Portland to Port Clyde

A two-days-in-one this morning as I try to get caught up. I was so exhausted the last couple of nights I couldn't see my way to writing a blog post! So trying to fit one in really quickly while Kef is in the shower. On Sunday, we hit all the Portland lighthouses! A couple I'd seen before with Trudy, and others were new. Continuing the numbers:

  • 19. and 20. Cape Elizabeth lights... a pair that are not particularly close to each other like the last pair was. One is decommissioned and privately owned, the other is still a lighthouse. We got some great pics by sneaking up into the neighborhood, rather than just the designated public access. I say if you don't want people slowing down and stopping to take a pic of your house/lighthouse, don't buy a lighthouse! haha
  • 21. Portland Head Light - this is probably one of the most accessible, most iconic lighthouses we've seen here. It's gorgeous!
  • 22. Ram Island Ledge Light - this one is off the coast, seen through binoculars and long camera lenses from Portland Head.
  • 23. Spring Point Ledge Light - Trudy and I saw this one from a distance, but it was wet that day and we didn't venture out on the breakwater. Kef and I decided to go for it because it was a beautiful day! About halfway out, the wind started picking up and we decided it would be wise to turn back. Nonetheless, a fun squatty one!
  • 24. Portland Breakwater Light (Bug Light) - a revisit to this one... a cute, short, Greek-revival-ish one. Walk up and get selfies, plus views of the harbor activity. Lots of folks flying kites today!
  • 25. Halfway Rock Light - Halfway between Cape Elizabeth and Cape Small. I got a pretty good shot of this one with my cell phone through the binocular lens! We drove to the end of Bailey Island to get this shot. Our guidebook says this lighthouse cost $50,000 in 1869, was a heck of a lot! We're thinking maybe typo?
  • 26. Pemaquid Light - the last of Sunday... another super cute, classic, walk right up to it lighthouse! And there was an old seaman-looking guy sitting out on a bench looking out to sea. Classic! 
We were getting to the end of our day and had more driving to do to get to our bed for the night, which turned out to be Ocean House, a rooming house originally built in the 1820s! A beautiful, bnb-like place with super steep stairs to challenge our 50-year-old knees and ankles! 

No, we did not trespass to get this photo of the Cape Elizabeth Light.

The selfie is always necessary... at the iconic Portland Head Light!

Pretty excited about how nice this binocular/cellphone combo worked on Halfway Rock Light!


Pemaquid Light, complete with old naval captain-looking guy, looking out to sea.

After a long day, so nice to see the comfy beds of 200+ year-old Ocean House in Port Clyde!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

London, Too

Image
Thursday was our day of touring London with a guide on our bus. I've been to many of the key places in London, so I was glad to get a tour that told more about the different areas of the city and how they are changing. The area where our hotel is located is known as the "Silicon Valley" area of London... so you can imagine the people we've seen commuting by foot to work around here. All young(ish). I won't go over all of the places we drove through... if you've been to London you know and if you haven't you can imagine. We stopped at the Methodist Central Hall across from Westminster Abbey for a toilet break and hoping to see the inside. Unfortunately, the hall was booked for a conference and so all we did was have a coffee in the Wesley Cafe and use the toilet. This was one place I didn't get to go the last time I was in London, so I was happy to read a little more about it and go inside, even just for a minute. Central Hall was built ...
Read more

Epworth

Image
The first stop on our Wesleyan Tour was the small town of Epworth, where John Wesley was raised, baptized and became the man he was. I'm not sure how this town would be if it hadn't been for the Wesleys... it's almost as if they loved to hate Samuel Wesley and his family when they were living, but when they died or went away and became "famous" they became hometown heroes. I guess this would just be any-old little town if it weren't known for the Wesleys. We visited the rectory that was John Wesley's home (rebuit in 1709 after being destroyed by a fire that John himself barely survived). Among the displays there was a listing of what Susannah Wesley's day typically looked like... That's a lot more time for spiritual reflection than I would have thought. I wonder how many mothers of 10 children have a schedule that looks like this? A simpler time perhaps. So far, what I've learned of John Wesley makes me wonder whether I would ha...
Read more

Curiouser and Curiouser

Image
We slept in a little bit this morning and had brunch at the appropriately named Curiosity Coffee Bar, a highly-rated little place just a couple of blocks from the White Rabbit (our Alice-in-Wonderland-themed bnb). Curiouser and curiouser, we spent the rest of the day at the South Carolina State Library.  The library staff were quite accommodating of our multiple requests from the stacks (I don't have a pic of the big pile of books we left behind at the end of the day).  The things we're curious about make some people (Kef and Dad specifically) shake their heads. Today's finds included a listing of early settlers to South Carolina, among which was my 5 greats grandfather Samuel McGill, described among the "poor protestants lately arrived from Ireland on the encouragement of the Bounty given by this Province." His age was listed as 23, and he was granted that bounty of 100 acres. Although we knew he was born in Ireland, we didn't know what year. So this 1766 lis...
Read more