Portland, ME

Happy birthday Jacob!!!

At breakfast, the kids and I sent Jacob a short video saying happy birthday and he and Mommy sent this back. Not related to our travels, but he is just so cute even with donut all over his face.

We got a late start after a late night roasting marshmallows, but we managed to get down to breakfast by about 9:00. It was only open from 7:00 to 10:00. When we walked in, there was no one else in the room, but within ten minutes, there were probably 20 other people. We were warned last night that people show up late.

For $7 you got: cooked to order eggs, toast or english muffin, sausage or bacon, two pancakes, home fries, and coffee or OJ. It was huge, so that was breakfast and lunch!

We left right after lunch to explore Portland strictly using Robin's suggestions. That brought us to Kettle Cove first, which was really pretty.

Unfortunately, it was much colder and windier here than at the campsite, so we drove back home to get jackets and the girls changed into pants. All told, we wasted about an hour...lesson learned for Daddy. On the return trip, we saw wild turkeys just off the road!

This time, we skipped Kettle Cove again and instead went to Crescent Beach State Park. The entrance booth was empty and there were signs telling us to read the entry fee chart and put the correct amount ($18) into the box. Maybe I should have (which would have meant leaving, because there's no way I'm paying $18 to check out a beach for 15 minutes), but I decided that didn't apply to us, just folks spending the day here. Moral rationalization?

Just down the road is Two Lights State Park. This one was free. Its basically just a really cool rock formation with two lighthouses nearby. One is out toward the water and interesting looking, the other one I didn't even notice until we were leaving. It's not in the video. The rocks look like petrified wood and I would have put money on it, but after checking out their website, they are not. I fell asleep reading the geology report, but it's some rock/mineral/heat/time phenomenon. Feel free to look yourself: http://www.maine.gov/dacf/mgs/explore/bedrock/sites/jun02.pdf

Robin was so helpful that she even recommended the places in the order that they come on the road. Each of these was about a five minute drive from the previous. After Two Lights, we get to the star of the show, Fort Williams Park and Portland Head Light. This is the semi-famous lighthouse that you see often and especially in Maine related materials. Google image search "Maine lighthouses" and you get loads of pictures of this one. I haven't read up on all the history even though we did, in fact, pay $5 to go through the "museum", but we didn't really study or read much. I did read that construction began in 1787, so it's really, really old.

I mentioned in the video that there is a lighthouse way out there in the middle of the screen. Well, here it is with my 300mm lens along with a cool sailboat that was out in the water.

While walking over to the fort, the kids saw this gelato stand...I caved.

I'm not exactly sure how Portland Head Light and Fort Williams Park are related, but it all just seems to be one big place. You can walk over to the ruins of an old fort and also the ruins of a mansion. I didn't read all the signs, but took pictures instead.

At this point, we are heading into Portland to see "Old Port" and Commercial Street. I'm still not sure what Old Port is, but I think it's just a touristy part of town. Not really the sort of thing that I want to drag the kids through and Adria is already whining that she wants to go home. Commercial Street was actually pretty cool, but, again, not so much for the kids. Stacey and I could have spent a few hours there, but we just drove through. I told Robin last night about Slab and how much we liked it and she said the place to get pizza in Portland was Otto. Reluctantly, we decided to try it (/sarcasm). It was about 4:00, so it was a good super late lunch/early dinner for us. It was also very near Commercial Street, so perfect. As usual, it was very good. None of us could decide if we liked Slab or Otto better...they are just so very different. Otto was more of a typical, thin pizza while slab was very thick. Great pizza two days in a row. I'm probably up 15 pounds now.

We walked down the street to just look around a bit and we found this spot where the building just sort of comes to a pointy end.

We ended our visit to Portland by visiting the Starbucks you can see in the pic above and then spending $12 on coffee, hot chocolate, and little cookies so we could use their bathroom. There was literally an electronic keypad on the bathroom door with a sign that says, "For paying customers only." Plus, the kids wanted dessert. Shocker.

The rest of the evening was spent on the playground, taking showers, and just hanging out. Tomorrow we'll head into Kennebunkport in the morning briefly and then we'll probably work the rest of the day. I still have applications to submit.