Our first destination of the day was Prouts Neck, a small peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean with panoramic views along coastline cliffs. Prouts Neck was once home to Winslow Homer, an American landscape painter best known for his marine subjects. After viewing these photos, you will see why Homer called Prouts Neck home in the mid 1800's and early 1900's before his death. The closest parking was at a local beach, so we got to walk along the sandy beach for a mile, looking for shells and sea life to amuse Amelia and John.
The Cliff Walk goes along some very rocky coastline.We had to be vigilant walking up and down the rocky boulders, but the children were fearless in getting to the edge of the rock cliffs. John and Amelia easily ventured out on the rocks.
Eventually Paul joined the grandchildren on the cliff edge.
There were few resting spots along the walk. The Wilson family choose a a large piece of driftwood to take a rest.
Did you notice the homes behind the resting hikers? Most of the homes were on the enormous side, with spectacular ocean views. Here is perhaps the most spectacular house we saw during our hike. Not in our price range, for sure!
The views of the rocky coast meeting the ocean were priceless. It was difficult to capture the mood of the waves breaking on the rocks below in pictures. Here is the best photo we could get. Notice how foggy it was out in the Atlantic.
Near the end of our hike we passed the yacht club. The other three flags in addition to the US flag are Canada, Maine, and the yacht club's own flag. There are quite a number of Canadian visitors to Maine, hence the display of the Canadian flag.
Next, we headed into South Portland to tour Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse, which was constructed in 1897 to deter wrecks on the harbor. Did you know that South Portland played an instrumental role in ship building during WWII? 30 Ocean cargo ships were built for the British government. But more importantly, 236 Liberty cargo ships were built for the U. S. Navy between 1941 and 1945.
In 1951, a 900 ft. granite rock water break was added between shore and the lighthouse. Prior to the walkway, the lighthouse tender and his assistant had to row a boat between the mainland and the lighthouse whenever they needed supplies, especially lots of coal in the winter.
We walked out the walkway carefully, watching our step as we leaped from boulder to boulder, looking at some large gaps in the rocky structure - broken hips for seniors not paying attention, but the grandchildren were again fearless in traveling out the walkway.
The lighthouse is now automatic thanks to an electric cable run from the shore and more recently fueled by solar panels, which can be seen on the right at the base of the lighthouse. The photo below shows Paul and Wendy almost all the way out to the lighthouse. You can see how uneven the footing was.
While we were waiting our turn to climb the ladder to the second floor of the lighthouse, we spotted a family of four minks climbing amongst the granite boulders. Minks are native to Maine but not often spotted, so we got lucky in getting a glimpse of them. Here is a photo of one of the adult minks.
From the top of the lighthouse, we got this view of an oil tanker being pushed into Portland Harbor by a tugboat. This tanker came from Majuro, a chain of 64 islands in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean - a long way from Portland, Maine.
We also saw this windjammer under full sail coming back into port.
We had a fabulous day visiting with family while we toured some of the Portland area's scenic coastal attractions.
Great post, dad! I love the mixing of history with your views of our time enjoying each activity. I am still processing nearly 300 photos taken last week so my posts will not be up for a few more days. I enjoyed reading this, plus your article on the dog show was fun too.
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