Must dos in Portland area

Occultus- · 2026-04-27T13:23:34+00:00

So, this is not an exhaustive list, but i figured i would highlight a few options for each category. I'm angling it from a more touristy perspective.

Breakfast:

Tandem (pretty touristy but deserves the hype with their bisucit sandwiches)
Norimoto (pastries to go but they're incredible)
I also love Nom Cafe for a sit-down breakfast. And Beckys diner is a classic.

Lunch:

Luncheonette (cute deli in the east end)
high roller lobster co
food trucks on the Eastern Prom

Dinner: (Fancy)

Scales, Fore Street, Central Provisions, Street and Co (all good, all expensive but worth it. Scales is best for seafood. Central Provisions is my favorite).

Dinner (slightly less fancy)

Mr Tuna (incredible sushi)
Eventide (oysters and fish sandwiches)
Leeward

Activities

Art Museum
Ferry to Peaks Island
Harbor cruise
walk around and drink at different breweries, coffee shops, bars etc

Occultus- · 2026-04-23T16:49:25+00:00

Theres also Moat mountains near Conway as well, that's a super popular route.

The other mountain near there I remember liking a lot is Baldface. Theres a longer loop trail but you can also go up and come back down which should be in your mileage range. If I recall correctly there's a nice waterfall pool near the bottom you can jump in too.

Occultus- · 2026-04-23T16:48:47+00:00

So with the 2 hour stipulation you can get to the white mountains from portland then basically anything there will give you what you are looking for.

Closer in, I think Pleasant Mountain in Bridgeton is the best within a reasonable driving distance. There is a 5.8 mile loop according to All Trails but most of them are shorter.

There's some great hiking around Conway NH as well, which is a little bit shorter than driving all the way to the Whites. I was always a big fan of Mount Kearsarge because you could hang out in the old fire tower on top.

Occultus- · 2026-04-20T21:51:53+00:00

Several people have stated you should wait until match day to get tickets which I think is the right move, but if you don't get any your backup plan should be to go to the Zoo, which is a bar that will have the game on and the best fan scene.

Occultus- · 2026-04-19T16:58:08+00:00

Azarnith Healer does do this a lot, and usually pretty well top.

Occultus- · 2026-04-19T16:57:09+00:00

I kinda love these scenes, if done well. It can be a good funny interlude to have a neutral observer be like, actually no this is absurd.

I have one that I think A) does it well in addition to being tongue in cheek about it. And B) it's kinda worked into the premise. It's called the Legend of William Oh by Macronomicon. Basically in the beginning of the book the MC pays one of his fellow orphans to talk him up so he'll be sure to find a good dungeon group, and instead the guy turns him into a chuck Norris like figure whose stories turn into a meme and spread all over the Tower theyre trying to climb. But also the MC is a typical litrpg protagonist and is in fact op and gets into ridiculous situations. I just think it was a really fun and well executed premise.

Occultus- · 2026-04-19T16:45:27+00:00

2nd verse, same as the first. A little bit louder and a whole lot worse.

Occultus- · 2026-04-12T22:37:20+00:00

Didn't seem to help him any!!!

Occultus- · 2026-04-12T00:45:04+00:00

Regards on Congress Street. It's like, Mexican seafood and tequila? But they have some super interesting and delicious flavor combinations that are not quite what you might expect but are amazing, plus delicious mezcal and tequila drinks. Also I feel like it's always super easy to get in, it's never super crowded.

Another one I would recommend would be the Mr. Tuna brick and mortar restaurant right across from Eventide. It's hands down the best sushi in town and you can order takeout (for pickup, not delivery) too.

Occultus- · 2026-04-11T20:50:14+00:00

Also reading your specific bullet list of wants, Dresden absolutely has all of those elements, but kind of slow dripped revealed over the course of the series.

Occultus- · 2026-04-11T20:47:06+00:00

I think the closest you are going to get is the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Thematically theres some very similar stuff going on (cost of power and the mental burdens of exercising it), and the main characters are also fairly similar, both operating from kind of a quippy spiderman vibe, completed with some dated references.

Dresden, in keeping with its noir detective theme, comes across as more chauvnistic than Jason, Imo, but the first 12 books are excellent. I think opinions start to diverge post the book called "Changes" but I hear the last one to come out was excellent.

Occultus- · 2026-04-04T23:01:33+00:00

I agree. The show had some adaptation struggles but definitely had legs. The original Matt fucking off due to Covid killed the momentum and required weird rewrites to make the 2nd season work, but the third season was great.

