Reading · Roaming North America

For this post, we were still staying in Auburn. We spent one day a half hour away in Portland, ME. A major tourist destination, we expected it to be similar to Newport, Rhode Island – a charming boating town.

Instead, it was a confusing city, difficult to get around, absolutely atrocious parking, and much fewer tourist shops and restaurants than a tourist destination should have. It is clearly more a working fishing town trying to be a tourist spot.

We ate at a lobster/seafood restaurant named Luke’s. It was overpriced and a disappointment, a clear tourist trap. The highlight was a violin player that Chip was infatuated with. He simply loves live music.

Here are some pics.

The day got better when we visited the Portland Head Light lighthouse. It’s one of the most photographed locations on earth. You’ve likely seen it in a movie or two. Talk about beautiful.

A couple days later, our last full day in the area, we decided to just look at a map to decide what to do. We saw these small islands off the coast and thought, “that might be a nice drive.” As it turned out, it was a popular but lesser-known tourist destination named Harpswell. We spent the whole day and could have stayed a week, it was so beautiful. It finally felt like classic Maine.

Here’s a map of the islands. You can see three “legs.” We visited them all, starting with the middle one. At first we were taking a ton of photos. Then we realized we were focused more on photos than the experience. So we put the phones away and just enjoyed the moment.