Boothbay Harbor and Portland Headlight area

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On Thursday we headed to Boothbay Harbor for and overnight and then today we headed home and stopped in the Portland area to visit some other familiar areas.

I will begin by taking a step back to last weekend. I forget to include this photo of seals on Clous ledge in the Sheepscot River. There seems to be more seals each year.

We were able to do our first walk of the season to Spruce Point. In the photo below you can see Burnt Island Lighthouse in the center of the picture - as you may recall from the last post we visited there last week with Lauren and Bree.

And the Admiral here with the very nice Spruce Point Inn as a backdrop.

Flowers are in wonderful bloom.

I find sea roses capture the nature of the seashore about as well any image I can think of.

Lupine are also a wonderful reminder that summer is upon us.

This dooryard is an interesting and eclectic collection. Not sure if the flag orientation is intentional or just a faux pas.

And I know that I have shown the butt tree a number of times, but today the light is far more diffused and the detail of this strange occurrence is even more evident today.

And back at the harbor we cross the footbridge. The harbor still has not come fully alive with summer activity,

And here is the familiar Bridge tender's house.

But here is something new. Boothbay has placed a number of interesting history markers along the way. This one on the tender's house made me smile. Click on the image of read the description, but in short the tender used the house to smuggle bootleg liquor using a trap door in the floor. Those sneaky Mainers!!

Saturday we left the boat with the idea to stop at Becky's dinner in Portland. But the wait of an hour at 11:15 convinced us that it has been "discovered" and/or folks are making up for being cooped up for the covid virus.

So time to make lemonade from the lemons handed to us. To do that we decided to pickup some "real Maine Italian" sandwiches from Amatos and have a picnic at Portland headlight. Here is the real thing. These sandwiches are very different from anything found anywhere else - from the bread to the to the special pickles to the olive oil on top they can not be duplicated - trust me - and they were delicious. And what a great spot to enjoy them.

After lunch I walked to Portland Light house. The area around the lighthouse is known as Fort Williams. The fort guarded the entrance to Portland Harbor, that was a strategic staging port in wars including WWII.

Looking northerly at the entrance to Portland Harbor

And you can see Portland Headlight

This painted sign on the rock marks the site of the Wreck of the Annie Maguire

On the walk back to the car passed one of the gun batteries - Battery Hobart

This is the gun emplacement. It was one of the smaller ones

We then drove to Cape Elizabeth and the Two Lights area. On this road to the locations of the two lights you pass by this home. It is significant for three reasons.

The first reason is, as you can see from the restored markings on the side of the building, it was a Life Saving Station that was re-located about a mile back from the cove below the lighthouse. This link shows a post card of the Life Saving Station in its original location.

The second reason this is significant is Faye and I and the boys lived in the apartment located on the second floor. That was back in 77 -81. The tower has been added since we lived there but the picture window on the second floor was there and we could see a bit of the ocean over the trees across the street.

And the third reason is a funny story. This apartment was the one Faye and I rented when we were transferred from Augusta to Portland by Maine Central Railroad - my first and favorite employer. The house next door, seen here, was owned by Wes Martin, the Engineer of Track for Maine Central Railroad (about four spots up the ladder from me). After we told the owners we would take it I noted bee hives next door. I knew that Mr. Martin (no first names back then) sold honey in the office and lived in Cape Elizabeth. After we left the apartment we drove by and sure enough the mailbox read M. Martin. I really did think twice about taking the apartment - but it was a real nice place.

Let's just say that I took a lot of ribbing about intentionally picking this place. While I really admired Mr. Martin, I have to admit that I was somewhat glad when he retired so I didn't have to listen to the jabs anymore.

Here is one of the "Two" Lights. This light is still active but is now automated. The keepers house is now a private residence that was once owned by the actor Gary Merrill.

I have turned 180 degrees and you can see the "two" of Two Lights. It was discontinued a number of years ago. The two lights were intended to provide a range like effect but was never deemed very successful. A similar arrangement of two lights was tried on Matinicus Rock, a rugged out island in mid-coast Maine area.

We finished our drive along memory lane with a stop at Kettle Cove. It is only a half mile south from our former apartment. From the photos below you can see the beginnings of an interesting transition. There are still the "rocks" associated with the rockbound coast of Maine, but Crescent Beach, located in Kettle Cove is the first of the large beaches that dominate the coast of Maine south of here. It is really like someone flipped a geological switch when passing by here.