Moultonborough NH to Guilford ME – The other Portland! Day 14

It’s hard to believe we’ve been at this for 2 weeks! But not as hard as it is to believe that 2 weeks after leaving Vancouver, I was able to put my feet into the Atlantic Ocean this afternoon! (For those wondering, it was cold. And cool.)

Today we went to try out the pool at the little Rodeway Inn we stayed at last night. First of all let me say, it was a marvel of forced perspective! In the photos it looks like a huge rectangular outdoor pool. But that’s just the angle. In fact, it’s a tiny (but cute) trapezoidal pool. Even in real life, if you stand at the narrow end, looking at the hotel, the optical illusion holds. Genius, really! Unfortunately, the pool didn’t seem to be heated, and after a string of warm but overcast days, it was too cold to swim in. Oh well, no big deal – we gave it the old college try!

We got packed up and headed on our way, stopping for breakfast at a nice café. I had fun watching the little kids on holiday: “We’re going fishing today, aren’t we, Dad? I want to go fishing with you… but I want to go fishing first!” Adam enjoyed the Eggs Benny with freshly made hollandaise, on a fresh baked croissant, with a giganimous slice of ham on each side! We set our course for Portland, Maine and headed out on a gorgeous drive – we avoided the Interstates and just enjoyed the countryside – and since we were moderately far north (the Lakes District of New Hampshire) it actually wound up being faster!

I really wanted to take Adam to a brewery today, and had scoped one out in Portland, (and yes, I see the parallels between one Portland’s brewing culture and the other’s!) based on noticing that the last beer we had bought for me was a Portland, ME brewer. Unfortunately, they were a little overwhelmed – it seems they were busier than they thought they would be on a Sunday, so even though we happened to arrive just at the beginning of their “free “virtual” tour and tasting,” and there were clearly available seats in the theatre (my understanding is that they show you a video of the brewing process, show you the bottling process in real life, and then give you beer) they said the tour was full and to come back in a half an hour. But we didn’t have that kind of time!

So we left and found a restaurant/pub, had a beer, and asked the bartender: “If you only had this afternoon to do something in Portland, what would you do?”

He suggested we take a small ferry over to Peak’s Island and wander around, see the sights, and you can look back across the bay at Portland. Ok, we’re in! The ferry terminal was about 2 blocks away, so we went back, moved the car to longer term parking, and went to get the ferry. Our timing was impeccable, as we basically bought our tickets just as they started boarding, and we just walked on! We stood on the upper deck of the ferry on the way over, and saw some lovely boats (including a reproduction tall ship) and a couple of mysterious buildings on smaller islands in the bay.

The island was adorable, and the first thing I saw were stairs down to a tiny stretch of beach, where I took my shoes off and put my feet in the aforementioned Ocean!

Then we walked up and down a couple of the main streets, got a light lunch at the food truck by the ferry terminal, (again noting the comparisons – when in Portland (either one), eat at a food truck!) I finally got some ice cream – I keep seeing great looking ice cream shops, but then we eat too much lunch or supper and I forget. It was worth it – a black raspberry and dark chocolate explosion in my mouth!

That brought us round to just about time to line up and board the ferry back to the mainland, where we got back in our car and went on our way.

Last night I checked in with Air B&B again – which we haven’t done since Deadwood, since you need to give the hosts at least a day’s notice – and I just fed in “Maine,” since it really didn’t matter where we stayed – anywhere in the state would do.

Up pops this amazing mansion in mid-Maine – it’s northwest of Bangor – in a town called Guilford. It’s just this amazing rambling mansion (that apparently once housed a Senator!) in a town whose main claim to fame is that it is home to the longest continually operational textile mill in America. That and the butterfly meadow, which is just next to the mansion. Did I mention that it’s a mansion? With a freaking turret! (we didn’t get the tower/turret room, though – someone else already had it. Our host, Robert, told us to ask for it next time.)

Obviously, we booked it, and it was everything we could have hoped. The parlor downstairs has 3 pianos (in varying states of disrepair, but still!) and everything is beautifully appointed. The floorboards are a good 16” wide! Unbelievable!

We couldn’t find the internet password written down anywhere though, and our host lives in the other side (wing) of the house (mansion) and I didn’t want to bother him. So I’ll post this in the morning or tomorrow night, after our return to Canada (but a part of it I’ve never seen before)!