British Expatriate Network

We're looking at taking a trip to Portland, Maine in the coming weeks, and I thought that I would take a wild stab in the dark and ask the Britnet Oracle if it knows of anything groovy to do in that neck of the woods.
Thank y'all!
Servalan grin

freeze yer nuts off. Shrivelled skin is sort of groovy, right?

/I'm sooo helpful

Don't go in the woods. Evar.

* VegasRudeBoy is Stephen King Land

What exactly would you call a groovy thing to do?
I live near Portland in commuter land.
There's a nice lighthouse and fort with a park area.
Art museum in the Arts district.
Also the Old Port, lots of quiant shops, bars and places to eat.

Out of Portland 15 mins north is Freeport, outlet city, LL Bean flagship store open 24/7 - 365 days a year. Brand new British store, was there before but the had a fire and moved to a new location.
I am also there on occassion asI have property there and hubby is buried there.

To the south of Portland lots of great seaside towns, not sure what's open at this time of year but I think a couple of towns put on Christmas lights similar to the type of thing they do in Blackpool UK.

Hope this helps, let me know if you want to know more or need a brew whilst your here.

Just to add to what Monster and VRB wrote whilst I was writing my helpful little note.

It's been around 45-50F during the day here this past week or two. Very odd weather. We've had snow once, it melted the next day.

Stephen King lives mostly in Bangor about 2-3 hours from Portland and it's not in the woods. He has a summer home closer and probably is in the woods, but guess what, it's not summer. hahaha :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

lots of warm clothing is needed

Wendle - at least I now know what happened to the British Store... where did it move to?

Portland is a nice city, normally a bit cold at this time of year, although it has been unseasonably warm.
For train buffs, there is a narrow guage railway, although I'm not sure if it is open this time of year.
The Maine coast is also pretty and close at hand.

Thank you very much - some helpful stuff in amongst the nonsense roll grin historical stuff and whatnot sounds good. Looked at the lighthouse at cape elizabeth- that sort of thing. Took a trip to Beantown the other week and followed the red brick road thingy, ate lobster sangwidges, Bunker hill etc. Lots of history out here on the east coast- mostly colonial stuff. Thats the kind of groovy I mean, I guess. We're in NH so the weathers not a problem, i'm still cycling around in shorts so its not that cold yet - bit of Ice and slush around.
when does it usually start to snow out this way?
Ta very much.

Normally we would have a couple of feet of snow on the ground by now, but this year is just wierd.

There are tours on the duck boats in Portland but I don't know if they are running at this time of year.

There's also the symphony and the ballet (Nutcracker),Santa Fest trains, Martina McBride, Bob Marley(comic)playing, Wadsworth-Longfellows childhood home, Victorian Mansion,Shipyard brewing company.

Anyway enjoy, and if you'd like there's an English Tea Shoppe In Biddeford that I've heard is very nice.

Rob - The British store moved ontoMainestreet, opposite side to LL Bean and a little further along. The guy designed quite a beautiful store. He is bedridden and used a pointer and laptop and dictation to get the store just the way he wanted it.

Tanks Wendl.
In the meantime, I just discovered that theiris a large British Foods store in Nashua... practically opposite my office... that I had never noticed. Another ex pat I crossed paths with last week told me of it and started giving directions... which sounded strangely like my daily commute.... :oops:
Anyway, for those who don't already know, and for those who do to provide reviews:
http://www.britishaisles.com/

Be quite nice if the website didn't ask me to login for catalog viewing.