Anyone in Portland, Maine?

[sjwaste]

Looks like we'll be taking a 3 day weekend up in Portland in early September. Never been there, so I'm looking for recs on things to do and places to eat.

We'll be staying downtown, so walking distance is a plus. Places that aren't tourist traps are totally appreciated, although the summer rush should at least be over. Good restaurants and a good bar are important.

Any ATOTers up that way?

 

[Fear No Evil]

No.

 

[jlee]

I am ~150mi away...been there, nice place, no recommendations for you, though. If you're into sightseeing stuff, the Portland Headlight in Cape Elizabeth is not too far away and it's a nice stop.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Hey SJ:

As you know, my wife and I live in Portsmouth NH, which is only 60 miles from Portland. She is from Yarmouth ME (15 minutes north of Portland), and we are up the Portland area all the time. I'll ask her for some recommendations and get back to you. In the meantime, here are my recommendations.

Places to eat:

The Front Room (Portland ME): http://www.thefrontroomrestaurant.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=13

Haraseeket Lunch and Lobster (Freeport ME): http://www.freeportusa.com/freeportmember081.html
The Haraseeket is excellent if you like seafood, but only so so if you don't (their non-seafood options are mediocre. Try the fresh fish sandwich, bring a nice bottle of wine (or two), and enjoy eating on the picnic tables near the harbor. If you have trouble finding the place, look for the big f'ing indian on route one. You need to turn there. (see link at the bottom)

Duckfat (Portland ME): http://www.duckfat.com/
If you are into something a bit fancier.

Gritty McDuff's: http://www.grittys.com/portland.php
A nice local microbrewery. Good beer. Above average food.

Link to big indian:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...=S2nB05WDHbkXxyPjqn51uA&cbp=12,86.11,,0,-7.34

 

[Sho'Nuff]

As for stuff to do:

Catch a seadogs game (if they are still playing): http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t546

See portland head light: http://www.portlandheadlight.com/

Visit the old port: http://www.portlandmaine.com/index.php?sec=5

Tour the shipyard brewery: http://www.shipyard.com/trips/

 

[Arkaign]

Be happy you're going when it's not fuck-off cold. It's beautiful and rustic and very unique. You can kind of see how Stephen King gets some of his thoughts from there. Unfortunately, I haven't been there since I was maybe 10, so can't help you with where to go

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Looks like we'll be taking a 3 day weekend up in Portland in early September. Never been there, so I'm looking for recs on things to do and places to eat.

We'll be staying downtown, so walking distance is a plus. Places that aren't tourist traps are totally appreciated, although the summer rush should at least be over. Good restaurants and a good bar are important.

Any ATOTers up that way?

Good bar? Walking distance? Grittys for sure.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Be happy you're going when it's not fuck-off cold. It's beautiful and rustic and very unique. You can kind of see how Stephen King gets some of his thoughts from there. Unfortunately, I haven't been there since I was maybe 10, so can't help you with where to go

Rustic? What are you talking about? Portland Maine is a city of 230,000 people!

Are you talking about Bridgeton ME (where Stephen King lives?).

Then again, if you are 80 years old and you haven't been to Portland since you were ten, then yes. Portland might have been rustic back in the 1930s.

Yup, looks rustic to me. See, there are more Moose crossing the street than people!

Hope you know I'm just yankin your chain.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Old Port has lots of shops and restaurants, very walkable.

If you're into shopping, about 15 minutes east is Freeport where LL Bean is open 24/7 plus a gazillion other stores.

 

[StageLeft]

We thought of moving there and a guy at work who moved from there recently said he still loves it.

 

[misle]

I was there for a week last fall. Beautiful place. I really considered transferring to our office there. We were mainly in Old Port, which is an awesome area with lots of good bars and food. Have fun!

 

[sjwaste]

Thanks everyone. It shouldn't be cold there in Sept, but in general, I'm fine with the cold. My wife, a socal native, would probably disagree but she's usually a good sport when I want to go north in the fall/winter.

