City of Portland

In weather news, Joe Cupo says we may break the record for the wettest March today (which happens to be the last day of the month). April looks nice though, with a high of 82 on Saturday.

Second Season

I haven't taken a photo from my kitchen lately. It was a good day to stay indoors yesterday.

Old Street Signs

I'm starting a small collection of old street signs. Mostly of the type that are on the side of buildings. There are quite a few of these around town, and I will share them as I find 'em.

Sunday Stroll

I usually take a picture of this stretch of brick wall/fence on High Street whenever I walk by it. It's a bonus when someone is walking by.

Also note, I will work on getting the comments added back at some point, they went away when I updated the page layout.

Monumental?

I never noticed until recently that One Monument Square looks quite odd at certain angles. Here is one of those angles:

The new siding is an improvement, anyhow.

Pay Me Not to Work

I couldn't pass up this shot.

Portland is For People

Cycle Mania

Business is picking up at Cycle Mania on Federal Street. Have you seen the new Google Maps bicycle directions?

Spring 2010

Today was the first day of Spring, and it was a rather warm day. I believe it almost hit 70 degrees fahrenheit. Not too shabby. The average high temperature over the next week is supposed to be in the 40's, which I can deal with for a bit longer but not too much longer.

Trader Joe's?

The talk of the town still seems to be about the possibility of a Trader Joe's store opening in the old Wild Oats location on Marginal Way. Whole Foods took over Wild Oats a few years back, and in Portland they closed the Wild Oats and built a Whole Foods down the street (you can see it in the left corner of this photo). Apparently the sale of this building to Trader Joe's has to clear the FTC first due to the nature in which the Wild Oats buy-out took place.


Feel free to share your Trader Joe's support or hatred in the comments section! I personally would like an Ikea to open up here.

Edit - Thanks Jubal for pointing out that this isn't the building in question. This is the former home of "The Whole Grocer." Wild Oats and the building in question is actually to the immediate right of this photo, next to the current Eastern Mountain Sports. As one might guess, I do most of my shopping at the Hannaford, which is a few hundred feet behind where this photo was taken.

Maybe they should open up a new natural grocery store called "Nature's Whole Wild Oats Grocery Foods Emporium and Coffee Shoppee" in the building that today's photograph features.

People Take Pictures of Each Other

People take pictures of each other

Just to prove that they really existed

-The Kinks

Random warning of the day....

Corporate Ladder

I purchased a new lens this weekend from Photo Market. I think it will inspire me to take more pictures. That and the extra daylight and warm weather will help, too.

Sometimes it Rains

Port City Friday

Looks like the Bay House project is still in the pipeline, slated to open next year per the website. They still have their model unit open in the Old Port so that's a good sign I'd guess.

Fire Lion

Fire!

Out like a lion...

Portland vs. Albany

For people interested in this sort of stuff, the rumors still swirl about the Pirates moving to Albany, NY. According to this article published yesterday in the Albany Times Union, they are optimistic that a team will be playing in Albany next year (their current team AHL team is moving to Charlotte). The Buffalo News reports that the Pirates owner has denied any deals made yet with the Albany folk. Locally, WMTW has a surprisingly detailed article (considering they aren't a newspaper) about the situation overall.

Here's a picture from a random home game against said Albany team

And Today is the last day of 2010 Restaurant Week. Today's pick is Old Port Sea Grill & Raw Bar. It's on the long list of fancy (meals costing more than $15 per person) Portland restaurants that I've never been to, but it looks classy.

Flashback: March 08/09

Here's one from way back in March 2008, when we used to have snow on the ground this time of year.

And a couple from March 2009....

The full month by month archives can be found by using the widget on the right side of the site, I think it's the last thing over there.

Junk

It's Friday again, what a fast week.

Street Patterns

In today's post about things that only interest me, here is some stuff on the street.

Before & After: Atherton's Furniture

For this installment of Before & After, here is the building at the corner of Free and Center Streets which used to be a home furnishings store. This photo is from 1938 and comes from MaineMemory.net.

If I knew I was going to use this for a before and after post I would have lined this up better but you get the idea. The building is pretty much identical in appearance and has been offices for quite some time. This is the building that has the blueprint mural on the side of it (The Phoenix has a picture here).

And to answer yesterday's question, that was indeed the weather vane at the top of City Hall. I was expecting more comments, but good work Kate from Blueberry Files!

Where is this? #3

Feel free to leave a guess or two in the form of a comment.

And today's pick for Maine Restaurant Week is The Grill Room on Exchange Street. Check out their special menu here.

Maine Restaurant Week 2010

Today marks the beginning of the 2nd annual Maine Restaurant Week. Check out the event's website for a full list of participating restaurants. The deal is:

"Participating restaurants will once again showcase their signature dishes on specially priced, prix fixe menus. For 2010, restaurants will serve three-course meals priced at 20.10, 30.10 or 40.10. Also some restaurants are serving $15.10 lunches."

Here is a poster for the event:

Here's my pick for today, Five Fifty-Five on Congress Street. Here is the"dish."