Cute W and I spent the weekend in Portland for Guster on the Ocean. We are longtime fans of Guster (you may recall that we saw them at the Tulip Festival and a babysitter flaked on us for a concert years ago, which I am still bitter about). But even though this music festival has become an annual event, this was the first year we attended. It was a fantastic mini vacation, with a little bit of beach, a lot of live music, and a lot of lobster.
We drove up (and by “we,” I mean Cute W, while I dozed) on Friday afternoon and arrived in time to take a bit of a walk around and find some dinner. We lucked out because it happened to be the First Friday Art Walk. There was plenty to see, and stumbling upon art hither, thither, and yon became a theme of the weekend. I made sure that Cute W didn’t miss out on the stall with Homestead or Die, a handmade, Maine-theme board game. Of course he had to bring one home. We haven’t played it yet, but we’ll report on it later.
We continued on to the Highroller Lobster Company to get ourselves lobster rolls and a big margarita to lean in and share, soda pop-style.
Both the fries and lobster rolls came with a wide selection of sauces, and we were particularly fond of the garlic mayo. The brioche rolls were also particularly fantastic. The mildly spicy margarita was *chef’s kiss*.
We strolled around some more after dinner, including a walk along the wharf, where, somewhat randomly, you’ll find a few pieces of the Berlin Wall.
But we didn’t stay out too late because this was a marathon, not a sprint. After getting recommendations from the restaurant staff, we decided to go to the beach the next morning. Of course, before I’d even climbed out of bed, he’d driven half an hour each way to get donuts from Frosty’s in Brunswick. And yes, they were delicious.
We went to Willard Beach, where the vibe was extremely relaxed and family friendly and the water was so cold that it took me three tries to actually submerge myself.
It was an excellent morning at the beach, and then we headed out before we started to feel too sunburnt and crispy. On our drive to the beach, we’d passed by Art in the Park, and we decided we needed to stop and take a look around. There was a ton of art, and I am generally not an impulse buyer, but I was tempted enough that I picked up business cards. I love SepiaLepus Illustration, which I wished I’d known about before I hosted exchange students, since her maps are so fun; I’m a big fan of Art by K. Archibald‘s blueberries; and I love Joyanna Margo‘s abstract florals and would love them, too, as patterns for bedding or clothing.
But meanwhile we were getting thirsty and hungry, and we were still in our damp suits. We took a pit stop to rinse off and change, then headed to The Clam Bar, where we ordered — you guessed it! — another lobster roll, as well as a bunch of mussels and a couple of tasty cocktails. They also make homemade potato chips, and perhaps you can see that the mussels are piled on some fries that soaked up the sauce.
This was all very yummy. The Saturday lunch lobster roll was piled higher with lobster, but I think the Highroller’s sauce and brioche bun were a little better. Those goopy fries were to die for, though, and I was beginning to learn that you can’t go wrong with lobster in Maine. After lunch we headed to Willard Scoops for some ice cream. I thought it was tasty and Cute W felt that it was one of his top ice cream experiences ever. We differed specifically on the “salty” flavors: Cute W was in ecstasy, but I thought that they were a little too salty. I was, however, a huge fan of their t-shirts, which read on the back “Without ice cream there would be darkness & chaos.”
We took another quick break before heading to the concert venue, where music started at 5 pm. I just love the vibe of a good music festival. It’s especially nice that the musicians seem so chill and happy, and they’re always calling each other up on stage, like during this set on the smaller stage, which was officially billed Dave Butler & Friends, but some of the friends were members of Guster.
During Guster’s set later, one of the funniest parts was when one of the band members floated over the crowd in a pool lounger. It was an excellent afternoon and evening. This festival was extremely family-friendly, with tons of kids sporting their Guster merch with their parents. There was a huge section where families were camped out on blankets with toys and books to keep the kids entertained. There were also plenty of food trucks and drinks everywhere, but after our huge lunch we ended up just skipping dinner.
