Sorry about the tardiness in this, crazy busy lately.
Anyway, Saturday was the one bad weather day. We woke up and it was chilly and rainy, so we decided to get our breakfast delivered to our Copley House unit. We ordered from
http://www.yelp.com/biz/trident-booksellers-and-caf%C3%A9-boston-2 which is a bookstore with a cafe. I know that the whole concept of "breakfast delivered" is kinda eh, but we both enjoyed the food as well as being able to be lazy. Once we ate, showered, and got the room cleaned and our stuff packed, we were able to leave everything we didn't want to lug around all day with the office workers at Copley House which was very clutch. We grabbed a Lyft from Copley House to Sam Adams for the brewery tour
https://www.samueladams.com/brewery-and-craft/our-brewery. My friend from Lowell met up with us at Sam Adams and took the tour with us like a champ (everytime someone comes into town he's stuck taking this tour). If you've seen one beer tour you've kind of seen them all, but the guide we had was knowledgeable and funny and we got to taste 3 different Sam Adams brews. It's definitely worth it as it's a free tour, you get to keep your tasting glass, and you can get free perfect pints (their signature scientifically designed glasses) at a nearby bar. Speaking of, that bar is called Doyle's. It's packed, especially on a post tour rainy day Saturday, but sure enough we got our sweet perfect pint glasses with our order of more delicious Sam Adams (brick red doesn't exist where I live, so we really enjoyed that). We got a ride back to the Copley House office, grabbed our luggage they so kindly held for us, and then got a lift to the airport...not to go home but to rent a car. We got a tiny Hyundai and hopped on I95 and headed north to Maine. From Logan to Portland was an under 2 hour drive, and we checked into our B&B called the Mercury Inn
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g40827-d77374-Reviews-Mercury_Inn-Portland_Maine.html. We got unpacked and situated, got clean, then strolled down to Commercial which is the street right against the water. We explored a little bit and wandered into
http://infinitimaine.com/ and enjoyed some of the greatest cocktails we've ever had. These bartenders are so meticulous creating the drinks, it's something to witness. I had 2 old fashioneds with their own "white oat whiskey" which was so phenomenal that we bought a bottle to bring home which has since been opened multiple times. After 2 rounds we were really hungry and since we were in Portland, lobster was on the brain. We looked into a few possibilities before finally settling on
http://www.dimillos.com/restaurant/. I got a crab stew and a steak oscar and the wife got a 1.5 boiled lobster. By the time we were done it was pretty late, we were tired and buzzed, so we headed back to the Mercury. The city of Portland just felt safe, we walked everywhere the entire time and had no problems at all.
Sunday
Every morning the owners of Mercury Inn cook a great, fresh breakfast. We woke up, had breakfast, got clean, then got downtown to peruse all the shops. Downtown Portland is such a cool area, we went into tons of different stores and were blowing money fast on all kinds of stuff. We got the obligatory locally crafted xmas ornament, xmas cards, dry rub, hot sauce, hard cider, some clothes, and all kinds of stuff. Once 1:00 hit we had a fresh Shipyard Pumpkinhead and watched some of the football games, but at 1:45 we had to head over to the docks to board the Frances for a 2:00 wine tasting sail from
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Re...and_Maine.html. Other than the fact I couldn't watch the Browns pummel the Steelers, what could be better than being on a sail boat in the Portland Harbor on a sunny October afternoon, eating cheese, and drinking 5 different types of cabs with your wife? It was great. We saw some seals as well. Once we reached land again, we went to celebrate the Browns win at
http://www.yelp.com/biz/novare-res-portland where we chilled in their beer garden. It was a very cool hipstery place but everyone was friendly and tons of drink choices. After a a few rounds (theme!) we headed back to the mercury to drop all of our stuff of, and then we headed out to find some great local pizza. After researching we walked to
http://www.bonobopizza.com/ and had some amazing wood fired pizza. After that we went to the top floor of the Westin
http://www.westinportlandharborview.com/ and had a night capper.
Monday
Woke up and had another delicious breakfast thanks to the owners of the Mercury, checked out, packed up the little Hyundai, and drove back downtown to spend a couple more hours there (as well as $$$). Once we were content we headed back south and stopped in Beverly, Ma so my wife could try and find one of her ancestors who had died in 1753, and sure enough we found the old New England tombstone. Then we went a couple miles and go to Salem. We figured we had to stop in Salem in October if we had the chance, so we walked around, checked out the memorial and all the action on the streets and got lunch at
http://www.redssandwichshop.com/After that we took basically one street all the way into Boston and lounged around Logan during the baby stages of Ebolamania until it was time to go home.
We loved our trip! Thanks for all the input!
