We pulled the kids from school for the better part of the week in September to take them up to Amy's uncle's farm in Aroostook County Maine so they could learn about the potato harvest. This beast is the harvester. It was bought used several decades ago and subsequently customized to the hilt and meticulously maintained. That rusted disk in the foreground is a transfer plate that failed and put the machine out of commission for a couple days while the new part was shipped. That's only reason we were allowed to climb around on it during our visit.

We took a long stroll through the Fore River Sanctuary near our house. On the way we hit the Capisic Park Pond which is also lovely, and under major construction as of this writing. On the way we also swung by the back door of Overland Honey. Yum!. On the way back we hit Jewel Falls, Portland's only water fall. Owing to the dry summer, there wasn't much water falling.

As the remnants of hurricane Hermine rolled into Casco Bay, we spent the afternoon watching the breaks and eating seafood at the Two Lights Lobster Shack

Out on the town, we hit up Vagabond coffee and then the Portland Museum of Art, who had an excellent paper bird making room set up adjacent to the restaurant downstairs.

I tooled around Casco Bay with a friend. We checked out Eagle Island and the home of arctic explorer Admiral Robert Peary, a national historic site. We also quenched our thirst on the sprawling veranda of the Chabeague Island Inn.