Category Archives: lighthouses

It’s 4 am! What am I doing up???

Posted on by

This was the day I had planned to drive up to Pemaquid. Everyone tells me that the best time to photograph the lighthouse is at dawn. My research makes me think I will have an hour and a half drive from Portland. That means if sunrise is 5:30 am I have to be on my way by 4 am.

Beep Beep Beep my cell phone alarm let me know that it was time to rise and shine. Boy was it dark! I peeked out the window and the reason for the extreme darkness (besides being 4 am) was that it was raining, hard and from the looks of the halos around the street lights it was foggy too. The storm predicted  had finally arrived.

In that case there was only one thing to do….Go back to bed.

Nite….

Day is done, Gone the Sun

Posted on by

On April 13, 1899, President McKinley named the one-time subpost of Fort Preble, Cape Elizabeth’s first military fortification, Fort Williams. Named after Brevet Major General Seth Williams, Fort Williams grew to be a tremendous military asset during World War II. Besides protecting the shoreline of Cape Elizabeth, the infantry and artillery units provided the Harbor Defense for    Portland. After the war, many of the forts in Casco Bay were closed, including Fort Williams, which traded in its defense of the coast for caretaker status    and Army Reserve accommodations. Fort Williams was officially closed and    deactivated on June 30, 1963. (from Cape Elizabeth’s web site)

Today, Fort Williams is still one of the most treasured sites of Cape Elizabeth. Home to the oldest lighthouse in Maine, Portland Head Light.

As I made my way back to Fort Williams and Portland Head Light the bright blue skies faded and the wind began to blow. There’s be no sunset shots tonight. The predicted storm was on its way.

While I was out chasing the other lighthouses the tide had gone out so there wasn’t much surf even with the wind. But I was there and intended to make the most of it. I would stay until one of 3 things happened

  • It got too dark to see what I was doing
  • It started to rain
  • or until I got a good shot of the lighthouse

I’m happy to report that I didn’t have to stay until full dark and I didn’t get rained on. Did I get the shot? Well I’ll let you be the judge.

Lighthouses by Land

Posted on by

With the clock heading into the late afternoon it was time to see if I could find my way back to Portland Head Light. I wondered if I could get an evening picture. The weather report had said there was a storm coming but you’d never know it by looking at the blue sky and sunshine of late afternoon.

My path took me over “The Bridge” . The Bridge is a wide span that takes you over to Cape Elizabeth.

The view from the bridge of Casco Bay is great. I got a good look when I was on the trolley tour but driving was a different story.

Especially driving during “rush hour”. I admit Portland’s rush hour isn’t anything like Boston’s. Boston’s rush hour is more congested, stop and go, a  tough on the brakes kind of drive. On a bad night it can take hours to get from one end of the expressway (AKA distressway) to the other. On the other hand being on “The Bridge” in Portland during rush hour has earned the name “Rush”. I  felt like I was  driving in the Indie 500. Cars were flying by me like I was standing still!  I checked and I was doing the speed limit which was plenty fast for someone who doesn’t know the road.

Once off “The Bridge” I was doing pretty good from memory until I hit a large intersection that I didn’t remember from the trolley tour. I made my best guess and of course, it was wrong. After a few more tries I was hopelessly twisted around. Time to break out the trusty GPS. Back on track I finally pulled into Fort Williams Park and Portland Head Light. Even getting twisted around it was way too early for the photo I was trying to get. So I decided to back track and see if I could find the lighthouses I’d seen from the “Sea” part of the Land and Sea Tour.

Since I didn’t have an address I couldn’t use the GPS and was left to my own devices. It wasn’t too long before I found a lovely park and there was Portland Breakwater Light  in the distance.

There was a parking attendant but she really only gave me directions. She pointed out another entrance to the park and told me to drive down that and it would take me much closer to the lighthouse. Success! I could walk the large rocks of the breakwater right up to the “Bug” light.

This is really a cute lighthouse. It’s classical Greek Styling combined with its short stature (the tower is only 13 ft tall) makes this little lighthouse look like it belongs on a chess board.

After exploring the light I spotted another interesting structure. It was a giant hull of a boat with ribs exposed. I’d seen this on the boat tour as well but up close it was enormous. It’s a monument to the men and women that worked in the shipyards that built the vessels for the war effort in World War II. This is the Monument to the South Portland Liberty Ships. It was building ships like these that made Rosie the Riveter and Wendy the Welder household names.

