The BEST day in Portland, Maine (Trying local FOOD + visiting Old Port & Fort Williams Park)

For the last couple weeks we've been exploring Maine for the first time. We've backpacked along the Cutler Coast, explored and hiked all around the gorgeous Acadia National Park, and got out on the water and learned how to catch lobster. And for our final adventure in Maine and in New England, we're going to spend the day sightseeing and eating our way through Portland, the largest city in the state. We're starting our day in Portland with coffee of course. We grabbed a couple coffees from a spot called Tandem Coffee which is located inside a converted 1960s gas station. I got a mocha which is something I never get and it is so chocolatey and good and they also have these delicious looking baked goods and biscuits, but we're currently walking to get a different carby breakfast item instead. Just about a 10 minute walk from Tandem Coffee is a spot called The Holy Donut which we hear is a must visit while here in Portland, but this isn't just any donut shop. Their secret ingredient are mashed Maine potatoes. We've never had potato donuts before and I've actually never heard of them before today, so I'm very curious how these are going to taste. So we got a maple bacon, a pumpkin head, and a gluten-free dark chocolate sea salt and this is actually their most popular flavor. We got to get a bite with lots of bacon in it. First off, the flavor is amazing. The bacon has a little bit of like, I guess it's maple bacon, so I think the bacon has a little bit of sweetness too. And then the glaze here, nice and sweet, but the main thing, the main difference here is the texture of this donut is just so different than a regular donut. I guess, I think the best way I can describe it is it's almost bagel-y. It's more dense, more chewy than a regular donut that's nice and light and fluffy. I like it though. It's like a different, a completely different texture than a regular donut. I tried the pumpkin head one and the flavor is so good. It's not overly pumpkin-y, but it has kind of like that fall pumpkin type flavor, especially on the glaze. But yeah, the inside is more like a bagel. It's more bready than a normal donut, which is, I guess you could compare this more to a cake donut, but it's more bready than a cake donut. I feel like these are more filling than a regular donut though, so you maybe can't eat as many of them, which is good and bad because you want to try all the flavors. This is the gluten-free dark chocolate sea salt. Very chocolatey and then you can see the little salt crystals on there, so you get nice and salty there. The key difference on this one is the texture. This one's closer to a cake donut, especially compared to the other potato donut here. I think the maple bacon is the winner for me. It has such a good sweet, salty, smoky kind of flavor and then having that bacon on top just adds a different texture. It's a really great combination. One of our favorite things about being in New England and out east in general is the charming cities and towns, and Portland is no exception. We're walking around the Old Port area, which has beautiful historic brick buildings, tons of local businesses, and is right by the water. Portland was established in 1786 and with its location on the water, it became a booming center of trade as it was the closest U.S. port to Europe. The city continued to grow when the railroad came to Portland in 1832, even overcoming a fire that destroyed much of the city in 1866, but around the 1960s, the area now known as Old Port began to deteriorate. In the 1980s, a rebirth began along the waterfront and today the Old Port neighborhood is one of the best preserved east coast historic waterfronts and has maintained much of its historic charm from the 1800s. As we walked around the brick sidewalks and admired all of the beautiful and ornate brick buildings, the city quickly became one of our favorites that we have ever been to. We've headed across the Casco Bay Bridge to Fort Williams Park, which is a free park that was formerly a military fort. Construction of defensive structures at the fort started as early as 1873 and the fort became officially named Fort Williams in 1899. During World War I, the fort was fully manned by artillery companies and National Guard troops and during World War II, it served as the headquarters of the harbor defenses of Portland before becoming more of a training site in 1951. Today there are a couple old batteries to check out, an old mansion, and one of the most iconic lighthouses in the United States. This is Battery Erasmus Keys and it was the alert station, so if there was ships out in the water here that didn't properly identify themselves, they were gonna get ready to fire. So there's this narrow passageway on the left side of the battery and we've been told that if you go through it and go all the way around, you'll end up on the right side of the battery. Someone says it's kind of like a paranormal activity type experience, so we're gonna do it. Oh my gosh, this is tight. It's barely shoulder width. Oh my gosh, it's so dark back there. Spooky. Do you like this or hate it? No, I hate it because I just bought this sweater and I don't want to mess it up. All right. It was like a battery concrete slot canyon, so if you're claustrophobic, do not do that. You will hate it. So this is the Goddard Mansion and it was completed in 1858 and built for John Goddard who was a prominent businessman in the area. The army then purchased this building in 1898 to house married enlisted men and now it's just this empty shell of a mansion that's just kind of overgrown with trees. It's really, really beautiful just kind of seeing how nature has taken over it and it reminds us a ton of the castle we saw at Ha Ha Tonka State Park in Missouri, which is kind of similar. You can walk around it, you can't walk in it, but it's just this shell of what was once a really beautiful building. So this is Battery Blair, which is the largest battery here at Fort Williams Park and at one time it had two 12-inch guns that were mounted on disappearing carriages so that they would be hidden from view at sea. There