Howard Johnson Hotel - South Portland

... June’s Comments:

The drive to Portland was quick – we only stopped for gas and fast food. The visit with Tom, Denise and Foster from Thursday to Monday was well worth the long drive. We took two days to drive back to Milton. Besides Montreal, the weather was very mild and the trees sported their usual fall colors for this time of year.

... June’s Comments:

The drive to Portland was quick – we only stopped for gas and fast food. The visit with Tom, Denise and Foster from Thursday to Monday was well worth the long drive. We took two days to drive back to Milton. Besides Montreal, the weather was very mild and the trees sported their usual fall colors for this time of year.

... our travels with you through this blog and hope it goes successfully. One of our audiences will be Sophie and Isabelle's classes...."hello fellow classmates/teachers". We hope to bring to this blog our personal experiences and reactions as well as some history and educational value. The girls would also like to challenge the classes with periodic questions about our destination to see if the classes can come up with the answers.

Overview

Portland has an amazing history that stretches back over 350 years, and this wonderful town has blossomed into the largest city in Maine. This close-knit community is second only to San Francisco when it comes to restaurants per capita. Old brick buildings and cobblestone streets still exist, and the blend of past and present in Portland is exhilarating. In addition to the prevalence of dining facilities, there are an unbelievable number of stores and shopping ...

... so decided just to snoop around Wells. Wells is a beach community with a small harbour, lots of tacky tourist shops, antique shops and some lovely summer homes. Our snooping did not take long.......we decided to spend the rest of the rainy day inside reading and watching TV.
The next day the weather had improved so we headed inland in a northerly direction. Our destination was Alfred and Sabbathday Lake where a Shaker Community ...

... trolley around town and the tour guide regaled us with anecdotes, facts, and figures about Kennebunkport. As usual, it was well worth the price, and we got the lay of the land, and a lot of history. We also saw the summer cottage of George and Barbara. (Bush, of course) It sits on a rocky peninsula in the Ocean at the mouth of the Kennebunk River called "Walker Point" GHW's ancestors bought the land in the late 1800's and the family has ...

After the smog and the grime of NYC, I thought that some clean air would probably do me good so I have been in New England for the last few days. I've been in all 6 of the NE states at one point or another and have done a fair bit of driving but some of the places I have seen are beautiful and well worth the miles I've been clocking up. I'm sure that if I was the sort of person who knew a lot ...

i never knew what a great city portland, maine is! it is beautiful and has great restaurants. what more can you ask from a city?

we pulled into the harbor just after sunset--there was a lot of traffic in the channel with fishing boats and shrimping boats and lobtah boats. we docked at a slip and went for an amazing dinner at Street (i highly suggest it!).

the next day we set sail around all the little islands ...

... chunks of clams. They were really good dunked into the clam chowder. Matt's snail salad was mostly sliced snail. It was very chewy and plentiful.

We were quite full and took our doughboys with us for dessert on the road. Doughboys are much like beignets and believe me...you cannot eat just one! Katie refused to even try one...oh well, more for the rest of us!

We arrived in Portland, ME around 7pm or so and just lazed about in the hotel.

When we checked in yesterday the ladies in reception had insisted that we should try the Merry Moose, the little log cabin in the grounds of the site that served pancakes and waffles for breakfast. So we wandered down there and put in our order for blueberry pancakes. A word of warning if you visit this KOA! The pancakes are huge! About 8 inches in diameter and about half an inch thick! And so a portion of two ...