Chapter One: Portland

Our trip started in Portland, Maine. I flew in to Boston on Thursday morning and Tony (The Boy's dad) picked me up and took me into Peabody. The Boy was on interviews in New Hampshire, so I hung out with Tony. By "hung out" I mean that I performed manual labor. He needed help covering the pool and winterizing the yard, so, being the good ole country girl that I am, I helped out. When we were all done, we had a beer on the patio while we waited for The Boy to get back. As soon as he got back from his interviews (which went really well!), we headed into Boston to stay for the night. We stayed at the Omni Parker House and then headed to Portland on Friday afternoon (I'll fill you all in on my exploits in Chapter Two: Boston).

Portland, being in Maine and in New England, was C-O-L-D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm talking like 40 degrees that night when we were walking home from dinner. Not pleasant. Luckily our bellies were full of wine and lobster so the cold didn't affect us as much. We had dinner at Vignola and it was fabulous. I mean, spectacular. We started off with two wine flights, had Spanish almonds, a cheese platter (we got to choose from over 35 cheeses!) and then came our entrees. The Boy had some excellent gourmet pizza and I had grilled lobster. I mean, we were in Maine. What else would I eat?!?! It was fabulous. For dessert we had some great confections that topped off our full bellies. Luckily, the hotel was two very small city blocks away, so we walked our drunk asses home and crashed.

Happily, Saturday was warm and sunny. It got to almost 60, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We had breakfast at Mims Brasserie (where I had the most amazing crab-chevre-spinach omelet ever created) and started our day. Funny story about breakfast. The "hostess" seats us and we get to sit on the upper patio overlooking the harbor. The weather was warming and the sky was bright and sunny. The Boy made a comment about the weather. Something along the lines of "Beautiful morning, isn't it?" Our "hostess" responded with the flattest, most disinterested "glorious" we have ever heard. We almost peed our pants!

After breakfast, we toured the "city." (I use the term "city" loosely ... it may be the biggest "city" in Maine, but it is a quarter the size of Greensboro ... which is minuscule!) Below is my photo fun!

I love lobster. I love Guiness. I love this sign. I would have stolen it if it hadn't been so damn high up ... and noon.

One of the Portland lighthouses.

I'm not sure what this is, but I like to think of it as Portland's Alcatraz. Who knows? There's gotta be hardened criminals in Maine ... somewhere.

Looking through the canon ports at the fort. I don't really know what the fort was called, but it was a fort. And it had a lighthouse.

Not all that flattering, but it is one of three pictures of us from the past week. We are so bad about getting our pictures taken together.

The Portland harbor.

The Boy at the harbor. He seems to be contemplating big thoughts. Or just hoping that his sneakers don't get wet.
I like this pic. It belongs in an LL Bean Catalogue.

The highlight of the Portland trip. Lenny, the Chocolate Moose.

Here's Lenny and his friend, the bear (who has no name interestingly). I really wanted to eat him, but the task was rather daunting.

Although the little baby bears are rather snack size ...

Saturday night we drove back to Boston. We stopped in Kittery, Maine to do some shopping at the outlets there. I got an AWESOME new skirt that I cannot wait to wear. It's a full skirt, 1950s style, of hunter and navy plaid. It falls below my knees, and I love it. Oh, and I paid like 25% of the original retail value which makes me love it all the more!

Stay tuned from chapter two ...