Yesterday was again a fun day in Portland. We awoke in the same rest stop again and I started the day by making oatmeal with craisins before we headed back into Portland. When we arrived in Portland we once again unloaded the bikes and headed downtown to Congress Street where we found another coffee shop to plant our butts in for a bit. This cafe was called
Bard Coffee and was a bit fancier than some of our previous coffee stops but the espresso was fantastic and the couches unbelievably comfortable. Once caffeinated we headed to the square to get some food from the Public Market only to find a full blown Farmer's Market taking up the square. It was great, a ton of organic farmers were out to sell their fall goods consisting of jams, jellies, pickled veggies, apples, cheese, chickens, squash, and other delicious goods. We ended up picking up some apples and cheese's before running into the lady running the Pita stand. Once she spotted the apple Jena was eating, she wanted one and asked us if we could go buy a couple for her since she was trapped in her duties selling bread. We, of course, told her yes and brought her back two apples. She then generously gave us a bag of delicious pitas for free!
After consuming some Roma tomato cheese and pita bread we continued on to our main destination of the day - the world's only
International Cryptozoology Museum. If you don't know what Cryptozoology is it is defined as the study of hidden animals - Big Foot, The Yeti, Chupacabra, etc. But what most people don't realize is that animals which are now considered everyday were once known Cryptids (hidden animals) like the Mountain Gorilla, Giant Panda, and others. The owner and curator of the museum is a man by the name of
Loren Coleman who has written 17 books on the subject of Cryptzoology. We spent a long amount of time examining the many interesting exhibits in what the two rooms of the museum had to offer and then chatting with Coleman himself for a while after. He was an immensely interesting guy with a ton of awesome and somewhat crazy stories. One of the more interesting things we learned were that the idea of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was based on an ancient form of Japanese Cryptids. We also were intrigued by the room of Pop Culture myths and fakes which Coleman had amassed in his 51 year career. And even with all of the amazing things we saw and heard there nothing could ready us for what we encountered next.
On our way back to our bikes we stopped in to
Just Good Tattoos. Just Good Tattoos is owned by a tattoo artist by the name of Marcus Kuhn who is an incredible artist and one of the most intimidating presences we've ever met. And we don't mean intimidating as in scary or mean, more in the powerful calm and sincerity with which he holds himself. He was extremely friendly and welcoming. We had a very enjoyable discussion with him about our travels and his own travels he is embarking on, starting Friday. He will be driving around the country living in his camper that he remodeled himself, working, and interviewing other tattoo artists along the way. He is making movies which will be viewable on his website,
The Gypsy Gentleman, We also enjoyed meeting his adorable dog, Duke, a massive German Bear Hound.
Even though we left tattoo-less, we decided that was as good of a way as any to end our stay in Portland. So we returned our bikes to the roof racks and headed down the coast. We decided to eat some food at Federal Jack's Brew Pub in Kennebunkport and we were satisfied there with an amazing blackened haddock sandwich and an amazing spicy thai tuna wrap and a couple of really good beers. We ended up staying the night in the
Federal Jack's parking lot right next to the marina.
We awoke to beautiful foggy views and duck families paddling there way through the calm marina water this morning and are now in New Haven, CT waiting to meet up with our friend, Devon.
