After leaving Boston, we took the less than two hour drive to Portland, Maine.
Just to step back a bit, in case anyone is wondering how this became our choice for a trip this summer, here goes:
I, (Sherri). decided we would take a driving trip this summer, so I asked John if he wanted to go East or West.
We have spent the past few summer vacations in beach rentals in either Florida or North Carolina, so I felt it was time to relive the old days of our driving trips.
Once we had decided on the East, Boston was our first choice. Since we had already seen Washington D.C. and NYC we decided to explore New England a bit.
I started the googling and found us that perfect place in Boston, then needed to decide where to go from there.
I have always wanted to see Maine, so Maine it was.
We chose Portland because it was on the water and an easy drive from Boston.
We arrived in Portland about noon, way before our next rental would be ready.
We did do a drive by and were quite pleased again with the choice.
Here is our home for our two days in Portland:
We had an apartment in the back of this beautiful home.
This is located on the East Promenade, a very popular area in Portland.
Our view from our front lawn.
This is the park that is directly across the street from our rental. There is a walking/biking trail that leads the one mile to the downtown area.
After a quick lunch at The Front Room, a restaurant within walking distance of our place, we were able to check in.
The apartment was bigger than what we needed for the two days, but we loved it.
Nice big living room and well equipped kitchen, a large bedroom with patio doors, and a small bathroom.
My (Sherri), first impression of Portland was less than great, but with a little exploring on foot, I found lots to love in this area.
We took the mile walk downtown.
There is a small East End beach in the park across the street. I was actually expecting some sand, some waves, etc, but the beaches in this area are little stones as opposed to sand and the waves are small. There was some initial disappointment on my part, but the more I saw of the beautiful coastline, the more I loved it here.
The East End Beach
We did some shopping in the many fun shops in Portland followed by a dinner of assorted fried fish, scallops, shrimp, and clam at the Portland Lobster Company right on the wharf. That and a few beers made a perfect ending to our first day in Portland.
Our view at dinner
The Portland Lobster Company, a great little place to eat. There is lots of outdoor seating overlooking the water. There was a live band playing that evening. There is no waiter/waitress service, you order at a counter. Food was good and prices were reasonable.
There were clean bathrooms here, too.
We found there are not public bathrooms in downtown Portland.
Just across from the restaurant we found a few pieces of the Berlin Wall and
this wall of locks where couples put their names on a lock and then put the lock on this wall, It signifies that nothing can break their relationship. We didn't really have our own lock so I just pretended to be putting on here.
We also stumbled upon an African Heritage trail in Portland, too.
Apparently they were also very much a part of the underground railroad, helping many slaves to their freedom.
Just a pretty boat our in the water.
Portland - Day 2
John and I really have found that trolley tours are a wonderful way to learn about the area that you are visiting.
We know we could not have found all the interesting places we learned about on a trolley ride on our own.
So, our advice to you, take a trolley (or bus or duck or whatever) tour when one is offered. It is well worth the money.
We took a trolley tour of Portland. It lasted one hour with a short stop at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth.
Here are some photos from the trolley:
A view of our rental property from the trolley
The little restaurant we had lunch at on the previous day while waiting for our house to be ready for us.
A statue honoring the lobster fishermen of Portland
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's home in Portland
A statue of Longfellow. Our driver shared an interesting story of why he wore a beard. One day while making candles, his wife's dress caught on fire. Longfellow suffered burns to his chin and lower face while trying to put out the fire and save his wife. Sadly, his wife died the next day and he wore a beard from then on to hide the scars from the burns.
The Western Promenade, almost like ours only on the opposite side of town.
The Headlight lighthouse in Fort Williams Park.
We were given some time to explore this area.
We decided we were definitely going back later in the day to check it out further.
No bathrooms at this huge park except for Port-a-potties.
A typical Maine coastline
One last view of the lighthouse
After we returned from the trolley tour, we had a few hours until our boat tour, so we explored some more of the cute downtown area ending up at a Sicilian place for a slice of yummy pizza.
Be warned, the parking in Portland is anything but ideal. There is paid meter parking on the streets. You can only park in these spots for two hours, we found this out the hard way when we returned to a $20.00 ticket. We were wondering if we would get another ticket if we did not move the car, but decided that compared to $45.00 all day parking in a lot, we would take the chance. We never got an additional ticket so apparently you can park there as long as you like after that first $20.00 ticket.
We would have liked a bathroom in the area where we waited for our boat trip, but there are no public bathrooms in that area either. The boat had bathrooms, however.
Here are some of our favorite photos from the tour.
The Buglight light house. It got its name because it is as cute as a bug. It's very small but effective.
The headlight lighthouse from Fort Williams but this time from the sea.
