Cherie Scott is a transplant.

Cherie, her husband Guy, and their daughter Sophia moved to Maine from New Jersey about seven years ago. And even though closing on the family’s new house in Boothbay was the first time Cherie had stepped foot in Maine, within a few days, she had landed a job at Spruce Point Inn. 

“I'm a true witness to relocation,” she said.

Cherie, who now works for the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce, said she loves living off the beaten track in Boothbay.

“I always tell my husband: ‘Oh my god, we have the best of both worlds. We're just five minutes away from all of the hub bub (of downtown Boothbay Harbor), but yet, we get to live in an amazing community’,” she said. “So we get the community, we get the culture of downtown, we get all the buzz — and we get to leave and drive home (to Boothbay).”

So what does this “new local” suggest visitors do while here?

“If I'm a tourist and I have a sense of this beautiful place — this coastal village stuck in time, with no franchises — (I’d be) just dying to jump down and get all the way down to this harbor ... and I’d definitely check out all the downtown stores,” she said. “And it's an actual walkable downtown loop, which you just never get anymore.”

While downtown, Cherie said she would advise people to taste the local cuisine, which spans from watch-while-its-made saltwater taffy, to tapas, to that old Maine staple, lobster.

Even with all the love she has for downtown, Cherie said getting out to Ocean Point in East Boothbay is a must-do activity.

“To me, there's something about Ocean Point, something about that drive through East Boothbay, with all the teasers of all the bluffs you're seeing on the right and all of the inner coves, and then you finally pull out and you park your car and you look at this absolutely beautiful ocean,” she said. “And you still don't know that on your left you have this stunning granite wall that you can walk for like a mile.”

Cherie said she sometimes has to do some convincing to get visitors to make that turn onto Route 96.

“They're like ‘No no no, we want to go downtown,’ and I'm like, ‘Believe me, all roads end downtown. You will get there, you'll see the harbor. But you need to see (Ocean Point), this is why you come to Maine’.”

Another spot that fascinates Cherie is the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay.

“It's so incredibly unique, and it's one of the most beautiful gardens in New England.”

Cherie said she often tells her husband how glad she is that they ended up in the Boothbay region.

“If you look at all of the pieces that are put in place that make for this beautiful walk-around harbor, this coastal village, there's nothing like it.”