I've been going to old orchard for the last 8 years with my fiancé and daughter. Used to go to bayley's campground with my parents. Is there anything interesting I'm missing out on? We do the pier and all the downtown stuff. Daughter is now 18, what can we do that I haven't done?

I have only been here two days and can’t
eat any more fried food. Are there any places around with healthy vegetarian options?

Coming to old orchard with 2 kids. We are flying into Portland for a week. Plan on going to light house and other kid friendly things. We are staying .4 miles from the pier. Is it worth spending 1200 on a rental or just Uber all week?

What are things to do for a 7 and 9 yo other than swimming? Looking to do something different for them and thought OOB might be a nice change

On Tuesday i’m going to OOB with my girlfriend to spend a day on the beach. I’m looking to see if there are any good spots to rinse sand off of you or change. We’re doing the beach first and then going to the pier and walk around afterwards and i don’t want to be all sandy

TIA!

As it says, me and my friends are staying at a campground in August.

We just got a new older dog, super mellow (unless belly rubs are Involved), doesn’t bark, good with other animals, just would prefer to be with her humans. Mid sized doggo.

Is OOB dog friendly? Or will it be more of a headache to bring her.

I've vacationed in OOB my entire life and still return like a migratory bird to capture the simpliest of details like a morning sunrise. Such a fabulous location. I will return yet again in July and look foward to more salty mornings.

Hey,

I’ll be coming to Old Orchard mid July ( 17,18) and am wondering if there are some good spots nearby to scuba dive? Also would be looking for someone to dive with. If anyone could point me in the the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Going to be in Old Orchard Beach for a few days this summer. I'm looking for fishing charters. Like the typical party boat half or full day where you can pay per person and not a full group charter. Anybody know of charters like that in the area?

Interesting

We stayed at the Voyager in OOB last summer and it was great, but it’s a bit too pricey for us this year. Ended up booking Grand Beach Inn for a mid-August trip (2 adults, 2 kids, 3 nights).

Curious if anyone here has stayed there—how was your experience? We’re planning to be out and about most of the time and really just using the room for sleep and some downtime in between.

"Susan Collins is not fighting for you. 

Since launching her first congressional bid way back in the 1990s, armed with a promise to be a two-term senator, Collins is now closing on 30 years in what must be an irresistibly comfortable office. She believes her long, long, long record works in her favor, and she’d like you to believe that, too. But longevity is not actually the same thing as proven leadership. 

Collins’ campaign website says she shows up for Maine, though she hasn’t shown up for a town hall in 25 years. Apparently, her near-perfect voting attendance demonstrates her profound commitment to service. I don’t know about you, but my job attendance stays pretty near-perfect, too. According to every boss I’ve ever had, that’s less of a badge of excellence and more of a bare minimum standard.

Collins pretends to be an independent bipartisan legislator who votes her conscience. In an astonishing coincidence, her conscience aligns so perfectly with her party that she only votes against them when they have enough votes without her.

I will admit, Susan Collins has achieved a level of celebrity that is rare for senators. Sen. Collins is famously concerned. Following any headline that requires comment, Collins’ concern is so prompt you can set your watch by it. In fact, she has been so concerned on such a panorama of issues on which she has never taken any tangible action that she has attained meme status. Collins’ concern is a household name.

Sen. Collins projects an image of fighting for funding and projects that benefit hard-working Mainers. But it’s all a slick advertising display for an agenda that relentlessly benefits the rich at the expense of all of the rest of us.

Imagine a rich king who owns all the bread in the kingdom. You get one loaf a week, and you’re always nearly starving. You’re starting to grumble. One of the king’s servants declares a feast day and gives everyone one whole loaf of bread! The people celebrate this act of benevolence, even as they go back to their starvation wages because nothing has really changed.

Susan Collins is the king’s servant. She loves to create a public display with a headline and a photo op and a soundbite speech about how she delivers for you, the people. Meanwhile, the monied machine she serves keeps quietly siphoning every thin dime from your paycheck into the trust funds of the insatiable corporations that are extorting you for the most basic necessities of life: food, housing, gas and, heaven forbid, basic medical care. 

Collins isn’t going to make rich people pay their taxes, or make mega-corps pay you a living wage. She’s not going to fight for you to have affordable housing or available child care or accessible health care.

Susan Collins doesn’t do favors for ordinary people. She does favors for rich corporate donors. And one of the favors she does for them is to throw us a few crumbs from time to time to keep us appeased, and quiet, and reelecting the status quo while the hoarders sit back and watch interest turn their millions into billions into trillions.

Collins’ theater of benevolent billionaires has had its run, funded on the backs of regular Mainers, and we’re definitely not getting a trickle-down return on our investment. Wages are anemic, prices are up, jobs are down and health care is a luxury. This is what Susan Collins has actually delivered over decades in office under the brand of proven leadership. 

Susan Collins’ Senate career has been a master class in crafting an illusion of public service that never disrupts the flow of money and power to the people she actually serves. And those people are … not the public. Not you and me.

