Drone Wars and Pork Belly

This day in my life was wild. It’s 12:13am — disclosure I used some AI to help me with language cleanup. Will be posting a Vlog to @extravirginguy shortly.

It kicked off with the classic Comfort Inn continental breakfast. For some, that might hit the spot. For me? Not so much. I opted for almond butter and dried fruit instead. Every time I stay at one of these places, I try to make the most of what’s there—but I bring backup.

The saddest moment of the day came early. I was getting some gorgeous footage of the Comfort Inn… and then it happened. I was actually filming myself fly the drone for an attempted vlog and while multitasking — the drone decides to lodge itself into a pine tree 100 feet in the air. Not user error at all. Haha.

I knew one thing for sure: I was not leaving Portland until that Drone was back in my hands. More on that later.

I drove into the city of Portland with one goal in mind: lobsters. I didn’t care if I saw them on a boat, in a seafood market, or at a processing facility—I just wanted to get some cool lobster video footage

I pulled into the Pier area, parked the car, and—boom—there it was: a lobster grading facility. Incredible. An unnamed man was kind enough to let me film and I’m excited to share with you the footage.

Interesting Lobster Fact: They shed their shells around now, so there are both Soft Shell and Hard Shell Lobsters that come in via the traps. The Hard Shelled Lobster are worth more. Most of you have probably never eaten a soft-shelled lobster.

Afterwards I tried filming at Harbor Fish Market, but they weren’t thrilled about the camera, so I quietly exited.

The final stop was meant to be the Portland Fish Exchange, hoping to catch the seafood auction. Right time… but the wrong day. Auctions only run Monday to Thursday. It’s Friday. Welp.

Still, I got to peek inside the building and get a 20 minute conversation with one of the workers. The only reason the conversation ended is we began to shiver speaking in the refrigerated area they keep the fish. Cool stuff. I will say I’m more interested in Seafood now than I was before this rendezvous. Another interesting fun fact is that Auction House covers Ground Fish only— fish that feed off the ground.

Funny enough, much of their seafood comes from Boston, while Boston’s lobster comes from Portland. Great Trade!

On my way out of the city I tried filming someone making a lobster roll—struck out again. Next time.

Hungry and mildly defeated, I hit Whole Foods for a snack and now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for (probably not but just go with it)

The drone plan

It was simple:

1. Go to Walmart.

2. Buy a tennis racket and a ton of tennis balls.

3. Hit as many balls as possible at the drone until it came down.

$32 and 20 minutes later I pull back into the Comfort Inn of Scarborough

But guess what?

The wind beat me to it.

The drone fell. And sadly—but not surprisingly—it broke.

RIP, DJI Mini 3 Pro.

To lift my spirits, I stopped by another market—the second Harbor Fish location—where I had a sample of strawberry rhubarb pie. A local guy tipped me off about Jordan’s Farm, so I drove over.

Would have been nice to have the drone…

After about another hour of driving , I pulled into a random BBQ shack and had the best pork belly I’ve ever tasted (maybe some bias given the circumstance but soooo good). Perfectly salted, fatty, unreal. I used to make pork belly back when I worked at an Asian restaurant, so I’ve got a soft spot for it.

Finished the day by Driving down to Boston, and eventually trying to find a parking spot in the city, but 0 street parking, 20 minutes of traffic, and $40 Public Parking led me back to the AirBNB for some computer work and a knock.

Boston tomorrow.

-Jack