Just back from Maine, riding the N train back to Brooklyn from LaGuardia, I’m thinking about vacations in general and this vacation in particular. A good vacation should take you out of your everyday enough that the place you return to looks different than when you left it.

The coast of Maine in late August was sunny and cool. New York, even though it’s before Labor Day, is also fairly cool. In Maine, the people were kind of laughably polite — maybe deferential is a better term. Cars would yield when they didn’t have to, which actually made traffic more confusing, I think. People moved slower. It’s quite the opposite in New York, of course, and I think a lot of that is just because there are so many more people crammed into a much smaller space. Nowhere in the country is as dense as New York City, but Maine seemed especially empty — even popular hiking trails in Acadia National Park were virtually deserted. Would New Yorkers turn into slightly passive-aggressive “after-you”-ers if there were only, say 40,000 people in the five boroughs? Maybe, but then what would be the point?

What with good friends (Stella, who will probably post pictures later), amazing scenery (mountains, forests, beaches, seaside cliffs), great food (the most delicious blueberry pancakes in the world, abundant lobster), just the right amount of exertion (hikes, kayaking), and the cool, salty air, I find myself completely relaxed. Will I be able to keep my head clear and unbothered by quotidian concerns? Past history would suggest no, my neuroses will come back sooner rather than later. Vacation, by definition, is temporary.