Portland, Maine

On Cherie's wish list was Maine. Mostly because she liked to read Stephen King novels, whose stories, I found out, are often set in Maine. It was too far by train to do in one day, so we worked out an overnight trip for the day after our trip to Philadelphia.

To get there, we had to jump on an Amtrak train to Boston's South Station and then on a short bus ride to Portland. I think it was about seven hours of travel all up, including a one hour layover in Boston.

When we arrived in Portland, the first thing we did was clean ourselves up and chill for an hour. Then we headed out for dinner and drinks at Buck's Naked BBQ.

I, of course, ate more than I should've. But come on! A plate of fried chicken, pulled pork, brisket, sweet potato fries, mac and cheese and cornbread... I've gotta have a bit of everything!

Once we were done, we sat at the bar for a few more drinks, chatting with the bartender before we headed back to the hotel, me with a food baby in my belly.

A couple of hours later, while watching Hot Fuzz on TV, the fire alarm at the hotel started going off. I decided I just needed pants and tried to evacuate without a shirt, but Cherie threw one at me as we headed down the stairs.

Of course, once we got to the street, there were plenty of idiots who were still in their hotel rooms staring down at us and five fire engines and a police car. You'd think seeing the emergency services would be a sign that it's probably time to go downstairs, but no.

Turns out a hot water pipe had burst and had the steam had set off the fire alarm, or so we were told, so nothing too serious thankfully.

The next day we had coffee at Speckled Ax, the most hipster coffee house I've ever seen, including what I've seen at home, which is saying something being from the pretentious coffee capital of the world, Melbourne. Drip coffees, flannel shirts, thick frame glasses and MacBooks everywhere! But the coffee was good!

We walked down towards to the piers and stopped in at Duck Fat, a highly regarded and small and cozy restaurant about a block away from the piers. Being close to the Canadian border, poutine was on the menu, which we immediately decided to go for. Along with that, Cherie chose a pork belly panini, we shared some duck fat fried chips and drank the best damn milkshakes I've ever had.

The walk down Commercial Street afterwards was beautiful. Portland has a lot of little alleys full of shops and cafes, almost resembling Melbourne, and it pulls off the "seaside city" image really well. It gives it a warm, relaxed, laid-back feeling, which was a nice change from the bigger cities we'd been visiting.

To add to our relaxing getaway in Portland, we did a cruise of Casco Bay for a couple of hours. In that time, it went from hot and sunny to windy and cold and back again. But the views were very pretty, and we got to see a lot of lighthouses and islands while learning a little history about the area.

Before the day was over and we had to make our way back to Connecticut, we stopped into Eventide for some oysters, clam chowder and lobster rolls. The food was a bit pricy, but it was brilliant. The lobster roll was the front runner for us. It came on a steamed roll, which was fluffy and doughy, but in a good way, and it was no more than three bites big, so we ordered two before catching a taxi back to the bus terminal.

In Boston, we got the most detailed sob story from a guy who wanted money to get home. Apparently he had the absolute worst string of bad luck any human being in the world could ever have.

The train ride home was mostly quiet and peaceful. We'd had a few long and busy days, so we were both looking forward to having a much slower day to recharge a bit and catch up on some sleep.