Busy Harbor

Looking towards the Maine State Pier on a warm summer afternoon. 

Sandwich Month

Did you know that August is National Sandwich Month? Wikipedia also tells me that August is National Goat Cheese Month and National Audio Appreciation Month in America. For the purpose of today's post, I will stick with sandwiches. Portland is known for it's plethora of food options (shout out to Portland Food Map) and there are literally hundreds of places here to get a delicious sandwich. Since I just found out that it is National Sandwich Month last week and I stick to a limited budget for dining out, here are two sandwiches that I can endorse.

First up, the breakfast sandwiches from OhNo Cafe on Brackett Street. In addition to their speciality sandwiches, you can get a plain old bacon/egg/cheese like the one pictured below. Bonus points for getting your sandwich to-go and finding a scenic spot in the West End to enjoy it.

Ready for lunch? The "original italian sandwich" from Amato's is always a safe choice. Pictured below is the original Amato's location on India Street. But even if you aren't in Portland, they have a ton of locations around New England that are ready to make a sandwich just the way you like it.

Lobster Boat from Above

A lobster boat docked at Merrill's Wharf. Being able to "look down" at a scene like this can often provide some interesting compositions. 

Waterfront Dining

Today's photo is looking towards Flatbread Company (downstairs) and a portion of Ri Ra Irish Pub and Restaurant (Upstairs). You can also see the deck of Dry Dock Restaurant in the distance. I took this photo from the area where the Casco Bay Lines ferries dock on the Maine State Pier so there wasn't much room to try different angles but I was happy to be able to capture some of the light reflections on the water. 

Today is Tomorrow's Yesterday

A present-day view of a former scrap yard in the Bayside neighborhood. This lot and may someday be occupied by part of the proposed Midtown development (roughly 675 market-rate apartments, 90,000 square feet of retail space, and garage parking). For now, the empty lots are home to some resilient species of urban weeds. 

Edit - Right after I posted this I saw this news that new renderings for "phase one" of the development have been submitted to the city's Planning Board. I look forward to seeing the project continue to come together. 

Chalk It Up

Sticking with yesterday's theme of temporary public art, here are some shots of the Maine Center for Creativity's "Before I Die" wall, which will only be up one more week. It is located on the side of Rí Rá Irish Pub on Commercial Street. 

Sidewalk Wall Art

An artist, Fletcher Curran per the name visible in the photo, working on a painting in Congress Square. The "canvas" for the piece is a temporary wooden wall that is part of a (slowly progressing) renovation project of the Schwartz Building.

A photo from the same perspective from earlier in the week.

Art on the Sidewalk, Picnic in the Park

Today was a beautiful late-summer day in Portland, a fine day for the annual Sidewalk Art Festival on Congress Street and the Picnic Music & Arts Festival in Lincoln Park. Here are just a few photos of the festivities.

Summer Farmers Market

The summer edition of the Portland Farmers Market is still going strong in Deering Oaks Park every Saturday morning. Here are three shots from a recent walk through the festivities:

Farmers Market Music

Sunflowers

Carrots

And for today's unrelated photo, I'm happy to share that one of my photos is on the cover of this month's (September 2013) Portland Magazine! I've had several photos in the magazine over that past year, but this is my first time on the cover which is pretty exciting. According to their website, the magazine has a total readership of 100,000+ and is available at newsstands from Bar Harbor to New York (and pretty much every place in Portland that sells magazines).

Portland Inc.

A sign painted on a building that is currently part of the Portland Company Marine Complex. The Portland Company's 10-acre property on the Eastern Waterfront was sold earlier this month.  There are not immediate plans for change, but it will be interesting to see this area change over time. 

Portland Now and Then

Here are a few photos from the ever-growing archives of the Portland, Maine History 1786-Present Facebook Group mixed in with my photo from the present day:

State Theater Building

Congress Street

511 Congress Street

Kennebec and Elm Street

Photoville ME

A peek inside the Photoville ME project in Congress Square, an outdoor art exhibit inside of a shipping container. The Portland container features work by Salt Institute students. It will be here until the 22nd of August, at which point it will head off to New York's Brooklyn Bridge Park for a much larger Photoville event in September.

Speaking of public art, you can see a few of my photos over on the newly redesigned website of the Portland Public Art Committee. The site is a great resource for learning about the many pieces of public art around town.