This Week in Lincolnville

Date Afternoon

Sun, 08/16/2026 - 10:05am

Ed O’Brien

Jason and Kim Ellis of the Anchorage Coastal Cabins and Motel. (Photo by Ed O’Brien)

I went on a date with my wife yesterday. The Saturday morning chores were mostly done. I’d tackled the bathrooms and vacuuming and taken the trash and recycling to the transfer station. She had been up early to take our youngest to his summer job winnowing blueberries for Blueberry Hannah, staying for a couple hours to assist the young crew in cleaning those final boxes of the 2026 blueberry season.

When I got back from Midcoast Solid Waste, she had already returned, put in a load of laundry, and driven the youngest to a friend’s camp a few town inland to spend the rest of the day and night.

Does anyone else remember Saturday morning chores growing up? When working parents attempt to catch up on all the tasks that built up over the week? And, with varying success, try to rope the kids into helping?

Our elder two both have full time jobs and vehicles this summer, so they are generally MIA when it comes to household chores. I often find myself determining their locations through the “Find Me” app on the phone. Are they working or hanging out at some friend’s lake house? Why has that kid been staying in the same place for the last two hours when work ended at five? Occasionally I have to remind them that if they want me to pay for their phones, I still expect them to answer my texts, let me know when they will be home. Whether I should save some of dinner?

Once again I am reminded of the blessing and curse of modern technology, and at least I know where my kids are. When my brothers and I were the same age, my folks just got to worry and eye the clock.

Anyway, my wife took me to Scott’s Place on our “date”, and as I waited for our (still incredibly inexpensive) meal, I remember my mom writing about grabbing lunch with my dad and later Don at Scott’s in this very column. I suppose Tracee and I are hitting a certain stage in our relationship.

Tracee went to Reny’s to get new blankets for our little Belladonna pup. I chatted with Jack Pike, holding court as always, outside the little food shack he opened 50 years ago, while his son and grandchildren get to be the ones slinging hot dogs and lobster rolls.

We discussed the coming of the best time of year, September and October, when, to both our minds, the Midcoast is at its finest. Cool evenings, warm afternoons, the intensity of the color in our natural environment.

The food arrived just as Tracee walked out of Reny’s with two new snuggly blankets for Bella. My wife got her veggie burger with requisite hot relish; she declares Scott’s is one of the few places that does veggie burgers correctly, with a proper crispy outer coating.

Tracee’s mission to find a replacement blade for her chainsaw ended unsuccessfully but we had fun driving her big truck around the Midcoast, blasting hip hop, and ending up at Aubuchon in Belfast to secure a bag of cracked corn for the backyard dinosaurs and to peruse the bushes and trees in their nursery.

Tracee announced that she wants to build a pond with a waterfall. Another item on the long term list of projects around this old farmhouse.

All and all, a successful date.

Anchorage Coastal Cabins

I first met Kim and Jason Ellis at Don French’s Fourth of July gathering earlier this summer. They purchased the old motel across from Don’s home on Atlantic Highway from Jane Liedtke last summer, and have spent the last year making it their own.

Kim and Jason had a prior career working in oil and gas out of Houston, Jason in deep water work in the Gulf, and Kim as an environmental consultant. Around 2018, they decided they needed a change and moved full time onto their sailboat with their young son.

Jason had coached sailing in Maine in his youth, and both had an affection for old motels, so somewhere in the back of their minds there must have been an inkling they would someday find themselves running an old property here in Maine.

An anchorage is a nautical term for a place where ships can lay anchor. In the sailing world, this is a gathering spot for people and families who are living at sea. A place to socialize and share information, to allow the kids to meet others their age. A community at sea.

It was at an anchorage in the Caribbean during Covid that brought to Ellis family to Maine, when friends convinced them to head north up the coast. After a run in with a ledge in our waters landed their boat at Lyman Morse, the family decided to stay for a while, Jason taking a job with Lyman Morse, and purchasing a small home in Camden just before the real estate market went… intense.

