The Real Portland Tour

08/19/2024

Big thanks to Chuck and Linda (the couple standing beside me) for once again taking my tour. They’ve toured with me so many times over the years I’ve lost count! Today they brought their friends from Arizona

07/22/2024

It was great to have some folks from Fargo, ND on the tour today! I was in Fargo way back in 1995 when I was on the first Maine baseball team to make it to the American Legion World Series…some longtime locals will remember that!

05/30/2024

Great to have some folks on the tour today from the other Portland. No, not the one in Oregon…the one in Texas!

04/01/2024

Nice to be out touring again for another season!

02/04/2024

I’m honored to say that my Real Portland Tour Portland history spoken word poem/rap was recently published in the Longfellow Days anthology titled “Read To Me Some Poem.” Yesterday was the book launch and book signing in Brunswick. It was a real surprise to see a couple of my longtime friends from Portland High show up with their kids to hear me read at the event and have their book signed! The book is available to purchase online via MoonPie Press (not to be confused with Maine’s State Treat the whoopie pie), and in person at Gulf of Maine Books.

12/02/2023

Since my backup tour guide has been learning about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at school this fall, and since her middle name is Evangeline, we definitely had to take the holiday tour of the Longfellow House today. She even got to see the original travel desk where Henry penned Evangeline!

10/24/2023

Another abshellutely nutty day out here giving tours bub

10/19/2023

Another beautiful day out here at Fort Williams Park

10/03/2023

Just hit 1,000 reviews on TripAdvisor, big thanks to all the folks over the years that have taken my tour and written a review, it’s an honor everyday to share the history of my hometown

09/28/2023

It was a great time showing this group from Mississippi around my hometown!

09/07/2023

First day of 4th grade today for my back up tour guide, same school I went to, keepin it real in the neighborhood

09/02/2023

It was a pleasure having these two twin sisters on the tour today celebrating their 60th birthdays, keeping it real on The Real Portland Tour!

08/20/2023

Nice day out here at Fort Willams Park!

08/11/2023

I’m proud to say a very happy 50th wedding anniversary today to my two annual employees of the year each year - my mom and dad! The Real Portland Tour company banquet is gonna be extra special this year! Cheers to 50 years!

05/11/2023

I’m always so appreciative of all the reviews folks have left for my tour over the years, but this one that came in today really put a smile on my face…

05/05/2023

Nice to finally see some sun out here at Fort Williams Park!

03/31/2023

I mean it was perhaps the pinnacle of my librarian career thus far, so it had to be mounted and framed…June 2022 American Libraries magazine article “The Man with a Van” etched into mahogany wood for all time…it arrived in the mail today with white gloves, because you know it deserves that white glove treatment! Backup tour guide approved!

03/10/2023

Walked down the waterfront today, enjoyed a lobster roll, saw some seals in the bay, beautiful day in Portland!

02/23/2023

Congratulations to my cousin Lance and wife Amy for a legendary 20 year run for Rivalries Portland! Sad to see it go, but happy there’s still the Falmouth location! Proud to say I was one of the original Rivalries employees 20 years ago…I still remember working opening night after giving tours that day. It was so busy that first night I knew it was going to be the place to be. It was my first and only bar/restaurant job- I cooked, did the dishes, ran food, even checked IDs at the door, but my best contribution was the Stevie Wonder mix CD I would play on the boombox in the kitchen. So many memories here: family events, wedding receptions, Portland High 10 year reunion, drinks with old friends, Boston sports, I even got my name on the menu with The Real Mainah Meal! And last but not least I met my wife here haha! It will always be my favorite bar in Portland, authentic places like Rivalries are hard to come by these days. Thanks again to Lance and Amy for keeping it real all these years!

Rivalries Portland location has been sold to new owners, ending an iconic era

12/04/2022

Good day for a hike up Bradbury Mountain!

10/19/2022

As I roll into the circle at Portland Head Light today, the traffic is tight. I’m in a bit of a pickle, but it’s the moment I’d bun waiting for- snapping a photo with the Oscar Mayer . Even if folks grilled me for holding up traffic, I figured I’d ketchup to the tour after. It was windy - frankly a bit chili - but after so many years giving tours dishing out hot dog puns, this was simply too big of a dill to pass up. Today was a moment to relish…

08/16/2022

Big thanks once again to the couple on the right who have toured with me so many times over the years..today was their 10th time! Each time they bring new friends. Today they brought a couple from Scotland!

08/05/2022

At Rivalries for the 20th anniversary pahty! Proud to say I was one of the original Rivalries employees 20 years ago! All comes full circle tonight, relishing the moment ordering The Real Mainah Meal with my backup tour guide! Proud moment to see her daddy on the menu! She’s already got my red hot joke down pat!

06/25/2022

Frankly speaking, I relish this honor. After 21 years of giving tours and dishing out my red hot dog joke and talking about whoopie pies, I may have finally cut the mustard. Go get yourself The Real Mainah Meal at Rivalries Portland, a favorite of yours truly.
Those who know how I roll know this is a really big dill for me.

My cousin Lance and wife Amy have been keepin’ it real at Rivalries for 20 years now, and it’s an honor to be on the Rivalries menu!

06/02/2022

I’m honored to say that I was recently interviewed by American Libraries magazine! You can find me in the June 2022 issue, “the Bookend” feature. Go check it out at your local library!

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2022/06/01/bookend-the-man-with-a-van/

Southern Maine Community College

05/08/2022

Another beautiful day at Fort Williams Park today. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

04/18/2022

On Patriot’s Day I always make sure to post about my 6 great grandfather, Captain Isaac Davis. He led his company of Acton Minutemen against the British at the Old North Bridge in Concord, MA on April 19, 1775, and was the first officer killed in the Revolutionary War. The Minute Man statue in Minute Man National Park depicts him. His statue is on the seal of the National Guard, and is on the back of the Massachusetts state quarter. Captain Davis was a farmer and gunsmith. His son, Ephraim Davis, moved to Solon, ME where generations of my father’s family settled and worked as farmers. My dad was eventually born on a farm in Solon, and was given the middle name Isaac. Captain Davis’s grandson, Asher, built the platform for the pulpit in the South Solon Meeting House in 1842, upon which my wife and I stood as we got married in 2015, while my grandmother, Arlene (Captain Davis’s great great great great granddaughter), read a poem I wrote.
My dad and I visited the Acton Historical Society with my grandmother several years ago before she passed. Staff members from the historical society brought us to the Acton Memorial Library to see an exhibit which featured Isaac Davis’s sword, among other historical items.
On the pedestal of the Minute Man statue in Concord is the following quote from Emerson’s Concord Hymn:
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood/ Their flag to April's breeze unfurled/ Here once the embattled farmers stood/ And fired the shot heard round the world.”

04/08/2022

Some good sized waves at Portland Head Light today

03/26/2022

Nice to be out touring again!

02/28/2022

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on this date back in 1807. It was an honor for me to be one of the featured poets for the Longfellow Days event a few years back. While I worked as a librarian in Brunswick the other day, I did some research on Longfellow and realized that three homes he lived in during his time at Bowdoin were still around so I decided to walk past each home and get a photo. The first was a home on Federal St that he roomed in as a student (later becoming the Harriet Beecher Stowe house), the second was another home on Federal St that he lived in while working as a professor at Bowdoin, and the third was a home on Potter St (later becoming the Joshua Chamberlain House). I also didn’t realize that in addition to being a professor at Bowdoin, Longfellow was also the college librarian. So from one librarian to another Happy Birthday Henry!