When my boyfriend (now my husband) Brian and I first started dating, I made sure to bring him up to the Maine North Woods to see how he reacted to the area. Staying with in-laws is always a little nerve-wracking, so I couldn’t abandon him completely to my father while my mother and I went traipsing through the woods looking for birds. Given how much he was willing to spend his work vacations up in Maine with my family, he was already approaching saint status before I added birding to the list.

Brian wanted to fly-fish more than anything, literally more than anything, so on our last evening on Kennebago Lake I headed out onto the water with him in my family’s dark green Rangeley Boat. Low clouds hung over the mountains, reflecting slate gray on the waves below. Rain threatened but was not falling, blocking most of the sunset’s colors.

Read the rest of my post on the Bangor Daily News!