During their time in Camden, the idea of owning a motel or inn did not leave them, and while they returned to the Caribbean a couple years later, they kept perusing real estate ads, where the place on Atlantic Highway in Lincolnville kept popping up.

Finally, in 2025 they went for it. With a son starting high school, the family purchased the 1920s era motel, 11 cabins and nine motel rooms, and set to renovating, and the reinvention of themselves as innkeepers.

Having known a few innkeepers, I am aware this is not a small task. Fortunately, the property had been well maintained, but making a place your own is never a small task. Jason made reference to the 11 cabins being like maintaining 11 sailboats, which anyone with nautical experience would understand. At least the cabins do not generally sink. He talked about the insurance inspector showing up in the middle of winter to examine the three-season cabins to find that due to that cold weather shifting, one of the doors would open. Jason suggested he either come back in Spring, or just accept that this cabin is just like the other 10.

The motel is fully operational this summer. Kim and Jason are full of ideas and plans. Kim’s background is wildlife and fisheries, and she has a passion for native plants, though her thought is as long as the birds and bees like them, they can stay. She is plotting what can be done with the full four acres they now own.

Back to the concept of the anchorage, the Ellis’ want their motel to be an anchorage on dry land, a place for people to gather, where those traveling to our beautiful corner of the world can find temporary community.

Jason and Kim are just as invested in their new community in Lincolnville, where they tell me they feel incredibly welcomed and included. They talk about the idea of turning the old dining room in the main building into a pub to welcome locals. They have become the spot for Islesboro residents who have just missed the ferry to rest up and try again in the morning.

One great thing about running a three season business, is that they can still answer the call of the ocean should it come, and be back come spring to welcome visitors.

Lincolnville is happy to have you, Kim, Jason, and Benji. Cannot wait to see what you do with the old place!

LCS-PTA Color Run

Saturday, September 5, at 11 a.m., the Lincolnville Central School Parent Teacher Association will hold its biggest fundraiser of the year, the Color Run and 5k. The event will include a one mile color/fun run, and the 3.1 mile/5k race. There will be a post race cookout, and the PTA is looking for volunteers to cheer on the runners and spray colored powder, as runners willing to fundraiser for our school. Sign up to be a runner Here or to volunteer Here.

The PTA does so much to support our school, and their work is invaluable to our students and teachers. Thank them by donating.

Library Happenings

3 p.m. Tuesday will host the needleworkers. At 5:15 the book group will meet to discuss Yesteryear. The poetry circle will meet Wednesday, August 19 at 2 p.m., and the library will host a Friend Raising social at 6:30 p.m. Mah-Jonng open play and lessons will be from 12-2 p.m. on Friday.

Sympathy

To the family and loved ones of Heinz Robert Lehmann, a man whose nearly century on this planet took him all over the world, landing him in Lincolnville, where he became a significant part of the fabric of this little place.

And the family of Susan Hickey, an amazing mom, wife, grandmother, neighbor, and local business owner. Susan, your community and loved ones will miss you so much.

Hope everyone is enjoying the slightly more tolerable weather. It was way too hot last week, and even Ducktrap was packed. It has been quite pleasant to sit in the garden with an after work book the last couple days.

The fruit trees are starting to share their bounty, the corn is just about ready to be picked. The garlic has been harvested. The yellowjacket nests have reached capacity, sending the aggressive little buggers out to seek anything sweet — cover your drinks.

The boys are preparing for double football practices starting Monday, and my daughter is just starting to think about packing up for her first year of college. The summer is ending.

Have a great week, Lincolnville. Reach out at ceobrien246@gmail.com.

Municipal Calendar

Monday, August 17

School House Museum open, 1-4 p.m., 33 Beach Road

Tuesday, August 18

Library open 3-6 p.m. 208 Main Street

AA Meeting 12:15 p.m., Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road

Wednesday, August 19

School House Museum open, 1-4 p.m., 33 Beach Road

Library open 2-5

Joint Union 60 School Committee Meeting, Walsh Common, LCS, 6 p.m.

Thursday, August 20