Whoopie

The clouds parted and today turned out to be a beautiful day to be out and about in Portland. We had a busy day sightseeing around Portland. Our trolley tour took us to the oldest federal lighthouse, The Portland Head Light, commissioned by George Washington. It's said to be the most photographed lighthouse in the country. It was quite picturesque with the waves crashing against the rocky coast in the background. What I like most about Maine is its very limited commercial business. Portland prides itself on all of the independent businesses; it makes it a unique place to visit. Also, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived in Portland--Paul Revere's Ride (the one if by land, two if by sea poet).
I certainly got a taste of Maine today: haddock, whoopie pie, Shipyard Pumpkinhead beer, and lobster. Delish! Sidenote: lobster is plentiful in Maine, it's what they're known for. But, back in the day, they thought it was terrible. So terrible, in fact, they used to only feed it to prisoners (no more than 3x a week, because any more would be inhumane).
We drove to Freeport to check out the L.L. Bean flagship store...I mean compound. It is open 24/7/365. They don't even have locks on the doors--I checked! It's HUGE!!! An outlet mall has built up around it, but a very cool one. They've moved into the original building on the street, keeping the character intact. Abercrombie & Fitch is in the old public library.
I ate my first (peel myself and eat) boiled lobster. It was like a giant crawfish which means it had 20x as much gook, too. I thought it smelled unpleasant; I prefer crab legs and crawfish.