I love Maine. My brother lives in Maine and I live 45 minutes from the border, so I'm there frequently. Portland is a beautiful city on the ocean. Lot's to do. Portland Seadogs baseball in the Summer is a lot of fun. Lot's of lighthouses to explore and Portland has some old forts on the water that are great to explore and bring your dog. They have a great shopping district too (Planet Dog is a cool store). If you consider yourself an outdoorsy type of person, you'll love Maine. Kayaking, sailing, hiking, biking in the Summer and snowmobiling, skiing, snowshoeing in the Winter. And if you love to shop, there is Kittery Maine where all the outlets are (and LL Bean in Freeport).

As far as the cost of living, I know it's cheaper than NH - but not by much. If you live further North, it's very cheap. But the closer South, it gets more expensive.

I'd love to live in Maine myself someday. I always thought it would be great to live way up North (until I heard they got 2-3 feet of snow a few days ago, then I remembered I didn't like snow). I've since changed my mind and want to move to Florida.

For 2 summers I would drive 1.5 hours to Portland to rehabilitate seals. They have an organization in Portland that rehabs injured/abandoned seals. If you're interested in that, you could become involved with it. They train you and it's AWESOME!!

Good luck!!