.

Peaks Island, Little Diamond, Great Diamond and Cliff Island are all part of the City of Portland. Although there are only 1,000 year round residents on Peaks Island, there are several times that many in the summer months. Peaks Island is only 20 minutes from Portland by ferry and there are several ferry runs a day depending on the season. You can explore the whole island on foot or bike in less than an hour, because it’s only a mile wide and about two miles long!

Great Diamond Island has seen many famous visitors, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Longfellow and early 19th century landscape painters attracted by the beautiful scenery and stately mansions. However, Diamond Cove was also the site of Fort McKinley, which was built during the Spanish American War to protect Portland Harbor. The Fort was in active service until 1945, but is now on the Register of Historic Places in the United States. There is currently a museum and gift shop there, operating on a volunteer basis.

Special cruises feature lobster bakes in a rustic “summerhouse” on Peaks Island for groups of up to 400. Or you can take a music cruise and listen to everything from jazz to blues to rock to country. There’s something for everyone on the Casco Bay Ferry Line, even if you just go along on the Mail Run and never set foot on land. The beautiful islands and rocky coastline are at their best when viewed from the ocean. You might even see a porpoise or harbor seal! At any rate, you’ll return from your ferry trip refreshed and relaxed from the salt air and good company aboard the Casco Bay Line ferry.

Lill Hawkins lives in Maine and writes about family life, home education and being a WAHM at http://hawkhillacres.blogspot.com Get the News From Hawkhill Acres: A mostly humorous look at home schooling, writing and being a WAHM, whose mantra is “I’m a willow; I can bend.”

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