were very few of these in the United States during the wartime, but we have actually seen one before out in Washington on Whidbey Island at Fort Casey. Yesterday we went lobstering with Lucky Kitch Cruises and learned firsthand how lobsters are caught and then got to try a whole one boiled, but we couldn't leave Maine without trying lobster in another form. Lobster rolls! We got our lobster rolls from Bite Into Maine, which has a couple locations, but we came to their food truck that's located in Fort Williams Park. We learned about this place from Mark Wiens, who has an awesome food YouTube channel, but then one of our other favorite people, Phil Rosenthal, who has one of our favorite shows on Netflix called Somebody Feed Phil, he also came here and this place is going to be on one of his future episodes, so you know it's got to be good. We couldn't decide what style of lobster roll to get, so we got the two most popular styles and lobster rolls are not cheap. These were $26 each and we got the smaller size, but we figured one in Maine. So this first one is the Maine style lobster roll and it has cold lobster meat, which is tossed in mayonnaise and has chives on top, and then this one is the Connecticut roll, which is hot lobster meat, which then they pour right in front of you hot melted butter on top and both of them are served on a New England style hot dog bun. I'm gonna try the Connecticut one first because it was hot, but now it's cool because of all of our talking parts, but still should be amazing. Oh man, that is heavenly. It is so buttery, so meaty, and for some reason the word luxurious is coming to mind. I don't know why. Yeah, so there's so much butter, so much lobster meat in there. This is apparently the smaller size, but there is a lot on there. I'm in love. This is so good. Are we staying in Maine forever? We're not leaving, we're staying. Oh, buttery. Mmm. I will say I was a little nervous because I liked lobster last night when we ate it, but I wasn't like this is the best thing I've ever eaten, but this is dang good. The meat is so tender, there's such a great buttery flavor from the butter on top, and then the bun that goes with it just adds like, it just really brings it all together. The light little dusting of mayonnaise on there gives it just enough creaminess, and then the little chives on there, a nice little chive-y, spicy little flavor. Oh, and it just goes so well with this buttery, like perfectly toasted bun. These are 10 out of 10, just amazing. I'm like gushing over these. Honestly, they're so dang good. I'm not really a huge just plain mayonnaise fan, so we were originally just going to get the Connecticut style, but we figured we had to try both, so I am excited to try this one, but a little nervous. That's so good, too. Honestly, they're both, in my mind, equally delicious. This one's just creamy, but so is the buttery one, and that bun. Honestly, just wrapping it in the bun just makes it taste so freaking good. The lobster meat, like I said before, is just so tender. I didn't think I'd like lobster rolls, but I actually really love lobster rolls. Adam thought he'd get to eat both of these because I wouldn't really like it, but now we're going to share. Besides just trying lobster rolls, we also wanted to try a couple other iconic main food items, whoopie pies and blueberry soda. Blueberries are Maine's state fruit, and while we didn't visit during the blueberry season, which is in the summertime, blueberry soda is one of the popular ways to try the fruit. Alright, so this is just water, cane sugar, and blueberry juice. Refreshing and tasty. That's good. Tastes just like blueberry juice with some fizz. That's good. So, in 2011, the Maine State Legislature designated whoopie pies as the official state treat of Maine, and what a whoopie pie is, is it's two chocolate cake-like rounds with a creamy filling between them, and it's said to have been popular here in Maine since 1925. This tastes just like you took a cupcake, cut it in half, and then put the frosting in between it. It is so good. The cake cookie is perfectly moist and so chocolatey. Oh, so cakey, fluffy. Actually, the cream in there is really nice and fluffy. This is tender and moist. Whoopie boy, this is so good. As we mentioned earlier, Fort Williams Park is home to an iconic lighthouse, the Portland Head Light, which was the first lighthouse completed and put into service by the U.S. government under the Lighthouse Act of 1789. It was first lit in 1791 using 16 whale oil lamps, and the tower and keepers quarters have changed a bit over time, and the tower now stands at 80 feet tall. It's said to be the most photographed lighthouse in the U.S. and the oldest lighthouse in Maine, and unfortunately you can't go to the top of it, and normally they have a museum you can visit at the bottom, but we're here late October and it's closed for the season, but it's more than worth it just to come check it out from the grounds. You can go down by the water and see it from all different angles. It is a very beautiful lighthouse. We have had the best time here in Maine and in New England. Visiting New England in the fall and just in general has been a dream of ours for years, and it totally exceeded all of our very high expectations. It met our wildest dreams. It was just the best month out here, and we're so sad to leave. There's so much more, so much more of New England and the Northeast that we want to experience, but with the limited time we have so we need to get back to Texas, we just don't think we could do it the way we want to do it. We would just be way too rushed. There's just too much to see out here, so we will be back. We promise. While our time in New England is unfortunately coming to an end, our time out East isn't totally done yet. We have some friends in and near Virginia that we want to make our way towards. We're gonna do a little bit of hanging out, do a little bit of sightseeing, so that's where you'll see us next. I get excited talking about two of my favorite people. Mark Wien! Mark Wien's my guy. You have onions all over your teeth. Hold on, not yet. Close your mouth. Maple bacon is the winner for... It has such a good...