Adventures in Maine 2

Percy’s Inn doesn’t offer a sit down-be served breakfast. 

They had a full table of fresh fruit and sweet pastries …

as well as warm, hard boiled eggs, assorted breads and oatmeal.    All options were fresh and comforting.  I would have preferred plain oatmeal, but the assorted Quaker Oat flavors were a pleasant change.  I simply took out most of the oatmeal with a fork, leaving the sugary flavor in the bottom of the packet.

The Percy Inn is located on Pine Street at Longfellow Square in Portland’s West End historic district.  The accommodations are clean and comfortable.  The characters littering the square offer entertainment to those with an open mind.  Translated:  There are a lot of “bums” hanging out in this area.

We were a bit late arriving at our scheduled day of sailing.  Apparently , this was an extreme annoyance to the owner (whom we called to alert as to our ETA!).  “Mike” offered no smile. Even though we had been sailing with him a couple of years ago, he seemed quite unfriendly.

There was no wind for about the first hour of sailing. We kicked back…

had a little swim, then practiced basic “boat balance” at various areas of the boat…

The wind must have kicked up while I was hanging onto the bow because Ted took a blur of a photo…

Gorgeous skies for sailing…

The wind did pick up and we had about an hour of enjoying a great ride across Lake Sebago.

We headed in and took the boat into the slip without a problem…. all except for a little slip, grab of the wrong sail and hoisting a halyard too far up the mast.  There was no way we could get it down. 

We called the owners to report we were in and the boat docked just fine.

Ted and I headed out to enjoy a lunch at Bob’s Seafood. 

I enjoyed a very fresh Fish Taco.  Unfortunately, it had a lot of creamy coleslaw on the bottom which put my stomach in a funny mood for about 2 hours.  Could it have been MAYONNAISE?!!!  NASTY!!!!

The garden salad shared by two…

Ted’s Lobster Quesadilla and Clam- iest of chowders…

From lunch, we headed back towards the waterfront district in Portland.  We did a lot of window shopping and very little buying. Buuutttt…. when we arrived, there was a voice message on my phone. It was from Sebago Sailing, “Mike”.  It was the nastiest message I have EVER heard. He was viciously rude in regards to the halyard situation.  I was completely FLOORED!  I had called before leaving expressing gratitude and how much we enjoyed our day and took good care of the boat…blah, blah, blah… and THAT WAS WHAT WE GOT?!!!   I mean… what kind of PROFESSIONAL leaves a VOICE MESSAGE that is filled with rudeness, criticism, and threats?  PLEASE!  We are not bad people and totally respect other peoples property AND… I can promise that there was nothing done wrong on that boat that was done intentionally. Yes…we made a mistake with the halyard. Admitted.  How unfortunate for “Mike”.  No way to run a business and certainly no way to promote future business.  

Taking deep breaths, relaxing, and on with the day along the waterfront….

We went into plenty of specialty food stores just to look around.  Fresh fish was EVERYWHERE

The beer tour on Saturday begins and Gritty’s so we had to do a pre-sampling of great micro brews.

Vacationland Summer Ale for me (I could only manage about 1/3 of the pint     ).

The 21 IPA for Ted.  

More window shopping until hunger set in.  Ted’s choice was Havana South 44-50 Wharf Street.

The menu

The bread

Comps. from the chef…a spicy tuna on a tortilla chip…

Ted’s salad: A summer salad of butter lettuce, red onion, goat cheese, pistachios with creamy strawberry – jalapeno and cilantro vinaigrette.  I skipped the salad tonight.  No jalapeno’s for me. Not the night before a race anyway.

While we waited for dinner, we practiced the “native tongue”  …

Dinner was served.  Ted had the Salmon and Verde Paella however the salmon was dry and he sent it back.  He did think he had the most photogenic dish and insisted that a photo be taken.

When the dish was returned to Ted, it was perfect.  

I had the Halibut Rundown:  Manchego and herb crusted East coast halibut with a Jamaican coconut rundown sauce over Brazilian rice and beans (which I had served on the side).

We really enjoyed Wharf Street. There were too many restaurant options and every one of them looked fantastic.

A fun filled day scheduled for Saturday.  Full report tomorrow. I’m looking forward to the beer tour the most. 

Have you ever been to Portland, Maine?  What was your favorite site? *A college friend of mine really like’s “Gritty’s”.  I now know why.  Thanks Mike B. for your facebook message!