Portland, ME

I’m taking forever to get these road trip photos up, but life keeps getting in the way.

After we left Boston and Plymouth, we headed to Portland, ME. I loved Portland. Really we spent most of our time in Maine eating, and that’s a pretty perfect vacation as far as we’re concerned. We’d heard about the food scene up there for ages but finally got to experience some of it.

Our first night in Portland, Monday night, we made a pilgrimage to Duckfat, a place we’d heard of any time the Portland food scene was mentioned. It was behind our hotel, so as pilgrimages go it was pretty lightweight, but I could have eaten every single meal here. The duckfat fries are everything you’d think they would be, with amazing dipping sauces to choose. And there’s just something about a perfect bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich on a chilly night that nothing else on earth can rival. They do it right here. Ugh, it’s pouring here in NJ today…now I want that meal again.

We also trekked to Becky’s Diner on our friend Audrey’s strong recommendation.

Blueberry pancakes, a perfect egg sandwich. We started noticing a theme here in Maine. Really simple, straightforward comfort food done perfectly. And with lots of blueberries.

Walking along the waterfront on Commercial St. between Becky’s Diner and the Hampton Inn where we were staying would’ve been much nicer in warm weather. But we still loved all the shops lining the streets, including this one. I bought lobster and moose cookie cutters. We just kept seeing more places to eat than we could possibly cover in 3 days. A return trip, someday.

Adam has been rocking the flat front, wrinkle-resistant chinos of LL Bean since sensibly-styled business casual was invented, so obviously no trip to Maine would be complete without a visit to the flagship headquarters in nearby Freeport. The whole town is this adorable, quaint village…of outlet stores. I’ve never seen anything like it, I wanted to move there. LL Bean even has a Ben & Jerry’s outpost in the parking lot!

I’ve never seen so many tote bags in my life. You could get them personalized right there in the store. But I was paralyzed by all the options and didn’t get one. I could not make up my mind.

Tote bag cookies. I mean.

No, no. Thank YOU.

Maine was really where I kicked the quilt store hunt into gear. I didn’t do any in Boston this time, so by Tuesday I was ready for my fix. Cotton Weeds Quilt Shop in Freeport was super cute. I bought several prints from Dear Stella’s All Hands on Deck line, which are so stinking adorable that they beg to be made into a new beach quilt to remind us of our time in New England (in the cold, but still).

And don’t get me started on Mother of Purl yarn shop next door. The ladies there were so sweet, and so much fun. Seriously, I could live in Maine.

I also hit up Sew Portland and picked up more All Hands on Deck and this amazing typewriter print from Type by Julia Rothman for Wyndham.

H had her first dip in a pool in Portland. How cute is she in a bathing suit? She LOVED the pool, I can’t wait for her baby swim classes to start in June.

More amazing food. On Wednesday morning we went to Two Fat Cats bakery, another spot right near the hotel. The entire food scene of Portland was within walking distance, I could not have been more thrilled with that. Or this cinnamon roll biscuit, or the amazing brownies we snacked on later in the day.

After that deliciousness we headed out to Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth. I got us lost and ended up at the maintenance area first, but eventually we got there. And it was pretty cool.