After a week in Kokadjo and a week near Bangor, we rounded out our time in Maine with six days in Gray which is a town about 30 minutes north of Portland.
It would’ve been nice to have even more time in the area, but my parents had flown in from the UK to join us on the road trip for a month. With their limited time in the US, we wanted to fit in as much as possible and really wanted to have them spend a week in Vermont too seeing as that’s one of our favorite states from our 50 state road trip so far.
With goat milking, trolls, apple picking, hiking, lighthouses, craft beer, potato donuts and more, we managed to pack quite a bit into our six days near Portland. Here’s everything that we did in that area.
Where We Stayed
We stayed at this Airbnb in Gray. When looking at our accommodation options, it caught my eye because the owners have goats at their nearby farm which you can meet, milk and hike with. Knowing how much Shae loves animals, this seemed right up her street.
In addition to the goats, it was a great Airbnb for other reasons too! It was nice and spacious, with a living room, dining area, library/office, kitchen and restroom downstairs and a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Outside there was a decent-sized yard for Truffles to run around in, although we ended up being so busy out and about that she didn’t end up needing to play out there much.
Although we only planned on staying for six nights, we booked this property as a week-long stay for a couple of reasons. The main reason was that some hosts give a discount for week-long bookings and that was the case here; the discount ended up being substantial enough that booking for seven days worked out to be a little cheaper than booking for the six days that we actually needed.
The other reason was that we were due to be moving on to Vermont on a Wednesday. Shae teaches in the morning on Wednesdays, while I write for Frequent Miler on Wednesdays and we have our team meeting that day as well. Having the Airbnb booked through Thursday meant we didn’t have to be out early on the Wednesday which was helpful for those work purposes.
What We Did
Troll Hunting At Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Back in 2018, we visited The Morton Arboretum just outside of Chicago for Shae’s mom’s birthday and saw Thomas Dambo’s trolls there which were giant sculptures constructed with reclaimed wood. That started a love of his creations and we’ve gotten to see many more of them since.
We were therefore looking forward to visiting Maine because Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens has Guardians of the Seeds – a collection of five more of his trolls. They ended up being some of my favorite trolls we’ve discovered so far, plus it was the first time my parents have had a chance to see his trolls in person. Check out this post for more about our quest to find the Guardians of the Seeds.
Portland Head Light
One of the most iconic images of Portland, ME is one of its lighthouses – Portland Head Light.
There’s a small parking area closer to the lighthouse, but we decided to park back at a larger parking lot and walk over to the lighthouse. It was beautiful weather out that day, so it made for a lovely walk.
Unfortunately Portland Head Light is only open to the public – in terms of going up inside – one day each year on Maine Open Lighthouse Day. That didn’t happen to coincide with the day we visited, so we just enjoyed it from outside. There’s a small museum on site that only costs a couple of bucks which shares the history of the lighthouse. Otherwise, just wander around and enjoy it from all angles.
Back near where we parked were Battery Erasmus Keyes and Goddard Mansion which we explored quickly afterwards. The battery was situated there to help protect the mine field that was laid in the main channel during wartime. It was built in 1905 and was used during World War II as an “alert” battery to fire on any ships that didn’t identify themselves.
Goddard Mansion meanwhile was built for John Goddard, someone who’d been successful in the lumber industry. He went on to be named colonel of the 1st Maine Regiment of Cavalry during the Civil War, although he didn’t see any action. In 1896 the mansion was acquired by the US Army which used it as housing for enlisted soldiers who were married.
Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse
After checking out Portland Head Light, we drove the short distance to a different lighthouse – Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse. They’re not kidding about the ledge part of the name – the lighthouse is at the end of a long walkway where you have to hop across giant boulders. That breakwater is 900 ft long but feels even longer, especially when you’re carrying your dog who seems too nervous to walk themselves due to the waves crashing on one side 😉
We eventually made it out to the lighthouse though. While Portland Head Light was tall and thin like how I tend to imagine lighthouses, Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse was short and stubby.
Bradbury Mountain State Park
The main reason my parents came to join us in New England when they did was to see the fall leaves. The colors hadn’t been as amazing as expected, but I’d hoped that Bradbury Mountain State Park might change that.
The park has a parking lot most of the way up the mountain, with short trails ranging from 0.25 to 2 miles leading up to the summit depending on how steep you want to make it.
While the views were nice from the summit, we were sadly too early in the season for full-on fall leaf color from up there.
