Juliette Vlachos-Coldreck is the visitor program manager at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine in Portland. Photo courtesy of the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine.

Juliette Vlachos-Coldreck of Kennebunkport is the visitor program manager at the  Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine in Portland. She oversees the museum’s daily programming and special family events, like Hoot & Howl, taking place Saturday, Sunday and Oct. 31. She also manages the MakerSpace exhibit.

My perfect October day in Maine starts with bringing a cup of coffee outside early in the morning and seeing what is still growing in the garden – a few Sungold tomatoes, dewy Swiss chard and maybe a few zinnias to pick and bring inside. We have a couple of chickens, so I bring them something special from the garden and a handful of Cheerios for Ferdinand, our 14-year-old duck.

My favorite days involve driving Salty, our VW van with no working radio or doors that lock, to Biddeford Pool for my favorite walk, winding through the paths and around the pond, and down to the beach for bird-watching. I  don’t always know the official names of the birds I’m seeing, but I like seeing the large variety that live in such a small area. I always wish I had my binoculars, but I forget them every time. If it was summer, I would do this walk at the end of the day with my husband and end up at Goldthwaite’s General Store to order dinner and eat in their Adirondack chairs overlooking the harbor.  It reminds me how lucky we are to live in Maine every time.

A foggy scene at Biddeford Pool in 2022. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

My next stop is Five Acre Farm in Kennebunkport, my neighbor’s honor system farm stand, for a gluten-free morning glory muffin and maybe some treats for my team at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine.  I have to get to the farm stand before people start lining up for the locally coveted, still-warm-from-the-oven pies that my neighbor and her daughter bake each day, along with so many other amazing things. She also sells bread, eggs, vegetables and locally made drinks like elderberry lemonade, so I rarely leave with just a muffin.

I head north to Portland and stop for quick meetings with the creative teams at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine, and we talk about the fun plans, special performances and amazing decorations in the works for Hoot & Howl, the multi-day Halloween party event for kids and their grown-ups. With a bag of fresh-baked cookies from the farm stand to share, I meet with my team – visitor programming – about the daily MakerSpace activities they plan six days a week and the “creep & crawl” projects being curated for Hoot & Howl. We have deep ongoing conversations about glue guns, pipe cleaners and bulk packages of googly eyes, regardless of the season.

Children dance in the theater at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine in Portland on Halloween in 2022. Staff photo by Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

The best days for me include three of my favorite things: a bookstore, an art store and thrift stores. I stop by Print: A Bookstore on Congress Street in Portland and obsess over their selection of books, and then wander the aisles of Artist & Craftsman Supply in Portland for inspiration before stopping at the Biddeford Goodwill Store on the way back home to look for vintage flannel shirts. I pop into Lucky Pigeon Brewing Co. in Biddeford to stock up on gluten-free beer before heading to my evening beginners pottery class at Mill Pond Ceramics Studio. If I end up making something functional that doesn’t look child-made, that is the perfect ending to my day.

A flight of gluten-free beers at Lucky Pigeon in Biddeford. Photo by Ben Lisle