South Portland, ME Indoor Activities

As members of the Crustacean Nation, fans of the Maine Red Claws cheer on the rim rattles of alumni from some of the top NCAA programs as the athletes hustle and sweat for a shot at the NBA through its development league. In its first three seasons since joining the D-League in the 2009–10 season, the Red Claws—an exclusive affiliate of the Boston Celtics—fostered nine players who signed NBA contracts, including the Celtics' own Avery Bradley, Kris Joseph and Fab Melo.

Shaking hands with a starfish, choreographing a puppet show, and drafting a system of roads and bridges in a single day no longer requires a college degree or being a Nickelodeon executive's son. At Children’s Discovery Museum, hands-on, informative exhibits engage kids' bodies and minds, meting out a palpable understanding of the world under the guise of role playing and interactive fun.

Children can introduce themselves to their coastal counterparts in the Touch Tank for Kids, where crabs scuttle and sea cucumbers swim away from predatory pickle jars. A bona fide Maine campground, equipped by L.L.Bean with tents, backpacks, and live animals, makes a great stomping ground for active legs and imparts the importance of conservation. A functional theater provides a venue for young directors to stage puppet shows and musicals, and bank counters and restaurant kitchens spark imaginative scenarios as kids learn the basics of counting change, preparing healthy meals, and coercing ketchup out of glass jars.

Jody and Bjorn Turnquist opened 3 Bridges Yoga with the philosophy that yoga should warmly embrace practitioners of all skill levels. As a result, they offer Vinyasa-style classes for beginners and advanced yogis. The Turnquists and other certified instructors teach postures and breathing techniques in a room heated to 75-80 degrees with lessons that focus on basic postures and alignments in addition to more intensified bending. With sun streaming through expansive windows and spilling out onto cork floors, their studio lends itself to a practice more peaceful than swimming through a pool of warm chamomile tea.

Saco River Yoga embraces the reflective aspect of the Ashtanga system in their classes, training students to glance inward as they unfurl and stretch their physical forms. The studio's mission—to find peace in both muscles and minds—carries over to its meditation sessions and promotes an inner balance previously attained only while walking across a tightrope over a blazing pit of incense.

Outside of classes, diligent instructors work to build a community among their students through book clubs, drum circles, and gong meditations. Their specialized brand of mind and body training has earned Saco River Yoga kudos from Examiner.com.

Built between 1858 and 1860 as a summer home for hotelier Ruggles Sylvester Moore, the Victoria Mansion continues to dazzle visitors more than 150 years later with its Italian villa-style low-pitched roofs and soaring architecture made from locally sourced Connecticut brownstone. After a hurricane swept through the region in 1938 and badly damaged the mansion, it was scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt as a gas station until a retired educator, Dr. William Holmes, rescued the property. He turned it over to the Society of Maine Women of Achievement, which now operates it as an historic house museum and National Historic Landmark.

Conservation efforts have gradually restored the mansion’s brownstone front steps, balusters, and decorative carved finials; the Islamic-inspired paintings in its Turkish Room; and the Pompeian-style painted walls of its preserved mid-19th-century water closet. Elsewhere, palatial gilded surfaces and stained glass add color to the interior, juxtaposed by modern conveniences such as hot and cold running water, central heating, and robot janitors.

A flying, fiery heart emblem above the front door of Hart Yoga recalls a stylized tattoo, conveying the studio's sense of sizzling cool. Inside, the instructors who oversee 90-minute Bikram yoga classes aren't afraid to act casual—they embrace laughter and a comfortable atmosphere over an intimidating stress on perfection. As students segue through poses in high temperatures, they are encouraged to hone their fundamentals before attempting advanced techniques, such as doing the splits while building a double-decker s'more.