please note, all of these questions are generic and will be asked for all locations so some may sound silly. The questions underneath each area are only there to help you think. Please feel free to skip things that don't apply or to elaborate on things that I did not mention.

Housing:
(How is military housing there? Which area did you live in and did you like it? Is it affordable to buy or rent in town and if so what areas would you recommend? Any additional thoughts?)


Schools:
(Which schools did your kids attend? Did you like them? Did your kids like them? How do you think the school system was overall? Any schools you would recommend over others? Did you go to college while you were there? If so, which college and how did you like it? Any additional thoughts?)


Shopping:
(How are the commissary and NEX? Do you shop there or out in town? What stores are available out in town? What is the local shopping like? Malls? Any places you recommend? Any additional thoughts?)


Cost of living:
(What is the cost of living like? High? Average? Low? How did it effect your family? Was there anything special you had to do to make ends meet? Any additional thoughts?)


Military Community:
(How is the military community? Are there resources for family and spouses? Any likes or gripes? Additional thoughts?)


Recreation:
(What is there to do in the area for adults? For kids/families? Is there anything within a few hours driving distance?)


Weather:
(What's the weather like? Mild? Seasonal? Hot? Humid? Rainy? Cold? Are there seasons?)


Overall:
(Would you go back again? Why or why not? What are your main likes and gripes?)

NAS Brunswick is in the town of Brunswick, and Brunswick is part of what they call a Tri-Town area. Bath, Brunswick, and Topsham are all sort of intertwined and unless you know the area well, you often won't know you've left one town and entered the other.

Housing:

There is military housing all over the tri-town area. The newest and nicest housing is next to the base in Mariner Landing, and on base and was built in just the last few years. McKeen street housing is nice too but reserved for E-6 and above and officers. Topsham housing is VERY old and VERY rundown. Usually you do NOT want this housing. Even though Topsham housing is rundown, it's right next to the commissary (yes the commissary is in a different town from the base) and next to the elementary and high schools.

You'll have the most off-base housing options if you move in the summer. It's hard to find something decent with the BAH rate. Some things to keep in mind when looking for a place and the price: winter heating costs are outrageous so keep that cost in mind, and do NOT get a place with only electric heat. Oil seems to be the cheapest with Propane being the next cheapest (give you an idea, we had propane for a little heater in the living room and were paying $200/month to heat our 2 bedroom apartment and we were still freezing-that was in addition to our $100 electric bill for our stove and water heater and stuff.) Most places don't have A/C (including military housing) because they say it doesn't get hot enough for them-it DOES with the humidity. If you have window A/C units, bring them with you-if not, budget to buy them when you get here.

Housing is expensive here, and buying is usually out of most people's prices range. We lived in Bath for a while and it was decent. We like the new base housing better. We recommend living on base due to the high winter heating costs. The only place we wouldn't live out in town would be Lisbon Falls-way ghetto. Freeport area is nice, but a little more pricey.

Schools:

I don't know about the schools since DD is too young. There are quite a few colleges out here to choose from including Bowdoin college (right in Brunswick), and some satellite colleges in town. Portland is 1/2 hour away and has a lot of college choices.

Shopping:

Commissary is TINY, but the NEX is ok (not tiny but not big either). Food out in town seems way more expensive than the Commissary, so we shop there. There is Shaws and Hannaford, and Super Walmart as alternatives to the Commissary.

Topsham has Home Depot and Target. Brunswick (right next to the base) has Lowes and Super Walmart, and Cook's Corner (just a name for a shopping area with KB Toys, Sears, Bath and Body works, Big Lots, etc.). Portland is the biggest city in Maine and has an ok Mall, and Babies R Us.

Freeport (15 minutes from the base) has outlet shopping in a very picturesque area and includes the 3 story L.L. Bean Flagship store (with a 2 story hunting and fishing store next door), a GAP outlet, and Abercrombie and Fitch outlet.

Kittery at the Southern Maine border has outlets too.

