best family oriented city/town in maine (Portland, Augusta: ski resorts, amusement parks)

[lenaRUSSIA]

We are russian-american family of 3, mom , dad and 6 y.o kiddo. We are planing to move form Ohio to Maine. Now we live in Cincinnati, OH, which is great for our child. It has Children's Museum, Paramount King's Island, Great Wolf indoor waterpark, zoo. Lot of festivals during the year. And big Russian community( school, theater, ballroom dancing classes, art class). I love, love, love that about Cincinnati.
My husband want to live in a house with a land( about5-10 acres). And I need to be able to drive my kid to soccer or piano lessons or to museum or to zoo no more than 45 to 60 min drive one way.
What city( or sub) will be best for us?

[lfan09]

I'm trying to figure that out, too! We are from Pittsburgh, PA and are going to be relocating to Southern Maine. I can't seem to get enough information to choose a town! I wish you luck finding your next home.

[frogcreekwoods]

Originally Posted by lenaRUSSIA

We are russian-american family of 3, mom , dad and 6 y.o kiddo. We are planing to move form Ohio to Maine. Now we live in Cincinnati, OH, which is great for our child. It has Children's Museum, Paramount King's Island, Great Wolf indoor waterpark, zoo. Lot of festivals during the year. And big Russian community( school, theater, ballroom dancing classes, art class). I love, love, love that about Cincinnati.
My husband want to live in a house with a land( about5-10 acres). And I need to be able to drive my kid to soccer or piano lessons or to museum or to zoo no more than 45 to 60 min drive one way.
What city( or sub) will be best for us?

Hi -

Just wondering why you are planning to move to Maine. I don't live there yet, but I can tell you that no where in Maine has the city atmosphere of Cinnicinati. There is no amusement park or zoo or museum of the class you are used to. I'm sure you can get the soccer and piano lessons here. Portland would be the most "citified" city, but it's no Cinncy. You might want to look closer to north of Boston.

[dramamama6685]

Originally Posted by lenaRUSSIA

We are russian-american family of 3, mom , dad and 6 y.o kiddo. We are planing to move form Ohio to Maine. Now we live in Cincinnati, OH, which is great for our child. It has Children's Museum, Paramount King's Island, Great Wolf indoor waterpark, zoo. Lot of festivals during the year. And big Russian community( school, theater, ballroom dancing classes, art class). I love, love, love that about Cincinnati.
My husband want to live in a house with a land( about5-10 acres). And I need to be able to drive my kid to soccer or piano lessons or to museum or to zoo no more than 45 to 60 min drive one way.
What city( or sub) will be best for us?

We're neighbors! I live in Lebanon and work in Mason. You will get tons of opinions, but the town we will eventually retire to has few of the amenities you've listed. Good luck in your search!

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by lenaRUSSIA

We are russian-american family of 3, mom , dad and 6 y.o kiddo. We are planing to move form Ohio to Maine. Now we live in Cincinnati, OH, which is great for our child. It has Children's Museum, Paramount King's Island, Great Wolf indoor waterpark, zoo. Lot of festivals during the year. And big Russian community( school, theater, ballroom dancing classes, art class). I love, love, love that about Cincinnati.
My husband want to live in a house with a land( about5-10 acres). And I need to be able to drive my kid to soccer or piano lessons or to museum or to zoo no more than 45 to 60 min drive one way.
What city( or sub) will be best for us?

Your post is the same as many that are made here by people who think that they will somehow have a better life in Maine's simplicity than they have whereever they are now.

Many who write to this forum have heard that Maine enjoys a relatively low crime rate and an overall emphasis on family life rather than the urban pace that most Americans live in. For many who pose questions here like this one, pictures in magazines like Downeast are compelling, and makes them yearn for a picturesque and simple life style.

ONLY: They want to be not more than a short drive to huge establishments of stores, museums, restaurants. The schools must be the best in the nation, and there must be a plethora of activities for children, all the way from acquatics to wiffleball for their budding olympian geniusses.

