Had an appointment to transfer and out-of-state license to a Maine Real ID this morning, and wow!…read more It was a breeze, and I was in and out of the door in under 20 minutes. Here's how it worked: I booked my appointment online about a month ago. The day before you'll get an email and/or text verification telling you to text "check in" no earlier than 5 minutes from your appointment time. There were also three very friendly and helpful workers right in the lobby checking appointment names as well and providing direction (one woman verified with me that I had the right documents with me, which was nice). Basically after that I walked right in and my number popped up at one of the counters, and from there the whole thing took about 15 minutes. They do also take walk-ins, and when I arrived at 8:45 a.m. the seats were filling up but not yet full with those folks; I did see that some of them were being called up to the counters too, so they clearly have some sort of system going. Right now wait times are often super long; also, if you look online you'll see that the next appointments for this branch aren't available until mid-August (this is because of the Real ID crunch; I've checked online before and it's not normally like this). So if you do still need your Real ID, I'd book an appointment for the next date as a fallback (you can always cancel it), and then try as a walk-in mid-week or so, arriving first thing in the morning. Either way, they're efficient and helpful, and everything is organized! I've lived in a lot of cities and usually BMVs are an utter nightmare, but this was super easy.

Although they were busy. Employees were attentive,kind and considerate to everyone that was there…read morewaiting. It was refreshing to see the diversity of staff and their consideration of the clients and their needs. Whether it was speaking their language or being aware of their differences. Things were orderly and in control for the 1 1/2 hrs I was there. I appreciated the experience of their intense job, in helping me get my needs met.

Round numbers have always been a big deal at Yelp. Back in the day, we would all celebrate each…read moreother's 100th and then 200th reviews. That's not as important as it used to be, but this is my 1000th review and we tend to pick them carefully. I suppose that I'm the first to commemorate number 1000 by reviewing Biddeford, Maine but it's no accident. Biddeford is an amazing little city. First, an incredibly abbreviated history lesson. Skip this paragraph if you understand mill towns. Biddeford's mill town community was the workplace and home for generations of immigrants. They came to the mills looking for employment and they started at the bottom, being poorly paid and working under conditions that we would never tolerate today. The mills were busy for years but became obsolete due a new technology called electricity. The old mill buildings became run down and abandoned, the towns were stuck with massive unemployment, crime increased, and it was really bad. Biddeford was luckier than many other mill towns because it became a bedroom community for Portland's workers and because the mills were re-used to make Vellux blankets, but downtown was still depressed. I first saw Biddeford in the 80's and it wasn't pretty. Not only had it been depressed for quite a while, but a huge incinerator called MERC was built downtown and it stunk. And it stayed that way into the 21st century. Fast forward to now and Biddeford is changing fast. The abandoned mills were bought by people with a vision. MERC was finally closed. People have been attracted by the cheap rents in the mills and they're being refurbished at an astonishing rate. I haven't been able to confirm it, but about one-third of the million-plus square feet of mill space has apparently been renovated. There's a group of people who give tours of the old run down mill buildings and they say that in a year or two here won't be anything left to see because it will all have been rebuilt and occupied. There are art galleries, coffee shops, concerts in the local parks, all kinds of ethnic restaurants, and new businesses seem to be opening almost every day. In the last few months, the city has gotten curbside recycling and a new supermarket. This is good stuff for a city that many had written off and I'm glad to write about it for my milestone of review number 1000. I'm giving the city of Biddeford four stars because there's still work to be done and more than a few local politicians act like they prefer the good old days of urban blight. Some bigger businesses have been unable to move to Biddeford because there's not enough parking and there's a big debate about whether the city should build a parking lot. A bright future for Biddeford is within reach and I'm excited to have a ringside seat in my artist studio, located in one of Biddeford's nearly-full mill buildings. And no, I'm not running for office. I'm just excited about where things can go.

Back in the late '90's, an obviously-bored Biddeford cop illegally detained me for almost an hour…read moremerely because --- after stopping me merely because I had salvaged a discarded-and-smashed-and-obviously-much-weathered TV set and was carrying it to my aunt's car to take it home and strip it for parts --- I did not have any ID and my name didn't come up when he ran it. The cop really had an arrogant and artificially-suspicious attitude, claiming that he didn't believe me regarding who I said I was because "You're a young man, and young men automatically have a criminal record, so you must be lying to me about who you are." What planet of prejudiced MORONS was HE from --- is it actually a DISADVANTAGE in the eyes of the law if I've simply BEEN GOOD ALL MY LIFE?! He even went so far as to run the plate on my aunt's car to see if anything about IT came back as a problem. He should have been GLAD that I was cleaning up the environment, not make me feel scared and humiliated for doing so! They also seriously need to upgrade their street-markings --- on one side-street, they had a confusing double-headed arrow painted at the end of it where it intersected with the main drag, seemingly indicating that it was a one-way street where you were supposed to change to the left or right lanes respectively if you wanted to turn left or right; I nearly got head-onned by a huge SUV that barreled around the blind corner on the left-hand side! What we pay taxes for, and they can't even mark their streets properly or train their officers ethically!

