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Tasting Our Way Through Portland
For those who have been reading this blog, you know there are few things we like more than eating and drinking. Factor in my love of walking tours (and Brian’s tolerance of them) and you have a perfect morning outing in Portland. Maine Foodie Tours has several offerings, including the Port City Beer Tour. No, we didn’t do that one.
We set out on the Old Port Culinary Walking Tour, a 2.5-hour stroll along the cobble-stoned streets of the city’s Old Port section. It’s still a working waterfront and also a popular place for shopping and dining. During the tour we learned about the Old Port’s fascinating history (it was twice destroyed by fire and rebuilt), its architectural highlights, and — what we really came for — its culinary gems. Portland was named “America’s Foodiest Small Town 2009” by Bon Appetit.
We tasted local Maine foods like fresh-caught lobster (once considered “poverty food” and fed to prisoners) seasoned with stone-ground mustard, smoked trout with lemon pepper and garlic, and artisanal cheeses, some of which are available only in the area. Then it was on to the sweet stuff: scones topped with wild Maine blueberry preserves, dark chocolate truffles made with vodka distilled from Maine potatoes (sounds strange for a confection, but they’re divine), and whoopie pies, a traditional Maine dessert — two soft chocolate cookies sandwiching home-made marshmallow creme. We walked off the calories in time for a final stop at Gritty McDuff’s Brew Pub, which produces its own ales in a small room in back of the restaurant. Cheers to Portland.
Hurricane Hideaway
The bad news is that we decided to visit Bar Harbor during one of the three worst heat waves ever recorded and just before the largest hurricane threat in a decade. The good news is EconoLodge. I say that with only the slightest tinge of sarcasm. After all, what are the chances we’d find a seemingly sturdy, conveniently located, pet friendly, hotel with oversized parking spots large enough for a 35 foot motor home? I’d have guessed none. But here it is, about an hour inland from where we were in Bar Harbor.
We could have stayed put and rode out the storm. Some folks at our campground were planning to do just that, and they’ll probably be fine. But then again, they might end up needing to have their dumb asses rescued because they were too stupid to get out of harm’s way. That didn’t sound like a good trade to us. Instead, we’re making a brief, unscheduled, detour to a hotel where we plan to watch the raging storm, and previously missed Daily Show episodes, over a Papa John’s pizza and a six pack. It could be worse.
In all likelihood we’ll be back in Bar Harbor tomorrow afternoon. The nice thing about traveling permanently is that little detours like this don’t really matter that much. If we only had the weekend to work with, a good portion of it would be shot. But we were planning to spend a week (or more) in Bar Harbor and we will spend a week (or more) there, even if it means adding extra days. What else do we have to do?
Ha-ha, kill yourself, Earl.
Auntie Em! Auntie Em!
Welcome to Bar Harbor, Maine, home of heat waves and hurricanes. If that doesn’t sound right to you, then you must be somewhere else because it has been raging hot since we got here and it is about to get hurricaney too.
We still have more to say about Portland and will probably return to that topic in the coming days. That, of course, assumes we don’t get blown away like Dorothy. Stay tuned.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!
Where’s Waldo?
Neither too big, nor too small, Portland’s Museum of Art is just the right size to tackle in an afternoon. While its collection of 42,000 objects is 50 times smaller than New York’s exhaustingly large Met, we found the quality to be superb. And not just from an artistic mastery perspective. Yes, many of the giants, including Monet, Picasso, Degas, and Rodin, are represented in the small collection. But, more importantly, we found the museum to be densely populated with interesting subject mater. Maybe we were just in the right mood for a museum that day, but it seemed this museum had a higher than normal concentration of works that we wanted to linger over.
The Running of the Bulls (above) is just one example. The painting first captured my attention because I liked the depiction. I admit, I’m the kind of person who roots for the bull in a bull fight. I take a perverse pleasure in seeing people who torture and torment animals get gored. It is a decidedly deserved rough justice that occurs far too infrequently. So I stopped to admire these bulls ripping one such jerk a new one.
It was Shannon who noticed that the artist is Waldo Peirce, a good friend and traveling companion to Ernest Hemmingway. The two men traveled to Pamplona, Spain, on one of their inaugural trips. In what is likely the first ever “Where’s Waldo” illustration, Peirce painted himself and Hemmingway into the crowd. You can see Hemmingway, in the upper left of the canvas, directing Peirce’s attention to the carnage of the main event.
Art is fun. Class dismissed.
Ohh-gunquit
It was a rookie mistake; heading to a popular beach destination late on a summer Sunday morning. If we had planned better, or given ourselves more time in the area, we would have come here during the week. But we didn’t. And by 10:30 A.M., we were lucky to grab one of the last remaining parking spots anywhere in Ogunquit, ME.
A cloudless, ninety-plus degree day, on one of summer’s last weekends, brought out the crowds. Fortunately, we had already eaten and didn’t have to bother with the many lines gathering on the sidewalk in front of places like The Egg & I. We also didn’t plan to fight for real-estate on the three and a half mile beach that virtually disappeared beneath the hordes. No, we were here to simply walk the town and its “Marginal Way” coastal trail. And that was enough.
I can see Oqunquit’s attraction as a weekend getaway, with plenty of great looking beach resorts, restaurants, shops, and even a quality art museum. The rugged coastal scenery along the Marginal Way puts Newport’s Cliff Walk to shame. It’s a beautiful area and there is certainly enough to do here for a couple of relaxing days . . . starting immediately after Labor Day.
Everywhere Once 