Today we took a long walk around Portland, took a family nap, and finished the day at the Fisherman’s Grill. It was beautiful, sunny, warm in the sun and slightly breezy. Much of Maine shuts down in the winter and doesn’t open until Memorial Day, so we are a few weeks early for all the real action. The town is quiet and all uphill from the water. A walk was the perfect thing to get us in the east coast mood. Luke said that Portland is like San Fransisco meets Baltimore meets a small town. I’ve included pictures of some of the architecture. There is a lot of old brick work, gobs of siding, and of course bay windows. From what I gathered today, Portland has all the old school east coast history and buildings but is laid back and hip. It’s swarming with hipsters, hippies, all things REI/Northface, bars and coffee shops. I love it.

There are many many buildings that look like this or some version of it.

The Observatory

The previous homes all look out over the bay, in the next picture.

The Eastern Promenade Park, Fort Allen over looking the bay.

Porter rolled (and napped) in the Rockin’ Baby Pouch

And in dad’s arms.

It’s spring here too!

I thought the building in the middle of the channel was like a mini Alcatraz, but Luke informed that it is Fort Allen.

Portland is a deep water port with Trans Atlantic ships and many tug boats. We aren’t sure why this tug boat is behind the ship, hmm…

Our walk then hooked up with the greenbelt along the shore and an old rail road track.

Old railroad track complete with old rail cars.

Shrink wrapped and dry docked boats.

Random broken down coal car with plants growing next to a dry dock.

The actual, working, tour train.

“Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co.”

Previously a dock, I’m pretty sure?

Random rock wall on a trailer, just for fun!

So here’s how we came upon two heaping piles of fresh and fried seafood. Luke did a bunch of research about the best place for seafood and came up with The Fisherman’s Grill. It is a hole in the wall next to The Fisherman’s Net, which is where all the restaurants come to get their fresh seafood. So, the grill gets first picks of all the days catches. We go in, somewhat timid at first because this place looks really local, and are greeted by the cook, a very friendly former Deadliest Catch in Alaska type dude who regaled us with stories of Alaskan timber wolves (huge beasts who howl like they’re “gonna getcha”), bow hunting, and his almost deadly accident on the fishing boat in AK. He knew EXACTLY where each piece of seafood was caught that was on our “plattah”. Initially, I was planning on a bowl of chowder, but he recommended the Fisherman’s Plattah (yes spelled correctly). Being that he said everything was fresh, super fresh, we got it. Little did I know that everything here, fresh or otherwise, is deep fried. I mean really? Who fries fresh seafood? I guess we’re about as far from the Hawaiian islands as we can be, so I was silly to assume it would be grilled or seared. It was, however, delicious. We had shrimp, crab cakes, haddock, scallops, and clams. I will admit that I peeled off some of the fried breading to reveal tender sweet morsels of goodness from the sea. Next time, though, I’m asking for it to be seared so I can eat guiltlessly. But my oh my was it yummy. We also had to take a bunch of it home because there was so much. It had a side of home made Cole Slaw, super yum, and fries. Those were left untouched. I highly recommend going off the tourist trail to eat here if you’re ever in Portland, Maine.

This is what Porter thought of the whole experience, and how we ended the day.  Really the day ended with me doing laundry, but this is a better way to remember it.