No distractions this time- here is the official Portland recap!
We only spent about 48 hours in Maine but we still accomplished a lot. Actually, ate a lot. I think that’s an accomplishment, though. Right?
The trip was originally planned as a getaway for the four of us who went to NYC last year (& hung out with Cuba Gooding jr). We wanted to go to a city where none of us had ever been & since it was just for a weekend we were limited to the East Coast. So Portland was picked & although I found it random, the promise of lobster was enough to sell me!
So we left work early on Friday & started things off right with airport cocktails! We flew into Portland, got into our rental car, & drove to downtown Portland to our hotel, the Portland Harbor Hotel (highly recommended).
Our main focus that night was to get ourselves settled in & head to dinner at perhaps the most unique restaurant I’ve ever been in: Grace.
The restaurant is in a converted Methodist church & is absolutely gorgeous.
I had the soft shell crabs (kicking off my weekend of seafood) & the Holier Than Thou, which may have been one of the best cocktails I’ve had.
We had an earlier night to rest up for our food tour on Saturday (priorities, people). We went through Maine Foodie Tours & this was certainly the highlight of the entire trip. Delicious food, a little history & culture, & a feel for where the locals go- perfect!
I already posted about our favorite stop but other favorites:
cheese & wine- my favorites!
{Though the wine is made from honey, which I found less than pleasant}
(Dean was also the architect at Grace- love small cities!}
Harold, our awesome tour guide, & smoked salmon
Stonewall Kitchen!
The tour ended at the Shipyard brewery, which was soon followed by…
our tour of the Allagash brewery.
So much deliciousness was clearly followed by lots of shopping which then led to a nap.
{Vacation is exhausting!}
We did get to see a lot of the sites though, most of which involved some sort of lobster paraphernalia:
We got dressed up for the 2nd night in a row (a miracle!) to go to Fore Street, considered one of the best restaurants in Portland.
Little known fact, Portland is a major foodie town (if you haven’t picked up on it) & Fore Street was named #16 of the top 50 U.S. restaurants in 2002. Aren’t we fancy?
After dinner we headed out to get a taste of the local music scene, a all female reggae group. Hey, definitely different!
Sunday was spent getting massages at a local spa, which should have probably been done after we visited the nearby town of Freeport since we were a little out of it!
Freeport has a lot of great shopping, including the LL Bean flagship store. It was probably good that we didn’t have much time there but I did manage to fit in my goal of the weekend at the last moment:
Eating a lobster roll for every day we were there. It was fantastic.
We flew back pretty exhausted but very, very full. Except for the cold winters I was ready to move there. I’m also sure I’d gain about 200 lbs if that happened but lobster is healthy, right?
{Especially on rolls}
Anyone visited Portland before? Or other parts of Maine that are must-sees?
