Saturday in Portland

Bruce and I took the 8:30 boat off the island this morning to drive to Portland for an afternoon and evening with our son, Fritz, his girlfriend Meg, and her parents Stevie and Rick, who drove up from Wenham, Mass.  The guys took off for lunch and an afternoon of whatever they could find. They spent some time at Kelly’s store, Nomads, and had lunch in a Japanese restaurant.  Meanwhile, the gals had a sweet little lunch at Blue Spoon and then headed over to the Portland Museum of Art. I wasn’t especially fond of the “Rackstraw Downs: Onsite Paintings” exhibit, though the detail in all of the large oil paintings was exceptional. I think it was his subject matter, urban landscapes, that left me a little cold. (You  have to wonder what this guy’s parents were thinking when they named their son Rackstraw. Yikes!) The paintings were a nice background in my brain as I moved on to the photographs of Edward Weston, taken to illustrate Walt Whitman’s poem, “Leaves of Grass.” Many his photographs featured “man-altered” landscapes, but of an earlier time, the 1940’s. I liked the black and white photographs a lot.

The rest of the museum has a nice and varied permanent collection. The size is just right to see it all in a short afternoon.

This photo reminds me to look again at some of my favorite paintings by Susan Landor Keegin. Actually just about any painting of hers is my favorite, but I especially like her museum series.

We ended the day with dinner at Fore Street, where Fritz works. Tonight was his night off, and it was great to hear about his job in the midst of where he works. The chef sent out some special dishes for our table. One, a plate of cold seafood including poached lobster, raw scallops, sherry shocked shrimp, and some kind of fish tartar. The cold seafood was delicious. The raw scallops were a first for me, and most likely a repeat. Another special plate had fried sweetbreads and rabbit liver.

Yum? Well, I tried it. Not the liver, because I don’t really like liver. But I decided to see if I liked thymus gland any better. And….not so much. My arctic char was delicious, as was everyone else’s meal.  And the desserts were incredible too. A great night of fine food and fine company.