Happy Wednesday! Hope you all had a great long weekend & are enjoying your short week!
Scroll all the way down to the bottom for my Portland recs in list form!
I think my body is finally just throwing in the towel. Was at the hospital last night for an asthma attack so I am JACKED UP on steroids right now and my left arm is numb and tingly and maybe I'm having a heart attack? Good news is though that we are LIVE FROM MY JOB where no one is going to make me exert any legitimate amount of effort today because I am a feeble little baby.
That being said, I have plenty of time to tell you all about our trip to Portland last weekend! Rob and I have been trying to find a good time to head up there this fall & with Amherst having an away game/the opportunity for a 4 day weekend, we (like literally every other person on the entire east coast) both took Friday off and headed up to Maine.
As always, I waited until the absolute last minute to decide to go to a super trendy town, in New England, on a holiday weekend, in the fall, & thus realized if we wanted to stay there, we were going to have to pay stupid money for one of the 4 hotels that wasn't fully booked. I'd seen great reviews of The Press Hotel (which is, confirmed, super pretty) but I'm not currently in the business of paying THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS for a hotel room there (supply and demand, baby) or $400 to stay at a Holiday Inn near the Airport. Therefore, I pushed off picking a hotel room until even further notice (2 days before leaving).
LUCKY FOR ME my procrastination paid off for once and we ended up getting a beautiful hotel room at an inn called The Danforth. The hotel room we stayed in was running $600+ a night BUT the inn does a "last minute" promotion where you can get a hotel room there for as little as $169 a night including parking/breakfast. I think ultimately the deal is just $250 off the originally price if you book less than 72 hours ahead of your stay, but that could've just been because it was a holiday weekend. Maybe all the rooms are $169 a night last minute every other time, unclear, but if you're heading up to Portland I recommend checking it out!
The inn is sooooo cute. It's decorated in this asian/feminine/modern style which somehow works so well in such an old home. The building has been a private home, prep school, speakeasy, I think a few other things? and yes I'm more or less telling you I'm convinced its haunted though I cannot confirm. There's a cupola on the roof where you can go sit, a really pretty garden, balcony lounge, beautiful dining rooms/lounge, and a cool little billiards room that is DEFINITELY haunted (again, cannot confirm but like, come on) that used to be the speakeasy. Our room was so comfortable & cute and since I'm currently in the business of getting a new ID (mine is floating around somewhere in the city of Boston most likely being used by an underage student) it was perfect for bringing back our favorite pizza and watching the Sox that night.
Before we even checked into our hotel, we went straight to Duckfat. I'm big into poutine and also big into milkshakes, so any place that serves both of those to me without judgement (maybe I am having a heart attack right now) is two thumbs up in my book. The line wasn't as bad as we thought it would be (about a 20 minute wait) given we didn't go at peak meal time. We were told the best plan is to get there around 11am as it can get REALLY crowded at lunch. It's in a cute little area & your buzzer has a wide enough range that you can walk around a little bit instead of just desperately standing at the door, waiting like a stray dog, which is what Rob and I chose to do. Wait at the door, that is. Just stand there and wait and hope that meant we got our fries 5 minutes sooner than we would have if we took a lap. Priorities.
We ordered fries. and poutine. and the sauce flight. I got a Maine Blueberry Milkshake and Rob got the Duckfat original (I actually liked his better and I LOVE blueberries). THE BEST poutine I have ever had, hands down. I have eaten an abnormal amount of poutine in my life & I cannot recommend highly enough getting poutine here with duck confit on top. I maybe ate the equivalent of an entire duck in a half hour but it's not like we went to Portland for their booming health and wellness scene. I came to eat until I hate myself. I am definitely having a heart attack right now hahaaaaaafuck.
** this next paragraph is me ripping on Susan Collins, skip down to read more about Maine and also skip speaking to me ever again if you think this whole situation is at all okay.
We checked into our hotel and spent some time looking around while I mourned Maine's very own spineless senior senator, Susan Collins, dropping the fucking ball :) I never want to become the kind of tone-deaf blogger that ignores significant political/cultural/blehblehbleh events and just posts where I got my shoes from. It's very important to me that women take politics seriously & participate and educate themselves. Turning a blind eye does no one any favors. I know a lot of people think their vote and their voice don't matter and will isolate them from their peers - I promise you that anyone who has a problem with you because you stand for something you really believe in isn't worth your time. I was really hesitant to come out so vehemently against the Trump candidacy, especially since at the time I ran a blog with a pretty significant following of outspoken republicans, but once I did I couldn't believe how positive of a response I received. Sometimes you just need to see someone else articulate the way you're feeling so that you can feel confident and unwavering in your own beliefs. I'm happy to be the loud-mouth that starts the conversation. If you ever want to talk politics/culture/etc., vent your feelings, ask questions, whatever, I absolutely do not have all of the answers but I understand the current political climate can be really scary & isolating for a lot of people and I want to help as best I can. It's no longer a Democrat v. Republican issue & I think its that exact sentiment of party loyalty that is really hurting our country right now & doing a lot of damage. It will never hurt you to care about the well-being of other people.
SO ANYWAY, PORTLAND.
