New2Maine.com

I am a bit of a volleyball junkie. I’ve been playing a couple times a week since last fall. I’ve played pickup ball at the East End Community School in Portland (no longer running due to lack of interest), Falmouth Middle School, Cape Elizabeth, and Gorham Municipal Center. South Portland on Sundays is also a great place to play. Most of these are done for the season, though, so here are three great places to play if you’re looking for pickup play this summer.

• Deering Oaks Park, Portland – Outdoor co-ed pickup play on Mondays and Tuesdays at 6:00 PM. This is fairly regular, but be sure to speak with Dawn Y. about getting on the email list.
• Gorham Municipal Center, Gorham – The only indoor co-ed pickup series still going strong into the summer. They play Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:00 PM. Cost is $2 per night, but the level of play is generally good.
• Old Orchard Beach – The premier outdoor place to play north of Hampton Beach. Their tournament schedule is posted on the Official OOB Volleyball Blog. Pickup play is generally available outside of tournaments, though I haven’t found a regular schedule.

The Maine State Volleyball Association is the a great place to look for more information about volleyball in the Maine, especially tournaments and leagues. If you’d like to get a rating (I don’t have one yet, but might after this summer so I can play in fall leagues), Andy Winslow seems to be the person to talk to; he can be reached through MSVBA. The outdoor season is fully underway (I played outside twice last week), so get cracking…

If you organize or know of other summer pickup volleyball within reasonable driving distance of Portland, please drop me a line and let me know. I’ll happily add it to this list and might even show up and hit around a bit too.

The march toward summer continues! After several straight days in the 60s, with a few breaking into the 70s, Amber and I went to our first “summer” barbeques of the season this weekend. On Saturday night we attended a 20- and 30-somethings dinner at our church in Cape Elizabeth. We’d originally planned on making pizza in the rectory kitchen, but the weather was nice enough that the rector decided to switch to chicken and salmon on the grill. Of course, by the time evening rolled around, it’d gotten cloudy and cooler again, so we ate inside, but it’s the thought that counts.

Yesterday after church we went over to Westbrook to have lunch with our friends Chris and Beth in their new house. Being sunny and warm, cheeseburgers on the grill were in order. They have a screened-in porch out back, so we ate outside (at least more so than the night before). It was a little breezy, but still quite comfortable for outdoor eating. You can’t beat food hot off the grill for imparting a summery feeling. I’m now scouting the Sunday flyers for good deals on a charcoal grill to set up out behind our apartment. Yum…

We continue to meet new Mainers up here. She was considering offering tutoring in French and so took a look at Craig’s List to see what might be out there. While perusing the listings, she came across a listing offering tutoring from a woman whose background was surprising similar to hers–a degree from SUNY Albany and time studying in France (Paris vs. Tours). And she’d just moved to Portland to boot. She emailed this other woman to see if we might get together for drinks.

We got a call back Saturday evening and agreed to meet at Wine Bar in Old Port at around 9:00. We got there at just about 9:00 after finding a surprisingly good parking spot on Commercial St. Things really quiet down after Labor Day I guess. We had no idea what our counterparts for the evening looked like (She had neglected to get any kind of details about appearance or apparel), but a quick phone call informed that we’d ended up sitting right behind them.

What followed was a lovely two-hour chat about life in Portland and teaching (it turns out that both of our companions for the evening were teachers). I avoided most of the talk about teaching, but we very much enjoyed discussing our new city. It turns out that this other couple had just moved up here one week ago, and they’d also come for no particular reason other than liking Portland. We had lots of restaurant and pub recommendations for them. She and I were pleased to hear that it sounded like we’d been in Portland for a year. Not quite…but we’ve certainly tried hard to explore our city since we’ve gotten here. Much of that exploration has been chronicled here, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it. Thanks, J & B, for a lovely evening. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

We also have dinner plans to meet with the publisher of The Monocle and his wife for Thursday night. That will make three couples we’ve met up here through the Internet. Pretty good for six weeks I’d say.

Whilst at lunch with us, reader SteveG mentioned that he’d been reading the blog of another new Mainer, a college professor and his wife who recently moved out to Portland from Santa Barbara, California. He goes by Ickenham, though I’m not certain whether that’s his real name or not. His wife’s name is Watoosa, so you never know.

Anyway, I took a look at his blog, The Monocle, and decided I’d try to get in touch with him. Unfortunately, Blogger doesn’t seem to include a “contact the author” link (like mine, here), so I had to leave a comment and ask him to contact me. We’ll see what happens. I do hope he writes, as I think She and I might get along with them fairly well. I even noticed that they’re Episcopalians, as She and I are, so perhaps we could do a bit of church shopping together.

New2Maine.com reader SteveG was kind enough to contact me and let me know that he and his wife were up in Portland for the week and would like to get together for lunch. After some discussion we settled on The Great Lost Bear on Forest Ave. This is a nice pub with a great beer selection and good food. One word of caution–they have a tiny parking lot (no more than 15 cars I’d say), and there’s not a ton of street parking.

Once you find a spot to park and get in the door, you’re greeted by a typical, though very clean and nice, local pub atmosphere. There are a couple dining areas and the bar with its impressive array of taps. The menu is pretty standard pub fare, but they have just about everything you could want. The selection is far more varied than I’d expected. I chose a Buffalo chicken sandwich and She had a chicken parm sandwich. Both were good, though I would have liked my Buffalo sauce to have a bit more kick. SteveG and his wife had a veggie burger melt and a salad with tuna steak, respectively. Both seemed to enjoy their meals. We’ll definitely go back again. It’s not a short walk from our place, but it is within walking distance, so I’m sure I’ll become better acquainted with their huge beer selection.

We shared some very pleasant conversation during our 90 minutes lunch. SteveG and his wife were very helpful in pointing out all of the places to eat and shop they’ve discovered in the area. They were quite interested in Her teaching experiences, as they have a daughter looking to go into the profession as well. We chatted about impressions of Portland thus far, the pleasant and helpful people we’ve encountered up here, and the general feeling that this is a great place to live and we’re glad we decided to give it a try. SteveG also picked up the check, so I can now report that I’ve actually earned at least one free lunch with this blog. Thanks SteveG!