Cost of living:

Cost of living seems a little high-probably because this is a vacation area. Milk at the grocery store is about $5 while at the commissary it's more like $2 or $3.

Military Community:

Our command seems to have quite a few family functions, and it seems most of commands have an Enlisted Spouse Group. There is a Fleet and Family Support Center, but I haven't really used it here. The towns seem to be divided about military support and we had quite a few protesters outside the base when the war started.

Recreation:

There are quite a few ski slopes within 3-4 hours drive. There's snow mobiling all over the place. In the summer, there is a tidal beach 5 minutes from the base, and other beaches within 40-45 minutes (Popham beach-the location for scenic scenes in "Message In a Bottle," and Old Orchard beach near Portland. There is an Amusement Park at Old Orchard Beach and Waterslide parks near there too. There is fishing and canoeing and kyaking spots all over the place. Near Portland are 2 working drive-in movie theaters (just make sure to use mosquito repellant). Freeport has a desert with a tour and gem hunt for the kids (they DO give military discounts)-it sounds boring but is really neat and all our guests enjoyed going here. There are forts here too including Fort Popham, and Fort Williams (the latter is at Portland Headlight). We made up a light house tour in Portland to take company on who always loved it (Bug Light to Spring Point Ledge Light [has museum] to Portland Headlight [has museum and gift shop] over looking Ram Light to Cape Elizabeth's light houses where we would stop to eat at the Lobster Shack overlooking the ocean). 1/2 hour south of the base at the end of a peninsula is "Land's End" with a gift shop, TINY beach, and rocks to climb and fish off of overlooking the ocean.

Portland also offers a Children's Museum of Maine which is basically a 3 story educational playground (my brothers ages 5 and 6 went NUTS here). Brunswick has a movie theater that doesn't offer military discounts, a Bowling Alley with Kareoke in the bar, and a mini-golf course.

About 1 1/2 hours south of the base is Kennebunkport with a light house, nice beach, tourist shopping, oh, and an overlook at the side of the road to check out President George Bush's summer home. Boston is 2 1/2 hours south of the base too, and NYC is about 8 hours (well took us that long even though the internet said it'd only take about 5).

The most popular bar seems to be Joshua's tavern with a live band, pool, foosball, and darts. McMillan's (go downstairs) has a d.j. and dance floor and seems pretty nice. Seadog Brewery is pretty nice, has a game room, and often has live music.

I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff because there is so much to do here.

Weather:

Cold weather seems to last the longest here. There is a definite change of seasons with summer being very short and not really starting until July and lasting until about mid-late September. Summers are hot and humid with temps usually in the high 80s and low 90s but feels a LOT hotter than that with the humidity. Falls are crisp and there is PLENTY of fall foliage to look at. Winters start around the beginning of December and will sometimes have a last snow fall around Mother's Day (but I think usually the last snow fall is in the beginning of April). Winters have an average annual snow fall of 70-140 inches-so a snow blower is a good investment. Winter temps of -10 and -20 degrees are common. Spring is known to locals as "mud season" because all the snow has melted to expose the brown, dead looking plants/grass and there is a LOT of mud with all the rain before the grass grows back to cover all the mud.

Overall:

We would LOVE to come back, but the base is scheduled to close by 2011. This is a GREAT area with lots to do indoors and outdoors (mostly outdoors though), and is close enough to enough shopping to make me happy.

Something else to know, base medical is not your only choice-you can choose to go through a place called Martin's Point. There are no co-pays, good doctors, but you will have a co-pay for your medicines through there. If you plan on having a baby or end up getting pregnant while here, you might want to switch to Martin's Point. Under Tricare Prime with base medical, ultrasounds are only covered if they're medically necessary. Under Martin's Point, ALL ultrasounds are covered including a 20 week-dr-wants-to-see-how-the-baby-is-doing-ultrasound. To sign up for Martin's Point, you go there, pick up an application, mail it in (or bring it back to the office and they'll fax it for you), and you'll get your medical card in the mail.

