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Portland has a sort of windex-clarity characteristic of moody coastal towns where storms roll through at regular intervals.  The colors appear more vividly, the horizon stretches out just a bit further and, of course, the air has a crispness that reinvigorates your dull city senses.  Smells are very available here in the crisp air: pines and low tide and seasoned fish; and each time I come back, I find myself falling more deeply in love with Vacationland.

It’s funny to have your hometown shown to you through another person’s eyes and to hear voiced in perfect sound-bytes why it is that a place is so infectious: the coblestones of downtown, the seagulls crying in the morning, the smell of woodsmoke lingering until dawn.  The weather was serving us nothing but sunshine during our adventures in and around Portland and the ladies gave me such good face as I persistently snapped their photos.  Good friends can always be counted on to model for you on a moments notice, and it helps when your friends are knock-outs and the landscape you’re working with is unparalleled it its beauty.  Our photo story quickly became a color study with weathered beach-side shingles in grayscale, electric reds of handpicked berries in blue-green boxes that picked up the color of the ocean and the sky, desaturated tones creating vintage pin-up vibes, and neon signs seducing us with the finest lobster rolls—this is what what we tried to capture.

I have always floated in a cloud somwhere between belonging and not in Portland, due to my not having been born there and spending so much time away even when I was a resident. But I realize that certain things make me an undeniable local, like the way I happily jump into the coldest of water and the ease with which I squish and squirt through even the most formidable barriers of seaweed.  I can’t say that I don’t get lost driving around the serpentine roads of coastal Maine—I often get turned around—but eventually muscle memory takes over and I find myself (and my guests) right where we ought to be: somewhere between vacation dreams and blissful reality. 

We unearthed so many new haunts on this trip back: my savvy band of girls took to the city like true travelers and lead me down new streets, into new shops and introduced me to new tastes that I would have otherwise continued to overlook.  “Consider the Lobster” became the token saying of our adventure and I realize now that, in addition to the lobster, there are so many things to consider when you find yourself in awe of a place that you thought you were finished discovering.

Places of interest when visiting Portland: Two Fat Cats Bakery, Ferry Beach State Park, Street & Co, Maxwell’s Farm, Bliss.