Well I have been in Portland Maine for a week now on business. This is my first trip to New England and the North East in general. Portland is a wicked awesome town located along the Casco Bay and Atlantic Ocean (wicked is a new word I learned that seems to be part of the local vocabulary here). I have spent a lot of time down in the Old Port district which has literally dozens of restaurants and pubs. Cool thing is Portland has an ordinance to keep out all chain or franchised owned stores in the Old Port area. This allows for a very cool scene and unlimited food options. And yes I have had lobster!Portland has a few really cool features very close to Town. Since Maine's coast has endless inlets and bays it make for interesting driving. Going from A to B can take longer then you think do to the long peninsula land formations. Portland Head Light is probably the most photographed lighthouse ever. I stumbled upon this gem in Fort Williams park on my lunch hour Friday afternoon. Needless to say the views were breathtaking (see my photos).
So I had the rare chance to stay the weekend for this business trip since it is a two week trip and I decided to drive North along the coast to find some cool spots. Here is a map of my driving route. I spent the entire day Saturday driving along route 1. Starting out of Portland early my first stop was Popham Beach State Park about a hour away or so. Cool thing was this place was in the middle of nowhere at the very tip of a peninsula. It was low tide which allowed me to walk out to Fox Island over a sand bar that is only present during the low tide. Enjoy some of my photos I took while out at Popham!
After Popham I backtracked north and back to route 1 through the town of Bath which is a ship building town with some cool bridges and New England character. Another hour or so north I finally reached the coastal town of Camden. This town has a small historic downtown and fishing port feal. In the backdrop are a few good sized mountain / hills which Camden Hills State Park sits. I drove up into this park and after a thousand foot elevation gain reached the summit of Mt. Battie. This was an unbelievable 360 degree summit view of the area including Ocean with islands and looking down on the town of Camden. I could also see in the distance Cadillac Mountain which is located at Acadia National Park. I really wanted to make it to Acadia but it was about another hour north for a total of 3.5 hours from Portland. Considering I would have arrived after dark I turned around to head for home.
Although I did make one more stop in Freeport, ME about 20 minutes north of Portland. Freeport is home to L.L. Bean and you soon realize everyone and their mother is a L.L Bean head here in Maine! I would compare it to Cincinnati and it's chili craze. The shop is located in the heart of Freeport which has some really nice shopping all in a small historic downtown walking environment. LL Bean is a campus though with multiple stores and some really good deals. My Saturday was pretty much done at this point although I made it down to the Old Port for dinner at Yosaku which had great Sushi at cheap prices.
