I just read an article that touted Mackworth Island as a nice place to get out of Portland for an afternoon, But when I look it up on Google Maps, it shows the island as basically being the location of a school for the deaf with a trail around it . Is there something worth seeing?

I'm sure it is a physically beautiful place, but with such a sad. sordid history, I'm not sure I could go there and call it "a nice place to get out of Portland for an afternoon". Almost like visiting a death camp.

That grim huh? Not what I was expecting, though now that I've dug a little more, I see what you mean.
Originally I just found this and other listings on the trail and bird sanctuary
http://www.trails.org/map_files/mack...scription.html

Any other suggestions for the area?

A friend who has spent a lot of time on Peak's Island says I would enjoy it. It's popular with day trippers and is a short boat ride from Portland. We just took the mailboat ride. It's about 3 hours and makes very brief stops at various islands in Casco Bay. Nice ride but not much narration.

dfrostnh, thanks, I was and am stil considering the mailboat. Less narration sounds good to me! The only reasons I haven't done it before are that I wondered if 3 hours on a small boat would get tedious, plus I never seemed to make it to the dock on time to get one of the 2/times a day.

It is a relaxing ride. I'm glad we brought binoculars because there is a fishing boat that can't move because of an osprey's nest. With the binoculars we could see the bird. DH liked watching things being unloaded. If someone needs a new washing machine, it's delivered by the mail boat. Some people struck up conversations with locals. The sea was calm so I also did some reading and got a sunburn. We brought our own snacks along.

Sounds good to me!