Beyond the “ship” I could just see the Spring Point Ledge Light so I headed back to the car to see if I could find my way to that lighthouse. Several bumps and turns later I was pulling into the Portland Harbor Museum parking lot. To reach the lighthouse you walk through the ruins of an old fort, climb a short set of stairs and there you are.

The breakwater stretches out before you, at the end, another “spark plug” of a lighthouse.

This  one much more simple without the Greek frills.  The design of this lighthouse was intended to help it survive the gale force winds , high water and pressure from winter ice floes.

I sat on the steps leading down to the breakwater watching the boats sail past and the sun sink toward the horizon. It was time to head back to Portland Head light.

Portland by Sea

Posted on by

I chose a good cruise. One of the passengers on the trolley said that I should make sure to sit on the right side (starboard side)  facing the bow if I wanted to get good shots of the lighthouses. I kept that in mind as we boarded. Guess what the ship is called…The Islander! That’s the same name of the boat that I was on for the Puffin Cruise in Bar Harbor!

I climbed to the upper deck  seating myself about mid-way back. (Is that called mid-ship?) It was tricky because the benches were not bolted to the deck. Everyone had a tendency to put their hand on the seat back for balance and were caught off guard when the bench moved!

I didn’t miss any lighthouses by taking the afternoon cruise. We saw plenty including Portland Head Light, Spring Point Ledge Light, Portland Breakwater Light and Ram Island Ledge Light.

They told us the history of the forts that line the bay and the breakwater that was built to protect the pipeline to Canada.

History and folk-lore was sprinkled throughout the cruise. The day was beautiful. One of our last places to visit was a tiny rocky island ( I use the term island loosely) where the harbor seals like to haul out and sun themselves.

The island was loaded with seals, seals on the land,  seals in the water and then something I’ve never seen before, a seal jumped in a graceful arc looking so much like a dolphin that there was a collective gasp. Then every one of us began to bemoan the fact that none of us had the camera ready,( and there were lots of cameras)  it was so unexpected.

Too soon we were heading back to the dock. It was a great time. But I still had more of the afternoon and I knew just what I wanted to do.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Portland by Land

Posted on by

Maine is a really beautiful state. I’ve read about Portland in many travel magazines and had good intentions of taking the Down’easter from Boston to spend the day. Of course it’s one of those things still on my bucket list. So finding myself staying in the Super 8 on the Portland Line I decided that the city deserved at least one day to see what it’s all about.

Based on the directions the desk clerk gave me the previous night I figured asking more directions was useless. “Right down the road”  and “just a little way” weren’t very helpful. The just a little way was over 3 miles! I guess I’ve gotten away from my rural roots.

Anyway with the help of my trusty GPS I managed to navigate the street maze down to the waterfront. I found a parking lot that was pretty reasonable where I could pay hourly or have a discount by paying for the whole day. I took the day option and handed over a $10.00. I found a spot to park in the lot that was right on the waterfront. I recognized the spot as one I’d seen in an article about Portland.

I snapped some pictures and wandered back to the main street. There was a trolley tour right nearby and those of you who have followed my blog for any length of time know I always take the trolley tours. They are a great way to get familiar with an area.

Known as the “Discovery”  trolley you can take a land tour or opt for a land and sea combo ticket. That was my choice. More on the sea  later.

The Land part of the sightseeing  is a 90 minute narrated tour and we had a wonderful driver/guide. She was humorous without being forced and had a wealth of knowledge about the city.

The tour took us by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s childhood home, a stop at Portland Head Light, and loads of other landmarks.

The city of Portland is like a Phoenix, it keeps rising from the ashes. The driver pointed out where time after time the city burned and then was rebuilt. We drove slowly by beautiful stately homes, mansions if you will and a park with views of Portland Harbor.

Back at the trolley stop I picked up a hot dog from a street vendor. I had a choice…red or brown! I was puzzled and must have shown it because the vendor quickly told me I would prefer the “brown”. Sure enough, that was the kind of hot dog I was expecting. She showed me the red ones. I don’t know if they taste different but the casing was definitely red!

My snack out of the way I shopped a little in one of the gift shops picking up a sweatshirt to wear on the boat then headed to the boarding section of the dock. There were several options for the “Sea” part of the combo. One was a harbor cruise in the afternoon, my choice, and the other option was the Sunset Lighthouse cruise which sounded nice but I didn’t want to be hanging around all afternoon. There was too much to see.

While I waited I made the acquaintance  of a “Crusty” native Mainer and some of his friends.

If you take the lobster boat cruise you get to pull your own traps and then take your catch to dinner. The restaurant next door will steam them up for you.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.