Gabe Kidd, left, Sam Rush, center, and Levi Rush own Kelp and Cafe 64 in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Three friends, two neighboring businesses and one very unlikely phone call brought a little West Coast energy to Old Orchard Beach. On a rainy summer morning, Kelp feels like a burst of color along Old Orchard Street. A mirrored disco wall catches the light. Plants climb above shelves filled with candles, jewelry, books and locally made goods. A hat embroidered with a lobster pr

Pyper LeBlanc, 6, of Ogunquit, leaps off a rock near a six foot tall metal rooster in Wells, Maine on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. Photo by Cy Cyr For the past month, six-year-old Pyper LeBlanc and her beloved roosters have appeared in news reports across Maine and around the country. On Tuesday,, I saw what happens after the headlines. Dave, Sara and Pyper in Wells, Maine. I followed Pyper and her parents, Sara and Dave LeBlanc, from their family’s Omelette Factory in Ogunquit t

Gary Hill, left and Dennis Boothby pose on the beach at Ocean Park in Saco, Maine on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. The longtime friends and former co-workers use their metal-detecting experience to help strangers recover rings, jewelry and other meaningful belongings. Photo by Cy Cyr Meet Dennis Boothby and Gary Hill of Ring Finders of Maine By 6:30 Tuesday evening, heavy fog had swallowed most of Ocean Park Beach. The horizon was gone. The ocean was barely visible beyond the wet

Painting Joy How Adrienne Kernan LaVallée spent a lifetime finding her own artistic voice Sea Watch Chopped Sea Clams cans make for great paint brush holders. On one of the first truly warm days of summer, the doors to Adrienne Kernan LaVallée's studio stood open in Biddeford. Sunlight spilled across unfinished canvases, palette knives rested beside thick pools of oil paint, and dozens of brushes stood upright in recycled clam cans. Just down the road, Biddeford Pool shimmere

Ten years after opening a tiny yoga studio in Saco, Sarah Spiegel has created one of Biddeford's most enduring communities. The Ocean She Built Dark clouds drifted across the sky above Biddeford Pool as Sarah Spiegel stepped into the grass and looked toward the horizon. For 45 minutes, the sun had remained hidden behind a thick layer of blue-gray clouds, leaving only hints of what might happen before nightfall. Then, just before disappearing below the horizon, it found a narr

Maureen Massey, left, and Linda McLaughlin, owners of Between the Tides in Biddeford Pool, Maine, have opened for their 16th season. Between the Tides in Biddeford Pool, Maine. Forty years ago, Linda McLaughlin received a collect call about a man she had never met. Actually, she received a collect call about two men. Neither of them was coming home. It was the mid-1980s, before cell phones, text messages, or any easy way to explain that everything was fine. Linda's husband an

At 7:30 on a June evening, Ashley Nadeau and Tina Gosselin were already joking that they were up past their bedtime. A cool breeze drifted across the rooftop of their downtown Biddeford apartment building. At 63 degrees, the air felt a little chilly for June, but neither woman seemed eager to leave. The view helped. Below them, downtown Biddeford settled into the evening. The Saco River reflected the last light of the day while streaks of orange, pink, and purple stretched ac

More than a dozen school groups filled Hadlock Field during the Portland Sea Dogs’ Education Day game Thursday morning in Portland. Hadlock Field was loud before the first pitch. By 10:00 in the morning, school buses lined the streets outside the ballpark. Students poured through the gates in waves, teachers counting heads while volunteers pointed groups toward the concourse. Inside, the smell of popcorn and grilled hot dogs drifted through the cool spring air as players stre

Peter McPheeters, of Biddeford Pool, rows his boat around Wood Island Lighthouse during sunrise on February 22, 2025. Photo by Cy Cyr/ BrickTides.com The flagpole snapped in the dark. The wind came hard through Biddeford Pool on Monday — snow moving sideways, drifts building against the harbor-facing buildings, the kind of February storm that reminds you who owns the coastline. By Tuesday morning the blizzard had moved offshore. The sky was hard blue. The Pool lay exposed at

Driving through Biddeford, you can tell something about a house by how close it sits to the road. The older the house, the less it seems to care about being polite. Steve’s house sits so near the intersection it feels like the road had to adjust its plans. Not the other way around. Steve's house was constructed when the 8th US President was serving, Martin Van Buren. Subscribe to BrickTides.com. The workshop is not where you expect it. To reach it, you have to step outside a

The foundation was only a few feet out of the frozen Scarborough ground, a neat geometry of concrete catching the winter sun. Ten degrees, bright and wind-bitten. Snow from last week still rimmed the perimeter, crisp and untouched. An excavator growled to life, a skid steer answered, and the Atlantic glinted coldly just beyond the lot. This is where something long imagined begins to become real. After a year of planning, Christi stands inside the early shape of a home she onc

From President Bush at Cape Arundel to mornings on the Atlantic, a family’s life on the land Greg, left, and Bob Searle on the first hole at Abenakee Club. If you arrive before sunrise at the Abenakee Club in Biddeford Pool, you can watch the world brighten in layers. The ocean moves first, catching a strip of pink before anything else. Wood Island Lighthouse glows white long before the neighborhoods wake up. And then, at a certain angle that only appears in spring and fall,

Michelle and John Corgan outside Bell Farm Shops. They purchased the property in 2017 and have transformed it into one of the most beloved shopping destinations on the Seacoast. Bell Farm Shops in York has a presence that stops people in their tracks. The tall red barn at 244 US Route 1 looks like it could be the set of a movie. The cupola rises above the rooftops with a horse weathervane. The morning sun rests on the shingles and the red picket fence. Wind chimes move on the

Colleen Miller The wind was moving that afternoon in Biddeford, sharp enough to lift the last of October’s leaves and send them tapping against the tall windows of The Lincoln. Downstairs, the team at Batson River had started to hang Christmas lights, strings of gold flickering over the clink of glassware. Every terminal in sight ran on Toast. At Batson River, at Spinning Jenny’s, even in the cafe where we sat, the same platform powered orders, payments, takeout, and delivery

Brian Fairfield, Maine Dry-Stone Waller

Video of striped bass off the coast of Biddeford, Maine

A boat tour around Wood Island Lighthouse in Biddeford, Maine