Portland is a great town for walking so we spent a lot of time exploring and grabbing some coffee. Old Port has a ton of cute little stores (no shortage of home decor stores, my favorite being Folly 101), coffee shops, art galleries, and gourmet food/ alcohol shops - I am ALL about that. The Arts District was a lot. Like, every guy looks like they're either Action Bronson or Zac Brown. I think my Portland version of asking people "are you Kylie Jenner" would be "are you Mumford and sons" but we knew what we were getting into. What I didn't *love* were the amount of PETA people wearing Guy Fawkes masks and holding IPads that were playing videos of little piggy's getting their tails ripped off. I...honestly I still ate a pizza with sausage on it after but it's kind of a vibe killer. Did love, however, the cute little outdoor concert place they had just to the side of the hot dog cart that was parked directly next to PETA. Rob and I had already ordered our pizza at Otto (its one of our favorite pizza place in Boston and the original is in Portland! The eggplant ricotta pizza is YUMMMM) so we hungout at that concert area for awhile, eagerly awaiting our Pumpkin Ricotta, Sage, and Sausage pizza in the light of both the moon & the screen of all those PETA IPads.
lol @ me in Rob's Amherst PJ's he's never once worn. A is for Ally.
Got back to the hotel room with our pizza and wine, watched the Red Sox, I ate a hotel bed chocolate and went into anaphylaxis, managed to not go to the hospital even though I definitely should have, all good, I lived. You know that video of Miley Cyrus when she's like "I'M BAAAAACK MOTHERFUCKERS! THESE MOTHERFUCKERS TRIED TO KILL ME! THEY TRIED TO KILL ME!!" that was exactly how I felt waking up this morning with my hospital bracelets still on. Nuts? cancelled. Asthma? over. Me? Still slightly concerned about my cardiovascular system but definitely alive.
All things considered, I slept great. I was a bottle of wine, 2 hours of vomitting, and like, 3 benedrylls deep but perhaps that's the perfect sleepy time formula? Don't recommend trying it but like, got the job done. We took our time waking up because I felt like I was run over by a freight train, but still made it to both the complimentary breakfast AND The Holy Donut. Donuts are one of those things that I was kinda "meh" about prior to my gluten allergy but whenever anything is gluten free now I figure I might as well try it. Turns out donuts are really good. The line at the Exchange street location was INSANE so we went to the Park Ave location and it was only about a 15-20 minute wait. I'm sure the other one is cuter inside/more of a tourist draw but I reiterate, I should've been hospitalized the night prior, and I just wanted a donut. I got a dark chocolate sea salt, a cinnamon sugar, and a chia donut (all gluten free) - LORD. I have lived. SO GOOD. So good and Rob goes "I feel bad even saying this but the not gluten free ones are so much better" SO for those of you that can process wheat - take Rob's word for it. Fire donuts. I believe their number one seller is the sweet potato donut & that was Rob's favorite!
Def needed a walk after that one. The whole trip was a lot of coffee/hot chocolate and walking and I loveeeed it. The weather was perfect and the city wasn't so packed that it was difficult to get around or particularly long lines for anything (which, begs the question - WHY were hotels so booked and expensive?? My theory is that half the people in Portland were just spending their entire days in an underground craft beer society but like, who knows). I had wanted to check out Tandem Bakery at some point on our trip and REALLY wasn't feeling like I could do another night up there given my nut-episode ( "had to get that nut out" I said, in public, loudly in reference to my body rejecting itself all night) so we forced a 3rd breakfast into the morning & stopped there to get some coffee. No gluten free options, not that I could've eaten one if I tried, but the food looked so good & my hot chocolate was literally just like, melted chocolate with maybe some milk in it. That good good. It was cute, kinda like if Urban Outfitters was a coffee shop, and made me hyper-aware of my lack of tattoos/beanies. I have 0 cool factor going for me.
The Old Port District was definitely my favorite place in Portland! I promised Rob we'd get him a lobster roll so while we walked off the donuts, stopped at some cute stores like Portland's Dry Good Co. (my favorite clothing store we visited - I need ski season immediately), saw Malia Obama and wasn't creepy about it, and ultimately ended up at the Highroller Lobster Co. before we headed out. The wait was long but definitely worth it (plus they just do the "text when your table is ready" thing so that gave us another hour to walk around). I got a hot dog because shellfish allergy, we shared REALLLLY good old bay fries, and Rob said that was one of the best lobster rolls he's ever eaten. The restaurant had a really cute atmosphere, a great bar, (I swallowed my pride and got the O.S.V and it was SO good/I was rocked for part of the ride home. I'm sorry Robert.) and was playing the Land Before Time on the TV instead of college football which was a cute little disconnect for a moment & the most Portland thing of all time.
I was super bummed that I wasn't feeling good and we couldn't squeeze another day in, but hopefully we can get back up there when I have an I.D and do some brewery tours/be drunk enough to not feel quite as guilty about the food we're eating. Portland actually has the most restaurants per capita in the United States & we can honestly say we didn't get food anywhere that wasn't worth talking about. I can imagine it gets pretty cold up there in the winter so if you can get there while its still fall, I totally recommend it! Maybe we'll test it out in the winter and report back but winter is skiing time and I only have so many vacation days, ugh. Let me know if you've ever been/have recommendations beyond these for us to check out next time or add to this list!
Please send good vibes that my arm stops cramping/I don't have a heart attack!
Portland Recommendations!
Stay
Food
Otto (a few locations in Boston too!)
Fore Street (didn't make it there because we left early but its a top 50 restaurant in the U.S!)
Eventide (also in Boston)
Standard Baking Co. (didn't make it but it's supposed to be one of the best bakeries in the country)
Area
Shops
Next time, given I have my ID, Rob and I are definitely going to go on some brewery tours/go to the bars more. Allagash & Shipyard Brewing are both in Portland, along with a bunch of others! There's also a brewery tour bus that for $50 brings you around to a bunch of breweries in the area & hopefully we can get to next time!
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