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Fun Things to Do Off the Bowdoin Campus (Now That the Snow Has Finally Melted!)

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bowdoin chapter.

Spring has sprung! Finally we can shed our winter layers and go outside. With spring comes new things to do in our beloved town of Brunswick. Sorry, but there is no longer an excuse to spend the whole weekend watching movies in your room. Springtime in Maine is great, but it doesn’t last long. Get outside and take advantage of the area’s many Mainey places.

There are few crucial Brunswick eating establishments that open up along with the flower buds and provide not only good food but also a great overall Maine eating experience:

  • Fatboy: Fatboy is located on Bath Road, across from the recently closed Naval Air station.  If the name doesn’t say enough, Fatboy is a really classy place to eat. Forget the hassle of getting out of your car; at Fatboy, you order from and eat inside your vehicle. While this perk of Fatboy often goes unmentioned, it is a perfect place to enjoy a good meal and maintain your privacy. No need to worry about adhering to any dress code or running into the paparazzi (or peers) while on an awkward first date. Fatboy is a good choice all around so take advantage because it isn’t open year-round.
  • Cote’s Ice Cream: Cote’s is merely steps away from campus; it is the little red building on the corner passed Benchwarmers and before Hannaford supermarket. Like Fatboy, Cote’s closes its door/window for the winter. Come May, however, it is a great place to find a close cone. Need a snack during Ivies? Cote’s is the place. The line can get a little long, but it’s worth the wait. The ice cream is delicious and sprinkles are the perfect springtime accessory.

Farmer’s Markets are a great way to support local farmers and businesses and get to know some real Mainers. Reasons to check them out: great people, great snacks, great crafts, and the great outdoors!

  • Brunswick Farmers’ Market happens every Tuesday and Friday from 8am-2pm and is across from Cote’s, on the Brunswick Mall (the grassy area with the Gazebo).
  • If you’re not a morning person or you have class, there is another farmers’ market– Crystal Springs Farmers’ Market –that takes place right on Pleasant Hill Road (the street across from Parkview hospital) every Saturday from 8:30-12:30.

Now that it’s warming up, hopefully it will continue to do so fast, and the sand and sea are not far if temperatures do continue to soar. If you’re looking to catch some rays, you can go to Popham Beach or Reid State Park.  Pressed for time? No problem! You don’t need to plan a full beach day to get down to the water; Thomas Point is less than ten minutes from campus. Even if it’s not warm enough to jump in the water, the beach is a great place to hangout and walk around so get to the beach before Maine gets cold again.

There’s plenty to do around here now that it’s warm. Take some time to take advantage of the weather and of Maine. After all, life in Maine is “The Way Life Should Be.”

Joanna Buffum is a senior English major and Anthropology minor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.  She is from Morristown, NJ and in the summer of 2009 she was an advertising intern for OK! Magazine and the editorial blog intern for Zagat Survey in New York City. This past summer she was an editorial intern for MTV World's music website called MTV Iggy, writing fun things like album and concert reviews for bands you have never heard of before. Her favorite books are basically anything involving fantasy fiction, especially the Harry Potter series and “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell” by Susanna Clarke. In her free time she enjoys snowboarding, playing intramural field hockey, watching House MD, and making paninis. In the spring of 2010 she studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, and she misses the friendly, tall, and unusually attractive Danish people more than she can say. After college, she plans on pursuing a career in writing, but it can be anywhere from television script writing, to magazine journalism, to book publishing.