The calendar claims it's still winter. And the not-altogether melted remnants of snow are a good indication that this whole cold weather thing isn't quite over. Besides, Mainers aren't so easily conned by a weekend of mild temps. Some of the heftiest storms wait until the end of March or April to give the coast one last pounding of snow.

Even still, we know how to take advantage when Winter himself forgets to "spring forward" his alarm clock and oversleeps, allowing that impatient Spring to temporarily take the reins.

Maybe you walked the Boulevard or jogged your neighborhood. Or maybe you were one of the folks I spotted wearing shorts and buying street meat in Freeport.

A friend and I chose to revel in the weather with a little bike ride along York Beach. You remember bikes, don't you? Those peddled, two-wheel vehicles of season's past?

York rests on Maine's Southern tip - that touristy space not far from the NH border. In the summer, the streets are crammed with visitors jockeying for parking or some elbow room on the beach. But much like Old Orchard Beach, it's the kind of town that quiets dramatically in the winter. Shops close all season. Beachfront condos stare vacantly out into the water.

But on weekends like the one we just had, life begins to creep back to the beach.

Dog owners linger all day. Kids dig in the rocks to find treasures of smooth rocks and crab parts. Kites fly brazenly - and sometimes dive headfirst into the sand.

Aside from a convenience store and a coffee shop, most of the storefronts remain boarded up until April. That makes getting a hot dog basket or cone of soft-serve a little harder. But maybe we're not quite ready for that yet.

A least the waterfront parking is easy to come by.

And while I still wore thin gloves and a knit hat (because 55-degrees isn't necessarily 55-degrees in the wind) there were some beachgoers happy to go shin-deep into the water (or all-the-way-deep, with a wetsuit).

Up the road a bit is Nubble Light.

While Portland Head Light might be the most photographed lighthouse in North America, the island lighthouse at Cape Neddick wins top ranking in my lighthouse book.

My first glimpse at Maine - years before it occurred to me to move here - was an afternoon stop in York. Time didn't permit a trip farther up the coast, so my fellow roadtripper and I just hung out on the rocks and watched the water. At York Beach we marveled at the handful of swimmers who'd ignored the 60-degree May temperatures and jumped in the water as though it were the height of summer. "They must be Canadians," someone had said.

Maybe.

Or maybe they were locals who were tired of just watching the water. Maybe after a Maine winter we're all more than ready to hit the water before it's altogether sensible.

Although, to this fella we spotted waist-deep in the water for no obvious reason, March is pushing it.