On our way down to spend the evening on Plum Island at Blue earlier this month, we stopped off in Portsmouth for a few hours to explore one of our favorite towns along the Seacoast. It’s a given that whenever we visit this darling colonial town, we always feel a slight pull to relocate there, but after walking through some of the charming residential areas we hadn’t visited before, we couldn’t help ourselves from taking a peek at the local homes for sale!

We followed up our dream property search with lunch at the Portsmouth Row 34. I ordered the exact same thing I had the last time I met a friend there for a lunch a few months ago – clam chowder with a spiced honey biscuit. To be honest, the combination is so good that I’ll likely order it the next time I go, too. Michael devoured the crispy fish sandwich, and on the way back to the car, even talked us into swinging by BRGR BAR for milkshakes to go!

Continuing south, we made one more stop before heading down to Plum for the evening – Maudslay State Park. We have fond memories of our first trip to Maudslay with Orvis a few years ago, and after a big lunch in Portsmouth, a walk around the beautiful estate was just what the three of us needed.

Plum Island is just a short drive from Maudslay, so we found ourselves back outside with Orvis in no time at all, after checking into the hotel. Each time I visit the island, I’m always blown away by the pastel colors of the sky and, maybe because I’ve only ever come in the late fall, the fact that the beach is practically empty remains a mystery to me. It was a rare 60 degree day in November, so we spent as much time on the beach as we could, knowing that we might not see temperatures that warm again for months, and by the time we retreated to our cottage at Blue, Orvis was blissfully exhausted!

Dinner that evening at The Poynt in Newburyport was wonderful. We ordered a (somewhat mismatched) variety of delicious dishes including the pressed tuna tartare, seared scallops, and a wood-fired Margherita pizza that I’m still daydreaming about weeks later. After all of the fun and excitement we’d had that day, we thought about relocating once more, this time to Newburyport, but in the end, we decided that with these two towns being just a short drive away, we can visit as often as we’d like while still enjoying all that we’ve come to truly love about living in Maine.

Photos by Meredith Perdue for Map & Menu.