Our home town of Warren VT spans a section of the Mad River Valley from the Monroe Skyline on the west to the Northfield Mountains ridgeline on the east with the valley (and the Mad River, itself, of course) in between. From our house, a little less than halfway up the ridge on the west, we can see out across the valley to where our friends Meg, Rob, Wyatt, and Asa built their ski house in East Warren. When we all first met about 10 years ago, they were Bostonians skiing at Sugarbush and taking lessons there – which is how we came together. About 5 years ago, the family moved to Portland, ME. As we were planning for our Tour de Maine, we reached out to Meg and she arranged with us a visit for a mid-day walking tour of their adopted home city.
Sue and I found a place to park the motorhome in the shade of some trees on Eastern Promenade, and after quick flurry of text messages to figure out where we actually were, we connected with Meg (mom) and Asa (youngest son) who were bicycling over to meet us from their house. The area of Portland southeast of I-295, where we met up, is extremely walkable. It’s eminently bikeable too, but walking is better for talking at the same time, so we set off on foot.
It immediately impressed us that there were lots of other people out and about here. This is truly a residential city with beautiful neighborhoods and an array of parks, restaurants, and shops. All of this was evident everywhere we went – and we did a thorough job of covering this part of town, from the Eastern Promenade to the Western Promenade, up and over Monjoy Hill, downtown, Old Port, and along the waterfront.
Meg planned our route so that we could see the highlights of this beautiful city. She and Sue took the lead as we walked, and I really enjoyed talking with Asa, having an opportunity to see and understand who he is growing up to be. During the time I’ve known Asa, most of our conversation necessitated me looking down to a level somewhere between my waist and my chest in order to maintain eye contact. And of course that’s because for most of that time, he was a little kid. Nothing wrong with that, but now, suddenly, I’m looking up at him. Quite a change! Anyway, as we talked about things that interest us, and things that don’t, where we’ve been and where we’d like to go, I think we found more than a few things in common – things we both like, as well as viewpoints we share – and I thought that was pretty cool. I don’t know if that’s as exciting for a 15-year-old as it is for this 70-year-old, but I was smiling the whole time. Still am.
After lunch, we made our way over to the family home. There we found Wyatt (oldest son) and Rob (dad), each of whom had just finished up work for the day. We were pleased to learn of Wyatt’s decision to attend Middlebury College, where he’ll be a freshman in the fall – maybe we’ll even run into him from time to time, since he’ll be just over the ridge and right down the road!
After a little more catching up with Rob and Wyatt, Meg walked with us back to where we’d left our truck, and we headed on our way. Thanks, Meg! So much fun to see you, visit with you (the guys, too), and to get your insider’s look at Portland. See you soon!
A few more photos are in this album.
