[Portland, Maine, Sep 20, 2024]

A work trip to Atlanta, GA had me eyeing national parks in the vicinity. I had to choose between New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia and Acadia National Park in Maine. I decided to go with Acadia. I would be returning to Atlanta in April 2025 and I figured I can do New River Gorge then.

I took a red-eye flight from Portland, Oregon to Boston and landed right around 8:30 am. We picked up our rental car and headed to Portland, Maine. We planned to spend the day with my friend Martha, who lives there and whom I hadn’t seen since 2019, when we gallivanted around Detroit together. She moved to Maine later in 2019 and I had yet to visit her! Plus, I looked forward to enjoying some of Portland’s famous seafood. I had a chance to experience it in 2015 while on a day trip from New Hampshire with another friend, and I looked forward to coming back!

The drive from Boston to Portland was easy and traffic-free. We arrived in Portland right around lunchtime. Martha gave us a tour of the house and we met her cute dog! But we were hungry, so it wasn’t long until we headed to Fort Williams park. One of Portland’s best lobster trucks, Bite into Maine, was there.

We ordered a 4.5-oz lobster roll for each one of us, and the total was over $100. I did a double take and thought it was a mistake at first… I guess I hadn’t realized how much inflation has impacted lobster.

After that, we took a quick stroll around Fort Williams Park. The park encompasses 90 acres on Cape Elizabeth. Its most famous landmark is the Portland Head Light, which was completed in 1791. Another popular site is the now decomissioned United States Army post Fort Williams.

We didn’t sleep all that well on the overnight flight, so we took a mid-afternoon nap while Martha finished up her workday. Then, we headed to downtown Portland for dinner.

Martha, a foodie in her own right picked Luke’s Lobster on the Pier. Luke Holden, a hird-generation Maine lobsterman, founded it in 2019. The restaurant’s roots go back to a tiny lobster roll shack Luke opened in New York City in 2009. Luke eventually came back to Maine, where he opened his own seafood purchasing and production business in 2013, over 40 counter service shack locations across the US, Japan and Singapore, and his first full-service restaurant Luke’s Lobster on the Pier in 2019. Luke’s lobster wholesaling and distribution facility on Portland Pier is attached to the restaurant and supplies it with all of its lobster and crab. Talk about local!

This time, we decided to give whole lobsters a try. The plate came with helpful instructions on how to properly crack the lobster. It was a delicious meal!

We even had room to try two classic Maine desserts – whoopie pie and blueberry pie! We gobbled them up too fast for photos, but here’s why they are so special.

Whoopie Pie is made of two round mound-shaped pieces of cake — usually chocolate, but sometimes pumpkin, gingerbread or other flavored cakes — with a sweet, creamy filling or frosting sandwiched between them. It is a New England classic and is the official state treat of Maine.

Don’t confuse the state treat with the state dessert, which is the blueberry pie! It’s because Maine produces over 90% of blueberries sold in the US. Maine blueberries, also known as lowbush blueberry or wild blueberry, are small but extra sweet and tasty.

With all this lobster and sweets in our stomachs, it was no problem going to sleep again, despite the afternoon nap. Let’s call it carbo-loading for the hikes in Acadia.