Arriving in
Portland, we set up camp, and reconnected with Pat and Glenn Kelly. We had all done the restaurant thing enough
in Boston, so they came over to our very nice campsite and we fixed some of
Dave’s Famous BBQ and a green salad and fruit and played bridge until the guys
could claim a win… lol (not really, they made a baby slam right off the bat!!)
Monday we
“did” Portland. We started the morning
with the Kuklentz, Browns, and Kellys at the Audubon park. The peonies were just about to bloom and the
trails were enhanced with terrific sculptures (all for sale… $3500,
$12,000!! And thankfully much too big
for our “yard art” piece!!). We went down to the wharf area and ate lunch at
Joe’s Oysters. It was definitely a local
“joint” and a good choice, though the parking adjoined a “fancy restaurant” and
was $5/hr. Needless to say we moved the
cars quickly!! But expensive parking in
Portland, was to become a theme for our stay and searching for cheaper lots and
feeding the meters when we found on street parking, became our mantras! We checked out Shipyard Brewery which had
many beers but nothing special. Then the
girls got their time to shop the many chotsky shops and galleries in the
waterfront area. We met up with the Wassams about mid afternoon
(the girls were delighted for Diane to join us, now we had an excuse to shop
more!) As we were shopping near the waterfront we all sort of regrouped outside
of one store and there was a paperbox on the corner. We heard a phone ringing and Deb looked down
and it was a phone on the paperbox that someone had obviously left. She answered it expecting to hear the owner
of the phone trying to locate it.
Instead, it was the owner’s husband who had just gotten home and was
looking for his wife. When Deb told him
the phone was in Portland outside a Dog and Cat store, he had no idea his wife
had come to Portland. Deb connected him
with one of the sales clerks to make arrangements to retrieve the phone. We had a good time the rest of the afternoon
conjecturing about the woman who had lost her phone and why she was there
without her husband’s knowledge.
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| This was an owl sculpture attached to the rock! |
Then we left
the downtown area to caravan to Allagash, one of the “premiere breweries” in Portland. Dave and Keith were excited to get there and
go on the tour so they led the caravan with gusto and about left a few of us in
the dust!! The beers at Allagash were as
good as we remembered and they had grown and built a new tasting room and
increased their equipment. Unfortunately
some of our favorite brews were not included in the tasting and though we got
to see the barrel room where they age their sour beer, we were not able to
taste it either. You have to just “be
there” when they release it and it sells out almost immediately.
We ended the
day with a great seafood meal at Central Provisions.
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| Mission Accomplished! On Allagash Tour! |
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| The girls on the brewery tour |
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| Tasting at Allagash |
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| Beer Makes for Happy Campers! |
Tuesday we
met the Browns, Kuklentz and Kellys for breakfast and then we toured the
Victoria Mansion down from Keith and Diane’s B&B. Built during the Civil War by a New Orleans
hotelier, it retains over 90% of the original furnishings. The brown stone from Connecticut was
interesting and was simulated on one side at in the reer with stucco to save
money. The Southerners delighted in the
portrait of Robert E. Lee.
From there
it was a short walk to the Art Museum.
Dan really enjoyed the museum (and he is usually not a big fan!). The best exhibition was by Richard Estes who
painted city scenes in a realistic style so that they almost looked
photographic. His technique of painting
reflective scenes from storefront windows and mirrors was fascinating, especially
his NYC, Hiroshima, and Italian scenes.
He developed his technique working as a commercial artist in the
60’s. The permanent collections were
small but well done. Several of us liked
the 5 classical marble statues, especially the pearl diver who dies as he comes
out of the water.
For lunch we
decided to go to Bennie’s Lobster Shack.
It was the true old-time Maine experience. Keith ordered twin steamed lobsters and we
all enjoyed watching him conquer them.
The lady serving us was a hoot, and she gave Keith lessons in cracking
and eating a Maine lobster. This was in
contrast to most of the folks we have met.
Mainelanders deserve their quirky Yankee reputation and are very rule
bound. We miss our laid back Southern
hospitality where rules tend to be “suggestions.”
After lunch
we split into 2 groups and the engineers plus Betsy and Mary Lou visited Bath
Iron Works. Mary Lou’s niece’s husband
works there and he was able to arrange a tour.
The guys compared it favorably to the tour we took of Boeing in Everett
WA, except the massive iron works were at arm’s length and “up close and
personal.” They saw building in progress
on 3 Zumwalt destroyers and 5 Burke class ships.
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| Zumwalt Missle Destroyer (from the internet - no pix were allowed) |
Meanwhile,
Deb, Diane, and Pat “shopped til they dropped” in Freeport at the LL Bean
outlets. As we were leaving with our
shirts, sweaters and shoes, we learned about a “whoopee pie” store that had
beat Bobby Flay in a “throwdown”.
Unfortunately, we had shopped too long and they were closed so we had to
settle for ice cream at a custard shop.
That night
the Wassums and Kelly’s “treated” Deb and Dave to supper because they had earlier bought theater
tickets for everyone back in Charlotte.
After supper Deb and Dave went back to the RV (grocery shopping along
the way) and prepared Bessy for dry camping in Bar Harbor and Arcadia National
Park.
Wednesday
morning we finished packing Bessy, got her belly full of water and her waste
tanks empty and headed out to the Portland Headlight Lighthouse at Cape
Elizabeth. It is as picturesque as the
many paintings that are EVERYWHERE.
There we said good bye to Glenn and Pat Kelly and they began their drive
home. They hope to make it to
Pennsylvania tonight.
We then
began caravanning with the Wassums toward Bar Harbor....
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