Other!Portland, Days 4 & 5

[olivermoss]

One reason I chose to jump from one Portland to the other was because I'd been planning to go to Other!Portland for years now. (Since I have a few new readers, I live in Portland, Oregon and am just back from Portland, Maine.) I'd wanted to stay in a cheap AB&B on an island off the coast of Portland to skip out on fire season. But .. things like the pandemic kept meaning putting off the trip. That was why Other!Portland was on my mental list in the first place. I'd just meant to be writing and hiking in a fairly rural setting and not staying in a motel, walking the city and getting stranded random places.

I'd planned to take the ferry out to Peak's Island, my intended destination, but the guy at the tourist info office strongly recommended Mackworth instead. So, my Day 4 was mostly just going out there. I kinda wish I'd gone to Peak's anyway. I guess I will if I head out there again.

My lunch spot:


Mackworth was cute, but tiny. I think official tourism employees tend to heard the tourists toward easier hikes/walks. I need to learn to ignore them even when they are being insistent/enthusiastic. But hey, I can say I went to an old pet cemetery on an island off the coast of New England as rain set in. The original owners of the island had a pet cemetery and it's been preserved.



Chipmunk hanging out on the wall of the cemetery:



I spent a while and just sat on the coast. Everything about it was familiar. The mix of plants, how high the trees grow, the smell of Atlantic salt water drying on hot rocks in the sun, how sharp and angular the rocks digging in my legs was ... Everything about it was very New England. I expected to feel some sort of way about that, but I just didn't I tend to like familiar things, but even the familiarity of it didn't do much for me. I've only been back to New England 2x since leaving and, yeah I expected it to hit me somehow.

There was a part of me that thought maybe being back in New England it would feel like home and I belonged there and would suddenly want to move back. But I didn't. It was just sort of there.

I just stayed there at the coast for a bit, and might've hung out as evening fell but than I remembered how bad ground transportation was and how rush hour might effect that and left.

The last day I was there, my flight home left at at 6:30 PM. Due to all the problems getting around, I decided to stay near the airport. Looking at the map, I saw a large cemetery about 3 miles away that bordered onto a natural area.



So I went to Evergreen Cemetery and walked a few miles with aaaalll my stuff on my back. I wandered the nature area for a while.

Then I went to the airport like 4 hours early because yeah, I needed to ensure I made the flight.

At the airport, to secure a seat at a table so I could work a bit I had to be in a restaurant that could only bring me booze. I could not get them to also bring me water. You could only order through an ap. Water wasn't an option in the ap and ... it was all Covid safety and that's good but yeah I was tired and sunburned and could only get them to bring me booze. So I left after one drink.

Then I flew home. The Jet Blue and Cape Air seats on my way out had been fine, but AA uses the kind of seats that cramp my back. I don't know why some airplane seats are shaped like they are.

And that was my trip. A super mixed bag! I am glad I that I was able to go and I am not complaining ... except for the fact that I am still currently double charged for the Motel 6 room. I just poked Hotels.com about that.

Comments

[ihavenoarms]

nice photos

[olivermoss]

Thanks!

[bleodswean]

Great shots! And a cemetery buff to boot!

[olivermoss]

Thanks! Yeah, cemeteries are great. I need to reshoot some local ones.

[mistressofmuses]

It looks beautiful! I've never truly been to New England (though I've been out to the east coast a couple times.)

I love that cemetery shot, and the chipmunk! (But also the shot of the water and that that picture of your shoes looks so much like your profile pic!)

[olivermoss]

New England can be pretty, but it's also famous for being rugged and the beauty being a bit hard to find. Or, at least that is how New Englanders see things :) We're very into the idea that you need to walk farther, have a more trained eye to find the beauty in it ... or maybe our heads are just up our butts.

I need to get back in the habit of taking shoe pics. Different shoes, but same feet.

[mistressofmuses]

I've heard that description before - hidden beauty, and of a more rugged type. I tend to be easily swayed by having lots of trees around, so I could just be easy, lol.

[olivermoss]

I think New Englanders are just in love with the idea that it takes a ~special person to see the beauty there. Some stretches can be pretty bleak, though.