7-11-2010 Maine Day 8

First activity was to take the Western Promenade walk along Portland's bluffs along the river. We had bought a brochure for this hike yesterday – it listed some of the more famous houses in the old area on Portland’s southern plateau, with an emphasis on architectural styles. It was warm but not too bad, sunny with hazy skies. The oldest building was built in 1799 and was now a split condo. The owner of one side of the condo talked to us from her upstairs window – she was surprised that her home was on the Old Houses walk. It was good exercise.

After a pit stop at McDonald’s (the ladies pot was out of order so I had to guard the door for Sue and another lady), we headed for lighthouses. First up was the Portland Head light. It was on the site of Ft. Williams, a park, and there was a fair crowd there. And the fog was there. We bought a picture of the light on a pretty day and walked around a bit. We had lunch there with a Salsa band playing in the background from some event. I finished my last beer that I had bought in Bar Harbor – with all the ice I paid for to keep it cold, it probably cost me $15!





After lunch and a call to Amanda, we headed South for the two lights at Port Elizabeth. Still fog. And now it was raining. Then north to the two harbor lights, the breakwater and the “bug” light. Got em all, but it was wet.

Next stop was the Victorian House, a huge brownstone building built in 1850. We took the tour and I bought some postcards – words can not do it justice. The guide said 90% of the furnishings were original, the walls were original, the rugs, the gasoliers, all of it was like the real thing. We couldn’t imagine living in the place. This house has been shown as a museum since the early 1940s. It was a good tour – we got to go in most of the rooms of the house.

It had stopped raining by the time we got done so now we were at loose ends. We didn’t feel like taking the walking tour of the old port town, where all the new shops are. So we took a drive to the west, out into the countryside. We headed for this "Sanctuary" listed in the AAA book. When we got there, we found it was a little beaten-down grass path into a forest, at the end of a gravel road – no signs, no marked trail. We decided the idea of ticks was unappealing so we continued to drive west, ultimately deciding to head to the big lake to the west of Portland. By this time it was sunny and nice.

We saw a sign for a covered bridge on the way and turned down a narrow lane. When we got there we found it was a popular swimming hole. Talked with a local couple enjoying the river there. They had kayaked it yesterday. They told us about winters in Maine (temperature not above zero in February, 3 years ago shoveling 140 inches of snow off their roof), summers and fall (lots of lakes and rivers, great water activities, great sea food – the fellow got hungry talking about the good restaurants). A fun stop.

As we continued back on our way to the Lake, we noticed more and more traffic coming the other way. The road was also lined with stores, shops and family activities – Good Lord, we were on the road to "Myrtle Beach" and it was Sunday afternoon! To top things off, the skies were getting black and when we got to a town close to the lake, one could see the edge of the rain sheet in the air. It just dumped! We pulled off to let the leading edge go by and then found a way to turn around to get back to Portland. Now we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic out in the middle of the woods. Arrrgg. Well as frustrating as it was, the traffic picked up and thinned out. We got back to Portland and checked into the Hampton by the airport. Walked over to Macaroni Grill in the big shopping center next door. After that, back to the hotel to squeeze all our stuff into bags.