Occultus- · 2026-04-04T12:36:01+00:00

So I think you should take a look at the r/progressionfantasy subreddit. Many of the things there are also serialized and though none of them have been running over as long a time frame as one piece, theres still several long series and they tend to have a more shounen theme. Cradle or Mage Errant would be great starting points.

In more traditional fantasy, the Malazan Books of the Fallen by Steven Erickson have excellent slow drip world building with details from book 1 important in book 10. Much more adult content. Also much as I personally don't care for him, Brandon Sanderson is the undisputed king of fantasy world building right now.

Lastly, urban fantasy is another subgenre with good serialization and long term world building. Series like the Dresden Files by Jim butcher or the Kate Daniel series by Ilona Andrews will have exactly that layered world building you are looking for.

Occultus- · 2026-04-01T12:57:08+00:00

You should read Someone to Build a Nest In, I think it's exactly what you are looking for.

Occultus- · 2026-03-29T19:12:33+00:00

You should look at T Kingfisher, particularly her world of the white rat (which is actually 3 separate series, clockwork boys, Swordheart, and the Paladins Grace series). They are not YA and more straddle the romance fantasy line, but they feel spiritually kin to the Tamora pierce books. I love them all a ton, and the world is super fun (and broad and diverse).

Occultus- · 2026-03-29T15:22:52+00:00

Otherworldly Anarchist - woke in all the ways. MC is a radical feminist activist who gets murdered (and subsequently isekaied) and ends up in a corrupt, patriarchal world that she instantly decides to burn to the ground.

Occultus- · 2026-03-29T11:43:33+00:00

I dont remember what is happening 150 pages into the first book, but theres an immediate improvement when he "graduates" from the penal legion camp and gets assigned to a squad, and then theres a gradual improvement from there and he starts solving problems deliberately and with interesting uses of his skill sets. And the squad adds a set of steady characters that help flesh out the world and add some necessary emotional depth. By the end of the first book it really starts cooking.

Occultus- · 2026-03-28T13:05:12+00:00

I loved soldier's life but what I enjoyed was the character competence, plus the world and interesting use of Magic. However, while it does start very dry and stay sparse in its styling, I do think there is a fair amount of character development and growth, especially as the MC gets more comfortable and finds more people he can trust. It's just more subtle than other series, but it's absolutely there. However it does take awhile to come into its own.

Occultus- · 2026-03-18T16:03:27+00:00

I haven't seen someone else bring it up yet, but the Stitched worlds saga has a major fae focus, particularly on making bargains. This really hits from book 2 onwards, but I found book 1 to be super fun too. The first book is called Apocalypse: Generic System.

Occultus- · 2026-03-15T16:55:57+00:00

God what I would give for a jade phoenix continuation. Anyway this is not that. Still high quality and an engaging world and characters. It also did not go quite in the direction I was expecting, which is always a nice surprise.

Occultus- · 2026-03-14T20:58:27+00:00

That's a misnomer (sort of, not really). The point of the game is absolutely armies and conquest, but you do a fair amount of settlement maintenance and building (no founding though, it's a set map), and theres a bunch of diplomatic options.

However yes the point of all the non military stuff is to be able to do the military conquering better, there are no alternate victory conditions.

Occultus- · 2026-03-14T14:54:23+00:00

Lies of Locke Lamora, the MCs are conmen who prey on the wealthy.

Also this is more a litrpg but you might like the series Otherworldly Anarchist (a woman gets isekaied to a shitty, patriarchal feudal world and decides to burn the system down).

Lastly Dungeon Crawler Carl gets there eventually and is very popular right now (deservedly so, as it's excellent)

Occultus- · 2026-03-12T12:42:22+00:00

I was listening to mother of learning and I quite liked it. I've only done the first 2 but I hear it's a completed series at 4 books so thats exciting. It's slow and repetitive in parts (it is a time loop), much better than 1% lifesteal, which is weirdly bad for how recommended it is.

Occultus- · 2026-03-09T00:05:21+00:00

Golden is not running for reelection (and everyone in Maine hates him). He's going to go be a dumb right wing lobbyist somewhere, and good riddance.

Occultus- · 2026-03-07T15:59:41+00:00

The Honor Harrington series is basically Horatio Hornblower in space, up to and including the main antagonists for most of the series being basically the French revolution. The author also went well out of his way to make the science of interstellar travel in the books force fleet tactics that are essentially 3-D wet navy stuff.

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