Ogunquit, it is!

I am completely motivated by external motivation and incentives (okay, not completely, but very, very much so). If I were a puppy, I would be the most well-behaved one and do all sorts of impressive tricks, all the meanwhile eying and drooling over that coveted treat. As a human, I guess I do my share of hoop-jumping to win that "treat"... like when I opened a Citi checking account last spring to get a free roundtrip air plane ticket, good for flying anywhere in the continental US and Canada.

So now it's time to cash in my reward! Wayne and I decided we wanted to go somewhere a little off our usual beaten path. Somewhere we may have heard about but may not be a "normal" vacation spot for us. Somewhere relaxing, though, and not too overwhelming for the few short days we'll be able to spend there... Somewhere pretty with a host of bed and breakfasts and good food... Somewhere like Maine! (yum, lobster!)

But Maine is huge, and after many hours of aimlessly scouring the internet for "top vacation spots in Maine" or "New England vacation", I was getting sorely frustrated by all the vague and piece-y information I was finding (sometimes the world wide web is just too vast). I tried searching by bed and breakfasts, but many of them were over our budget or were just too kitschy, even for my tastes.

And then I stumbled upon this little bed and breakfast that I just fell in love with! I actually found it on yelp (love yelp!), where one reviewer even described the innkeeper's wife as a combination of Martha Stewart and Ina Garten—two of my favorite domestic role models! 16 Beach Street is in the center of Ogunquit, Maine, "a beautiful place by the sea" (which is what ogunquit means, apparently), home to little shops, cafes and bistros, Ogunquit beach (one of America's top 10 most beautiful beaches), light houses, and more. Ambling through their website, I became more and more enamored by the casual and tasteful country charm of the inn, the innkeepers' obvious pride and passion that come through in all the details (they even keep a blog; one entry was all about "the quest for the perfect porch"), and the little town of Ogunquit that they describe so sweetly.

So I'm sold! We're leaving the first weekend of June, right after Wayne gets out of school! Yay, for summer breaks, Citibank promotions, and quaint little bed and breakfasts!