A comfortably short 3.5 hour drive from Newport up to Maine.  The winter storm finally arrived, but the narrow strip of land along the seaboard managed to stay warm.  We drove through Boston with temps in the upper 50’s.

We saw our first snow after entering Maine (from a former storm) and made it to Portland by early afternoon.

Over Xmas we are staying on an island (Peaks Island) off the coast of Portland.  We arrived at the Ferry terminal by 2:00pm and were the first and only vehicle to make the crossing.  I learned later that the ferry service had been closed all morning due to the extremely high winds.  After a choppy 20 minute boat ride, we made it to Peaks Island and on to our house for the next three nights.

View of Portland from the cozy confines of our car during the ferry crossing.

It was warm all day but very windy.  The news that evening reported sustained winds at 30-40 miles per hour and gusts over 65.

Our house.  Built in 1914 as a summer cottage.  It has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths.. very well modernized and appointed inside.  After unloading our gear we went to the island’s only grocery store to get food.  All of the restaurants and other stores are already closed for the weekend.

Typical houses.  Based on my dog walks I would guess that only about 1 in 5 are currently occupied.

This morning (the 24th) most of the storm has already passed by.  The temperature is now 14F with windchill at -2F.  The weather will dictate much of what we can and can’t do over the next several days, but we have a great place to hunker down for Xmas day.