As summer gets closer and closer to ending, my fiancée and I thought it would be a good idea to spend a week at a place where we haven't been to before. We decided to check out Maine, the northern-most state of New England. The drive was not too long and the compared to New Jersey and New York, the climate is a bit cooler.

This would be my fiancée's first time visiting Maine. For me, this is actually my second time. When I was a child, my family drove up to Bar Harbor for vacation. While I would've liked to check out Bar Harbor again after so many years, the drive would've been too long. As a result, we agreed to spend the first half of our trip in Portland and head a bit further north to Brunswick for the second half.

The first half of our trip in Portland is almost done, so here are some of the stuff we did.

Fort Allen Park

After we checked into our Airbnb in South Portland and ate dinner at Becky's Diner (more on that later), we spent some time walking at Fort Allen Park as the sun went down. The scenery of the Casco Bay was really beautiful as the the falling sun painted the sky orange.

The park got dark pretty quickly as the sun finished setting, so we decided to come back to the park early next morning in hopes to see the sun rise. We are not early bird people, so it was a bit of a challenge to get out of bed at around 5 am. However, we managed to catch a glimpse of the sun peaking above the surface at Fort Allen Park albeit not from the best angle.

We walked down the hill to the shoreline where we could see all the boats more up close and I was able to take a pretty nice picture of the early morning sun reflecting off the water.

Fort Williams Park & the Portland Head Lighthouse

The next park we went to was Fort Williams Park where the Portland Head Lighthouse was located. As this was a bit out of the way from Portland, we saw a lot more nature and were able to instantly smell the sea. There were a wide array of asters (a type of flowers) and bumblebees who pollinated them.

We saw the lighthouse up close, which was really tall, and my fiancée bought a postcard from the gift shop. After that, we went to the shoreline and climbed down some rocks to get a nice faraway view of the lighthouse and a closer look at the waves. I managed to get close to the bottom to take a few pictures of the waves crashing against the rocks. I had to be careful as some of the rocks were wet and covered with moss, which made them slippery.

Bug Light Park

The last park we went was Bug Light Park. I wasn't as impressed with this park as the Fort Williams Park as there was not as much nature. However, the scenery was still very nice and sitting on the bench watching the boats travel over the Casco Bay was extremely relaxing. The lighthouse, as you may have guessed from its name, is substantially smaller than the Portland Head Lighthouse.

Actually, the highlight of visiting Bug Light Park was Grandpa's Specialty Smoked Meats. There was a couple that had a stand at the park who was cooking some maplewood bacon and sausages. We tried out some of their bacon and it was very delicious. We could taste the smokiness and it easily outclassed the bacon you would usually find in supermarkets. If you ever visit this park, definitely try out their stuff.

Speaking of food, here are some other things we tried.

The Food (and Drinks)

For our first meal in Portland, we went to Becky's Diner. My fiancée ordered a lobster roll and I ordered a platter of fried scallops. Having tasted both, we felt that the lobster and scallops were very fresh. The coleslaw was solid, and the fries were nice and crispy. Our only complaint was how much the diner cranked up the A/C.

After we walked in Fort Allen Park to see the sunrise, we each ordered a donut at Holy Donut for breakfast. The fresh lemon donut was extremely well made with the lemon zest really bringing out the flavor. A lot of the lemon-flavored pastries we've had before tend to just have the lemony smell and nothing much else. The coffee cake donut was also very good.

We also visited two breweries, Belleflower and Hardshore. At Belleflower, I had the Dew Drop which was a raspberry lime hard seltzer and my fiancée had the Thunder, a margarita gose. At the Hardshore Distilling Company, we tried out a variety of its gin cocktails. All of the drinks were top notch. Also, Hardshore had a pretty damn impressive distillation column behind the bar and we were allowed to take a picture of its sheer glory.

Stay tuned for my post on Brunswick.