With the exception of a few trips to Kansas City, we haven’t been able to travel much, even within our beloved New England. If fact, I was only able to write six entries throughout the year of the pandemic. Most of those trips had to be carefully planned and weren’t conducive to spontaneous tourism. Fortunately, Janet and I both have been vaccinated and are ready to start getting our lives back to normal. It was Sunday morning and I asked Janet if she’d rather go to Mystic, CT or Portland, ME. Since Mystic was about 30-45 minutes farther we chose Portland. It didn’t hurt that our travel buddies all said we need to see Portland as it’s one of their favorite New England towns.

Our first site to see was Old Orchard beach. I didn’t take any pictures, but it’s a really cool place with amusement park rides and lots of boardwalk activities. I know that throughout the summer they have regular fireworks displays as well. It seemed to me to be Maine’s equivalent of Hampton Beach in New Hampshire.

From there we drove up Highway 1 to the Portland Head light house. This is probably the most famous of the Maine lighthouses and pictures of it can be found in any gift shop in Maine. I was very surprised when we drove up to it as it looks much bigger in pictures. Though the tower is over 90′ the elevation of the road is higher so you end up looking down on it as you arrive. We took advantage of one of the many walking paths to enjoy the sea air on such a beautiful day!

After seeing the lighthouse we drove into Portland. Though it’s the largest city in Maine, it pales in comparison to cities like Boston or most of the other cities in the Northeast. With a population just under 100K it seems large enough to have some city amenities, but small enough to feel like a cozy hometown. We spent most of our time in the old town area by the sea port. The red brick buildings and cobblestone streets reminded me of the old city in Montreal or even parts of Boston. Because of the pandemic, most restaurants still offer lots of outdoor dining. I hope this practice doesn’t end any time soon. Some restaurants like the one in the picture use flowers and lighting to create a very inviting atmosphere. We chose a French bistro and enjoyed crepes. We walked around some more enjoying the shops and the sites, and then headed home.

Life has been hard this past year. Traveling to see new things was very difficult. Even the local adventures were hard to arrange. Thankfully it looks as though life is returning to normal. Today we went to the beach for the first time in two years!! We have a trip to New Jersey planned for next week to finally see our daughter and son-in-law after a year and a half. In June we’re going to Las Vegas to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. All I have to say is, look out New England, these residential tourists are back!!!