Oliver Moss

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.

( Read more... )

I'd taken an overnight flight to Boston. As I said in my previous post, it was a rocky flight. Using air travel to get away from an historic atmospheric event means serious turbulence.

My connection to Portland was on a on smol plane. How smol?



Fortunately, it was not the smallest plane I've been on so I was pretty chill about it. I was just 'oh hey, two propellers instead of one!' Though the two little kids on the flight did not see it the same way. One kid was having a kicking, screaming meltdown behind the pilot's seat and at one point was kicking the pilot's chair. Also, it was raining pretty solidly and we were mostly in the cloud layer, so I didn't get to sneak in any flightseeing shots. Still, it was pretty cool to be on the plane.

( Then came more trip complications... )