Boston - ish Trip, Day 3

 

Back to the travels! Day 3 of our trip was spent in Portland, Maine. Being from the South, we both forget that you can go to another state and back in a day up here, so when we saw it was only a 2 1/2 hour train ride to Portland, Maine, we figured why not. I said as long as I could see Big Foot and eat a lobster roll, I was in. 

Our first stop when we got in was the International Cryptozoology Museum, otherwise known by me as the Big Foot Museum. 

When I told Amelia about this at first, she wasn't too excited. When I told her it was less than a 10 minute walk from the Amtrak station, she gave in. 

To be honest, I just wanted to take my picture with Big Foot and would have been perfectly fine if this is where it ended. However, we went inside and when she saw it was only $10 admission, we decided to go in. 

Holy cow! It was more than we bargained for. I knew there were more cryptids than just Big Foot and Nessie, and this museum had the memorabilia for all of them. 

I know that it may sound cheesy, but this is worth a stop if you're in Portland. 

Next up, we ubered into Portland for some lunch. We both kept saying that we felt Portland is both bigger than we think and smaller than we think at the same time, and that would be true. We definitely realized that while it was walkable once we got into town for the things we wanted to see and do, it was not walkable from the train station. 

Our first top was lunch at Luke's Lobster. When we got there, she asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside: outside, obviously with weather this nice and a view of the water. She couldn't guarantee shade, but we said we would make it work. We had a perfect view of the water and some shade to boot. 

Instead of a lobster roll, we opted to get a seafood roll flight: a lobster roll, a shrimp roll, and a crab roll; some fried haddock bites and obviously some French fries. The flight was good, but those haddock bites were some of the best seafood I've ever had. 10/10 recommend hitting this place up if you're in the area. 

After we ate, we wandered around into the shops and while there were a lot of things that I saw that I liked, nothing screamed "take me home!" I knew I wanted a souvenir and it took me a while to find one that I really liked - an ornament of a Christmas tree made out of lobster traps. I put it on my tree as soon as I got home. (Yes, I keep my Christmas tree up year round because it makes me happy.)

Amelia wanted to get back out on the water, so we took a ferry to one of the islands off the coast. We asked the guy working the desk, and explained we just wanted to take a boat somewhere. He recommended the next one, which worked with us having to keep in mind the time to make our Amtrak back. He said that the island had shops and restaurants and that it was a good place to go. 

At first, I found it interesting that there were resident ferry passes, but when I saw that was a thing, I knew why they got priority. What I didn't know was why that was a thing, but I quickly learned. Once the "season" is over, which is Labor Day weekend, barely anything is open. I was a lot whiny because we walked lots of hills and nothing was open. On the plus side, the views going to and from the island were stunning. 

We hung out until the next ferry left to go back to Portland, which was 30 minutes later, and got a good laugh that most of the people that were on the one with us to go back were the same ones who were on the one going to the island. 

Before going back to the Amtrak, we did our souvenir shopping and got some ice cream at a local shop, Coastal Creamery. 

I thought their flavors were unique and had some cute names. I did something I don't normally do, I asked the young man working what his favorite flavor was. He said it was the Maine Black Bear, which is a black raspberry ice cream with dark chocolate covered raspberry truffles. I wanted an ice cream sandwich, so I got that layered in between two chocolate chip cookies. 

Amelia got a flavor that's not on the menu, but was recommended by the owner. It was one of their summer flavors and he said it's always a hit and people get upset when the summer is over and they stop serving it. I don't remember the name but it's a strawberry ice cream with the golden Oreos. She wanted to try it because it's very rare that people do anything with the golden Oreos. 

Both of our ice creams were delicious! I said I wasn't going to eat my whole thing ... but I did, and it was worth it. After that, we made our way back to the Amtrak and then it was back to the hotel and get some sleep ... because the final day of our trip was shaping up to look vastly different than we expected.