A Day in Port.... Portland, Maine, that is....

Today, Saturday, our ship would be docking in Portland, Maine...  but not until 11:30 a.m.  So the morning started for me and Bill with breakfast in the Windjammer Cafe around 7 a.m.  We've been eating a lot more than we usually do, so thought we'd better get in a few laps around the deck to work some of that excess off. 

After breakfast we braved the winds up on the 10th floor deck...

 If Bill looks like he's leaning into the wind it's because he is!  It takes 4 laps around the deck to get in one mile and while the whole upper deck is windy this particular part of the walk just about brought me to a stand-still.

After that walk, Bill went to one of the genealogy workshops and I headed to our room.

Remember the beautiful woman from yesterday in that cage-like thing suspended from the ceiling?  Well, today there were 4 young folks (who else has the agility and nerve?) who were suspended from that same overhead apparatus, but they were doing kind of a cross between a trapeze act and a bungee jump.

Yeah, they had safety lines attached to their harnesses, but.... YIKES!!!  They put on quite a show doing acrobatic maneuvers from those rubber bands!

I finally went back to our room and could watch from our deck as we headed into port. 

We passed that lighthouse that is now my header photo.  The Pilot Boat came out to meet us.  They bring out a ship pilot from their port...  that pilot comes aboard our ship and our ship captain turns the controls over to the local pilot to bring the ship into the harbor and to dock.  Then that pilot disembarks.  It will work the same in reverse when we leave this port.

This U.S. Coast Guard boat also escorted us into the harbor.

The scenery was beautiful as we neared Portland...

I could see this lighthouse way up on a hill...

But it was the harbor area that I thought was so beautiful...

 The were sailboats in the water and moored at the shore and the houses all along the bay....  my photo just doesn't do it justice!

We have a dear friend in Portland and when we found out that we'd be stopping here for a few hours we contacted her and made arrangements to meet.

Karen, enjoying her clam cakes and fries.

She's lived in Portland about 6 months now and is learning her way around.

We walked through the downtown area window shopping and just taking in the sights...

The trees are turning autumn colors....  there are lots of fall flowers everywhere...  there is even a "locks of love" fence (lower right) where couples declare their love by locking a padlock onto a fence.  The middle photo was a funky clothing shop (but it got cool enough that those long-johns might feel good tonight)...  and... what the heck is that lower left?  Well...  that's a utility pole that's been used many, many times to post notices...  those are all staples that have been left on that pole.

You've heard of taking candy away from a baby?

Bill loves ice cream!  He didn't really steal this little alligator's cone, but isn't that a cute way to advertise that there's a nearby ice cream shop?

And...  speaking of food.... 

I forgot to take pictures of the raw oysters and other seafood we had shortly after we met up with Karen, but we walked so much, we got hungry again - that's my lobster roll on the left, Bill's fried oysters at top right, and Karen's clam cakes at the bottom.  We all had to taste each others food...  believe me, it was all good!

Too soon our time together was over...

Karen really loves Maine and says it feels like home to her already.

Bill & I are planning to volunteer next summer at Aroostook NWR, in northern Maine, so we hope to see her again next year.

She walked us back to the dock...  we said out goodbyes... and it was time to go...

Our ship would be leaving soon...  heading up to Bar Harbor, where we'll dock tomorrow and have another day in Maine.

I know most of our fellow travelers spent the day taking excursions and other sight-seeing trips, but for us, spending the day with Karen was about as special as it gets!

That's All For Today!

P.S. - It's Sunday morning... we're coming into the bay at Bar Harbor, ME.  It's raining... kind of a drizzle.  To go ashore you have to take a tender (smaller boat that takes you from the ship to shore).  Bill & I have been to Bar Harbor in the past and we may just stay on the ship today.  After today, we'll be heading to New Brunswick and to Nova Scotia, and our MiFi is set to pick up only US phone service, so this is most likely the last post until we return to the USA next Friday.  So, take care...  we hope to see you all again soon.