We had several days in Portland, where Ashleigh grew up. After spending the day in Providence, we drove to Portland and arrived in time for delicous lobster & crab cake dinner with Ashleigh's mom (Susan) and dad (Bob). Although I had had lobster before, I had not had it often enough to properly execute the tricky process of opening the shell and extracting the meat without a little bit of instruction. Good thing we were eating outside, on Susan's deck.
Later that nite we went to the local hip bar, Gritty's, which has its own line of mediocre brews, in my humble opinion. I had Gritty's Brown Ale, which was significantly below average quality. We met up with Erica (from Providence) and Doran, Ashleigh's childhood friends. While there, an aluminum-foil artist sold Ashleigh a statuette of a butterfly. Ashleigh might have declined completely if Doran had not interjected with an endorsement of the man's skill, but Ashleigh did negotiate the price down to half. The butterfly was an impressive rendering.
The next morning, which was Tuesday, after tastey bagels and lox for breakfast, Susan, Ashleigh and I went to the Old Port (downtown Portland) and met up with Bob for lunch at a place called Duckfat. They actually cook their fries in duckfat. Afterwards we went a historical lookout station, the Portland Observatory, right on Munjoy Hill where we were staying with Susan. It was used to look for merchant ships and communicate which ships were coming into port, until 1923 when telecommunications became common. It was refurbished recently and is now a unique little museum. We took some great pictures.
That evening, we relaxed at Ashleigh's mom, along with her dad and her aunt, Joan, eating and chatting. Later, Ashleigh and I crashed a AAA league baseball game between the Portland Seadogs (a feeder team for the Boston Red Sox) and their visiting opponents. Neither of us are particular Seadog fans, so we headed over after dinner, just to check out the scene. It wasn't until we arrived near the stadium, though, that we realized it would be impossible to find a place to park. Lots charging tens of dollars were all sold out. We drove slowly down the street, getting closer and closer to the field; when we arrived at the front gates we turned left onto the side street and found that the second-closest spot was open. Ashleigh parallel parked. The parking spot was good luck, but it turned out the game was sold out, so we thought our luck was out. A man happened to be walking out of the gate, though, and Ashleigh asked him if he was leaving altogether (she's so friendly), and he was, and agreeably gave us his tickets. Our luck was back and better than ever as we sat down in our "box" seats, in row C, right behind the batter, offset a few degrees for a good view, right on the aisle. They were pretty much the very best seats in the whole place, aside from the real "box" seats, above the back of the stands, where presumably they hand out champaigne and footrubs. We had a great time and were able to catch up with some of Ashleigh's friends at the stadium. The Seadogs, however, were soundly defeated.
On our third day in Portland, Ashleigh and Susan took me to Pine Point Beach. It was hot, crowded, and awesome. I didn't swim, but Ashleigh and her mom did. All I did was relax and get a sunburn, as if I have never been in the sun before and didn't know what would happen. It's not a bad sunburn, but it turned out pretty itchy. Ashleigh and I closed out the day with a delicious, and large, sushi dinner at the Arledge's favorite spot - Yusaku.
On our fourth and final day in Portland, we left the city and visited her dad, Bob. He lives in a little house in the woods, with plans to build a new house in the woods, only except the new house would be a house under the woods -- an underground house. Bob also built the octagon house we visited in Idaho at the beginning of this trip. We went out to the land where he wants to build the new house, but he is stuck with some struggles with his neighbors and the local permit board. We went to the exact spot where the house could be built and stood where the kitchen would be.
That nite we had a tasty take-out Indian dinner chez Aura and Pete, two of Ashleigh's friends. They are expecting a baby girl in a few months...but alas, the four of us could not agree on a name for her. The best we could come up with was "Splenda", but we thought that one was already taken. The food tasted good though, and the conversation was fun. Unfortunately, in the background, we watched the Yankees beat the Red Sox, which was a downer.
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