Wednesday July 7, 2010

Laura and I were up super early to go to Bikram Yoga so we were able to catch this beautiful sunrise over Casco Bay. I want to say that body of land is Great Diamond Island but I am not entirely sure now that I look at the map. I took a ton of pictures (shocking) and couldn’t narrow it down to just one or two so here ya go.

Laura has practiced a ton of yoga in her life so she was ready and willing to try heated brainwashing with me. She had heard how tough it was and was happy to have someone to go with her who knew what was going on. The instructor  informed me that the guy who owns the Old Town studio in San Diego is actually Bikram’s right hand man and is at all of the trainings around the country. This explains why at every single studio I have been to on my trip they knew who he was and they would say things like ”You must be a serious yogi” or “Oh it won’t feel that hot for you today” or my favorite “Ahhh so this will be easy for you today!” (lol ya not so much… it’s still a bitch every day.) Laura had a little panic attack when we first walked in the room because of the overwhelming heat, but she did awesome and I think she only skipped one half of one posture. The instructor told me that I had “beautiful”  posture on at least 2 of the poses and told her that she was doing one perfectly. Granted we are both named Laura so when she would say “Beautiful posture, Laura” we would both look at each other to see who the hell she was referring to. It was pretty funny. After class she told me that she was shocked that I had only been practicing for a few months. Now don’t get me wrong… I am flexible alright, I just suck at the standing leg balancing poses. I can bend in half but I cannot for the life of me balance on my left leg. Yet. How, you ask, will it improve my sex life? I dunno. If I find myself in the Japanese ham sandwich pose in the bedroom someday I will be sure to share it with you all. On a side note, Laura had yoga brain all morning from her state of deep relaxation (and exhaustion.) She was driving like an idiot on the road and she couldn’t form complete sentences for  hours. The best part of this story is that when we got to lunch she realized that she had forgotten her wallet at home. Not just at home on the kitchen table…she had left it on the front lawn wide open!! Only in a small town do you leave your wallet on the lawn and come home 6 hours later and find it in the same exact spot, untouched. Hilarious.

Before we went out for the day I snapped a fish eye shot of the beach. I don’t always remember to use this lens when it comes to anything other than people or animals…

Breakfast (ham and cheese croissants) was at the famous Standard Baking Company (take note that the restaurant above it is Fore Street. More on that later this evening)

We walked over to the Harbor Fish Market just to take a peek at their operation… Can you believe how cheap lobster is!? $4.50 a pound?! Are you kidding me? I mean, I can’t afford NOT to eat it. I seriously might consider moving back East for the lobster alone.

This is pretty gross…they won’t go away and I am not even sure where I picked these up. It might have been outside on 4th of July. Although I did have bug spray on that night. They don’t itch, they just look like the freaking measels. This is one of the few things that I do not miss about New England.

For lunch we drove out to Cape Elizabeth to a place called The Lobster Shack (are you really that surpised? come on) at an area called Two Lights.

P.S. I am still not sick of lobster one bit. The sun was shining again and we had the perfect view of the ocean while we ate our lunches. Again, thank you Mother Nature for the amazing weather on my trip. I will not ask for much more this summer.

For the very first time in my life I approached this crustacean a different way. I shucked the whole thing before eating it. Normally I crack open a claw and gobble it down as fast as I can. Repeat with each of it’s body parts. Today for some reason I chose to disassemble the whole thing and then enjoy it all at once. I guess this is all part of my “learning how to do things at a more leisurely pace” that I am striving for.

I was so full after lunch that I almost vommed when I saw this algae pool.

When Laura first moved to Maine a hundred years ago from NY/CT she got a job taking people on tours of the coastline so she can probably chime in here in the comments section and tell us all why the rocks look like wood. Or if you are so inclined you can read all of this.

The stones are very brittle.

We cruised on down to the most photographed lighthouse in the whole world: Portland Head Light.

I had forgotten Namwah the Pink Monkey in CT last week so Denise had to fedex it to me… I couldn’t miss an opportunity for him to visit this place! (I really need to update that site, I haven’t put any new pics on there since last summer and I haven’t even put Africa up from 2008. Lame)

The Annie C. Maguire Shipwreck

When Laura lived in Portland right after college with our other friends Mike and Alison they used to go into this abandoned mansion and screw around and take pictures of each other. I was bummed that it’s been chained off, I was looking forward to some cool shots.

This must have also been some sort of old military bunker. It’s covered in graffiti now

We got our feet wet in this bay… it was pretty effing cold.

The houses along the coast are just massive

Hey Christian! Look at my new mansion! You are still going to have to sleep in a tent on the beach though.

It was Wine O’Clock at this point so we went to Salt Water Grille and enjoyed the view of the marina.