With either office, they'll refer you out to an OB/GYN-many of us women go to Mid Coast Medical Group: Women's Health Care located in the office attached to the hospital. I've gotten good reviews for Dr. Grohs (my dr.) and Dr. Marotto.

And Mid Coast Hospital is BEAUTIFUL-it's set back from the road surround by trees, has a GORGEOUS meditation garden (viewable from some of the OB rooms), there's a meditation room with stream running through it right outside OB, and even granite slabs with little streams in the waiting room. The OB rooms have jet tubs and are very welcoming. Oh, and the OB wing is in the shape of a square so when you're pacing the halls to help labor, you don't have to turn around, you can make a full rotation. For hospital pics: http://www.midcoasthealth.com/gallery/default.asp

For a virtual OB tour: http://www.midcoasthealth.com/babyplace/roomtour1.html

Housing:
(How is military housing there? Which area did you live in and did you like it? Is it affordable to buy or rent in town and if so what areas would you recommend? Any additional thoughts?)
We lived in Brunswick from 1994-1997 while on shore duty. This is where I gave birth to my daughter. At first we had a very small 1 bedroom apartment attached to someones house in Woolwich(past bath). When I found out I was preggo we moved into housing because we had no room for a baby in that apartment. The house was OK. It was on Antitam St next to Cooks Corner. In fact, I worked at Sears until I was so pregnant that I had to stop. Our house had no A/c but I was fine, even pregnant. It got really cool at night so we just opened windows. If you need or want A?C then a window unit is your best bet. Pretty much all the homes their don't have air. We did not have carpet either but I am told that they rebuilt all the homes so I am not so sure what they are like now.

Schools:
(Which schools did your kids attend? Did you like them? Did your kids like them? How do you think the school system was overall? Any schools you would recommend over others? Did you go to college while you were there? If so, which college and how did you like it? Any additional thoughts?)
We had no kids at the time.


Shopping:
(How are the commissary and NEX? Do you shop there or out in town? What stores are available out in town? What is the local shopping like? Malls? Any places you recommend? Any additional thoughts?)
when it was just us I would go to the grocery store in town. The commissary was in another town.

Cost of living:
(What is the cost of living like? High? Average? Low? How did it effect your family? Was there anything special you had to do to make ends meet? Any additional thoughts?)
One of the reasons we did not like it was because we were so poor so we did not sightsee much.

Military Community:
(How is the military community? Are there resources for family and spouses? Any likes or gripes? Additional thoughts?)
I only talked with my neighbors never looked into support groups.

Recreation:
(What is there to do in the area for adults? For kids/families? Is there anything within a few hours driving distance?)I am sure alot more now.


Weather:
(What's the weather like? Mild? Seasonal? Hot? Humid? Rainy? Cold? Are there seasons?)
Cold in the winter and just right in the summer.

Overall:
(Would you go back again? Why or why not? What are your main likes and gripes?)
Maybe because our situation has improved alot. When we were their their was absolutley nothing in Brunswick. Portland is 30 miles away. From what I am told they have really built up.
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We lived in Brunswick from 1994-1997 while on shore duty. This is where I gave birth to my daughter....When I found out I was preggo we moved into housing because we had no room for a baby in that apartment. The house was OK. It was on Antitam St next to Cooks Corner

They tore that housing down, and built brand new housing on the land. There's a whole brand new development of which first of the new housing wasn't even finished until Jan 2004.....That is, the housing is brand new just past the Guadal Canal intersection. If you go to the end of Antietam, it is still old housing-more like small apartment buildings....

They did have apartments down that road when i was their. My cousin and her new husband just moved their and are on the housing list. She told me it was all new homes also.I am sure their have been a ton of changes since we left.

I lived in Bath and I loved it! that was back in 2002. I used to drive to south Portland to work, long way to do it everyday and even more with the snow but I still loved it, it's beautiful.