Port of Call: Portland, Maine

Having a layover of some days between Boston area engagements I took the opportunity to spend some quality time with my sons in Portland, Maine. I had lived there myself for a few months when I was about their age, and I was excited by the prospect of revisiting old haunts, in addition to spending time with the progeny.

Portland is the hometown of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (see below). The poet himself is buried in Massachusetts but I came across this crypt containing his parents in Portland's Western Cemetery

Longfellow Statue, Longfellow Square

Portland Stage Company, where the first professional production of one of my plays occurred in 1988, the one-act "White Trash". 

Nor'easter outside my window -- what could be more Maine than that?

Charlie and I at Longfellow's boyhood home

Charlie in the writing nook in the Wadsworth Longfellow House 

Longfellow's childhood bedroom

Statue of movie director John Ford, also born and raised in Portland

The former site of the Tree Cafe, where productions of early versions of my plays "Universal Rundle" and "Nihils" were staged in 1988. 

The apartment building where I lived in 1988 and wrote the song "Body Throbbing Sunburn", which we later used in the show "Willy Nilly" in 2009. 

Portland's Old Port. The remaining photos depict a glorious day of kicking around the Old Port and Peak's Island. 

Next stop: Concord, Mass.