Our Honeymoon in Maine

We got married a week ago on Labor Day Sunday and just returned from our honeymoon in Maine. I definitely want to share more about the wedding in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here’s how our honeymoon went!

After going back and forth between choosing a place we were familiar with (Charleston) or someplace completely new to both of us, we decided on Portland, Maine. We actually planned to go back in 2020 following our Portland, Oregon trip in 2019 but that never happened for obvious reasons so it felt fitting.

Many people do Boston-Portland-Bar Harbor route for their Maine trip but since our trip was Tuesday-Saturday and we just went to Boston last year, we stuck with just Portland and Bar Harbor but honestly wish we could’ve spent a week plus in Maine!

We spent the first few days in Portland. Our very first meal was at Scales which was the perfect way to kick off our honeymoon! Everything was exceptional from the cocktails to the oysters (more people need to talk about Maine oysters vs lobsters imo) to cornbread to the rest of the seafood we tried.

The next day, we did a lot (all of the tourist things haha). After a lobster Benedict brunch at Becky’s diner, we tried the famous potato donuts from The Holy Donut. Then went over to Portland Head Light to snap some pictures and explore the park.

We had planned to try a lobster roll from Bite into Maine right by Portland Head Light but we were still too full from breakfast so saving that for next trip! Instead, we got our first Maine lobster roll later in the day at Eventide Oyster Co. Pictured is their iconic brown butter lobster roll.

For the rest of the afternoon, we walked around and did some shopping (picked up a couple of postcards to send to friends and Portland Head Light Christmas ornament from Sherman’s) before our sunset sail boat ride with Portland Schooner Co.

As always, highly recommend a boat ride if you can! It’s just so fun being out on the water, and this one was well-priced and still felt intimate. Rex got to help the crew pull the sails up which was a cool experience too.

Post-sail boat ride, we had dinner at Miyake because I was craving sushi (though the real question is when am I not..?). I had the nigiri set which satiated me but we were both more impressed with chirashi bowl Rex ordered. It had a ton of fish on it in big chunks, as if they threw on sashimis on top of the rice.

Thursday morning, we had brunch at Bread & Friends which was close to where we were staying (The Westin Portland Harborview). We had stumbled upon it while taking a stroll earlier during the trip and waited until they opened back up on Thursday (something I noticed is that a lot of Portland restaurants are closed Tuesday/Wednesdays). Literally everything we tried here was SO good. They also do dinner, which I would love to try next time I’m in Portland.

Our “last meal” in Portland was at Duckfat fries, which came highly recommended. We were still pretty full from brunch (we kept having this problem throughout our trip!) so we shared a large order of their poutine and a blueberry milkshake.

After a stop at L.L. Bean flagship store, we made it over to Bar Harbor. Don’t come at me but I sort of envisioned Bar Harbor to give Charleston vibes but it felt more like Myrtle Beach to me… still loved it though! We did quite a bit of shopping (more Christmas ornaments…maple syrup… blueberry things…) before ending the night early.

The next morning, we fueled up at 2 Cats with a lobster Benedict and did a hike at Acadia National Park. Because I’m a weakling, we didn’t do the Beehive Trail but it was still so cool to see the park! There’s the beach which turns into a forest with a rocky shore.

Post-hike lunch was at Abel’s Lobster which is pretty close to the park. They have a great view and their lobster roll ended up being Rex’s favorite lobster roll from the trip but what I really loved was their French fries–literal perfection.

Since we were not staying another night on the island, we explored a little more of it by venturing down to Northeast Shore. It had a cute downtown(?) but it was pretty small.

We spent our last night in Maine in the town of Camden. We were originally going to fly out pretty early Saturday morning so we wanted to trek back closer to the Airport, and we were happy to see another cute Maine town!

Our official last meal in Portland was at The Highroller Lobster Co. which came highly recommended by one of Rex’s besties. We got the flight of baby lobster rolls to try as many sauces, and the Lobster Ghee ended up being both of our favorite!

I say this about a lot of places I visit (but not all of them) but we loved Maine! Portland was one of the tastiest cities I’ve been to, and all the towns we got to see were charming in their own ways. Definitely want to return to Maine in the future, perhaps during foliage season.