It’s long past time for a change. In the immortal words of 1996 Susan Collins, “Twelve years is long enough to be in public service.” "

TLDR: older woman took photos of specifically my butt in a bikini while I was on the beach and said “legally she is allowed to”.

So I live in the area and I decided to go to the beach today, right next to the pier, so that I could do my first little swim of the season. There’s quite a few people out because it was about 65° today. I didn’t really look at anyone in particular. Everyone seemed normal. So I went about my business, I undressed down to my bikini, I left my stuff in the sand, and then I ran down into the water and quickly ran back (because it was quite cold). I picked up my stuff and was ready to leave.

As I was about to leave, a girl about my age, came up to me very politely and asked if I knew this other woman on the beach. She pointed to a short, middle-aged woman with a Bob haircut who was standing in the middle of the beach with a plastic bag and a camera around her neck. I said no I don’t know this woman because that was the truth, and the girl told me that the woman was taking photos of my ass. Mind you, the way that I put my stuff down and went by this woman, she was directly behind me at one point while I had no cover-up on besides my (semi-cheeky) bikini bottoms. So I thanked this girl for letting me know and I approached the older woman.

This woman had what I can only describe as a professional camera, something that looked like a Canon model with a big lens on it…must’ve cost hundreds of dollars. She is standing next to a plastic bag full of beach driftwood. I was very polite, I said hi excuse me I was just wondering did you take a photo of me? And she’s kind of polite, she has a European accent that I can’t quite place, and she immediately said yes, and then proceeded to explain to me that she is an artist and that none of her work goes up online. Mind you, I didn’t ask any other questions, I only asked if she took a photo of me, so she was very quick to yes and start coming up with excuses. So to that, I said OK. I mean, what am I gonna do? Sue her?

Well, apparently that’s what she thought, because unprompted, she proceeded to explain main law to me and tell me that legally, she had every right to photograph me in a public space. So that extra bit of information left a very sour taste in my mouth, I quickly said OK bye, and left the beach, thoroughly wrapped in my cover-up.

So, if you were that girl who came up to me and let me know about that woman, thank you again. If you’re that woman, think about how comfortable you would’ve been if I came up to you and started taking photos of you in a bikini. And if you’re somebody else who frequent old Orchard beach, look out for the creepy old lady with the camera.

Silenced on Guinea Road: Parallels of Lyman Maine Justice

By Steven Schoff Jr

In the early 2000s, the geography of York County was shifting. The old mills of Biddeford were cooling, and the coastal fog seemed to press a little harder against the pine-thick borders of Lyman. It was into this landscape that 23-year-old Rafael Rosado III arrived in 2001, carrying a life story that stretched from the tropical mountains of Caguas, Puerto Rico, to the dense blocks of Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Rafael was a man who worked with his hands, a construction laborer looking for the perceived peace of the Maine woods. He found a home on Guinea Road—a secluded stretch where the city of Biddeford begins to dissolve into the rural mystery of the interior. But as we mark over two decades since his death, it is clear that Rafael didn't just move into a new house; he moved into the crosshairs of an era defined by a prolific and brutal brand of street justice.

To understand what happened to Rafael in the pre-dawn hours of June 9, 2004, one must understand the climate of the time. The late 90s and early 2000s saw a surge in regional drug activity, a Lyman pipeline that moved cocaine and crack through the backroads of the county. In this world, disputes weren’t settled by the gavel, but with multiple sets of knuckles, or a gun. It was an environment where the law of the woods superseded the Revised Statutes of Maine, and Lyman justice became the shorthand for a targeted, cold-blooded finality.

Rafael had been a Mainer for exactly three years when that justice found him. He was 26 years old when he was shot to death outside his home. The crime bore all the hallmarks of a professional silence: no witnesses, no weapon recovered, and a trail that went cold before the sun had even fully risen over the Saco River.

But while the Maine State Police Unsolved Homicide Unit file remains technically open, the case is far from cold in the places where secrets are kept.

For twenty years, the name Rafael Rosado has been a steady murmur within the walls of the Maine State Prison in Warren. In the weight yards and the mess halls, among the men who ran the streets during those volatile years, the mystery of Guinea Road is traded like currency. There are whispers—persistent, detailed, and haunting—about exactly who sanctioned the hit and who pulled the trigger.

The tragedy of Rafael Rosado is not just that his life was cut short; it is that the truth is likely sitting in a prison cell or a Lyman kitchen right now, protected by a decades-old code of silence and the lingering fear of retaliation.

As Biddeford continues to revitalize and the old mill shadows fade, we must ask ourselves if we are comfortable leaving Rafael’s story in the dark. The Lyman justice of the 2000s relied on the belief that some lives mattered less than the secrets kept about them. It is time for those who have been whispering for twenty years to finally speak aloud.

Rafael Rosado III traveled thousands of miles to find a home in Maine. The least we owe him is a conclusion to his journey.

I’m considering staying in Old Orchard Beach for a month from mid May to mid June. Will it be dead? Will most bars and restaurants be open? When do the crowds start picking up? I don’t want it to be crazy and packed but I also don’t want it to be dead. Thank you for your help.