26 Sept 2023
It’s been ages since Matt and I took a trip together- I’ve joined him a few times on his trips (Florida, twice and New York, twice), but it’s been over a year since we took an “us” trip (South Dakota) and over 2 years since Matt was last on a plane (Georgia)!
It’s been long enough that I’d forgotten how much I hate planning road trips- trying to figure out cool things to do based on an internet search, finding neat spots to explore and hopefully not missing out on any “must see” attractions in the area. I started to get frustrated and finally settled on booking several home bases- spending a couple nights in a few different areas, which should hopefully give us sufficient time to explore multiple areas.
I also forgot about how early we need to be up to get to the airport for a morning flight- Matt’s ears don’t like flying, he has trouble getting them to pop and equalize, so he prefers to fly direct when possible to minimize any issues, but there were no direct flights to anything in the area from our local airport, so we had to drive an hour and a half up to the Cities, which meant we left the house a little before 4am for our 7am flight. The picture I took of us at 0’dark-thirty didn’t turn out great, so enjoy this picture of the parking lot:
I know, I know, not super-exciting, but I recently discovered MSP Park’N’Fly, a parking lot just outside the airport that costs less than half of what the airport charges, and they have a shuttle that picks you up right at your car (and drops you back at your car when you return). And it really doesn’t take much more time than driving around the airport parking ramp trying to find a spot, then trying to remember where you parked. So as long as the return trip to our car goes smoothly, I’ll probably be parking here on longer trips from now on. The only downside is it’s not covered, so maybe not the best option in winter. Also, I think they have a valet parking option, which I’m guessing is why there are cars randomly parked in the aisle.
Us, on the plane enroute to Boston!
Our car, a Nissan Versa, only had 525 miles on it when we picked it up!
Today’s plan is to start driving up the coast into Maine, and maybe stop at a few lighthouses along the way. States up here are small, so we quickly passed out of Massachusetts and into New Hampshire:
then into Maine:
(both of which have terrible slogans!)
I found a loop along our route that took us to 3 different lighthouses. The first, a pair on Cape Elizabeth, are nestled in a residential area, so it was hard to get a good picture of them but this is the Eastern tower:
and this is the Western tower:
The Western tower was decommissioned in 1924, but the Eastern tower is still in use. Both are now privately owned.
Initially, we had been following the GPS on my phone, which led us into a subdivision and up close to the lighthouses. Driving down the road a bit further (like the posted signs instructed) led us to a beach:
Which had a nice view of the Eastern tower:
Us and our first lighthouse of the day!
A little further up the road is Portland Head Light, which was built in 1791 and is still operational:
It’s kind of hard to see but way off in the distance is Ram Island Ledge Light Station
This lighthouse was located in a very nice park- sprawling hills and lots of paths, but also lots of people, which we weren’t really feeling, so I snapped a few pictures and we kept driving.
Last on my list was Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse, which ended up being our favorite of the bunch! We drove through the campus of Southern Maine Community College to get here, and parked in Student/Visitor parking (and didn’t get ticketed, so hopefully that was ok!), but look at this cool breakwater/walkway!
There was a sign warning of “Hazardous Footing”, which is probably an apt warning when the rocks are wet, but today, they were nice and dry, and while there were some larger gaps to step across, most of the rock surfaces were nice and flat.
Matt said it felt like taking Senior pictures when he snapped this:
Matt’s Senior picture:
Us!
Earlier in our drive, I spotted a donut shop:
and was intrigued by potato donuts, so we picked up a couple, intending to eat them at the park by the second lighthouse. When we ended up not staying at the park, I figured they’d just be hotel donuts and I’d have to wait a bit to eat mine, but there were also some nice benches along the shore at this last lighthouse, so:
Maple for me, lemon for Matt (we got there like 15 minutes before closing, so choices were a bit limited). The lemon was definitely a better flavor than the maple, though potato donuts are strangely dense. Not my favorite, but still glad we tried them.