On our way to Acadia National Park we stop in Portland Maine to experience the food and lighthouses and history of this iconic city.
We started our day in Portland with a quick bite to eat. The food reviews can be found in our video. Afterwards we headed over to the Victoria mansion, a local favorite that we were not allowed to film. This mansion, which is undergoing refurbishment is an incredible example of French style design in New England. Expert Docents are in every room to educate you, although only the first floor is renovated. The second floor can be visited and includes the smoking room, with fabulous Arabic influence, but the third floor has not be restored at all and is not open to the public. We included quite a few photos in our video review but this mansion is really worth visiting. Say hello to the friendly cat who loves tourists!
After a lovely meal of fresh seafood in downtown Portland, we headed out to see the Portland Head Lighthouse. What I didn't realize is that this was a part of a major park, full of abandoned military ruins, food trucks and families! The light house itself is a prized treasure of Maine, and we caught it at low tide which made for fun exploration.
Visible from most of the park is a second light house in the bay. The Ram Island Ledge Light Station, while smaller, sits dramatically perched upon a small shoal. Being low tide it's dock stood well above the rocks, inviting my imagination to think about how extreme the tides here are compared to back home!
Part of the parks history is it's connection to both the civil war and world war 2. The south had an incursion into the port here and there was later fear that the Germans might attempt a landing in world war 2. The Goddard mansion was repurposed to house married soldiers and their spouses and is pictured to the left.
Battery Hobard provided one of several gun points for the military defense here. It was packed with families exploring and is really a great treat. There are a number of other buildings to check out scattered all over the park. This includes additional gun batteries, a power station and even a mine deployment thing [for lack of the name]
Over all we enjoyed our brief time in Portland. I hope to explore the city more on our next trip to Acadia this coming year. The food scene is definitely killer and there's a lot of history hiding in what is a pretty hip fishing town.
Comentários