Our Time in Maine

So, remember how I talked about the Niagara portion of our trip and my husband’s feelings about it? Well, Maine was my Niagara. I was so eager to see this beautiful state.

We arrived on the 4th of July, and guys. I didn’t now that Portland has this massive community festival that is one of the top Independence Day celebrations in the country. I was not informed. And I was not prepared. We asked the lady at the front desk of our hotel – “Hey girl, where should we go to watch fireworks?” She sent us right to the very middle of the happenings. Thankfully I had my super-crunchy, herbal bug spray on hand and ready to go because, even though the insect population didn’t come close to matching my own back yard in Oklahoma, they were there.

Before we found ourselves knee-deep in the crowded festival, though, we took off on foot to explore downtown. And let me just tell you, it’s so. cute. Every restaurant seemed to have outdoor seating and, unlike the steamy south, al fresco was the general preference. We were traveling with our kids, so the priorities became food and bathrooms almost immediately, but there were so many little nooks and crannies that I would have loved to experience in a slow, meandering fashion. We hope to take a couple’s getaway there one day, or come again when our kids are older. There’s an adorable little ramen place that’s on my hit list for next time.

My only photo of the downtown scenery. I wish I had taken many more!

We enjoyed pizza downtown at Otto – a lovely little joint with antique piano strings on the insides of the booths, as well as accompanying reminders to please not pluck the delicate strings. *side-eye toward my kids*

We had a light dinner of a couple of shared, small pizzas, and moved on to the park where the fireworks could be seen.

The above photo was our view of the water from the park. I genuinely have no idea how people grow accustomed to this. It was also 74 degrees. I immediately started asking probing questions about the real estate market in the area.

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And you guys? The most remarkable thing happened on this vacation. As you see in the slideshow above, Joe had his noise-canceling headphones. And for the first time ever, he loved the fireworks. He sat in absolute glee, yelling out each color that was projected through the sky. “GREEEEN! Red! Yellow! GREEEN!” Green is his favorite. He has come so far. It was an incredible moment.

Random scenery. I believe hubby took this photo somewhere downtown.

The next day, we visited Cape Elizabeth and Crescent Beach.

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We ran into a man from Oklahoma who had family in Maine. He was friendly and chatty and told us where to go next. So we found ourselves at Crescent Beach. Crescent Beach is not free to visit, but since our kids were all under 12, we only had to pay $9 per adult – spending $18 to take all of us to the beach.

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We had been repeatedly warned that it was too cold for the water, and so we weren’t well-prepared to get wet. We had left all towels, beach blankets, etc. at the hotel. We still had a great time, and the water wasn’t quite as cold as we’d been told. We didn’t swim, but the kids did get their clothes wet.

After a full day of playing hard, we went to Andy’s Old Port Pub downtown and had more lobster. The kids chose pizza again and we didn’t protest. Funny fact – liquor laws are different in Maine, and they sat us and the kids at the end of the bar at an L-shaped extension table (there wasn’t room anywhere else). It was actually fun and funny. There was no heavy drinking or weird, raucous behavior anywhere in the restaurant, and all of the staff was great to the kids. They had live music, and we had a great time. But they looked funny sitting there, chins over the high bar table.

GUYS. Get ice cream at Captain Sam’s if you find yourself in Portland. Do it. just do it. It was so delicious. I’m drooling now as I write. That salty caramel was legit.

I created these blogs out-of-order, so after this adventure, we went to the hotel and crashed and headed to NYC the next day.

We had a wonderful time in Maine. Altogether, it was a fairly relaxed city, particularly compared to NYC. I would love to go back again.

Thanks for coming along with us again!