Portland, Maine
I caught the Amtrak Downeaster to Portland from Boston at 9am and it only costs me 24 bucks! It’s supposed to be a 2.5 hour trip but because of the heat (90+ degrees) the train is only allowed to go 40 mph. I really didn’t care because it gave me time to update this annoying and time consuming blog and stay cool in the AC. (I’m kiddng I love this blog, but it severly cuts into my fun time when I am traveling.) When I arrived in Portland at noonish, my childhood friend Laura was there to pick me up. It was 95 degrees out and humid as all hell. This is everything that I remember about growing up in CT as a kid…hot hot summer days and high percentage of humidity. Laura said it was highly unusual for Maine this time of year so we had plans to hop on a ferry to go to an island in Casco Bay to escape the humidity.
She and her husband Bob live right on the beach in this general area (see green circle on this old map) in a house that they are renovating. They have a 2 year old boy and a 7 year old Golden Retriever. Bob is a landscape architect but but spends most of his time working on houses for his company Portland Renovations. They own a bunch of units around town: they buy huge multi-family buildings for cheap, make them look pretty and rent them out. They own about 9 units at the moment and are constantly doing this. At the moment their own house that they have had for a year is a total construction zone. I asked if it was an issue with the 2 year old, but he pretty much minds his own business and if he finds a screw or nail or something, he gives it to Mom or Dad rather than swallowing it. Phew. If I was a Mom I would be a nervous fucking wreck, but they are all so chill about it.
I pretty much fell in love with Duke at first sight.
Their place is just a few steps from a private beach. Often times Duke will be missing and it’s because a neighbor has called him from the porch to run and play fetch at the beach. He comes back soaking wet tearing through the house with sand and ocean smell…and it’s totally fine. It’s just the way things are when you live at the beach. 
We, of course, headed straight to town to Portland Lobster Company for lunch! Nothing beats a sunny day by the water drinking Shipyard Summer Ale and eating lobster with live music. (Please pronounce SHIPYARD like “Shipyahd” and please pronounce LOBSTER like “lobstah” while reading this blog. Thank you very much.) You have to be very careful about seagulls coming and snagging your food so I inhaled the thing. The french fries were unbelievable! I don’t generally eat fries, but these were amazing. And bonus that the lobster roll was made with butter and not mayonaise.
You can see that my view is just like what is on their website (in case you thought I made shit up sometimes)
Once we got on the ferry Laura pointed out this osprey flying overhead. I would not have known what that was…cool looking bird. Lucky shot.
An old military bunker that you can take your boat out to and explore.
We made it to Peaks Island and it was not one bit cooler out here. lol
We walked over to Peaks Island House for a refreshing drink… and were able to witness the island drunk that all the girls who worked here were making fun of.
What a fun way to spend a summer vacation as a kid!
House Island (3 houses, one owner…judging by that tent I think they rent it out for events. What a cool place to have a wedding.)
Portland Breakwater Light, also known as “Bug Light”
Lobstah traps
For dinner the plan was to make simple caprese sandwiches with proscuitto and salami. No reason to fire up any devices in the kitchen to contribute to the unbearable heat. We stopped at Micucci Grocery to get the meats, the mozzerella and the prosecco. When we got back to the house it was definitely time to hop in the ocean to cool down.
Duke was more than ready.
It was a huge dog party with mostly retrievers…
The clouds rolled in literally at the exact minute that I asked Bob to put in a ticket to Mother Nature to cool things down. So funny…Ann Marie and I kept asking 818 to do the same thing in Australia and New Zealand but it didn’t work quite as fast. I mean this was like 2 minutes later and this huge cloud came in and cooled things off by at least 10 degrees. It was amazing! Thanks Bob!
Annie is a Collie/Shelty/Shepherd mix and learning the ropes of how to play from the bigger dogs. She won’t really fetch the ball yet though and she likes to run away real fast up the hill when her owner isn’t looking.
This literally is a dream come true for a dog with webbed feet.
Meet Millie, a 7 month old Black Lab. Her sister Chloe wasn’t very interested in me or my lens.
Duke waiting patiently for the ball. You know how some dogs obsess over the ball? That’s Duke. One track mind. Plus the word on the street is that he likes to steal the ball from other dogs in the water thus causing slight arguments during doggie happy hours such as this one.
I put the camera away for the rest of the night because Laura and Bob had a plan for me. They invited their recently divorced (well not quite, he is separated) friend over to meet me. (I am going to call him 207 because that’s what I do.) He was a good looking guy, 37, smart, funny, personable, but still married and very recently kicked out of the house. Not that that would stop me from sleeping with someone, it was just an awkward situation. I am not sure if they invited him over because they wanted him to practice speaking to new women or because they thought I was such a slut that I would actually put out in their spare bedroom. We had some prosecco and wine (the boys had beers) and sat around enjoying our perfectly cool summer dinner and chatting. Of course the boys had a bunch of questions about the porn business so we talked about that for a while. After laughing our assess off to the Jerky Boys CD for a half hour, Laura and I excused ourselves to go to bed…we had to be up at 5:30 am for Bikram Yoga! I finally was able to talk someone into joining me in my cult-like heated brainwashing session! I hugged 207 goodbye and that was that. Do I consider this a blind date? Am I going to write about it for my project? You bet I am!
#1. The sole reason he was invited over was to meet me.
#2. The intention was romantic.
#3. I had no idea what he looked like.
So what if it involved another couple and was super casual? I am taking this as my 22nd blind date for my series. Consider it like learning to ride a bike again…with training wheels.