Have I mentioned that Guster will be in Albany this Friday at The Egg? Why yes, I’ll be going. I believe that there are 2 or 3 tickets left, if you’d like to join me (Cute W is headed out of town).
The next morning, Cute W picked up breakfast from Tandem Coffee + Bakery after we’d observed hugely long lines. The Yelp reviews raved about their biscuits, but I couldn’t help wondering, had these people ever been to the South? But we had to give it a try. We were not big fans. Cute W called the coffee “fine,” and we each got a breakfast sandwich and thought we’d share a jalapeno cheddar biscuit, which was mentioned repeatedly in the gushing reviews. The sandwich was pretty good, but I honestly felt mildly ill afterwards, and we each tried a bite of our shared biscuit and then threw it away. Oh, well.
After debating a ferry ride or a museum excursion, we decided just to chill and wander a bit more, which brought us, among other places, to Longfellow Books, where I was excited to see a couple of super-cheap used books to add to my America 250 reading challenge.
We also really enjoyed exploring the Maine Art Collective. There was lots to like, but I thought Janet Lang‘s concept to sell art magnets with ceiling tile art was super-cool. Basically, you could get several different magnets and then mix and match according to your mood.
But I’ll have to admit that I fell victim to analysis paralysis, and now I’m a little bummed out, because I took her card with the idea that I could study my options at greater length later, but I don’t see the magnet-tile mix-and-match options on her site.
I also really like Sue Vittner‘s finger painted landscapes, which have a bit of an Impressionist feel. And finally, I found a little art piece that I couldn’t pass up, partly because it’s lovely and partly because I knew it would be right at home on my happy little art space above my desk.
The artist who rang me up said, “Oh, the artist who made it will be so glad, it was one of her favorites and she was surprised that it didn’t sell at the park yesterday.” Sure enough, I checked my purse, and the artist was Joyanna Margo, whose card I’d collected as one of my favorites from the day before.
For lunch, we headed to Duckfat, which had great reviews and was recommended by Cute W’s sister. I’m not much into duck, myself, but my dad used to fry things in duck fat, so I knew that would be tasty. We went for the poutine with duckfat fries in a duckfat gravy as a big ol’ sharing appetizer. It was really incredibly delicious.
And then of course, I was in a pickle, because of course I wanted another lobster roll, but did you see all that poutine? Luckily, they offered the perfect solution: throw some lobster on a leafy green salad!
This was the perfect choice. Needless to say, we again just went ahead and skipped dinner.
At the music festival, we found a new favorite artist, Khatumu. We loved her music and she was also just adorable and charming.
She said she’d gotten started as a musician because she took a songwriting class as a senior in college and her professor urged her to release her music and threatened to fail her if she didn’t. Altogether she just seemed like someone my daughters would hang out with, and since my daughters are some of my favorite people, this is a massive compliment.
Guster’s set on Sunday night included the full album of Ganging Up on the Sun, which is 20 years old this year, along with some other songs as well. Then, one of the encore songs was “Emily Ivory,” a song that’s often requested, but usually avoided live “because it has a lot of lyrics.” The solution was cue cards.
For the final encore song, “This Could All Be Yours,” the various band members’ kids frolicked on the stage, a concert tradition and an extremely wholesome end to the festival.
When the concert was over, I had to chat this couple up, who had custom matching t-shirts:
Apparently their son was impressed by how many concerts his parents had booked for the summer, so he had concert merch-style t-shirts to commemorate the Summer of ’26. This right here is Empty Nester Goals if I ever saw them.
In fact, spending the weekend talking about concerts and music festivals and such, I was thinking that I wished I’d kept track of all of the concerts I’ve attended. And, hooray for the internet, I found the super-fun site ConcertArchives.org, where you can create your own archive of concerts, and people can even upload photos, videos, and set lists. You can plug in what you remember about the concert and a lot of them are in there already, or you can add a concert if you know the basic details. I’m still working on figuring some of mine out, but it was pretty easy to find a bunch of concerts for my list quickly.
Anyway: great festival, great time in Portland. I recommend it!
