Maine. Portland that is...

Howdy all. Mike and I have now followed the winds up North to a land known by many names, including, The Pine Tree State, Vacationland (our favorite), The Evergreen State, Maine: Where America's Day Begins (best to declare loudly while sipping black coffee in the morning), The Border State and The Old Dirigio State (state motto is Dirigio - 'I Lead' in Latin). All of these names are swell, but Mike and I prefer to call the state AWESOME and HOME. We have put down little root tendrils in the rocky soil of Portland, Maine's largest city, and we are hoping they grow into something magnificent, and, preferably with flowers in the Spring. We have a wee little one bedroom house from which we can see Casco Bay and some of the Calendar Islands, so-called because there are 365 of them.


(Casco Bay)

We watch huge cruise ships disgorge their loads of thousands of people into the city to buy artwork, beer and t-shirts. We are also visited by lobster boats, oil ships and ferry boats (some of which go to Nova Scotia!). We like to crawl out our window onto the rickety, rusty fire escape and watch the boats, and at night, the city lights.


(View of a big cruise ship from our window)

The huge "Time and Temperature Building' is also within view it is a neon blinking sign that displays the time and temperature is ever present outside our kitchen window thus rendering obsolete the need for clocks inside the apartment, which is nice, but in the winter we will always be reminded of how freezing cold it is outside (at least we have heat included with the rent!) - brrrr! Our place is in a nice location between the Arts District and Commercial Street on which most of the tourism is focused.


(Congress Street, also called the Arts District - the Portland Museum of Art is barely visible on the far right)




(Commercial Street - main shopping and restaurant area)

The city is peppered with art galleries small and large, not to mention warm, snuggy bars that celebrate live local music almost every night of the week. We've managed to stumble upon a full Irish music party one night at a bar called Blue. Many people were sitting around a large table eating cake and drinking Guinness when suddenly, bagpipes appeared under a hefty bearded man's arm and then a bazouki (an Irish banjo-like instrument) manifested itself in the hands of another man and all around the table instruments popped out of nowhere and were played incredibly well, and all sitting around a table - not even on stage! We've had similar like-encounters of the musical kind at other places around town; hopefully someday soon it will be Mike rendering his musical charms upon a rapt audience sipping on dark delicious Maine brews (Geary's and Bar Harbor's Cadillac Mountain Stout are particularly good). When Mike and I came out here to scope out the scene in early October, Mike's college friend Katie and her German-speaking boyfriend Luke (both of who recently moved to Boston after spending a year teaching English in Thailand) drove up to check out the city with us.


(Top of City Hall)


(Mike and Katie outside Brian Boru)


(Lobster-Kong!!)

We had a blast and decided that Portland offered everything we needed: affordable living, as vibrant an art and music scene as a small city with a population of 62,875 can have, and, of course, a landscape that we suspect is projected down daily from a camcorder in heaven. Yes, it's true, 3,500 miles of coastline to explore, 6,000 lakes and ponds and 17 million acres of forest. Basically, this constitutes all the food our eyes need to survive, and for our bellies, it's fresh and oh soooo good seafood all the time! Now about some jobs...we are confident that they are on the horizon and we're on the hunt!