Blogs from Portland, Maine, United States, North America - page 2

Friday was rainy, so it was a good day to spend in the Brown Library. I know I haven’t mentioned much about my research first because I can’t publish any of the picture I took or publish the information willy-nilly and second, there is nothing exciting about someone sitting at a table for six hours peering at tiny writing and muttering to themselves as they try to translate. But, yesterday I looked at several original documents from the 1700s – the ink faded to brown, the paper so much thicker and textured than our thin, smooth sheets of today, the writing so tiny. I assume it was written small – at least in the private papers – to conserve space and save paper (Curtis, you would have fit right in). At the time, I couldn’t think ... read more

Geo: 43.6591, -70.2566Set off for Walmart first for a GPS. Its an awesome store, so much of everything and large 'party' bags ofeverything. Tons of precut fruit and its like the old Super K (Kmartand Coles combined but on steroids) Debated Twinkies but bought theingredients for smore's !!!Anyway onto Port William State Park andthe Portland Head Light. Great old buildings, set up to protect themining in the area. The Lighthouse was lovely. Driving through CapeElizabeth was beautiful. The houses are amazing. All weatherboard,beautiful big balconies and verandahs and lots of grass, very fewfences ans strangely, lots of wooded forests surrounding many of thehouses. Just gorgeous.Headed into Portland and walked the OldPort District, and had lunch at one of the restaurants along the pierand Graham got to try the Lobster Rolls, which is what Maine is knownfo ... read more

Day 4. Today we leave Boston for Portland in Main. Weather a bit brighter as we go to pick up our car but still that chilly wind. Car hire place queue out the door, 45 minutes later we jump in the car, an almost brand new chevrolet Equinox & head out of Boston. First stop at Salem, very busy being a Sunday, also being in the USA October is halloween month, lots going on already. A quick pit stop in Newbury port then we moved on to kenbunkport, beautiful place, very scenic. Had a lovely meal at Alissons then we finished our journey to Portland.... read more

Today was the last day in Portland, the only reasons to leave are work, so we can make more money for the next trip, and kitty, he has been alone far too long. Before we left there was one final thing we had to do for this trip. We had to have lunch at Duck Fat. They are famous for their Belgian Fries, fried in Duck Fat. Duck Fat is just a few blocks from our hotel and down the street for Hugo’s, in fact Hugo’s used to be owned by the owner of Duck Fat, but he sold Hugo’s to concentrate on Duck Fat. It is a small place and you need to get there early to avoid the lines, we got there right as it opened so no waiting for us. We sat at ... read more

A BAD START The Flight That Wasn’t Ok, so it has been a very long time since we have really traveled, I mean the kind of travel that involves a plane not just a quick train ride to Philly. We were scheduled to leave at 9:05 pm on Thursday; Jerry rearranged his work schedule so we could get the NJ transit to Newark Airport. Well you know what they say about the best laid plans. The flight was cancelled, and I will not even go into the customer service nightmare I had to deal with that. Long and short of it was our flight was rescheduled to 7:30 am, meaning we had to get up at 3:30 am. The Car Service That Wasn’t The original plan was to take the subway to Penn Station get on ... read more