After taking the fairly steep Switchback trail up, we took the two mile long Boundary Trail back down which wasn’t as steep but did still include some ups and downs.
Sebago Lake State Park
After that hike at Bradbury Mountain State Park, we drove over to Sebago Lake State Park to get in another hike.
Well, that was the plan anyway. It didn’t quite work out that way because when we arrived we couldn’t find the trailhead for the trail we wanted to hike, so we just stopped for lunch by the lake. The wind had picked up by that point and it was getting much more chilly, so we didn’t stay too long to enjoy the view.
Goat Milking
Shae and my parents got up early one morning to head up to the farm owned by our Airbnb hosts so that they could all help milk the goats. Check out this post for more about the experience, while here’s a couple of photos of my parents in action.
Maine Wildlife Park
On our final morning in Maine, Shae took my parents to Maine Wildlife Park while I worked. That’s because they’d really wanted to see a moose during their visit but hadn’t been successful. While the moose at Maine Wildlife Park isn’t truly wild, it was still a chance for them to see one up close. Check out this post for more about their visit to Maine Wildlife Park.
Apple Picking At Thompson’s Orchards
At the end of our time near Portland, we stopped by Thompson’s Orchards on our way to Vermont. I’ve only ever been apple picking once (at Carter Mountain Orchard in Virginia) and my parents had never been apple picking at all, so it felt like this was a must-do.
Thompson’s Orchards had five different types of apple trees – Honeycrisp, Macintosh, Macoun, Cortland and Red Delicious. My favorite apples are Honeycrisp, so I was looking forward to picking a ton of those. Alas, when we got to those trees they were already bare of apples.
This wasn’t too much of a concern though. The orchard’s shop had tons of pre-picked Honeycrisp apples available for purchase, so I figured I’d just buy a giant bag of those before we left. In the meantime though, it was time to pick some apples of our own. We visited in mid-October and so all of the – quite literally – low-hanging fruit had already been picked, but there were still apples within reach for all of us.
Where We Ate & Drank
Our six days near Portland involved quite a bit of eating and drinking – shocking, I know!
Apple Cider Donuts & Apple Cider At Thompson’s Orchards
After going apple picking, we picked up some hot apple cider and apple cider donuts. This was the first time my parents had tried apple cider donuts, so it was nice that their first experience of them was so tasty.
Sprague’s Lobster
On our way to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens we drove through Wiscasset. We were surprised to see a giant line outside of what looked to be a food stand.
As Shae drove on, I looked on Google Maps to see what it was and saw that it was a restaurant called Red’s Eats. It’s apparently one of THE places for tourists to get lobster rolls in Maine, so we figured we’d stop there on the way back for dinner.
The line was even longer that afternoon when we returned. Shae went up the line to get a general idea of how long people had been waiting. People who still weren’t even close to placing an order had been standing in line for 1.5 hours. We wanted lobster rolls, but not that badly.
Thankfully when I’d Googled the restaurant that morning I’d come across an article online which said that Sprague’s Lobster across the street gets fresh lobster off the same boat as Red’s Eats and their lobster rolls are just as tasty, but are cheaper and it doesn’t have the long lines that Red’s Eats has. Saving time and money sounded wonderful, so over the road we went to Sprague’s Lobster.
Sure enough, there was no line. They had a decent selection of food items in addition to lobster rolls, so there should be something for everyone’s tastes. Well, maybe not vegans!
Shae and I both got lobster rolls and shared a large fries. Shae also got a homemade chowder which was more watery than expected (we thought it’d be thicker) but was still packed with flavor.
As for the lobster rolls, the lobster meat was lovely and fresh. Rather than using hot dog buns like some places, Sprague’s Lobster uses Texas toast. I imagine there are lobster roll traditionalists out there who are weeping and gnashing their teeth, but we loved it on Texas toast.
When Shae had checked with people in line at Red’s Eats, someone fairly far back in line said she’d already been there for 40 minutes by that stage. By the time we’d gone to Sprague’s Lobster, ordered our food, waited for it to be made, eaten it, used the restroom and walked back over the road to the parking lot, she was still in line and still a decent way from getting to place her order.
So while Red’s Eats might have good lobster rolls, do yourself a favor and walk across the road to Sprague’s Lobster instead.
