Travel
Last
month I had the pleasure of visiting my
son Yehonatan (Tani) and his girlfriend in their home in Portland
Maine.
I have missed my son profoundly since he
moved to Portland a few months ago, and so of course it was amazing for
me to
see him in his new environment, spend quality time with him and Liz
(his
girlfriend), meet Liz’s parents, and even meet Tani’s boss - a lovely
guy.
I
also had time to explore Portland on my own
while Tani and Liz were at work. It is a very walkable city, and in
fact has
the vibe of a big town more so than a city. It was easy and fast to
reach all
the shopping, the huge (and I mean really huge!) number of restaurants,
the
scenic parks, walking/hiking paths, the Old Port, and the waterfront.
Another
thing I was very interested in was the
Jewish history of Portland as well as all the Jewish sites. There are
four
synagogues in Portland – one of them is combined with a Jewish “museum”
showing
various exhibits from the history of Jews in Portland, as well as
contemporary
art by local Jewish artists. As a mother – as well an ardent Zionist –
I was
anxious to know if there were any incidences of anti-Semitism in the
area and
was thrilled to find out from one of the synagogues that so far, there
were none.
They also had a wonderful and quite large Hebrew day school.
During
my visit, my son and I attended both a
Conservative and an Orthodox synagogue. The Rabbi of the Orthodox
synagogue was
very welcoming and was thrilled to be able to use his Hebrew for his
“Israeli
visitor.” (I didn’t want to burst his bubble and tell him that I was
born in
the U.S. and my mother tongue is English!) As is the tradition in the
U.S.,
after services they also had a lovely kiddush hosted by one of the
members of
the community – with vegetables, fruit, tuna salad, egg salad, kugels,
cakes
and of course – bagels and lox. I ate a LOT of vegetables ?.
And
if we are already on the topic of food –
one of my favorite subjects – among Portland’s many restaurants and
shops, I
had no difficulty in finding things to eat as there are many and varied
healthy, vegan, and gluten free choices. They also have both Whole
Foods and
Trader Joe’s supermarkets – both of which I adore and frequented
several times
during my visit.
The
Old Port area of Portland is lovely, packed
with all kind of unique boutiques and eateries. I even saw gorgeous
handmade
art-deco mezuzot in one of the shops. A bit north of Portland there is
a nice
town called Freeport, filled with shopping outlets, and Liz and her Mom
took me
there to get us a bit of a girls’ day shopping fix.
An
additional thing I LOVED about Portland are
their strict anti-smoking laws. No smoking in public places – indoor
AND outdoor.
What a pleasure!
And
last but certainly not least, Liz and her
parents took me around to the major lighthouses in the Portland area.
They were
all rustic, romantic and simply stunning.
Would
I visit Portland again? Hell, yeah! I’ll
visit anywhere in the world if it means spending time with my kid. I
just got
lucky that he is living in such a beautiful spot.