Portland, Maine is a city in transition. 

Once a huge ship building seaport and fishing mecca, now it is moving rapidly towards tourism with galleries, eateries, and, gasp, cruise ships.  We understand two to three giant ships show up every day starting in July and extending through the color viewing season in the fall. 

Casco Bay

The Casco Bay with over 300 islands is filled with charming  little enclaves of cottages and summer homes along with the houses of the rich and famous.  However, a recreational  boating business isn’t fully developed says, Scott, the captain of the small boat we chartered to check the area out by sea.   

“Portland doesn’t even have a municipal marina,”  he commented.  The port was once polluted and nasty but has been cleaned up making it an attractive place for boating. 

But they are getting some private development, much to the dismay of folks who live behind the proposed project. Their views will be blocked.  Progress sometimes has it’s downsides. 

However, I don’t want to be negative.  We really liked our three day stay in Portland and recommend visiting there.  

We visited early in the season and encountered a slight crush, but not overwhelming amount of people.  We found we did need to make dinner reservations.  One night we ate at Eventide, highly recommended by the guides and bloggers, but had to stand at a narrow counter to eat. It was busy.  The food was delicious.  

We did learn about a lot of other options on the Maine Food For Thought tour we took the last day in Portland.  Come back next week for a blog post about that experience.  Portland has over 400 restaurants.

An interesting place was DiMillo’s, a repurposed boat, admittedly very touristy. We sat on the upper deck of the bow of the and watched boats docking and moving about  in the Harbor.   A couple of large yachts made their way to this port.  I’m not sure I’d recommend DiMillos  for the food, but the view was fabulous.  

Little Giant

Our favorite meal was at Little Giant.  Too bad I was so engrossed in my dinner and dinner companions that I only took this photo of my friend’s lobster salad.  The food was fabulous and beautifully presented.    Put this restaurant on your list for dining. 

The town is chock-o-block with cute shops—some the typical tourist t-shirt shops, but others were really nice galleries and collections of jewelry, clothes and pottery.   Here is a sampling.  

Portland Art Museum

We also visited the Portland Art Museum, not to be confused with the one in Portland, Oregon.  We did that and got puzzled looks when we asked abut an exhibit on Paris during the turn of the century. It turns out that the exhibit I read about is at the Art Museum in Portland, Oregon.   The guest services person at the front desk was very gracious and made us feel better telling us that this mistake happens every day. Google brings up Portland (Oregon) Art Museum first. 

The one in Maine is quite nice.  Four floors of art along with a shop and then two additional and connected buildings, one the original home to the museum—a house built in the early 1800s.  It’s worth visiting if you like art.  Scroll back to last week’s blog.  Peggy shares more about this museum in her guest blog.

Josh Groban

A highlight of the trip was attending a Josh Groban concert.  He’s a great performer and musician.  I loved photographing the show with my IPhone.  It’s amazing what those little cameras can capture.  

The Press Hotel

We can highly recommend our hotel, The Press Hotel, built in an old newspaper office. The newspaper theme was carried throughout the boutique hotel located centrally for all the tourist stuff you’d like to do. 

If you missed last week’s DesignDestinations.org, do scroll back to read Peggy DePersia’s take on Portland, Maine.  

Come back next week for Maine Food for Thought Tour.