Paradise Park Resort & Campground

9/28

A day of driving and setting up in the rain. The trees are beautiful as they display fall colors and the towering evergreens look regal.

9/29

Good morning sunshine ☀️ The sun glistens on the water as the breeze blows steadily just outside of the camper. The pond we're parked beside has a beautiful water feature that right out our window! Today is for exploring and meeting people.

Old Orchard beach has a board walk, similar to Coney Island, right before the dunes with walk ways to the ocean. The carnival rides are shut down for the season along with many small shops. There are old motels, hotels, and homes to rent. Large, old, and beautiful homes with big porches line the area. The summer months must be absolutely full of families visiting with kids laughter everywhere here by the shore.

9/30

Off to Portland this morning for a tour by Maine Day Ventures with our guide Timothy. First we left Albert with Amanda, a Rover dog sitter. She did a great job along with her dog Rose.

As we approached the wharf to meet up with our group, the sound of seagulls filled the air. Today is chilly with light rain but we all walked the port streets to learn history and taste the local food. We started at Andy's, a very old pub that often has a live band, for Andy's logger and fish taco. All ingredients are fresh including the fish from out the back door, pico de Gallo, and creamy sauce. From there we went to Gilbert's Chowder House. We sat with Rose & Laura from Kansas City. Laura is a traveling nurse and currently working in Vermont. Our New England chowder was delicious and we were glad to be in an enclosed patio with heaters. Here we learned that the Maine coastline is the longest in the country and about the many Casco Bay Islands. The mail and delivery boats leave out of the port for deliveries to various islands each day. Whew, thank goodness we have more walking to do because we are eating at each stop. We stopped along the way to listen to Timothy as we stood in the rain to hear the history of this old port. The walk continued along cobblestone streets that were a bit hard to navigate at times. Our next stop is Rigby's, an old pub with an amazing lobster roll. The homemade potato chips were quite good. We learned that Maine was the largest producer of potatoes in America until Idaho took over. Hum, FYI, I haven't fact checked any of our guide's comments! At this stop we sat with folks from St Pete, FL. They were delightful and very conversational! One of their crew, Barbara, was celebrating her birthday. From there we stopped at Dean's Sweets, a chocolatier, for truffles. Dark chocolate with citrus was yummy! On to the final stop, Beal's Ice Cream. No counting points or calories today for sure!

Great day of exploring and meeting people for sure! Back to pick up sweet Albert and get back to the warm, dry camper!!

10/1

Departure day is always busy as we secure the camper, take Albert for a final walk, and stop to remember and be thankful before the Lord. We only have a 2 hour trip today and the sun is shining!!!