The official tourist season numbers won’t come out for several weeks, but through other sources (mostly social media), we have some idea of who visited Maine this summer.
Two of our most well-known part-time residents, Martha Stewart and George W. Bush, both appeared to celebrate milestone birthdays here. While the lifestyle maven shared a photo of herself enjoying a new hot tub at her Skylands estate in Seal Harbor the day after turning 85 last month, the former president attended services at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Kennebunkport on the weekend before his 80th birthday in July.
As usual, our concert venues brought in some of the biggest names in music from across the decades, including Barry Manilow, Mumford & Sons and, perhaps most notably, Role Model, though we won’t count the Cape Elizabeth native among the tourists.
Although many more famous faces surely got lost in the crowd or snuck in low-key, here’s a look at some of the high-profile visitors we know about, ranked in order of how well they conducted themselves while they were here.
(Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)
10. JD Vance
Brewer isn’t your typical Maine summer destination, but the vice president might know he wouldn’t be so warmly received sunbathing on our southern beaches. Even while addressing a friendly crowd at defense contractor Compotech in August, he managed to anger Mainers by telling us to “have a little bit of perspective” about the killing of Biddeford man Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero at the hands of a federal agent the month prior. Back atcha.
9. Great white sharks
We get it: Sharks have the right to search for food in the ocean near our shores, no matter how scary they may seem. Despite appearing in larger numbers this summer, they can’t be accused of much more than yanking on a lifeguard’s rescue device and driving swimmers back onto the beach for a few hours at a time — yet.
8. Marjorie Taylor Greene
It’s unclear if the former U.S. representative similarly scared off fellow patrons of Luke’s Lobster on Portland Pier during a visit last month, just a few days after marrying conservative media personality Brian Glenn in Las Vegas, though some Mainers took issue with her choice of butter, truffle butter and spicy flavors for her lobster roll flight.
7. Lena Dunham
The “Girls” creator and star is used to facing backlash for whatever she does and didn’t escape it on a trip to the Midcoast, with people pointing out that her re-creation of the famous painting “Christina’s World” could be considered insensitive to the subject’s disability. On the flip side, she was applauded for conducting “a thorough tick check afterwards.”
6. Antoni Porowski
The food and wine expert from “Queer Eye” appeared to spend most of his time in-state aboard the Rockland-based schooner Ladona. Such expensive multi-day excursions aren’t exactly the most relatable of Maine experiences, but we appreciate that he couldn’t get enough, vowing to return next season.
5. Canadians
While we were glad to see visits from our neighbors to the north rebound from last summer, they’re still lagging behind previous years, and the escalating trade war is not likely to help change that. We understand their frustrations with our president and his tariffs, but we hope they realize, he doesn’t like us, either.
4. Hugh Jackman
The actor might have come to the Ogunquit Playhouse fundraiser gala to support significant other and gala headliner Sutton Foster, but he didn’t leave without lending his talent to the sold-out event. The couple, who starred together on Broadway in “The Music Man,” performed duets of “Doodlin’ Song” and “A Million Dreams.”
3. Tim Meadows
While performances with Bluebird Improv brought the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member to the state, he didn’t hesitate to turn the work trip into a vacation, taking dining recommendations from his social media followers and then tagging the businesses he visited in a subsequent post. That’s one way to use your power for good.
2. Glen Powell’s entire family
Thanks to the Instagram accounts of the actor’s sisters, we got more than a glimpse into their extended family’s fun-filled stay in Maine. Was that Ogunquit in the background? Wherever they were, they couldn’t have looked like they were having a better time.
1. Tiffani Thiessen
The ’90s icon who played Kelly Kapowski on “Saved by the Bell” might not be a household name to everyone, but she’d make a killer spokeswoman for our state’s tourism industry regardless. A perennial summertime visitor, Thiessen posted a montage of her and her family members boating, kayaking, cooking lobsters and, lastly, jumping off a dock in slow motion, with “We love Maine” in a text overlay. The feeling’s mutual, Tiffani.
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