In Search of Lighthouses, where the heck are they?

July 30 – I was having some problems with people not having access to my photo albums and asked Kam to fix it for me.  Unfortunately in the process all the photos I had linked to my blog disappeared.  I apologize to my readers but at least now you can view all my photos with the link on the first page of the blog.  I try to caption all of my photos so you and I will know what they are.  I’ve asked Kam to also check my “comment” link towards the bottom as I’ve had readers mention that they were not able to use that feature.

Pemaquid Point from the rocks below

Today did not really go as planned.  So what is new?  We left for our first lighthouse stop to see/visit Pemaquid Point Lighthouse and although it was a ride to get there, it was well worth it.  I parked in the lot beside the lighthouse park and walked in as Bill was not going to be able to do it.  It was $2 and I took lots of photos, got my book stamped and I enjoyed climbing over the

Side view

rocks leading into the bay.  The point is between the Johns Bay and the Muscongus Bay.  I could have gone up the lighthouse but the line was long and slow and Bill was sitting in the hot car.  Which reminds me that we were surprised at how hot it was!  This lighthouse has a nice house and a Bell House in front in addition to the lighthouse itself.

This is the point at which things went downhill!  The next stop was over an hour

Pemaquid bell house

away on another point.  It was the Marshall Point Lighthouse.  Once we were rather close Bill said we’d been here before.  What we didn’t know is why I hadn’t gotten my stamp.  Some places are run by all volunteers and we’ve been there during the posted hours and they’d be closed due to no volunteer available.  Well, that was not the case here.  AS soon as we parked I told him I had this one.  A couple of weeks ago I had given Bill my stamp books and a list by state of the lighthouses.  He was to mark them off the list so I’d know how to start mapping.  I noticed some that I knew we had been to so I rechecked it all and he missed quite a few.  This being one of them.  But, I compounded the error by marking it off the one list but not the other, so we had a nice drive but for no gain.

On the way out we stopped at another summer only spot along the road called “Yardbird”.  I would think chicken was the main fare but knew since we were almost on the bay it would have seafood as well.  Bill had a burger and I had a small clam strip basket.  Yummy!  They came over very good French fries which I shared with Bill and I had a small container of slaw.  We sat with a couple from Freeport,Maine who were out and about for the day.  Lunch was very tasty and filling.

The last lighthouse of the day was the Indian Island Lighthouse, which is privately owned but the stamp for it is located at the Owl’s Head Lighthouse where I’d been before.  It seems they would tell you it’s available when you ask   The booklet says it’s open til 4 but it was closed by 3.  I was ticked!  So where I got home for the day I send SASEs to 3 lighthouses, 2 from this trip and 1 from 2 summers ago that I realized never responded.

View of the bay in Rockland

for the Owl’s head one, but didn’t, so we drove to the state park where it’s located and I walked the trail to it and of course, it was closed.

On our way through Rockland I spotted a nice bay view so we detoured out to the water.  While taking photos of the boats I saw Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, which we’d seen before but not from

Rockland Breakwater

this viewpoint.

We finished sooner than we expected so headed on the Augusta to meet Polly and maybe her niece for dinner.  We made a stop at Bed, Bath and Beyond for coffee since I had 2 coupons and attempted to find a car wash, which didn’t happen.  We met at Longhorn Steak House and it was so good to see

Longtime friends!

Polly.  Her niece came shortly after and we had a very nice visit.  Polly’s health is still not the best but she’s working on it and was very happy that we took the time to include her in our plans.  We caught up on the families and friends we share in Ocoee.

Once we said our good-byes, Bill and I headed back to the campground and made it just before dark.  It’s REALLY dark in those woods once the sun goes down.  Time to ready up a bit for tomorrow’s trip!