What is it about summer that makes me antsy to get out and do something different?

I want to go out of town.

I want to try new restaurants.

I want to go to new shops.

I am not a social butterfly. I am not into crowds or loud noises, so things like concerts and even fireworks are not really my cup of tea.

I want to find a new place to take pictures and sit and contemplate the waves.

But waves lapping on the shore and fried seafood and salt water taffy calls to my soul during the summer and I always seem to return to those places that mean the most to me.

My mother loved beaches. There were beaches in Rhode Island and Ogunquit that she loved to lay out on. My father and I would walk for hours, looking for beach glass, waiting for that moment we could find a little place to eat. My mother was happy from her hours laying out in the sun. She went along with anything, especially if she got to eat lobster.

But my father and I were not in to the laying around and sun.

There were some usual places. We would head for a day trip in Rockport or walk the Marginal Way in Ogunquit.

But we had our haunts.

I guess we all do. But in the summer, I start looking for that new place, that new flavor, that new experience.

Even in the usual haunts.

For example, this week, we decided to take a quick trip to Rockport, something I usually reserve for my mother's birthday weekend in her memory. But I had that urge to get away, to get out. And even an unexpected news story and rain didn't  stop us.

We decided to play "hooky" for a few hours.

Now, having been many times, I went online to find something new. With the help of Google, you would think that would be easy. But, I kept running into walls. Been there, done that, it might rain, closed that day, closed for good. 

The rain was a minor inconvenience. Not looking to get sun, we were OK getting a bit wet. Googled gift shops, restaurants, gourmet food shops, museum and other places that would offer refuge from any downpours, figured a route we could drive to see views without getting too wet.

Then it came down to food. We wanted to try new, but still keep to our traditions. After all, we only visit occasionally. So we needed our fried seafood fix (Lobster Pool, in Rockport, is our favorite). But the other meals were open and we could probably manage a snack.

I did not do this much homework for my college exams.

And it came back to our favorites...

Camera? Check. Battery charged? Check. Floppy hat? Check. Walking stick? Check.

Getting away, even for a couple of hours, always seems to recharge my soul. It seems to make my brain clearer. We loved just driving around some different towns, checking out multi-million-dollar homes we could never afford and being away.

It always makes me want more. I want a lobster roll and scallops from Red's Eats, in Wiscasset, but I also want to find a new lobster shack I haven't tried.. I want to drive down an unfamiliar country road to a lighthouse I have never seen. I want to look through a gift shop and realize that I don't need anything but the memories (and several hundred pictures I will take, download to my computer and never look at again).

It is summer for such a short time. And things get so busy. It is time to take these small breaks when we can.

Jan Gottesman is editor of The Item. She can be reached at clintonitem@yahoo.com.