Most want a small estate...four to ten acres or so, and some are rocket scientists, chair caners, advertising executives or information techhies (fill in whatever works here), and will need to be within ten or fifteen miles of those jobs, too.

This happens a lot, especially once the summer has ended, outside activities have been replaced by the more mundane of getting the children ready for school, and enduring the less than perfect time of winter whereever one is.

So, let's begin with a couple of basic questions. Did you know that:

• Maine is a very large state for the northeast. It is larger than all five other New England states put together.

• Maine has a population of 1.3 million people....barely. This is very important for you especially, since metropolitan Cincinnatti has almost the same population of the entire state of Maine, and Cincinnatti itself is about FIVE TIMES larger than Maine's largest city, Portland.

So the most important question to ask is WHY do you want to come to Maine. Our economy is as small as our population would suggest: there are few jobs, fewer industries, and fewer employment opportunities in Maine than in southern Ohio....or Ohio anywhere, for that matter. Thus the number, variety and sophistication of museums and other cultural activities are limited when compared to most modern US urban areas.

If you move to Maine, will you and your husband need to have work in order to survive? What kind of work or profession will you need to be involved in? That will largely determine where you live. The things that you have listed as important are largely just not in Maine, but the public schools here are really not better nor worse than most other places in the country. Much of your children's successes in school will depend on your involvement with their education as parents.

On a very simple basis, given what you have asked for, I would suggest that Yarmouth might be a good town for you. It is near Portland, is possible to buy five acres of land in that area, and whatever Maine has that fits your list is nearby. It is also one of the most expensive parts of Maine to live in...easily as expensive as southern Ohio.

Frankly, I think the first step for you is to come to Maine to visit. Oh, not now: plan on spending three weeks in February, and plan on visiting the ENTIRE state, and seek out the kinds of activities that you are interested in. Oh, but do not come here in August or September. If you think of Maine as being somewhat similar to the Ukraine, you might get a feel for it. In the summer it seems quite beautiful, but once the cold winds blow down off the Urals, it is a different place. In Maine there is a saying that might be good to pass to you here, it is: If you can't stand the winters, you don't DESERVE the summers.

So, once again the question: WHY do you want to come to Maine?

[elston]

You are getting sound advice......life in Maine....anywhere in Maine is very different from Cincy or any other large city......when I was a kid we moved from small town New England to Cincinnati....and I lived there thru college......I am more than happy to be back in Maine.....but would tell you like the others......Maine is not comparable to any major city for services and organized activities.....Maine is mostly small towns.....even Portland feels like a town not a city.

I remember the Cincinnati Zoo......and lived in San Diego and loved the San Diego Zoo......we have nothing like that here.......we have nature in its natural settings.....but not the type of zoos or Eden Park. If you are really hoping to find city life and city amenities.....you need to stay in a city and Maine is one of the least likely of states for you to find what youre looking for. Portland has a good symphony orchestra and a good quality art museum (small but a good collection and touring exhibits) and a childrens museum....but I am sure it will all seem small from your viewpoint.

I am not aware of a Russian community; altho that doesnt mean there are some Russian people here....but they are not a visable community.

Quality of life, beauty, low crime, nice people...history.....The Atlantic Ocean....we have it......City Services....not so much.

[lenaRUSSIA]

We love mountains, the ocean. We love outdoors. Fishing, hiking, berries picking, horseback ridding,. We love USA, but miss Russia a lot. The snow in winter, the birch trees.... My husband is truck driver, he've been in Maine sooooo many times.He says it is just like in Russia. Maine is beautiful!!!
We run transportation company, so we don't have to look for jobs. It does not matter, there we live, we will have jobs.

[woolwiTch]

I won't add to all the points made by elston and Acadianlion about Maine's size and relative lack of big-time activities for kids except to say that we do have loads of activities for kids but of a vastly different kind from amusement parks and museums. We have kids playing outdoors with their friends and families and lots of park district and school sports teams.

