Hey friends!! I wanted to share about our little weekend trip to Portland, Maine! If you ever go to Portland, let me know what you think of it. 🙂 Stuart & I loved it, even though it was a little smaller of a city than we were expecting – it was beautiful and had some amazing seafood!
On Friday night, I flew to Boston (where Stu lives) and we went straight to our favorite restaurant of all time… Fuji at Ink Block! It’s an amazing Japanese restaurant – we always get lobster Rangoons & wagyu beef fried rice! I highly recommend making a reservation if you want to eat here, otherwise expect long waits during the weekends. We stayed the night in Boston at Stuart’s place & then drove up to Portland on Saturday morning… after stopping at Target of course!
Once we grabbed our Starbucks & everything else we needed, we started the 2 hour drive. The leaves are just starting to change and it’s finally starting to look like fall, even though it definitely didn’t feel like it this weekend! We made it to Portland around noon & went to the Portland Head Lighthouse where there was a beautiful view of the ocean. There’s a cute little park with food trucks and walking trails along the water, definitely a cool historic place to check out!!
Stuart’s brother recommended that we get lobster rolls from Bite Into Maine which is supposedly “the best traditional lobster roll in all of great Portland” & I have to agree! I’ve had a few lobster rolls along the east coast, and this has to be the best one!! We ordered at the food truck by the lighthouse and got the Maine Lobster Roll (made with mayo & chives) & the Connecticut Lobster Roll (made with butter). The Maine Lobster definitely wins that battle!
Right: Connecticut Lobster Roll
After eating our lunch, we decided to check out some breweries since we both love craft beer! First, we stopped at Liquid Riot which wasn’t really our style… but, we tried a few beers, so if you go there I’d suggest trying the Raspy Trouble! The next brewery is probably the most well known in Portland – Allagash Brewing Company. We both got a flight and our favorites were seasonal beers – my favorite was Farm to Face and Stuart’s was Saison Gratis. If you end up going to either brewery, let me know what you end up getting! Of course I forgot to take pictures at the breweries – but I linked the websites for you to check out!
For this trip, we decided to stay in an Airbnb which was a beautiful townhouse that was cheaper than most hotel rooms in the area. I’ll link our Airbnb here – it was reasonably priced and impeccably clean! It’s a brand new build not too far from downtown Portland if you don’t mind driving! We hung out for a few hours, ate cheese & crackers and watched some football – Miami lost to OSU, no surprise there!
On Saturday night, we had dinner at Fore Street which is one of the best restaurants in Portland. I ended up having lobster (shocker!) and also tried mussels for the first time… I’m a really picky eater so that was really new for me! Unfortunately, I wasn’t a huge fan of them but I’m glad I tried them! After dinner, we went back to the airbnb and planned what we were going to do on Sunday and got some rest!
We were originally going to get brunch on Sunday, but we ended up eating breakfast at the Airbnb – we had stopped at Target on the way to Portland to get coffee, snacks and bagels so we figured we shouldn’t waste them! It was also really nice to not feel rushed to get ready in the morning.
Stuart’s brother recommended that we go to Peaks Island which is a 15 minute ferry ride from the mainland. On the island, we rented a golf cart for 2 hours and drove around the whole island which was so much fun seeing the cute houses and views of the Atlantic Ocean!
This weekend was much warmer than I was hoping it would be – it was almost 90 on Sunday… so I was a little hot in the clothes I was wearing, but it’s a super cute outfit & I was very excited for fall to start! It’s my favorite time of the year besides the holidays. I linked my whole outfit below!
American Eagle Jeggings (wearing a 6 short)
Lewit Cara Pointed Toe Mule (Currently sold out, I’ll let you know if they restock!)
After exploring around the island, we stopped and had lunch at a little cafe overlooking the water and had some more seafood! After we finished eating, we made our way over to the ferry to get back to Portland. By the time we got to the car, it was about 3pm so we left Portland to go back to Boston. I know I mentioned we’d be going to an apple orchard or pumpkin patch this weekend, but we didn’t make it to one! Stay tuned though, I’ll be sharing some places to go in Minnesota! Once we got back, we watched football & ate leftovers from Fuji! I flew back to Minnesota this morning at 6 am to get to work by a decent time.
Travel tip: If you fly on Monday morning instead of Sunday night, flights are usually cheaper & you can spend more time wherever you are! I usually do this when I go visit Stuart since he lives pretty close to the airport, and will be doing this when I come back for Thanksgiving in Boston!
If you’ve read this far, thank you! Travel is something I’m really passionate about, and I love sharing my adventures with you! If you love to travel and have any recommendations for fun places to visit or questions on places I’ve been, let’s connect! Send me an email at genuinelygabbi@gmail.com.
Genuinely,
Gabbi
