Portland, Maine By Tom Stanley
Along we come to the biggest city in the great state of Maine, and in fact the namesake of our final destination in lovely Portland, Or. Portland, Maine is not far from Brunswick, Me., home to my sister Lela's alma mater, Bowdoin College. A good brother probably would have visited her more frequently than I did, but at this point we're somewhere around a nine-hour drive away from my home in the Philly suburbs, and that is just too far for me to drive in one sitting without losing my patience. So here we're entering into fairly unfamiliar territory for yours truly, though I do know all too well that every town in Maine seems to think it's hilariously clever to name their main street "Maine Street." Har har, I get the joke already.
Oh yes, we're still in lighthouse country. But we're also neck deep into New England, in all its seafoody glory. See, as a child I was a very picky eater, and I've only begun to emerge from my shell through the last couple of years (beginning, most realistically, with my epiphanic acceptance of sushi into my life). And in all this time, I've never once sat down for a dinner of a whole lobster. This task ranks rather highly on my list of things to do during this trip, and to my understanding, I'll have difficulty finding a better locale for just that.
In the meanwhile, we've uncovered a handful of fun and exciting activities that await us. Have a look.
-Casco Bay (at left)
-Portland Art Museum
-Portland Observatory
-Portland Harbor Museum
-Eastern Promenade
-SPACE Gallery
(From top) Photo by wstera2 courtesy Flickr.com; photo courtesy Maine Lobster Council; photo by brentdanley courtesy Flickr.com