Geary’s local brew

Omg tell me this isn’t the cutest waiting area for kids in a restaurant that you have ever seen?

Laura picked up the little one and we tried to go check out the neighbor’s chickens but were afraid that they would escape the little house they were in so we chickened out. Ladies and gentlemen, chickens do not like fish eye lenses.

Back to the beach for our nightly ritual…this time we had a spectacular view of the yacht races.

The little man fell face first into the water and got up laughing.

For dinner we went to Fore Street! You might remember Lance and Tina, the couple that sat next to me during my 25 course tasting at Alinea in Chicago in May? They arrived about at the halfway point of my meal and we started chatting about good places to eat in Boston and Maine and Chicago… They both work here at Fore Street and told me that if I made it to Portland I had to check it out. I emailed them and voila! we had a reservation. I was disappointed because they were supposed to have a whole boar delivered there this afternoon and Tina was going to let me come in and take pictures of them disassembling it. Unfortunately with the holiday the delivery was going to happen the next day.

She saved a tomato tart just for us Holy crap this thing was amazing. Goat cheese, juicy ripe tomatoes and a flaky buttery tart.

She made sure we had Wood Oven Roasted Maine Mussels sent to the table asap as well…they are from Orr’s Island and were served in a garlic almond butter broth. (I didn’t want to lick the plate for the LTP award just yet because a) I didn’t want to stick my face in a skillet, b) freak Laura and Bob out and c) eat raw garlic this early in the evening. Ya never know.) They were really delicious. (Side note: one time Bob ate 100 mussels in one sitting. And then ate a lobster afterwards. Hey what’s up Man Vs. Food!? )

Something new they were testing this evening: lobster tartare with a dressing of butternut squash oil, aleppo sauce, grape seed oil, chervil, tarragon, scallions and tomato. Then topped with sea salt and olive oil. I have tried raw crab and raw shrimp before and they were both pretty flavorless but I was willing to give it a shot. Especially since this whole trip is lobster lobster lobster.  Sadly, I learned that shellfish just shouldn’t be served raw. The texture was not like any other raw fish…it lacked substance. I don’t want to say slimy…just not meaty enough to be delictable. I was honest with the server and told him that I felt like they were overcompensating for the lack of flavor in the lobster itself by adding too many things to the sauce. It was pretty, but that’s about it. (they took it off the bill so that was nice)

Pan Seared Heritage Pork Belly from South Berwick. Prepared with pickled onion, garlic scapes, mustard, herbs and rich jus. Bob tried to get me to not eat the fatty part and I just laughed at him and threatened to order another one. lol The mustard was an interesting twist on all the pork belly I have tried in the past.

Oysters from Maine and New Brunswick, Canada: Muscongus Bay, Pulpit Harbor and Peacock Cove. Melt in your mouth delicious of course. I am definitely spoiled this trip and will think twice about ordering oysters just anywhere from now on.

I was getting full so I chose another appetizer for my entree: Oxtail Terrine from Montana (I know it doesn’t really fit in with the local fare theme of the night, but the server was raving about it and I have only had oxtail one other time) It was a cold pate served with whole grain mustard, green beans and cranberries. It was great…I think some people might not be able to get past the texture of the oxtail cartilage in there, though.

Laura and Bob ordered the Whole Wild Black Sea Bass which is filleted right at the table. The thick buttery sauce was out of this world and when I discovered that there were chanterelle mushrooms in there I almost jumped across the table and stuck my whole face in there. But it wasn’t mine to lick, and Laura was doing a number on it as well. HAHA! Our server Gabriel was fantastic and so patient with all of my questions and note taking. He was a photography buff, too so we had some shop talk as well. Overall an awesome dining experience and something you cannot miss if you are in Portland.

After dinner Tina and Lance (who were not working tonight) met us out at a place called Sonny’s where it seemed like everyone in the town stopped in and everyone knew them. I had no idea how small of a city this was… it was hysterical. You know when sometimes people come and go in your life and you don’t know why…this is Tina and Lance. There is definitely a reason our paths have crossed. They are good people and I hope to continue our friendship despite the distance between us.

Jeff who runs the So Cal division of Shipyard also happened to be in town so he came out for a drink too! Jeff and my nephew Danny went to college at USM here in Portland so Jeff comes home a lot to see his family. I was hoping to spend more time with him in his home turf but the timing wasn’t right. He lived with me for a few months at my house a few years back and it’s so dumb that  we never see each other in San Diego and have to be on the other side of the continental US to spend time together. Wicked retahded.

Laura and I had a great few days together, I am lucky that she was able to take time off and show me around town. She is so positive and full of energy and is fun to be around and I cherish the fact that we have remained friends after all these years.

Tuesday July 6, 2010

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.