when i was growing up, i would dream about the day i would move to either northern california or maine. both are places i could probably wear fashionable sweaters all year around, have near-immediate access to an ocean daily, and be a stay-at-home writer. of course my home was going to be on the beach and i was independently wealthy and i got to do whatever i wanted all of the time.

i still have these dreams.

as we moved our adventures from new hampshire into maine, i wanted to visit the lighthouse in york again (my friend, lynn, brought me there many years ago). jason decided we needed a pitstop at the kittery trading post, which was great because of all of the birds! i love wildlife.

that gyrfalcon was really into posing for photos.

these moose weren’t alive — but all of the birds were.

york harbor. i love it.

we stopped for lunch at fox’s lobster house, where they let jason hold a lobster. i’m sure i could have held one, too, except gross.

as much as i loved the lobster roll from the day before, i will never be able to enjoy eating lobster straight from its shell. i watched my sister do it once and could barely control my nausea (the hangover probably didn’t help, either).

i get the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. maybe i’m not cut out for maine life after all?

pointing at the lighthouse.

i took this photo because jason was being a little more daring than i was comfortable with, so i thought i’d need a “last photo of jason” to remember. and to use as an example to warn kids of this kind of danger. thankfully, he survived.

after i was sort of satisfied with hanging out on the cape (i didn’t want to leave, ever), we moved further up the road to portland. a coworker of mine was practically salivating when she told me that we needed to go to duck fat and have some french fries. afternoon snack, anyone?

yeah, they were pretty incredible. i thought we ordered way too many fries since we had barely finished digesting our lunch, but somehow we polished them all off. the truffle ketchup helped.

and almost right across the street, i was very pleased to find shipyard brewing! we didn’t have enough time to take a tour, so next time we’re in maine, we are going back to portland with a brewery tour in mind. and to see the rest of the city, too. and maybe more french fries.

shipyard’s seasonal pumpkin ale is my favorite.

this panoramic is from the waterfront near old port. if we had seen this two days later, this view would be all cruise ship. ALL of it. those things are gigantic.

so, we didn’t have enough time to take in as much of portland as we wanted because we were due to meet jason’s family in old orchard beach in the late afternoon — we were ultimately in the area because his sister, kayla, was having a wedding party! we still got to do some touristy things in the area the next day, though.

hoss and mary’s no longer has the manimal challenge, but they do have a vegetarian sandwich served with bacon — called “the hypocrite.”

the amusement park was not open when we passed by. we were in the area at the very tail end of tourist season — maybe the season had even ended. it was windy and cold and the surf was insane, but there were still plenty of mainers in bikinis on the beach!

we explored all the way to the end of the pier, where its required to be 21+.

i will never get tired of this view.

i even got a bit of “me time” on the beach — just the ocean and a book. a little chilly, but sunny!