Day 5 - Picture Perfect But Picture Free

Date : Sunday 9th November

From : Outskirts of Boston (MA)

To : Portland (Maine)

Via : Portsmouth (New Hampshire)

Miles Driven: 112

Radio Stations Found Already Playing Non-Stop Christmas Tunes: 1

Someone (Kate) forgot to charge the camera yesterday so unfortunately today's blog is comes with a single picture courtesy of my phone. Apologies to the beano subscribers out there...

So if you have been following this blog regularly then 1) you're almost as sad as the person writing it and 2) you'll know that we have been plagued with falling asleep at 10pm and waking up at 5am. Well I am pleased to report that we've found the solution and it's a remedy that has been close to my heart since I was 13. Yes, it's my good friend alcohol! It gives me superpowers until the wee hours of the morning and then helps me snore until Pebble Mill is well and truly over. It's a routine I look forward to repeating at least daily for the rest of my life.

Anyway, today was another three state day (from MA to ME via NH) and finally we were blessed with some incredible weather. Perfect blue skies, bright sunshine but temperatures hovering around 10 celcius (that's 50F for those Obamaland inhabitants) which ensured that I kept my fat-man sweats down to a minimum. So on went the Alan Partridge driving shades as we hit the road to Portsmouth. The drive was stunning and the back roads are seriously interesting to drift down. We've started playing Fast-Food Chain Bingo (copyright) where the winning move is to be the first to spot a junction where the four corners are inhabited by McDonalds, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts and Wendys. This isn't going to turn into an "all americans are fat" rant though as I quite simply love a country where I am legitimately a medium in most clothes shops. I look forward to hitting Texas where I will be positively waif-like.

If Portsmouth is a good indication barometer for the rest of New Hampshire then it may be the greatest state in America. What a stunning little sea-side town. It's hard to put my finger on why it is so great but in our 90 minutes there we encountered super-friendly people, a picture perfect town centre with a real village feel and (most importantly) great food. We ate at Popovers where their house speciality was, funnily enough, a popover. I'm not sure if this is unique to them but basically it was like a giant savoury choux bun with your choice of filling. I went for chilli and it was truly awesome. A quick walk around this stunning town (mainly to find Kate an ice-cream) and then back in the car.

An hour later we were in Portland, Maine. With a population of just 60,000 it is has a reputation of being a fun place to drink and a gaggle of young chefs are putting the place on the culinary map. After a cheeky run (we have to work off these huge meals somehow as I don't want to burst within the first month of this trip) we hit the town in search of this legendary scene. Despite being a Sunday night, we still found willing drinkers - and a freindly bunch too. We had a good chat with a bunch of Portlanders who told us all about their pub membership scheme (annual subscriptions to bars ranging from $40 to $75 in Gritty McDuffs entitling you to your own mug and $2 beers all day Sunday...DANGEROUS) and how depressing the winter gets. With sufficient lubrication we set off in search of a recomended Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant but restaurants here shut really early so by the time we got there it was shut. The only place we saw open was 555 so in we piled...and what a stroke of luck that turned in to. Chef Corry recently hit the front page of Food & Wine as one of the country's best new chefs and he's not shy about publicising it with copies of the issue on every sapre piece of wall. Still, kudos to him as we had some pretty incredible food. Mussels and shrimp to start then hanger steak and scallops for mains. All washed down with a cheeky bottle of plonk. An outstanding end to a cracking day.