Another lighthouse out on a group of rocks. At times the waves are so big that they completely cover all the rocks and most of the lighthouse.
There are hundreds of little islands in this bay. Some are just rocky and uninhabited, some have summer guests and some have year round houses.
Another one of my favorite kind of boats.
Our guide told us that this is the smallest lighthouse on our tour.
The people who live in this house light the little lighthouse light every night and it actually helps boats keep away from the rocky shoreline.
We spotted this bald eagle.
Shoreline of Portland. Our rental is in the center behind the group of three trees.
This catamaran, called the Cat, ferries cars and people from Portland to Nova Scotia for the modest price of $650.00.
We both really enjoyed both of our tours and learned lots of fun and historical facts.
Portland has actually burned down three times in its history, always rebuilding it bigger and better than before.
After the tours, we took our own trip to Fort Williams to explore on our own.
That beautiful Maine coastline again.
Fort Williams
We had to walk down these rocks just to get to the so called beach.
Another shot of the fort area
Here I am in the water at the beach. There was so much seaweed and blackish stuff rolling in with each wave.
As beautiful as it looks, it is not my kind of beach. There would be no swimming today!
A hike along the cliffs at the park
And there is the headlight lighthouse yet again.
I love the color of the water here and all the cool rocks.
One last photo of the lighthouse before we head back to Portland.
We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant which is actually a restored ferryboat.
We enjoyed more seafood but still not as good as the seafood here in Wisconsin and a few fancy drinks at Dimillo's.
We would recommend a stop at this floating restaurant if you visit Portland.
After a wonderful meal, we spent our last night in Portland.
We left Portland early in the morning to make the 9 hour trek to Niagara Falls, NY, our last stop on this wonderful journey.
See you at the Falls!
This is located on the East Promenade, a very popular area in Portland.
After a quick lunch at The Front Room, a restaurant within walking distance of our place, we were able to check in.
The apartment was bigger than what we needed for the two days, but we loved it.
Nice big living room and well equipped kitchen, a large bedroom with patio doors, and a small bathroom.
My (Sherri), first impression of Portland was less than great, but with a little exploring on foot, I found lots to love in this area.
We took the mile walk downtown.
There is a small East End beach in the park across the street. I was actually expecting some sand, some waves, etc, but the beaches in this area are little stones as opposed to sand and the waves are small. There was some initial disappointment on my part, but the more I saw of the beautiful coastline, the more I loved it here.
We did some shopping in the many fun shops in Portland followed by a dinner of assorted fried fish, scallops, shrimp, and clam at the Portland Lobster Company right on the wharf. That and a few beers made a perfect ending to our first day in Portland.
There were clean bathrooms here, too.
We found there are not public bathrooms in downtown Portland.
Apparently they were also very much a part of the underground railroad, helping many slaves to their freedom.
Portland - Day 2
John and I really have found that trolley tours are a wonderful way to learn about the area that you are visiting.
We know we could not have found all the interesting places we learned about on a trolley ride on our own.
So, our advice to you, take a trolley (or bus or duck or whatever) tour when one is offered. It is well worth the money.
We took a trolley tour of Portland. It lasted one hour with a short stop at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth.
Here are some photos from the trolley:
We were given some time to explore this area.
We decided we were definitely going back later in the day to check it out further.
No bathrooms at this huge park except for Port-a-potties.
After we returned from the trolley tour, we had a few hours until our boat tour, so we explored some more of the cute downtown area ending up at a Sicilian place for a slice of yummy pizza.
Be warned, the parking in Portland is anything but ideal. There is paid meter parking on the streets. You can only park in these spots for two hours, we found this out the hard way when we returned to a $20.00 ticket. We were wondering if we would get another ticket if we did not move the car, but decided that compared to $45.00 all day parking in a lot, we would take the chance. We never got an additional ticket so apparently you can park there as long as you like after that first $20.00 ticket.
We would have liked a bathroom in the area where we waited for our boat trip, but there are no public bathrooms in that area either. The boat had bathrooms, however.
Here are some of our favorite photos from the tour.
The people who live in this house light the little lighthouse light every night and it actually helps boats keep away from the rocky shoreline.
We both really enjoyed both of our tours and learned lots of fun and historical facts.
Portland has actually burned down three times in its history, always rebuilding it bigger and better than before.
After the tours, we took our own trip to Fort Williams to explore on our own.
We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant which is actually a restored ferryboat.
We enjoyed more seafood but still not as good as the seafood here in Wisconsin and a few fancy drinks at Dimillo's.
We would recommend a stop at this floating restaurant if you visit Portland.
After a wonderful meal, we spent our last night in Portland.
We left Portland early in the morning to make the 9 hour trek to Niagara Falls, NY, our last stop on this wonderful journey.
See you at the Falls!
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