Today we went exploring in Portland, ME. Portland is a city with gorgeous architecture, a beautiful waterfront, great views to the Atlantic, a good Trader Joe’s and probably the most lucky pedestrians in the world. Folks here do a lot of walking in the streets, maybe because the downtown area is quite small and getting around does not require much strolling. However, they are very bold when stepping out into the road, assuming the drivers of the cars will follow Maine laws and stop for them. They would all certainly be dead in minutes in California where disregard for pedestrians is rampant. Maine laws allow pedestrians all the crossing rights of royalty and boldly wandering out in front of cars, some with dullards at the wheel, seems to be the norm.
All this wandering about by pedestrians creates almost gridlock-like conditions on the streets, particularly on the waterfront where an entire vacation could be spent traversing six blocks of their narrow, potholed streets where parking in the left turn lane and median seems to be de rigeur. We only made one pass through town because two passes would have prevented us from departing Maine on schedule.
The buildings in Portland are primarily beautiful old brick structures with fanciful architectural highlights and we found them to be quite stunning. There is some kind of big block-like building in the middle of the bay in Portland that we did not explore, maybe because we could not get there by driving within our lifetime.
All the folks in the waterfront area seemed to be having a great time wandering around and blocking efficient traffic flow and, if we had more time and been able to find some of the non-existent parking, we might have joined them in their endeavors. There are a bunch of craft breweries right down on the waterfront and I spotted at least one distillery which makes me believe there is not the same stigma attached to drinking here that one might find in, say, California where drinking is stupidly considered to be unnatural, illegal and quite possibly expensive. California is a remarkable environment for laws that are inconsistent with reality. From my ignorant observations of humanity I have found that almost all people, except those in strange Muslim countries and backward Utah, like to occasionally have a drink without the threat of being incarcerated, beat up by the police and booty-raped by large inmates. It would seem that Maine has transcended idiotic drinking laws like one would find elsewhere. Fireworks are also legal here. I like this state.