Portland, ME

Jill's Journal: Our love affair with Maine continues. It is certainly an outdoor Mecca. We’re hitting it right at the switch in season – it’s too cold for summer activities and too warm for winter ones, but we’re loving it all the same. This afternoon, the girls and I explored next-door Portland, Maine’s largest city. Portland has been devastated by four major fires since it was permanently settled in 1633, but has been rebuilt every time, hence the Latin motto “Resurgam” (I will rise again).

Portland isn’t the prettiest city I’ve ever been in, but it has great character and appeal, especially in the Old Port area. And the people are so incredibly friendly! Neither Rob nor I can believe how friendly Maine folks are – more strangers have struck up conversations with us here than anywhere else. It’s a very pleasant surprise.

The girls’ favorite part of our day today was probably our time at Greenlight Studio, an indoor play space with everything from a rock wall for climbing to a dress-up area. Victoria found the play kitchen early on and never budged.






We paid a quick visit to the 1785 Wadsworth-Longfellow House, the oldest surviving structure in Portland and the first brick home in Portland. It has another significance too: with the exception of eight months, the famous American 1800s poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, spent the first 35 years of his life here.

The world’s largest chocolate moose is in Greater Portland. Named Lenny, this life-size moose weighs 1700 pounds and is pure milk chocolate. He has friends too…a 380-pound chocolate bear and her two 80-pound chocolate cubs. The girls loved each one of them!

And finally, exploring the harbor area uncovered this gem: Three Sons Lobster & Fish. At first glance, it looks like the belly of a garage, but this place is pretty much a seafood lover’s paradise. Tank after tank is full of the day’s catch -- every size Maine lobster imaginable, plus live crabs, scallops, clams, you name it. With dinner fixings at home that could wait until tomorrow night and leftovers from last night for our non-seafood-loving girls, I couldn’t resist an impulse dinner. And who could at $4.79 a pound for lobster, cooked? I timidly ordered two lobsters and quick as could be, the nice guy taking my order yanked two out of a tank, threw them in a net, and out back they went. Fifteen minutes later, we were headed home with two fresh, cooked lobsters and a pound of just-cooked clam steamers ($2.99 a pound!) along with a bowl of lobster stew, all for the price of a fast-food meal. What a fun experience.

Yes, Maine pretty much rocks!! (And by the way, Madelyn was so enamored by all the tanks full of sea life that I don’t think it ever dawned on her what we were doing, thank goodness!)