How's that for an exciting title...??? Doesn't that just suck you in and get you all giddy with expectation?? Well, I must say, after reading Jen's blog on her flight of fancy, I felt like our usual trip to Portland, Friday, looked rather bleak in comparison...no remote new places with whimsical names like Goose Rocks Beach or Biddeford Pool...or obscure quaint shops like Lavender Creek or culinary delights of orange cranberry scones and chocolate marzipan. We didn't even venture to anything as exciting as Maine Cottage or L.L. Bean.
Nope, I'm afraid the height of our on-road adventure took us to the plebian malls of the totally nondescript, gaudily familiar chain-store nightmare of Dollar Tree, Office Depot, and McDonalds...dessert being a tootsie pop and a few gummy bears from Dollar Tree (a rarity for our kiddos!). We did manage to slip in a brickoven pizza from Whole Foods and, of course, my ever-present savior of the road-trip, Starbucks venti misto with 4 raw sugars. Even the library was rather unwelcoming with all of its no-end-in-sight renovation going on and the entire children's section moved to some distant public school somewhere down the road with a new confusing maze of hours and restrictions. I mentioned to the lovely librarian ladies at the circulation desk that we REALLY missed the children's section and they both lamented immediately in unison, "So do we!!!" And I think it's hard on me...it has to be excruciating for them!
It was rainy and the park was too wet to play at and it's now getting dark by 6:30. So what can I say to liven up the usual usual...?? Well, despite the fact that my favorite shops in Old Port were already closed, the window shopping is still lovely and fun. I do manage to find inspiration in displays and window boxes. Plus, the drive down was absolutely spectacular with amazing trees in firey foliage and a rural, passive quietness that emanates from this region as it settles and stills itself for winter and slowly kisses the bustling, vibrant summer good-bye. And, last but certainly not least, is that I'll take the Portland skyline at night, the changes of tide in the harbors, the random sailboats, bridges, rivers, and by-ways of Maine as my usual usual any day!