The real reason I'm responding is to say we do have a very small Russian community in Maine. It's in Richmond, a rural town on the Kennebec River not far from Augusta. In the 1940s, a Russian emigre named Vladimir Kuhn von Poushental, supposedly a former count in pre-revolutionary times, decided that Richmond was a lot like Moscow---in climate and terrain, NOT population. He bought up a lot of land and advertised in Russian immigrant newspapers, attracting about 500 Russians during the 1950s and 1960s. The new Russian community established its own restaurant and three churches, including the Saint Alexander Nevsky Church and Saint Nicholas Orthodox Parish Church.

I went to an Orthodox Christmas service in Richmond in the 1970s, but haven't been since, so I don't know how active the Russian community is now. I've heard that there are still Russian speakers in town, but I doubt there are many. I have also heard that there is an active Russian-style sauna.

I couldn't tell how important a Russian community is to you. If it's very important, I think your only option is Richmond and you will definitely want to visit to see if it's enough for you. I will say Richmond is a beautiful town. Very rural except for a small downtown with impressive big old houses on the river. In recent years it has revitalized its downtown and local businesses. Its schools have active sports teams that do well in state competitions. Still, we're talking really small.

[flycessna]

If you want to have access to many different things then you would want to be on the outskirts or in the city of portland.. My favorite towns are yarmouth and Cape Elizabeth.. I like the lay out of those towns along with the schoolsystems for children.

Keep in mind however that Maine is loosy populated.. the entire state is the size of a major city elswhere so you are not going to find the large museums or zoo's compared to what you are talking about..

Your only other choice would be southern Maine or NH and have access to both the Mountains and the metropolitan life of Boston..

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by lenaRUSSIA

We are russian-american family of 3, mom , dad and 6 y.o kiddo. We are planing to move form Ohio to Maine.

Welcome to our forum.

... Now we live in Cincinnati, OH, which is great for our child. It has Children's Museum, Paramount King's Island, Great Wolf indoor waterpark, zoo. Lot of festivals during the year. And big Russian community( school, theater, ballroom dancing classes, art class). I love, love, love that about Cincinnati.

A high population density with high taxes; can support all those things. Museums, amusement parks, zoos, and ethnic communities with a lot of culture to share. These are all great wonderful things. Lets not forget mass-transit. However for them to exist, they require a lot of people with a lot of cash flowing to keep them functioning.

I like Maine.

Maine does not have the population density needed to support those things. Nor high enough taxes.

Maine is rural.

Maine is forested, Maine has a lot of coast line. Maine has many rivers, lakes, and ponds; and a lot of salt water bays, inlets and harbors.

... My husband want to live in a house with a land (about 5-10 acres). And I need to be able to drive my kid to soccer or piano lessons or to museum or to zoo no more than 45 to 60 min drive one way. What city( or sub) will be best for us?

You certainly can come to Maine and find 10 acres to live on.

Maine is easily driven. The roads are well maintained and most everyone drives. You will have no problems getting around in Maine. We have very little traffic.

Baseball, football, soccer, are all offered. However the museums and zoos, not so much.

Maine does have a wide assortment of small family operated ski resorts. That offer cheap season-rates and mid-week rates. A family can easily get into skiing at these small inexpensive slopes, 3 or 4 times a week [during the season]. That in itself could be real neat lifestyle to grow up doing.

Maine has a lot of access to the ocean, to rivers and lakes. It is not unusual to have a home with a pier in water. If you got into sailing, you could easily have a sailboat. We have friends that live on an inlet and they have an assortment of boats. Each of their children grew up sailing and now their grandchildren are each comfortable taking a sailboat out on the open ocean.

Maine offers a lot of rural / forest / hilly opportunities. Fishing, hunting, trapping, hiking, geocaching, camping, ...



Come to Maine and visit a spell.