September 9th we arrived at Moody Beach Thousand Trails in Wells, Maine for four nights. It was our shortest travel day of our trip. We only relocated about 25 miles!
Spending the day at Kennebunkport, ME
We enjoyed walking around downtown Kennebunkport. There were some unique, fun shops.
Quite the line up for lunch at the Clam Shack (On opposite side of the road in picture below). Not worth the price – especially since the lobster rolls are on a roll I can’t have. We decided to just buy some seafood fresh somewhere nearby instead.
Kennebunkport is a charming little town that is nice to just hang out for the day!
We also enjoyed a local art museum.
We score with a convenient place to park in the downtown area that was quite reasonable. There was an honor system payment box attached to the building. We laughed when we realized it was the Democratic Headquarters for Kennebunkport. We felt even better paying for our parking. 🙂
After experiencing the downtown area for two or three hours, we continued towards the “Bush Compound” in Kennebunkport.
Here it is!
I LOVE watching ocean waves!
Then we got a very cool, unexpected treat as we heading back the way we came. We pulled over as soon as we could to allow us both to get out and take pictures.
It was as if this was the official eagle assigned to watch over the former President Bush and his family. It was quite special as the eagle kept focused in that direction.
Lobster and Oysters!
We went to a local fish market where we purchased one large lobster and a couple dozen oysters. Tonight we had the lobster. The oysters will come later.
Our favorite “Nancy’s” lobster roll and salad.
Tonight we enjoyed some reflective time outside with a campfire.
Visit to the Cape Reddick Light, affectionately known as Nubble, or Nubble Light.
The Nubble Lighthouse is one of the most frequented, painted, and photographed lighthouses in Maine. It is easily found at Sohier Park in York. The lighthouse and keeper’s house is on Nubble Island, thus “Nubble Lighthouse”. Visitors cannot go to the island, but this is not an issue since the lighthouse and additional buildings can be seen without obstruction from Sohier Park. Nubble Light is an original cast iron structure that is 40 feet in height, and dates back to 1879.Â
The red brick building is the old oil house. The keepers’ house has six rooms and is connected to the light tower via a covered passage. Also in view is a wooden one-story workshop. A boathouse that has access to the water on the other side is not visible from here.
A unique cable transport system was put up to transport supplies between the mainland and the lighthouse. The vehicle that held the supplies was a wooden crate. It was also how the the son of a keeper went to and from school.
The Nubble Light’s characteristic is a red light that is on for 6 seconds and then off for 6 seconds. It was automated in 1987, and continues to be a valuable navigational aid today. The fog horn sounds every 10 seconds when visibility is hindered.
I climbed down the rocks to get the best vantage point. Barry soon joined me.
The man seated in the middle of the bench (below) reminded me of our friend, Jimmy Richardson back at CVR (from Washington). That’s why I took the picture. Luckily, while looking through my pictures for this blog, I noticed ANOTHER lighthouse out in the distance! At the time we were so obsessed with the Nubble Light that we were oblivious to the one in the distance.
That lighthouse is Boon Island Light which is 6 miles out. Boon island is simply a collection of desolate rocks that is typically inhabited only by sea birds and the occasional colonies of seals. Boon Island Light is New England’s tallest lighthouse. It stands 133 ft tall, and makes the tiny shoal it sits on identifiable for miles.
While there were light keepers at the Boon Island light for many years, today the light is operated by solar power. It certainly was not a keeper’s dream location!
Boon Island was extremely dangerous for ships prior to the construction of the lighthouse in 1855. The most notorious ship mishap was the wreck of British merchant vessel, Nottingham Galley in December 1710. Of the Nottingham Galley’s 14 crew members, two died due to injuries sustained in the wreck, and two died aboard a makeshift raft in a desperate attempt to reach shore. The remaining ten sailors, who could see the mainland clearly, though they could not signal for rescue, stayed alive for 24 days without shelter, food, or fire. Only by eating the remains of their dead compatriots were they able to survive. After the ten were rescued, their story of cannibalism and survival on the island made it infamous. Ewww!
Time for my oysters Rockefeller! SO good! We LOVE them!
Wells Reserve (and the Landholm Farm) was recommended to us as a nice place to explore hiking paths. We went. It was $6 for anyone over the age of 16. The following warning about various ticks had us a bit concerned since we were in shorts. We were reassured by the gentleman at the information/pay station that if we stayed on the paths we should be fine at this time. But what about the mosquitoes, deer flies, black flies, midges, etc? We didn’t have any insect repellant with us, but saw that the visitor station has some to buy, we figured we better at least do that. Unfortunately, they were out! Once again he said we should be fine since they weren’t too bad right now. Although it can change by the day, even by the hour. Great. We headed out.
The Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve is one of over two dozen protected areas nationwide established for research, education, and stewardship. This reserve protects 2250 acres of salt marsh, freshwater wetland, beach, dune, forest and fields. There are 7 miles of hiking trails.
Pictures from OUR hike to the beach area:
We were enjoying our leisure hike – till we headed back through a wooded area and out into the meadows. The mosquitos came out!
I used insect repellent that fellow hikers had and willingly shared. Barry thought we were fairly close to being back to the parking lot, so he didn’t want to stop to put any on. He opted to run the rest of the way to outrun as many mosquitos as possible. LOL
This is the last of our time in Maine. It’s been a fabulous 21 days. Tomorrow we head to Cape Cod Thousand Trails in Massachusetts. Yes, we were in Massachusetts on our way up to Maine in mid-August, but we only visited Boston. Coming down the coast of Maine was a better travel plan for exploring in the Cape Cod area. Our adventures will continue for a couple more months.