Category: Canada/US East Coast, Fall 2023

I’ll be upfront right here, we didn’t see much of Portland.  We decided to forego an excursion here, as we have been busy enough on this cruise already.  We spent the bulk of our time shopping along Commercial Street and around the Old Port area.

One specific spot I did want to visit was Victoria Mansion, a historic house in downtown Portland.

The house was completed in 1860 as a summer home for hotelier Ruggles Sylvester Morse.  The building is recognized as one of the finest, least-altered examples of an Italianate brick home in the United States.  The woodwork in the front door is your first clue of the historic opulence that awaits inside.

This is the grand dining room.  All of the plates and glassware were custom made for the owner.  Each of the plates had the monogrammed M in the center.  Morse was ultra wealthy, and he wanted everybody to know it.  It was amazing that they still had the original settings after all of these years!

The woodwork in the dining room is amazing.  The paintwork is even more amazing!  This entire ceiling is made of plaster, and has simply been painted to look like wood.  That’s some serious painting skills!

The building changed hands a few times, and was mostly unaltered during those times.  In the late 1930’s an oil company wanted to purchase the home and demolish it to build a gas station on the site.  Fortunately it was purchased by a local, William Holmes, with the intent to turn it into a museum.  It opened in 1941 as Victoria Mansion, in honor of Queen Victoria.

In August 1944, William Holmes wrote a letter to King George asking for a souvenir of Queen Victoria’s for the museum.  The King sent back this 1869 painting from the Buckingham Palace collection.

The return letter from Buckingham Palace is adjacent to the painting.  Very cool little piece of history!

The central grand staircase must have been quite the sight for those entering the front foyer.  Nearly everything in this house is original.  You can see some scaffolding on the left where they are touching up the paint on the wall.

Love the stained glass windows.

Even the ceiling/roof is filled with stained glass!

The rear of the house is where they kept the horses, evidenced by the rusty steel rings in the wall.

The horses are long gone, but I was still able to make a friend.  If you are into history, architecture and beautiful homes, definitely check this place out!

Quick funny story.  We got off the ship late, and Tony texted me to let me know their planned itinerary (they always get up WAY early).  He texted “Heading to Holy Donut now”.  “The one on commercial”.  I totally thought there must have been a donut shop featured on a TV commercial, and Tony saw it based on the exhaustive time he spends watching TV (sarcasm…you’d be shocked with what he hasn’t seen).  I responded “must have missed that commercial”.  Little did I know he meant Commercial Street!  Ha!

Sorry for so little about Portland.  We generally hate big cities, so there’s that.  Up next, our cruise ends, and we head to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park!  Lots of beautiful shit coming up!

We arrived in Eastport, Maine quite early, but couldn’t leave the vessel until we had cleared Customs.  The US Customs officers in this Port barely looked at our passports, so this was a quick procedure.  BTW, based on the appearance of the Customs officers, this job doesn’t involve much in the way of looking at anything outside of a burger.

We didn’t have any excursions booked, so we figured we’d just wing it.  One thing in particular I wanted to do was visit West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, which is the eastern most point of the United States.  I had mentioned this to Kenton, and he was able to find a guy on the dock that had a boat and was willing to take us.  Problem solved!

Our Captain, Kinny, did an excellent job with his super fast boat!

Below is a shot of Roosevelt Campobello,  the former summer home of President Roosevelt, which is actually in New Brunswick, Canada.  Eastport is right on the border with Canada.  If you have a lot of time here, this would be a worthwhile visit, as the house is supposed to house a great museum.

Kinny pointed out this nearby rock, called Friars Rock, so called because it resembles a hooded monk in deep concentration (which is apparently more visible from the side view).  Interestingly, this rock ended up looking like this after it was used for target practice by the British Navy while they were occupying Eastport during the War of 1812.

We cruised by the little town of Lubec, which actually holds the distinction of being the eastern most “town” in the United States.  Apparently this is a bit of a local issue, with Eastport claiming to be the most eastern town, especially since East is in their name.  All that matters to me is longitude, and Lubec is east of Eastport.  Case closed.

We passed under the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge, which connects the US and Canada.

Shortly thereafter we were offshore of West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, the eastern most lighthouse in the US, and considered one of the most beautiful in Maine.

Kinny let us know that these rocks are ACTUALLY the true eastern most point in the US.  There’s a lot of “we are more east than you are” crap in this region!

Kinny advised us that the Lubec Channel Lighthouse is called “The Big Sparkplug”.  A “sparkplug lighthouse” is a design that was used quite a bit in the late 1800’s, but there are only three of them left.  This one was built in 1890, and it’s looking pretty bad.

We made a quick stop in the town of Lubec, and the place was quite depressing.  It looks like most everything is shut down, and for for the first 5 minutes we didn’t see a single person.  It was like a set from The Walking Dead.

The old cannery buildings are still here, but no longer in operation.

We decided to get off the island before the zombies made an appearance, although I’m not sure even zombies would hang out here, as there’s nothing to eat!

Upon returning to the dock, we found Kim’s boat!  We didn’t even know it was missing!

This fisherman statue has an interesting history.  It was built for a 2001 reality TV series called “Murder in a Small Town X”, which was filmed in Eastport.  There were 10 contestants who competed to solve fictional murders.  The winner of the show, Angel Juarbe Jr., received $250,000 during the finale, which aired on September 5, 2001.  Just six days later he lost his life as a first responder in the World Trade Center attacks.

Not too far away is the Nerida Eastport Mermaid.  She was taking quite the fancy to this guy!

We had some time left in Port so we walked into the residential area along the waterfront.  We had a lady driving by stop and ask us where we were from.  Guess they don’t get too many visitors out here?  Another neighbor came out from his house and chatted with us for about 10 minutes.  I think I’m going to like Maine!  We even saw a little wildlife on the roadway.

In an effort to mimic another buoy in Key West, Florida, this buoy is right on the dock, proclaiming Eastport to be the “easternmost city in the US!”  We know better, right?

I think there is a better story that Eastport should embrace instead of this “were more east than you are!”  The War of 1812 ended in December 1814, but Eastport continued to be under British control for another four years. Eastport was the last American territory occupied by the British to be returned to the United States. Except for the brief capture of two Aleutian Islands in Alaska by the Japanese in World War II, it was the last time since 1818 that United States soil was occupied by a foreign government.

I know it doesn’t fit on a t-shirt, but it’s a unique bit of history that makes them actually stand apart, at least to a history geek like me!

Up next, we visited Portland, Maine.