For about a year I lived on island off the coast of Maine, Mt Desert island. Further north than most Canadians. Beautiful, beautiful place. One of the few places in North America where the mountains meet the ocean. Very cold water. There is a nearby island that is accessible by a land bridge, but only at low tide. Tourists often ignored the warnings and parked their cars on the bridge, then their cars floated away (then sank) when the tide came in.
Interesting social dynamics there. A fancy college exists there, the will of a rich man left his estate to become a college for the arts. But they're pretty out there. I didn't attend, my GF did, but I would wander the "campus" because it was just a bunch of beautiful old buildings built by the sea, most of them empty and unattended. Once I walked into an "art display" of hyperfeminist art. The room had a bunch of bloody tampons and pads hung on strings from the ceiling, and the walls were covered with various vaginal artworks painted in period blood. I know this sounds like a political exaggeration but I swear it's true. More than once I'd go to a party and later find out that I was the only straight man there, the rest were (convincing) cross dressing lesbians and such things.
So it was these people vs the natives of the region, on the island, who were quite conservative, simple, small town people. And everyone had to go to the one grocery store on the island, and such. There were many fights and the locals almost always won.
Anyway, beautiful place. Very cold. During winter it stayed below zero F for months and snowed like crazy, I had to shovel the driveway every day. But the girls would bring me hot chocolate and hot apple cider, so it wasn't too bad.
