Portland, Maine

We went to Portland this weekend. Weren't sure where else to go. But it turned out to be a unique visit in itself. The town has the most beautiful ocean smell coming through all the time and eating fresh oysters (poor Saloni doesn't know what she misses out on!) in the salty ocean breeze has its own charm. It's also a very touristy town so the parking rates are a bit excessive. For all the tourist interest, surprisingly, it's not a very well maintained town. The same red brick buildings that look great in Cambridge don't look so good here because there is hardly any variety in the architecture to make the red of the bricks pop, and besides, the red is more often a dull sooty color that reminds you how old they are. But still. I cannot forget the smell of the salty breeze, the white wine and the beautiful variety of oysters. It's totally a life anyone could get used to.

IMO, oysters are seriously the best thing the ocean has to offer. 

Red-brick Portland. 

Saloni in Portland.

Ferry ride begins!

We left pretty late, so we didn't have much time to wander around the town. The most popular thing to do there is to take a ferry ride to the nearby islands. This we did, and we got some magnificent photographs of the place from the ferry. It helped that there was a massive thunderstorm. A little bit of disaster is always great for making things a little exciting, after all. I mean, ideally the boat should have sank, and we should have managed ourselves back on a lifeboat. But the storm was a decent outcome. I was actually a bit surprised by the reactions of some of the people to the lightning strikes. Maybe they were drunk, but somehow I got the feeling that this was new to them. My reaction to it was blasé, but then that is my general disposition in life. They were certainly not comparable to the ones that struck on a regular basis while I was there for a year in Singapore as a kid.

The storm from the ferry. 

The Storm again. 

Also, we loved the sea-gulls. Very animated birds that cackled away. Some more shots from the ferry:

Taken over the ferry. I spent a lot of time clicking photos of the storm. And during all the clicking and viewing the storm through the lens, this super well placed, (probably) super gorgeous woman suddenly appeared in the frame and I thought to myself," I better not screw this up." This has got to be the best photo I've ever taken, and possibly will ever take. I mean, what the hell. It's just so vivid, proportioned and yet maintains a sweet somber tone. The best part I like about it is the green deck. Where do you get that? It adds a completely new color to the photograph. The only thing I dislike is the red life-saving thingy on the right. That could be cropped out, but ideally, I think, it needs to be selectively toned down in brightness in something like photoshop.

These waves were pretty cool. This train of a dozen or so wave-crests was actually very stable and long-lived. However, I did not manage to see any solitons. that were as long lived as these wave trains. Is it possible that this train of crests can be described as a system of interacting solitons that somehow stabilize each other? Will have to think of it more carefully...   

Also a note on the car: Ford Fiesta is a decent drive. But it's got to be the ugliest car inside and out. I so wish I get to try out a Mazda on the next rental. That's the one I dream of, every day, a Mazda3.