SoxFan - that giant Indian reminds me of the giant cigarette when you get near Richmond here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGS_2JwPd9o

Will definitely be stopping at Gritty's, it's not far from the hotel. Harraseeket Lunch & Lobster looks a lot like a place we stopped at in Kittery once, Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier.

I'm sure my wife will drag me to LL Bean. I've been that way before, but I remember the store itself being fairly impressive. Maybe about 10 years ago, my family decided to drive up from NJ to Bar Harbor. I'd love to do that drive again from Portland, but I don't think we'll have time during our trip.

 

[Anubis]

Rustic? What are you talking about? Portland Maine is a city of 230,000 people!

FWIW Portland proper only has a population around 65k

the urban/metro area around it counting South Portland and Cape E brings it up higher but no where close to your number

Cumberland county as a whole only had ~230k in 2000

 

[Gibson486]

I go there for work all the time. I just go to downtown and there is lots to do. FOr a state that is pretty quiet, it has a nice city life.

 

[Anubis]

You should make the drive to Red's Eats and get the worlds best lobster roll BTW if you have never had one

should still be open in early Sept

 

[sjwaste]

You should make the drive to Red's Eats and get the worlds best lobster roll BTW if you have never had one

should still be open in early Sept

That's about an hour drive, might do that. I've had some pretty good lobster rolls, so we'll see about this one claiming to be the best.

 

[krunchykrome]

Lobster rolls!

 

[darkxshade]

Heh, I'll be stopping by there too during labor day weekend then to NH for a hike up Mt Washington.

 

[sjwaste]

Heh, I'll be stopping by there too during labor day weekend then to NH for a hike up Mt Washington.

Nice. We wanted to go over labor day, but airfare was too expensive. The only real options for getting there from here are US Airways from DCA or AirTran from BWI. Everything but the miserably timed flights were nearly sold out. We moved the trip to later in the month, which has the added benefit of fewer tourists.

Mt. Washington was fun, from what I remember of it a few years ago. Sure does get windy all the way up top.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Yes. My apartment is in Portland.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

FWIW Portland proper only has a population around 65k

the urban/metro area around it counting South Portland and Cape E brings it up higher but no where close to your number

Cumberland county as a whole only had ~230k in 2000

Fair enough, the city population is a relatively small 64,000. Still, nowhere near "rustic."

"With a metro population of 230,000, the Greater Portland area is home to almost one quarter of Maine's total population. The population of the city is 64,000." From http://www.ci.portland.me.us/

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Nice. We wanted to go over labor day, but airfare was too expensive. The only real options for getting there from here are US Airways from DCA or AirTran from BWI. Everything but the miserably timed flights were nearly sold out. We moved the trip to later in the month, which has the added benefit of fewer tourists.

For future reference, here are a couple of other travel options that will get you to Portland fairly quick:

1. Southwest Airlines from BWI to Logan, followed by C&J to Portmouth or Concord Bus Line to Portland.

2. US Air from DCA to logan, followed by buses mentioned above

3. Southwest from BWI to manchest NH (1 hour drive to Portsmouth, 1.75 to Portland)

If you don't mind an extended train ride, the Downeaster train runs from Boston's north station to Portland several times daily.

 

[sjwaste]

If we had more time, we would've done DCA or BWI to MHT. BWI is an hour drive from here, so driving an hour to the airport for a 1.5 hr flight to drive another 2 hrs is kind of a waste of the travel day. We usually do BWI-MHT when we're visiting Portsmouth, though. Lowest fare bucket for DCA to either MHT or PWM on their express routes is 210, whereas you can often get BWI-MHT on WN for around $100 RT.

Would love to do the train ride one day, if we take a week or something. The Acela to Boston is about 6 hrs, and then another 2 from Back Bay to points north. Costs more than a plane ticket though