Portland, Maine: Who says you can't go home again

Portland, Maine: Who Says You Can't Go Home Again
December 2009

Sometimes, you just need something to get you going on a cold, blustery day. Even when you're in a city as great as Portland. As I stood there on the sidewalk just above Monument Square in Portland, Maine, I felt a bit disoriented. It was the first time I had been back in Portland in seven months. When a Blaine Larsen song I hadn't heard in ages came on the radio, it thankfully kicked me into gear. (Thank you WPOR for all the Blaine Larsen songs you've been playing!) I walked a couple blocks down Congress to the heart of Monument Square. The wind played with my hair, the Time and Temperature sign, symbol of all things Portland, loomed ahead reading 38 degrees, 12:30 pm; Blaine Larsen sang "How Do You get That Lonely" on the radio, and I was in Portland. I felt a rush of adrenaline and happiness. Finally. I dropped my bag in Monument Square. Looked around me. Realized, Wow. This place is beautiful. All the open space! All the beautiful buildings! Spun around and watched the buildings spin with me - kind of like being in a snow globe. The coffee and gelato shop was still there; Shay's was still there; the huge elegant buildings still towered over me. The library was closed for renovation; but everything else was the same.

I ran to the curb by the grassy area outside of Longfellow Books - many happy hours of my life have been spent walking up and down this curb, entranced by the music on the radio and the wonderful feeling of balancing as I walked on the curb. For some weird sensory reason I can't quite describe, my body and mind feel centered, balanced and at ease walking on curbs - and so I walk on any I can find, which is not many, except for in Portland. I grabbed my bag again and continued down the gently sloping brick walkway, past the tea shop and bookstore, crossing the street by Dunkin Donuts and hitting another curb (they plant trees and have little grassy areas all over Portland with a curb around them, much to my pleasure), crossing the intersection by where Smoothie King used to be, by the classic Nickoledeon movie theatre, and ran into yet another park area - Portland is full of little areas with benches, grass and trees where you can just sit and take in everything around you. Portland is a far more beautiful city, just in its architecture and the way it was planned, than I had remembered or ever given it credit for; probably was too busy looking for the nearest sweet shop. I have lived in many cities in the past seven months; four, to be exact; and they all had their good points, but none could come even close to what Portland's downtown area is like.

From here you enter the heart of the Old Port shopping area; Cold Stone Creamery, Stonewall Kitchen and Starbucks are lined up neatly on your right; another park area with benches are your left; straight ahead is upper Exchange and where O'Naturals used to be - and another large park, beautiful park, which I almost cried with delight when I saw. All this open space! Most cities just have old, run down. monstrous towering buildings after towering buildings, traffic, congestion, air pollution; Portland has all these built in spaces for people to gather, skateboard, sell crafts, do outdoor performances, or just eat lunch outside. Portland is a people-sized city. Many happy hours also spent in this park outside O'Naturals, walking on the curbs, listening to music and just wandering around.

And just when you think it can't get better - down Exhange Street you go! The cobblestone streets stood out after so long an absence. How quaint, how picturesque, how charming. Most of Portland's streets, which all lead down to the ocean, in the Old Port section are cobblestone, something I am told is reminscent of European cities. All the usual suspects remained on Exchange, the coffee shops, the clothing shops, the gift shops. At the bottom you can go left or right for more shops, or continue down the short, a bit steeper cobblestone section to the ocean and Commercial Street. I smiled when I saw the small one man smoothie shop the Maine Squeeze was still in business. I looked through the window and saw all the chalkboards with their colorful chalk menus. Mexicali Blues and my childhood favorite Communiques was still there.

When you get to Commercial, which runs parallel to the ocean, you take a left to get to more restaurants and shops. I kept walking until I got to Standard Baking Company, the best bakery in Portland. What a beautiful walk. I had been afraid I would need sugar and junk food to energize me enough to enjoy myself; I no longer eat sugar so that was not an option. The only place I had been able to go into, O'Naturals, had closed. I was afraid there was nothing left. But I found that Portland is beautiful on its own. Walking through it still energizes me and fills me with awe. It is , as I had said once before, like a mandala; a mandala is a circular pattern which is supposed to symbolize wholeness and oneness with some kind of greater force or energies. Walking a mandala is supposed to bring inner peace. Portland is in many ways like that for me.

After attempting to go in the bakery I lost most of my energy and mood, plus it had gotten rather chilly. So, it wasn't quite the hours of euphoria I had experienced in the past, but I hadn't expected that. With the weather and how I was feeling, I was content with one good half hour, and hoped I would have more in the future. Something to hold on to, anyway. I was in a hurry to get to somewhere I could sit down after the bakery, so headed to Whole Foods. From the ocean, I walked back up Exchange... all the way to Congress, which was a longer walk than I remembered. And then back down again to Whole Foods...Never can remember what street to take so I always end up a few streets away. I wandered around to look at all the food and got some groceries; satisfied I hd at least gotten to experience my hometown once again.