Portland, Maine - Day 2

 Day Two in Portland was an absolutely gorgeous day - beautiful blue skies and sunshine and perfect temperatures! 

And it started off with our first of two visits to HOLY DONUT!  These donuts are insane - they are made of potatoes and are huge!

They have incredible flavors such as dark chocolate sea salt, blueberry lemon, maple bacon, sweet potato coffee cake, and honey lavender! YUM!

First real stop of the day though - the Portland Head Lighthouse and Fort Williams Park!  I mean really.  Look at this. This is so quintessential MAINE!

I mean, is this gorgeous or what? And check out Ram Island Ledge lighthouse in the distance, on the right.  That one was opened in 1883 but it's closed to the public (a little harder to get to!)

You know I like a good superlative!  Built in 1791, the Portland Head Light is the oldest lighthouse in Maine! (I'm mad this picture is blurry!)

Todd and the kids went out on the quartzite and phyllite rocks near the Lighthouse.  This is allowed because there is a little open gate there for people to go out.  I only had sandals on, so I stayed behind!

I don't know what was going on with Todd's phone to make all of his pictures so blurry.  Down here by the water, the waves came crashing in (but no one got wet!)

I didn't know they took this picture until I was doing this write up and I laughed SO hard at this!

A tall lighthouse with a tall lighthouse.  The Portland Head Light was actually 20 feet shorter than this until it was raised during the Civil War.

My fam, sitting on the rocky shores of Casco Bay, watching the ships roll in.

The sun was bright today!

Maine's shoreline is so beautiful. I can't get enough of it. We really need to get up to Acadia!

The Annie C. Maguire shipwrecked right here on Christmas Eve 1886, despite clear conditions.  Thankfully, everyone lived!

One of my favorite facts about the Portland Head Light is that it was dedicated in 1791 by the Marquis de Lafayette! (Human for scale.)

I love this little bit about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  No matter where you go in New England, Longfellow seems to follow you.  

Nerd alert:  I also love benchmarks.  I have to admit - I've seen a lot of National Geodetic Survey benchmarks, but never a National Ocean Survey benchmark!

Todd is explaining to Natalie about the waves, probably.

Me and my girl, who is definitely taller than me, but her shoes have a bit of elevation to them. WHY ARE ALL OF TODD'S PICTURES BLURRY?  Oh well, I like this picture anyway.

I wonder aloud how climate change will affect this beautiful national landmark.

This one was taken from a bit farther out from the lighthouse, as we headed up toward the Battery Hobart.

Look! Natalie is touching the top of the Portland Head Light!

Look!  Grant is touching the top of the Portland Head Light!

After we walked down to the Battery Hobart (which we actually missed because we were looking for bathrooms), we all walked up to the Battery Blair where we learned that "In the largest class of gun batteries available in the nation’s arsenal, the reinforced-concrete Battery Blair was mounted with two Breechloading Rifles on Disappearing Carriage Mounts, each firing a 12-inch diameter, 1070-pound shell up to eight miles."  It was built in 1903 - only the guns themselves were out of date by the time World War I rolled around.

The Fort Williams Park website says, " On the day after Pearl Harbor, Battery Blair was practice fired, and the resulting concussion blew out the ends of wooden garages in the field in front of the battery. Obsolete, the battery was never fired again. Filled in after acquisition by the town, the half-excavated battery is now the Battery Blair Memorial."  Oh boy.

That didn't last long.  Well, at least it makes for an interesting story - and it provides nice views of Casco Bay!

After our trip to Fort Williams Park and the Portland Head Light, we went back into the city to go on an afternoon harbor cruise.  Natalie and Grant found a piece of the Berlin wall (which they found strange, having lived in Germany for so long) down by the harbor.

We found this really cool, quiet spot between Portland Pier and Custom House Wharf while we waited a bit for our harbor cruise.  This side is the Custom House Wharf side, and is the location of the Harbor Fish Market.

She might actually be a mermaid???

Not gonna lie, this might have been my FAVORITE find in all of Portland!  Unfortunately, due to some graffiti and obvious desecration of the marks (see the two high and low marks that would be on the wooden pole on the bottom right, I think?), there isn't much left here.  People suck.

We finally boarded the harbor cruise and one of the first things we passed was Bug Light in South Portland.  It's actually the "Portland Breakwater Lighthouse" but it's affectionately known as Bug Light due to it's small size.

The Bug Light area was formerly a World War II shipyard, but is now home to a bunch of ugly oil tanks.

We even cruised down to see the Portland Head Light from another view! 

Ahhh, she's pretty from all angles!

The cruise continued on down around the islands, including around Great Diamond Island where an eagle's nest was situated among the tree tops.

Our guide said to look closely near the top of the tree in the middle - and there it was!  But I guess my quest to see an eagle in the wild will have to wait until another day because no one was home.

However, as we came back toward the city, we passed Halfway Rock and saw this seal swimming around! I think this was the high point of the boat ride for Grant and I!

We got a nice view of Fort Gorges on the way back, which was modeled after Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Our guide pointed out that it has a bunch of greenery and shrub growing on the roof that was put there to protect the gunpowder magazines from attacks.  Unfortunately, the fort was actually never used since like many other forts around here, the artillery that it was built for was outdated before they could finish the fort.  It was a storage facility during the World Wars though.

It was windy as we pulled back into port and Grant had fun fighting the wind on the upper deck.

Alas, the boat ride was over and it was time to try to find an early dinner (cause the Celtics were on!)  I think Wharf Street is one of the prettiest streets in all of Portland.

We stopped at the Independent Ice Co for dinner.  Which, contrary to popular belief, is NOT an ice cream shop!

It's actually a WHISK(E)Y AND BOURBON BAR and restaurant!  Ah. That's why I bookmarked it in Google! Todd ordered the smoked rye Manhattan and it literally came with smoke! He was very amused.

Todd got the lobster roll...

...while I got the bone-in pork chop with risotto and apple chutney! It was awesome!

Walking back to the car after a fun-filled day, we passed this vine covered building that I liked on Union Street.

We went back to the hotel to watch the Celtics WIN to take them to the NBA FINALS against Golden State which made our second round of Holy Donut THAT MUCH SWEETER.

Of course, in true Bailey luck fashion, there was big accident on 95 South near York that closed the highway down for about a half hour.  But we didn't let that ruin our trip!

Until next time, Portland (Maine!)