midcoast Maine mini-vacation

sunrise:  5:05

About 14 months ago I won a free night at Rockland, Maine's Samoset resort.  It took us a while, but J and I finally found a night to escape.  The luxury of an ocean view room meant that I could snap a bunch of sunrise photos without leaving my balcony.

Perhaps the best part of the mini-vacation was discovering a whole new stretch of Maine coast, of which there is an astonishing amount.  Although the direct distance from one end of the Maine coast to the other is only 228 miles, the coastline travels 3,478 miles - longer than the California coast.  So, we probably have a lifetime of exploring before us.

This mid-coast region is definitely distinct from downeast and Acadia, which I know better.  It is softer, more beachy.  Reminds me a bit of Cape Cod.  We traveled way out to the end of the peninsula where the Port Clyde lighthouse sits - the one featured in "Forrest Gump" as the eastern terminus of Forrest's transcontinental running jag.  It is a glorious spot, with one of the most charming lighthouse museums I've ever seen.

Anyway - exquisite day, lovely state.  *AND* amazing breakfast, by the way, at Rockland's Home Kitchen Cafe.  It was especially welcome after walking the nearly mile long breakwater out to the Rockland Breakwater lighthouse and back.  That was our first lighthouse of the day.

Enjoy the photo journey.

waters of the Atlantic, looking pink and silky

odd illusion of a phantom sun, but it's just a light cast from below

First sliver, followed by more optical illusions

Port Clyde lighthouse and museum

moonrise in may

Actually, it is 4:49am and the sun hasn't come up yet.

Is it a sign of aging?  This weird waking before dawn with a mind too full of thinkings to shut back down?

I am not a morning person.  This is very strange.

Still - I got up.  There seemed no alternative at the time.  And I noticed this strange light in the east, tangled in the distant treetops.  It was this delicate sliver of moon, visible only because the sun had not yet arrived to wash  it out with its overpowering star glow.

moon reflected in pond, with cattails

I wish my camera could really reproduce what my eye could see, and even more, what my ear could hear.  An hour before dawn is truly for the birds, and they were in full, exuberant chatter mode.  The dim light of twilight is a lovely space, but doesn't translate well on film.  Please use your imagination.

I neither expect nor hope to be out and about before 5am very often over the next seven weeks.  From May 23rd to July 9th, here in central Maine, that's when I have to be out there to see the sun come up.  So - I'll take advantage of a sleepless May morning, when the rising moon called me irresistibly forth, and share a post.