In pursuit of a Maine " Real Id", I was directed to Augusta from Rumford to pick it up, rather than…read moremailed. ( Im traveling soon). I called ahead to confirm and clarify what I need to do. I spoke with Gigi...pleasant, informativeI truly enjoyed the conversation. There are ( at least) 2 BMV 's in Augusta...so watch for Hospital St. The gentleman who gave it to me was equally friendly. Thank you!

I love this library especially when you have mixed age children. My youngest can play while my…read moreeldest can look at books that he wants to check out, or play games at the table. Such a great place to be on the weekend!

The library is running an event April 4th with a "story time" clearly meant for grown-ups, but it's…read morebeing advertised directly to children. If I were a donor or a local business, I'd pull away as quickly as I could from an organization making choices like this. This feels like a public relations disaster waiting to happen.

For locals this place is as good as the beach! Water is clear and clean! The parking is cheap and…read moreall day. This pond is amazing we always come up a few times a summer and plan to for as long as we can!

I would give this place zero stars if that was an option. Our family friend had called ahead to…read moremake plans for their daughters 11th birthday to make sure the amount of visitors coming for said event would be allowed and they were told that was a-okay and they went ahead and made reservations. When we arrived at the campground (after calling ahead to make sure our dogs were allowed which we were told they were) we were told we could only have a day pass and not stay the night because that was "too many vistitors" even though that was never stated when original call was made to check. The family friend who was renting the site went down to talk to Linda and she stated "your wife and that boy are liars" the boy being my boyfriend who tried to check in after we thought we had dotted all our i's and crossed all our t's. Their websites rules were completely different from what Linda was telling us and I 1000% would not recommend anyone waste their time or money on this place. 0/10 for us. I usually don't make a point to write reviews ever but I just found the whole process ridiculous. If you want to have rules and regulations great but make them universal with your website and staff instead of saying one thing on the website then it being another story once people arrive.

Love it here! I love to read and come here frequently to check books out. The people checking the…read morebooks out are always so sweet and pleasant. The inside is very clean and tidy! And they have lots of great books even some brand new ones! They seem to have lots of events for children as well. Glad this is the library in my town!

A work in…read moreprogress The Walker Memorial Library is Westbrook was constructed back in 1894 from private donations from the Walker family. Lots of libraries during that time period were built by money from individual citizens or families. The library is lovely from the outside, a huge and looming Gothic type of structure that was typical of the time. And like many lovely libraries built over a century ago soon proved to be too small so various additions were added over the years. The library is once again being renovated to make it more efficient and user friendly for the twenty first century. Unfortunately that means the very old part is going to be closed to the public for a while. Too bad, because as far as I'm concerted that is the best part. The library still is pretty cool but not nearly as large as it looks from the outside. Still has just about everything you would expect from a library but you kind of have to put up with the construction being done. Hard to really give this library it's full due. It does have some very cool windows, lots of flowers both inside and out and some friendly librarians. Not a whole lot of books and other materials or cool places to sit but then a large portion of the cool library isn't available. Hopefully the money will be raised and the work finally completed and the venerable, historic and lovely old library will once again be ready to continues into the next century.

St. Anthony's Franciscan Monastery is such a blessing from God and a blessing to our family! A…read morefriend recommended this place and finally I had a chance to visit. A few times now! Beautiful grounds to take a beautiful walk along the coast. Along your walk there are several beautiful prayer stations to stop and reflect. You can even do some off trail type hiking through the forest. Jim in the gift shop is so kind. Such a blessing to be friends with a fellow Catholic. You will be greeted with a big smile and a warm heart! Lots of amazing blessings in the shop to look through. Mass in the chapel was awesome. Lots of cool, tribal, looking art of Mary and Joseph. I really loved this! Lots of places to pray and meditate in the chapel area. Don't forget to ask for a blessing from one of the Franciscans! Thank you St. Anthony's Franciscan Monastery for all you do. Thank you for your service to your community and most importantly to God We appreciate your example!

Beautiful and peaceful place to take a stroll. Lovely little paths and religious vignettes all…read morearound. We visited the week after the Kennebunkport Prelude and there was a beautiful nativity scene set up. Gift shop was very nice too.

This is a roadside parking spot with a scenic overlook of green countryside, a river, and the…read morehighest mountain in Maine. It's also said to be a good spot for stargazing and astronomy (vehicle headlights excepted), but I can't vouch for that personally because I was there before sunset. There's a granite tablet that says the overlook was donated by individuals in 2010. What a neat thing to do! This highway is way off the beaten path; my wife grew up in Maine and moved around quite a bit in early adulthood, and had never through this part of the state. There are not a lot of places to pull over and stretch one's legs along this highway, so it was a great find; I needed a few minutes of rest. A restroom would have been nice -- even a portable. But we had to continue to Limerick town for relief.

I just love this little scenic outlook! I work in Western Maine, and am driving up and down Route 5…read morefrom Hiram down to Waterboro a few times a week. There is often times no cell service in these areas. This is the best spot to stop to make calls or use apps that require cell service. I work on the road so it's great spot for me to catch up on documentation or make calls. Very nice views of Mount Washington on a clear day too, which is a nice bonus ;)