Portland, ME Indoor Activities

A mural of a radiant sun painted in oranges, reds, and yellows covers one of the walls at Portland Power Yoga, mimicking the warmth of the heated room where yoga instructors show ranks of students the proper way to extend their arms as they crouch on their mats. The heat helps facilitate deeper stretching and detoxification as students flow through sequences in 90-minute Basics, All Levels, or Intermediate classes. Instructors condense the same experience into a shorter session during Hour of Power classes and help groups hold extended poses in Yin Yoga, awakening students' connective tissues and convincing nearby deer that they’re actually statues. In addition to regular classes, the studio hosts community workshops with guest instructors and often works in tandem with the bodywork experts at Hara Holistic Health.

Cavorters of all ages caper about Joker's Family Fun and Games's massive indoor play zone, which is stocked with games and attractions that inspire climbing and sliding. Kids can scramble into the three-tiered A-Maze-Zing playhouse to navigate tubes, web bridges, and conference rooms, and toddlers can maneuver through the mini maze or hop aboard the train ride for a sightseeing jaunt around the tracks. Future adults can challenge one another in sundry classic arcade games such as skee-ball and air hockey, and more than 50 video games await thumbs desperate to win garlands of exchangeable tickets. Whippersnappers achieve liftoff in lieu of jetpack overalls on a Jolly Jump air bounce then safely glide down a 22-foot inflatable super slide. At the 14,000-square-foot Portland location, youngsters can also blast comrades in a space-age laser-tag zone, scale a towering rock-climbing wall, and master putting skills on an 18-hole mini-golf course. After extreme bouts of frolicking, families can quell tummy rumbles with slices of housemade pizza slathered in Joker's signature sauce or peek at the menu to peruse sandwiches, burgers, and chicken tenders.

The fully certified instructors at A Body of Work call on years of teaching experience, leading classes that combine movement, bodily awareness, and fitness within the center's bright, airy studios. In a variety of courses, teachers educate on fitness disciplines such as the Gyrotonic Expansion System, which employs special equipment to prompt joints, connective tissue, prehensile tails, and muscles to work in unison during stretching and strengthening movements. Group and private Pilates classes work to improve the posture and flexibility of bodies, and Hatha, Iyengar, and TriYoga practices burgeon focus, centeredness, and quests to discover inner koi ponds. The center also offers bodywork and massage, with therapeutic sessions ranging from deep-tissue and sports massage to trigger-point therapy and acupuncture.

The 4-year-old lion Mufasa Obama roams his cage, purring between bites of raw meat, as his sister, Tawana, roars behind him. Mufasa, dubbed “Maine’s Little Lion King” by D.E.W. Animal Kingdom and Sanctuary’s caretakers Bob and Julie Miner, may be the nonprofit sanctuary’s most visible inhabitant, but he’s far from its only attraction. Across 43 acres of land, the roars and deep purrs of big cats mix with the quacks of ducks and the snorts of pigs. A staff of volunteers tends to gibbons, spider monkeys, and lemurs as they swing from trees inside a primate enclosure. Meanwhile, orphaned and injured native-Maine animals such as owls are sequestered for rehabilitation before being released back into the wild or signed for exclusive Tootsie Pops endorsements.:m]]

Sacred Movement Yoga's owner Kristina turned to yoga to relieve the stress of too much weight, debt, and coffee and found that her stresses melted away in the face of a burgeoning yoga practice, inspiring her to share her life-management tool with others. Along with a team of experienced instructors, Kristina leads three levels of Vinyasa-style yoga classes, guiding students through sequences of athletic poses, connected by continuous, balance-testing movements and breaths. During dance-infused fitness classes, instructors use a ballet barre to stabilize students as they perform dynamic, ballet-style movements to sculpt lean muscle. Sacred Movement's resident massage therapist performs reiki, traditional massage, and Thai-yoga treatments for patrons seeking further treatment for physical, emotional, and spirit-animal-related tension.

The Sanskrit translation of rasamaya is "fluid," which describes the studio's Rasamaya Method of intelligent movement. Rasamaya's instructors lead their own brand of yoga, Pilates, and ballet-barre classes featured in Pilates Style Magazine that are designed to balance and strengthen the mind and body in tandem. Founder Carrie Tyler specializes in women's physical structure, health, and sexuality and built the practice from her playful teaching style and deep understanding of yogic philosophy, anatomy, and alignment. Each yoga class incorporates breath work and chanting to attune the mind while the body sweats, and aerial classes teach sling work and basic inversions so students can continue their practice even when the floor is deemed lava.