Trending
Over the last few weeks, I've shared about nature excursions on our family's long-anticipated yearly vacation to Maine. We also spent a day in Portland, sightseeing and window shopping less than an hour’s drive from where we stayed.
First we stopped in a doughnut shop near the docks on the edge of town, called The Holy Donut, and sampled their wares. The shop’s claim to fame is that they use Maine-grown potatoes. The pastries in question were dense, not overly sweet or too oily (my typical critiques of donuts).
I chose a lemon blueberry donut and enjoyed it - although not quite as much as I liked Euphoric Donuts, when they were open in Morgantown.
Strolling through the historic district, we stopped in to enjoy some eye candy at Edgecomb pottery, a shop which has been around for decades and which my father enjoys visiting. They almost exclusively use glazes which form a striking pattern of crystals. The pottery pieces come in many colors, each one of a kind, and unique to this shop.
From there, we walked to Liberty Graphics. I'd wandered into this local t-shirt print shop when visiting a few years ago.
This shop sells Maine printed T-shirts using water-based inks and offers unique graphic designs. Many of the graphics are Maine-themed, others just general nature-themed.
Last time I visited, I picked out a milkweed-themed (reminding me of all the milkweed plants growing around my house) t-shirt for myself, a monarch butterfly shirt for my daughter so we would coordinate, and an astronomy-themed shirt for my father.
This visit, a locally themed graphic caught my eye: an artwork of different types of seaweed. It reminded me of beach-combing while visiting grandparents in Maine. The types of seaweed represented on the shirt were familiar to me from these childhood beach walks.
Local cuisine, not always easy to find anymore, was also in evidence. Lobster rolls were ubiquitous, as they are all along the Maine coast. At Mr. Tuna, a sushi restaurant, all the fish except the salmon is locally sourced.
I’m always excited to see local cuisine, as I am when restaurants in Morgantown and Preston County serve local meats or veggies, or locally brewed beer.
At home, I enjoy stopping into pubs and such during special events, such as jazz nights or artisan markets. I know of a brewery in the DC area which operates a plant nursery along with a cafe; definitely a fun combo.
In Portland, a shop called Terrarium serving local brews and snacks also offers a terrarium building experience, providing a jar, rocks, soil, plants, a bit of wood, and some bugs along with tools and guidance. I chatted with the owner, and learned that he had spent some time in Morgantown. He reminisced about working at the old downtown Black Bear Burritos.
We visited the Portland Museum of Art, where so much world quality art was displayed locally in a small city. We enjoyed looking at paintings by the impressionists including Monet and Toulouse-Lautrec, modernists like Picasso and works by Rodin. We found enough of interest to enjoy and occupy us for much of the afternoon.
Speaking of small cities having great art, here in Morgantown, I plan to visit the WVU Art Museum to see their current exhibit of Blanche Lazzell, a world renowned painter and print maker who grew up in West Virginia.
I brought back from my Maine interlude lots of impressions and memories and am now ready for what fall and winter will bring in my West Virginia home.