Road Trip Day 5: Portland, ME, Part 2

We spent the majority of the day in Portland. Since we really didn't know anything about Portland, we decided to take a Land & Sea Tour through Portland Discovery. We hopped on a trolley in the morning and our driver, Marie, gave us an overview of the sights of Portland. Needless to say, there aren't a ton of sights so I think I can recall most of the knowledge she provided. Portland really doesn't have any major historical happenings, though the city did basically burn to the ground at one point in its early history. Portland has an observation tower that sits at the city's highest point, 175 feet above sea level. We also saw Longfellow's house and his statue near the arts district. Marie pointed out the different areas of Portland, the east and west sides of the penninsula. We saw a spectacular cathedral on the east side; in terms of sights, this was probably the most interesting to look at downtown. She pointed out three boats in Casco Bay that serve as taxis between downtown Portland and the nearby islands - people use these taxis as travel between different places, including school children who take them instead of the "bus" to school.

Throughout the city, on both the east and west sides, we were extremely impressed by some of the homes scattered throughout the different neighborhoods. Portland has some extremely old, beautiful Victorian homes of all colors and varieties, and some of these homes were just drop-dead gorgeous.

The sight in Portland I liked the most was the Portland Head Light, which is the oldest lighthouse in the country. It is located in Fort Williams Park on Cape Elizabeth and was commissioned by George Washington to be built in 1791. It still works today. There are actually a total of 65 lighthouses in the state of Maine. We saw a few others.

After a lunch of shrimp, lobster and crab sandwiches, we got to spend some time in Old Port actually visiting the shops we walked by the night before. My favorite store was Cool As A Moose while Jen's favorite was Life is Good. We bought some souvenirs in these fun shops.

We spent the afternoon on a boat for the "sea" part of our tour. It was so chilly on the boat that Jen had to make use of a wool blanket. The boat traveled around Casco Bay pointing out some lighthouses, former military buildings, oil freighters and rigs, and surrounding islands. We saw a few seals, ducks, and sea gulls. The boat was fun but still very early in the season to be completely enjoyable.

Our land and sea tour was a fun way to see Portland. It's definitely a nice small city.