This was my last trip to Maine this year! I’m glad I was able to get up there three times this year—a new record for myself.
We left Wednesday night after Josh got out of work and made it up there before 10:00 p.m. A quick refresher: we stay in Kennebunk but travel around to other towns/cities; one of those cities is Portland, and I’ve recently heard there’s some confusion among readers about exactly which Portland we go to. We go to Portland, Maine not Portland, Oregon. Portland, Maine is a 3+ hour drive while Portland, Oregon is about a seven-hour flight.
Thursday, September 26
It rained from the moment we woke up until the time we went to bed. The entire state of Maine was covered in rain; fortunately, this was the only rainy day we had while on our trips to Maine this year.
We spent most of the day hanging out in the trailer and reading—yes, both of us read. Josh has taken up reading! I bought him The Dynasty by Jeff Benedict for our anniversary; it’s about the New England Patriots during the Robert Kraft/Bill Belichick/Tom Brady era. Meanwhile, I just brought a bunch of library books with me.
Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad: We knew it was going to rain for the entire day so we looked for indoor activities to do. Josh found this train in Portland (Maine) that goes along Casco Bay. For the amount of times Josh has gone to Portland, he had no clue this was there.
The train has different cars that you can purchase tickets for, like there’s first-class, open-air cars, or the caboose. We opted for the caboose so that it would be completely covered during the rain. There were six other people in the car with us, and I think there was a family way up in first class.
During the train ride, there’s in-car narration talking about the history of Portland and different parts of Casco Bay, like Bug Lighthouse (which we went to in August) and the small islands that make up the bay. The ride out is about 15 minutes, and then the train stops and you can get off for a little while. Unfortunately with the rain, the bay was foggy (bottom left picture). And then the train goes back the same way with some more narration about the history of this particular railroad and other fun train facts.
It would be nice to go back next summer when the weather’s nice and sit in one of the open-air cars.
Batson River Brewing & Distillery: We went to the Kennebunk location last year but once we saw pictures of the Portland location, we knew we had to go. It felt very much like a bougie hunting cabin inside. We sat at the bar and made it in time to get happy hour deals. Josh got a burger and I got haddock tacos, and we split the big pretzel.
Afterward: We headed back to Kennebunk, took showers, and watched part of the Giants/Cowboys game.
Friday, September 27
The rain stopped overnight, and it was sunny, mid-70s, and wonderful on Friday.
Railbiking: I was really excited for this! Railbiking is where you ride on train tracks, and in this case, the railbiking is at the local trolley museum. The Kennebunkport location is relatively new—I think it’s been there for about a year—and once I showed it to Josh, he said he was in.
We opted to do this on Friday when we knew the weather would be so much better (one of the guides said that they did go out on Thursday in the rain but there weren’t too many people riding) and chose the 9:20 a.m. ride. Included in the price of the railbike is admission to the trolley museum, so by going in the morning, we could walk around the museum before going to lunch.
There were three guides from the company who were great and super friendly. Aside from Josh and I, there were two other couples.
The ride out was about 1.5 miles and toward the end, there was a slight uphill, which we could definitely feel. At the end of the track, we got off so they could turn the bikes around; with the way the bikes are made, they don’t turn so they have a circle-contraption-thing they put the bikes on to spin them around.
Where we stopped was a little park that’s part of the museum, and while the guides were talking about the railbiking company and history of the trolley museum, a trolley went by with some people on it. We, on the bikes, ride on the same tracks as the trolley, which I think is pretty cool. We had to wait until the trolley was far enough back down the tracks before we could head back.
We will 100% do this again, hopefully next year.
Seashore Trolley Museum: Josh has been to the museum before, so I just followed him around the grounds. They have the trolley that goes out on the tracks, but with our ticket from the railbiking, we couldn’t do the trolley ride since they were running a special ride for a pumpkin patch event.
There are a couple of big warehouses where they have a bunch of old trolley cars from across the US, some of which they’re in the process of restoring. I only took a few pictures of the cars, but the really old ones were cool to see, and you could go into some of them. There was also an area with old buses that gave off The Walking Dead vibes.
The Pilot House: For lunch, we went to The Pilot House; we went two years ago and wanted to go back since the restaurant was recently renovated.
Josh got a corned beef Reuben and I got a haddock Reuben.
Afterward: We headed back to the trailer and read for a bit before taking pre-travel-home naps. We made dinner there before packing up and leaving around 6:00 p.m.
In case you missed my other recaps from our trips to Maine this year:
Strikeouts + Sprinkles 