A Friday The 13th Adventure

The bride said to me, “This is going to be the only sunshiny day that we’re going to have for awhile, so, if we are going to do anything then we better to do it today.”  Being the fine upstanding husband that I am, always listening to my dear wife, I responded, “Yes, dear!”  So we loaded our carcasses into the truck and headed out for points east.

Other than the Portland Head Light, we had never spent any time in or around Cape Elizabeth.  There are several parks along the shoreline between Scarborough and South Portland – Scarborough Beach State Park, Higgins Beach Park, Crescent Beach State Park, Two Lights State Park, and Fort Williams Park.  During the summah months the state park beaches can be quite pricey - $6.50 per person for “outta statetahs” of which we are.  But for now, they are free if you ignore the donation can at the front gate.

Our first stop was at Crescent Beach State Park which is a beautiful sandy beach, however, it was too cold and windy for us to spread out our blanket and enjoy our PB&J’s.  Be sure to place your cursor over the pictures to read the captions.

  

Further down the road is Two Lights lighthouses.  It’s a quaint little village which is, also, part of Cape Elizabeth.  The road ends at a small beach with a lobster restaurant and a fog horn that keeps blasting every minute or so.  As we crested that ledge I could smell the salt air from the water breaking over the rocks. This was a special treat for me as I have lost most of my ability to smell and smelling the fresh salt air is one of my fond memories of life in Maine.

 

Our next stop was at Fort Williams Park which is also home of the Portland Head Light.  When we arrived, there were three bus loads of special needs children having a school day out at the beach.  The kids were having a blast as were other families who were enjoying the beach as well.

  

Fort Williams was built in the late 1800’s and occupies 90 acres.  It housed several gun batteries strategically located around the point and was active during both World War I and World War II.  The fort was decommissioned in 1962 at which time Cape Elizabeth bought the property and turned it into a park.

 

Construction on Portland Head Light began in 1787, when Maine was still part of Massachusetts, under a directive of President George Washington.  We are only including one picture of the lighthouse since we posted pictures in our July 31st entry during last summer’s Maine Event.

The Goddard Mansion was completed in 1858 by Col. John Goddard.  Goddard was appointed Colonel during the civil war and was a very successful Portland businessman.  The mansion was acquired by the U. S. Army in 1896 and was used for housing married enlisted men and their families while stationed at Fort Williams.

 

It was a fun outing, a tad bit cool for our liking, but enjoyable none the less.  Today the overcast weather returns so we are going to stay home and work on our arts and crafts.  I’ll add a few more strokes to a painting while Judy works on her quilting.  Most likely we’ll do some more reading before the day is out.

So, Take Care Until Next Time - - - - - - -