Calling Me Home

Calling Me Home

Waves rolling in,

reaching

out,

reaching

in.

Flooding The empty places

in my heart.

Washing them clean.

Filling them with life

and disire.

Time is

running.

out,

running back.

Full again.

The crests of the waves

fill my soul.

I am home.

Marrianne (written while staying at the BillowHouse November ~2011

Summer seems to have arrived rather quickly here in Ocean Park, after weeks of rain and cloudy weather. Many folks were in the park for the Memorial Day weekend. Good news for BillowHouse is that we have placed number two out of the ten most cozy beach places in the U.S.

Signs of Spring

Even with a light dusting of snow there are signs of Spring here at BillowHouse. "Our" morning Doves have returned and are perched on their nest under the stairs. This is the fourth year they have returned to the same nest. Today it really did feel like Spring with the tempatures in the 40's. This past weekend we celebrated Valentine's day with all our wonderful guest. A long stem rose, hand dipped chocolate starwberries, plate of cookies and a box of chocolates were placed in each guest room as they enjoyed a Valentine Breakfast in our Gathering Room. Our Valentine Breakfast included heart shaped waffles, with fresh starwberries & whip cream, chocalate crossants and blueberry muffins in the shape of a heart. We look forward to the up coming weekend when Old Orchard Beach Winter Carnival 2010 begins. Some of the activities that will be included are Snowman contest, Snowmoblie rides, Ice bowling, Snowball Throw contest, Judge for yourself Best Soup or Chowder in OOB and much more. As we look ahead to March Maine Restaurant Week begins March 1 through the 10th. Maine restaurants are serving specially -priced three course meals starting at $20.10 to $ 40.10. To name just a few in Portalnd that will be paticipating this year, The Front Room, ( which I have been to and highly recommend) , Blue Spoon , Flatbread Pizza ,Good Table, Fore Street and many more. Be sure to go to billowhouse web site to view our March special.

January Thaw

It is a Spring like day here at BillowHouse in Ocean Park, Maine. I just took a walk on our newly renovated front decks. Two of our guests are sitting on the enclosed deck playing chess, sipping coffee and enjoying the beautiful view of the ocean and sounds of waves crashing. As Marianne said: "It's just so peaceful here at the BillowHouse and how lucky she feels to be here." Be sure to visit our website http://www.billowhouse.com/ for "peaceful season" Special being offered during the months of January, February and March. Mary and I went to an all day seminar on Tuesday, January 25, 2010 entitled " The Ongoing Evolution of Technology, Social Medias and Hospitality... How to Use These Tools to Attract Today's Contemporary Traveler!" We left BillowHouse at 7:00am and returned at 9:00pm. We came back energized to pursue the start up of a BillowHouse Face Book Page and to keep in touch with our guest by keeping our Blog up to date. Did you know you can visit our blog right from our home web page and of course we would love for you to post a blog as well. After a accelerating day we set off for Slates Restaurant for a delicious dinner and company of friends who live near by. As we left the restaurant we were informed that the police were towing cars parked close to the river as the Kennebunk River was beginning to over flow. Of course we had to see this for ourselves. Sure enough they were doing just that( but not my car). However, the site of big pieces of ice floating down the river was serial. Hope to see you in 2010 at BillowHouse.

Innkeeping Convention

March 31, 2009
Mary, Judi, and Helen are presently in Atlanta, Georgia. We are attending an international innkeepers convention for three days. We are learning many new technology techniques in order to stay better in touch with all our wonderful guests. We are learning how to package special getaways, how to give you the best service that BillowHouse can offer, and we hope to implement some of our new ideas in the year ahead. So please plan now to see if we keep our word. We shall be learning more tomorrow. Please stay in touch.

This past weekend we had a mother, daughter, and aunt stay with us for 2 nights. They wrote some very nice things in our guest book.
"We found this lovely place online and lucky for us a cancellation afforded us the opportunity to have a girls' weekend at the beach. We absolutely loved the room! The hospitality, cleanliness and amenities were wonderful. Our favorite feature is the dual decks - how amazing - we were able to enjoy the sounds and views of the ocean as well as the setting of the sun! We'll definitely be back!"

We stayed at the BillowHouse June 28th-July 5th and had a magnificent time. We stayed in the Ocean Dunes two bedroom cottage, our two boys ages 6 and 4 loved it (as we did too). It was very comfortable, the staff great, and being so close to the beach was such a treat. We heard about Ocean Park being such a family oriented spot with some old fashioned fun and we now know why those that have experienced it, love it so much. Truly a great escape and so close to some fun kid friendly excursions too. Liz