A Portland Wedding

Nephew Aaron and his fiancee, Kelli, got married at Fish Point, in Portland, on Sept. 13th. I channelled my recently deceased sister, Jane, for this trip and had a number of firsts! I rode on Amtrak (from Brunswick to Portland) for the first time, took a city bus to the Old Port part of town, and took my first taxi by myself. Sis was always the adventurous one of the pair of us and made the most of all the places she had visited around the world. So, I played "tourist" for the day. It was so much fun as I arrived in Portland at 8am, and the wedding wasn't until 4pm.

As I departed the city bus at Monument Square, a clock chimed, at City Hall, at 9am. I passed by some bagpipers playing a fun ditty on a side street as I walked toward the Regency Hotel, where I met my bro-in-law and his lovely daughter, Nan. We hit the road and went to Cape Elizabeth to check out Portland Head Light. Then, we returned to the hotel to watch the bride and her bridesmaids get all gussied up for the wedding. 

After the gussying up, Nan and I toured Fore Street and Commercial Street. We came upon an interesting sight. Hundreds of locks were chained to some fencing next to the water. Apparently, this is quite the rage in Europe and has become a hit in the USA as well. What a neat sight! We were wishing we had known about this ahead of time as we would have loved to have put a lock there for Aaron and Kelli, but it was a Sunday afternoon with no hardware store in sight. So, I took photos of heart shaped locks instead, to commemorate the day. Fun!

Finally, it was time to depart for the wedding. We walked to 58 Fore St. where an historic train was located. "All Aboard!", and we took a short ride to Fish Point. The wedding party followed a short time later and the wedding began. 'Twas a chilly and misty day, but that didn't dim our spirits as the wedding was lovely. The only person missing was my sister. A toast was drunk in her honor before the wedding began. She was there in spirit, and we know that she was smiling broadly from Heaven... Her baby boy has grown to adulthood and has become a married man... Sigh...all is right with our world...

The moral of this story is to take a day, any day, and become a tourist in the state that you live. Make the most of that day and explore, find new treasured places, and fill your bucket list!