Portland, Maine

Chris' sisters and I all took a sister trip to Portland, Maine. We had done this once before, the weekend before Covid officially hit the U.S. Four of us traveled out to Colorado to visit Erika and meet our new niece. We decided we should try to do it again and had planned to do it this year before we realized how much we would end up seeing each other this year due to other events. Despite the fact that we have and will see each other a lot this year, it was great to do this trip and be able to really just relax since we weren't all there for something else. 

We had some ice cream and a glass of wine while watching the sun set at a park we could walk to from the place we rented.

One night before dinner we realized four of us were all wearing black and olive colored clothing.

We went to Cape Elizabeth to visit the iconic Maine lighthouse.

We had brunch at Becky's Diner and got to walk around the harbor a bit while waiting.

We got pastries from Belleville.

We ate a delicious dinner at Via Vecchia, which had a very fun ambiance.

The big thing we did was charter a sailboat for a ride. Jessie got engaged since we planned this trip and due to so many other events this year, it seems unlikely that all of her sisters will be able to get out for a bachelorette so we made the sailboat a surprise and did a mini bachelorette experience for her. We blindfolded her and walked her over half a mile to the marina. It turned out to be so fun (a little chilly), but way less stable than we were anticipating. We still made snacks and drinks work and had a great time!

One interesting thing about Portland that I've never experienced anywhere else I've traveled or lived is their affinity for cashews and pistachios. Those are the two foods I am allergic to and it's literally never been a problem before. But they were everywhere! We stopped at this ice cream place that had cashew in every single flavor. We also were offered an appetizer with pistachios in it and also went to a bakery that had those nuts in many things.

We did tons of walking...

We walked around a cliff walk in Ogonquit and stopped for lunch. We saw lots of lighthouses.

We even found a fun little bar hiding behind a bookcase in a restaurant that we checked out. 

We also ate at an amazing restaurant called Duckfat famous for its french fries and poutine. 

The trip overall was great despite having two cancelled flights on the way up (one 48 hours before and the second we didn't find out until we were looking for our gate). We bought last minute tickets (that we are still trying to get the airline to cover) to make it up there and after that we had smooth sailing travel-wise. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Erika on her way home who had an absolute nightmare trip back. Still, we had a great time and I'm hoping we'll be able to do another one in the future!