Tourists In Portland on Labor Day

Portland, Maine
No LL

We're back from our trip to return Nick to his family. It was fun having him. He had fun too and surely has a lot of new experiences to tell his family and friends about.

We also visited my sister Marilyn. We hadn't seen her in more than a year, and she had been complaining about how much she missed us.

The weekend side trip was much more expensive than we expected. $180 for the mooring rental, $200 for the Avis car, $120 for fuel, $50 for taxis, then food en route. Quicker than we thought, we spent $600.

Today, we decided to stay on in Portland to see what we could see. After all, we haven't been to Portland before and it is supposed to be a really nice city. Portland is the home town of our cruising friend June and she speaks warmly of this place.

Unfortunately, we didn't reckon with the Labor Day. I returned the Avis car to the airport, then after waiting a half hour for the bus, I learned that buses don't run on labor day. It cost me $20 to get back in a taxi. Libby joined me and we walked around downtown Portland. Oh no, on Labor Day everything in Portland is closed. The stores, the restaurants, and the public buildings are all closes. The only thing we found was an L.L. Beans outlet store, and the bagel shop where I'm writing this blog. We couldn't find anything else to do, so we're returning to the boat.

Being relaxed and adjusted to the cruising life means, among other things, that one doesn't pay much attention to the calendar. Oh well, there are exceptions to that rule and today was one of them.