Regatta Cruise #11 2016

 No #9 or #10.  Sure wish I hadn't lost those emails.  I do have all the rest for this trip, however.   Here goes.

My Retatta Cruise #11 

 Fri, Nov 4, 2016 

Hello once again, 

Our next stop was Portland, Maine. We loved Maine....it is quaint and clean and the people are so nice. Charming place. I hear the winters suck though. 

 Our ship was docked right in town and we were able to walk the area easily. We arranged for a tour later in the afternoon that would take us out to the famous Portland Head Lighthouse and a Portland area tour. 

We first went in search of a picturesque place to have a lobster roll.....the famous sandwich for this area is a must eat. Absolutely delicious and it was the perfect place to enjoy, right next to all the lobster boats and traps. 

We did a bit of shopping and playing tourist in the nearby area. I found a place that had donuts made from potatoes and they were yummy. Our tour took us through areas of Portland that were too far to walk to and seeing all the lovely well kept homes and the little neighborhood shops just made us like Maine even more. There were also lots of boats out on the water on another beautiful day.

 We traveled down the coast about twenty miles going through old neighborhoods and ended at a park where the Portland Lighthouse is located. A classic beauty of a lighthouse as you can see. They say that Longfellow was inspired by this place to write his famous poem, "The Lighthouse". He used to walk here and chat with the keepers back in the day. 

 On the way back to Portland we crossed a long bridge and could see the two cruise ships that were here that day and hundreds of other smaller boats in harbors or out in the bay. 

We heard about a restaurant that served whole Maine lobster and was located on a small ship called DiMillo's. It was still warm out and we got a seat on the bow outdoors with lovely views of the area. Joyce went all in and got an entire lobster. I was too lazy to go to the trouble, and had been eating quite a bit of lobster in other venues, so passed. The sunset was colorful and we sailed away to Rockport the next day. 

 We anchored off Rockport, which is lovely, but we had our sights set on Camden which was about fifteen miles North. We had reservations at a Thai restaurant called Long Grain that was highly recommended by one of my neighbors' that moved from Maine to Kauai. Since we love Thai and the attempts at Asian food on the ship were not that great, we were ready for something different. We arrived too early for lunch so walked through this tiny town to see the sights. We came upon the Camden Yacht Club that, though not open, had Adirondack chairs out front with a lovely view of the famously beautiful harbor. We sat in them for quite a while. Aaaaaaah. So relaxing. Lunch was as advertised.....quite good. A little different from other Thai food we've enjoyed through the years but not disappointing for sure. 

 We took a cab back to Rockland and the driver was kind enough to take us a bit out of the way to Rockport which is a tiny harbor between the two towns. I noticed that there was an RV park nearby....humm? 

 Back in Rockland we had a beer at the restaurant located next to the tender pier and admired the view. The sailaway from this area was lovely and made me wish I had a small boat and a few months of good weather. On to Canada! Gayle