Brickyard Hollow Brewing Company
One of Shae’s friends lives near Portland, so we met up with her and her family for drinks and snacks at Brickyard Hollow Brewing Company in New Gloucester, just up the road from Thompson’s Orchards. I got a couple of flights which included their blueberry milkshake IPA, an American brown ale, an imperial stout, a peanut butter pretzel porter, a New England IPA, a red ale and a couple of others I didn’t make a note of. The beers were all good, with the imperial stout being the best of all of them.
Shae meanwhile ordered their Rosepolitan cocktail which had ros̩, cranberry juice, lime juice and vodka Рshe enjoyed that.
We’d already had lunch earlier that day, so we only got pretzel sticks to share which came with beer cheese. The pretzel sticks had a different kind of flavor that I couldn’t place – from what I can remember they were almost a little sweet. They were nice, but they didn’t taste like your traditional pretzel sticks.
Our friends ordered a couple of pizzas. One of them was a strawberry, bacon and hot honey chicken pizza and they offered me a slice. It’s not a flavor combination I’d have thought to create, but it was absolutely delicious. If we happen to return to Brickyard Hollow in the future, I’m definitely ordering this pizza for myself.
Banded Brewing Company
After checking out a couple of the lighthouses in Portland, we headed downtown for a drink at Banded Brewing Company. We had Truffles with us that day, so we picked Banded Brewing Company as they’re pet-friendly inside.
Truffles isn’t always a huge fan of other dogs, but she loves people and she decided to adopt the couple at the table next to us.
They’d come along with their own dog who seemed to have a similar personality to Truffles as he came and joined us at our table, sitting on the towel/blanket we’d brought for Truffles.
I got a beer flight while we were there:
- Gourd Lord – a pumpkin spiced lager
- Left On Read – a Belgian-style witbier with orange and ginger
- 2021 Mountain – a barrel-aged imperial stout
- Oktoberfest
The beers were all good but not amazing. I’d expected the imperial stout to be my favorite, but I actually preferred the Gourd Lord.
The Holy Donut
A friend had recommended The Holy Donut in downtown Portland which sells gourmet potato donuts, so we stopped by there after Banded Brewing. Shae and I have had potato donuts in the past, but my parents had never tried them before, so this was another first for them during their visit.
A short line had formed outside, but it didn’t take long to place our order. We didn’t get to The Holy Donut until just after 4pm, so they only had a limited selection of donuts left that day. There were enough different kinds to get a variety to try though.
We like donuts, but sadly these won’t make it on to our list of donuts we’d bother to buy again. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t at all special in our mind and certainly not worth the premium pricing for them.
The Gelato Fiasco Old Port
The same person who recommended The Holy Donut also recommended getting gelato from The Gelato Fiasco Old Port, so we went there afterwards because apparently we didn’t have enough sugar in us already.
There was a problem though – there were too many flavors that sounded good and only so much space in my stomach.
This is where The Gelato Fiasco comes to the rescue. You pick your size, then you can choose as many flavors that you can fit inside the serving size. I went for three flavors – apple cider & donuts, dark chocolate caramel sea salt and Maine wild blueberry crisp.
While we weren’t fans of the donuts our friend had recommended, we were fans of her gelato suggestion. All three flavors I had were delicious and I particularly loved that I was able to try so many flavors for the one price – other ice cream and gelato joints take note!
Home-made Food From Our Airbnb Hosts
When we arrived at our Airbnb, the fridge had some goat’s milk and goat cheese in there for us, along with a dozen fresh chicken eggs. Towards the end of the stay our hosts also gave us some home-made apple scones which were simply fantastic.
What We Missed
We managed to cram quite a lot in to our six days near Portland, but there were lots of things we missed out on nonetheless. Here’s a list of other activities we had on our list of potential things to do in the area:
- Fryeburg Fair
- Gambo Falls Dam
- Birchwood Brewing
- Tao Yuan restaurant
- Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park
- Eartha Globe
- Cook’s Lobster & Ale House
- Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site
- Popham Beach
- Two Lights State Park
- Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad
- Portland Observatory
- Eastern Promenade
- Rising Tide Brewing Company
- Fore Street Restaurant
- Eventide Oyster Co
- Grace restaurant
- Duckfat restaurant
- Stars & Stripes Brewing Company
- Central Provisions
- The Independent Ice Co
[…] in Maine had some kind of cost as we went to so many state parks, so for this I’ll pick the Portland Head Light as that was free to […]