StilesConII /Portland, ME 2021

Well today was a great travel adventure, a beautiful day on Casco Bay culminating in two scandals, Lobstergate and
Doorgate, but more on this later.

We began with a ferry ride to Peakes Island, which is about four miles around. The highlight was the charming old windjammers under full sail. The plan was to rent a golf cart and drive around the island, but all the golf carts had been reserved by hordes of clever day trippers. So we defaulted to walking the ring road, which turned out just great, with super views of the rocky coast. After returning to Portland late afternoon we decided to knock off another must-do item and have a lobster dinner at The Porthole, one of the most popular spots in town, on a pier with live music. When we got there, a bit late and without a reservation, the place was packed. We walked through the bar/dance floor and signed up for a table. We sampled four different craft beers among us to kill the 45 minute wait. We then got seated pier side and could see that there were only two waitresses for maybe 100 people. Ours was quite sweet but her message was not: lobsters were running low. After taking our order she disappeared to the kitchen, only to return with the bad news: there was only one lobster left! Definitely a first world problem, but something is wrong when you can’t get a lobster in Portland Maine in June. Anyway after a few competitive glances around the table it would be in the best interest of family tranquility if none of us had the last lobster, which we figured probably had one claw left anyway. So we stiffened our upper lip and ordered a plate of nachos and fish tacos all around. About 45 minutes later none of the above had arrived. I watched furtively as our neighbors grilled the waitress as to why their table was bare. By now it was past 9pm. I then asked our waitress about the fate of the nachos and she returned a few minutes later to apologize, as our order had apparently “slipped past the kitchen.” Oh no. Emergency procedures were put in place. Curtís called around and found a late table on a neighboring pier-but with a 30 minute wait. We were discussing the merits of abandoning ship when our nachos arrived, looking as if they had already made a ferry ride around Casco Bay. Two minutes later we were inundated with tacos. The waitress comped the nachos and the beer, taking the sting out of Lobstergate.
But the day was not over. That night around 1am I went to open our bedroom door. This was a very large and heavy barn-style door that slid sideways on two rails. I couldn’t move it. It had somehow come off its rails, trapping us in the bedroom. So I gave it a good shove and the entire door fell free from the wall and crashed onto the hallway wall, with me holding on for dear life. Curtís was awoken by the clamor and came out to push on the other side and get the whole slab upright. This Lobstergate was succeeded by Doorgate. The repairman just left.Læs mere