In October 2019 we made a weekend excursion up to Maine. We had only one kid, a little over a year old, and I'd been staying home with him for about six months. I hadn't starting blogging yet, not that our travel was one of the original reasons for doing this. We simply wanted to get away for a bit and I picked Portland, for the fall colors, for the beer, and because Southwest has short, direct flights from BWI (a major hub for them). It was probably my favorite short trip we took while we lived out east. The five year anniversary seems as good a time as any to look back.
Btw I planned everything about this trip, much to my wife's delight, and my Google Doc helped considerably in remembering.
We flew in on a Thursday and arrived in the early afternoon. The airport is small and you can easily walk to the rental car place, which is always nice. From there we made the short ~20 minute drive to the city's premiere tourist attraction and photo spot, Portland Head Light. What I'm referring to is Maine's oldest lighthouse and its an adorable little building and park on the coast. Our plan was never to do a tour or anything but we did enjoy the environs and have a little seafood (natch) picnic that we picked up on the way. It was windy and cold though. Still, I'd say it's the one must-visit location in Portland. From there we drove downtown.
For this trip we got a VRBO in East End, not the older, taller part of the city ('Old Port') or one of the trendier areas. It was a relatively modest neighborhood from where we could walk down (it's on a big hill) to the water or wherever else we wanted to go. Excepting that the floor we rented, not quite a whole house, was filled with breakable knick-knacks, us having a curious and mobile toddler, the place was perfect. We left the car on the street most of the time and could walk most everywhere with only the umbrella stroller.
If you're unaware, New England is a leader in the craft brewing industry and Portland is one of the better cities in the country for beer. The region is the source for a predominant style, the 'New England IPA,' that's proliferated across the country. These are unfiltered and juicy and rarely bitter. Up there, of course, they just call them 'IPAs' and no one is making traditional (highly bitter) or west coast ('dank') styles. It's all haze, and though it's never been my favorite, what they're making within New England is utterly fantastic. (For more on my thoughts on this type of beer, see Haze craze.) The point here is that beer was one of the priorities for the trip and we went all over for it.
In our two and a half days in Maine I remember fondly and want to note on:
Maine Beer Company (Freeport)
Bissell Brothers is a very nice industrial style brewery and taproom. It was my favorite beer overall and I'd go back in a heartbeat. Oxbow is a unique place that's also used for events and has different spaces and atmospheres within. They're not typical in what they serve, featuring primarily farmhouse styles and small batch blends. There was a lot I didn't love (my wife did) but it was well worth checking out. Maine Beer Co is a gorgeous place, they have a lot more room than the breweries actually in Portland and utilize it well. Get a brick-oven pizza and enjoy some Lunch and/or Dinner for lunch and/or dinner. (And look for these individual bottles in liquor stores.) Shipyard's taproom is in the basement of an old building near Old Port and is nicely chill, a contrast to the bougie breweries everywhere else. Austin Street is another winner, with a trendy and new (or newly repurposed?) standalone building in East End.
We did explore more than beer and even took a guided tour of the city, a perfect way to start our first full day there. Only 50 minutes long, I highly recommend using Portland Fire Engine Co Tours, especially if you have young children who'd be into that sort of thing. We were taken through the whole city, admittedly not very big, learned a fair amount and got our bearings as well. Pickup and drop-off for the tour was in Old Port, near the wharf. There's a historic district there with cobblestone streets and a ton of shops, restaurants and more. I always enjoy checking out very old parts of cities, something that's much more common on the East Coast, we don't have anything like that in Minnesota.
Another draw was the natural beauty of the area and its fall colors, something we attempted to time in booking the trip. This was the biggest reason we rented a car. One late morning through the afternoon we took a drive on smaller roads (not the Interstate) up to Freeport, essentially an outlet mall town, less than 20 miles away. We weren't all that ambitious in this, and were slightly late in the trees changing, but it was a lovely time meandering up the coast. Most of my pictures from Maine were at a park right on the water where we hung out for a while and let our son play unrestrained on a cool boat-shaped structure. While in Freeport we (in addition to Maine Beer Co) also checked out the LL Bean flagship store, it's absolutely huge. Ever since then I'll admit I've learned to love their clothes.
Other places we really liked:
Eastern Promenade - walking path/green space around East End along the water
Portland Children's Museum - now closed apparently
Speckled Ax (multiple locations) - we tried a lot of coffee too, think(?) this was the favorite
Tandem Coffee and Bakery - cool converted 60's gas station, but line was crazy long
The Highroller Lobster Co - high end lobster rolls, I want another one
The Holy Donut - potato donuts, try them!
We didn't make it out on a boat, there are various boat tours and ferries to the nearby islands any of which would've been fun to see. It made sense to explore more within Portland considering our limited time and I'm glad we did. There were quite a few restaurants I would've liked to check out too (like Dimillo's, it's a restaurant on a boat in the harbor!) but we mostly avoided nicer sit-down places with our kid along. And that was fine.
Overall I loved visiting Maine in general and Portland specifically. It's very hipster-ish, i.e. full of millennials and their hobbies, but I was, somewhat surprisingly, quite comfortable with that. The surrounding thick north woods and the cool, but tempering, ocean were a combination that, in all honesty, resulted in an urge to move there (though perhaps slightly out of the city center). It was like northern Minnesota but cooler, better. Back then one of the bigger reasons against this in my mind was a lack of professional sports, but the compulsion to attend games has lessened in recent years. Besides not knowing anyone up there, the obvious thing, an adjustment would be needed to the New England accent, it's so strong. We have no current plans to move, if you're curious, I'm only trying to relay my feelings on the area as a whole. That's how much I liked it.
There is a need to go back. We haven't made it to Acadia yet and we might as well see Portland again too.
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