We were looking forward to our vacation and rented the
Federal House for the 4th year. It is
such a great house in a great location with some great history (250th anniversary
this year).
My routine for the week would be to get up early, take
pictures, return to take someone to breakfast, continue with the day, and after
dinner take sunset pictures. The plan
worked pretty well as I was up each morning between 4:20AM and 5:39AM and out
the door to take pictures. COME ON …
Doesn’t everyone get up early when on vacation?
Being up at 4:20AM one morning I thought I would drive to
Ogunquit and Perkins Cove. It is the furthest
distance so I needed the time to get there before the sun came up. You know you’re up early when you only see
one other car and 2 delivery trucks on the road after driving for miles. Note … I was the first Dunkin Donuts customer
on Route 1 in Wells and stood outside waiting for them to open on my way to
Perkins Cove. Don’t I get a gold star or
something? Waiting on Dunkin Donuts did slow
me down …
I went to the Maine Diner for breakfast several mornings
during the week. Anthony ordered - Eggs Benedict,
Matt - the AAA, Kevin - the AAA, Kate - the Almond Crusted French Toast, and me
– the Irish Eggs Benedict as the diner makes homemade corned beef hash. Great breakfasts and as always it’s a TRADITION.
At Drakes Island these birds were relaxing and drying off
on old pier posts. I saw several birds
in the marsh going after small fish, etc.
I need my bird buddy Bill H. (Bill turned 99 years old a couple months
back) to confirm if this is a Great Egret.
We also had a 4 inch slug visit us on our steps late one night. You can see its eyes at the end of its
optical tentacles. I think it may have
been eyeballing me. Edible?? I think not …
I went to Wells Harbor a couple times to take pictures. I yelled to the guy with the red fishing boat
when he headed out to check his traps. I
told him he was taking my color away.
Cape Porpoise had lots of early morning activity as boat
captains were loading up and heading out to check their traps. I wish there were more clouds in the sky
during the week for the sunsets. It would
have given me more color.
We went to Gooch’s beach several times to relax. We enjoy swimming, walking to the rocks, sitting
on the jetty watching the boats and playing in the cove.
Several large yachts came in during high tide. They were all from New Jersey and showed up
around the same time. It could have been
a boat Caravan...
Late one afternoon we drove to the Marginal Way for a
sunset. I was in Perkins Cove after the
sun went down. I took these interesting
pictures of this fishing boat with a black hull. The sky was still light but it was dark
enough that the black hull of the boat was hard to see. With the reflection of the sky off the water
and a tripod, I took slow shutter speed pictures which created the effect of
bottom lighting which was much more pronounced on the black hull. Interesting … will try that again.
We took 6 kayaks from the garage and launched them from
the property. Scott launched everyone
from the dock. We went down the river to
the cove by the ocean and had a good time.
The tide was in so we could jump off the jetty and swim.
Kevin and Scott rented Mopeds for 24 hours. Evan wasn’t old enough to rent one so he rode
with Scott. They had fun riding all over. Kevin rented a sporty moped (if you think
that’s possible) and Scott rented the Harley looking one with the big
handlebars and mirrors. I told Scott he
needs to record Harley motorcycle sounds and replay those sounds as he rides
his moped around next year. I think that would get
some laughs ...
As I was driving I saw a red Jeep Willys for sale. I
called and met with the seller. It was a
1953 CJ3. He said it had the flat head
engine and the top speed was around 50mph so not a highway vehicle. More like a camp jeep. I have been toying with the idea of buying a
Jeep ever since Kevin bought his but wasn’t interested in this one.
In past years we visited Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge and
have walked the trails through the woods along the marsh. When I was taking pictures in Wells I met
someone from Hollis and we were talking about pictures. I showed her a couple Hollis Barn pictures I
had taken. She asked me if I had heard
of Laudholm Farm in Wells. She said it
was a farm transformed into the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve to
keep it from being developed. In the 28
years we have been coming here I hadn’t heard of it so she gave me an idea of how
to get there and I was off using my GPS.
Wow … I can’t believe I didn’t know about this
place. The Laudholm Farms history said
at one time it was the largest and most progressive saltwater farm in York
County.
I ended up meeting and talking to the facilities
manager. He said there are people in
Wells that don’t even know the place exists.
He showed me around the main barn.
The inside is all fixed up and can be rented for wedding
receptions. All of the metal (hinges,
brackets, latches, etc. in the barn are original. The scale set into the barn floor was used to
weigh wagons, livestock, etc. and still works.
The barn also has a large water tank below ground (innovative back in
the day) so it had running water all year even in those cold winters.
There are several other barns on the property. He pointed out the sheep barn and said it was
one of the only remaining sheep barns in Maine.
There are many out buildings as well as a large house and water tower on
the grounds. It is an impressive farm.
There are walking trails throughout the property also. That same afternoon Pam and I went back and
walked some of the trails. All was good
until Pam saw a snake sunning itself on a rock.
It was the first snake she has seen this year. Needless to say she was done with her trail
walk experience (guess I was done too) and she/we headed back rather quickly. This would be a great place to explore and
photograph more especially in the fall and winter.
We had our TRADITIONAL pizza on the beach to end the
week. It was a fun relaxing week and
look forward to next year.
Go to: "Search This Blog" at the top of my page and type in Kennebunkport or Cape Porpoise to see past posts.
I took pictures at the annual Skydiving Boogie in
Pepperell. I had out-of-town company
visiting which kept me from spending a lot of time 
This is a big event so there were many skydivers
attending. There were additional tents
set up for parachute packing and tents with companies selling equipment. They had two planes which meant more action
for me.
I showed up briefly 3 different times. The sky was clear and blue most of the
time. Some clouds passed by but didn’t
slow down the jumps.
The wind effects where the skydivers exit the plane. The times I was there the wind was minimal so
the exit from the planes was close to straight up. This is not ideal for me trying to take exit
pictures from the ground. 
The wind direction was not ideal either so the skydivers were
coming in over the parking lot, over my head, then going away from me to make
the landing in the 
Taking pictures of moving objects with a zoom lens takes
practice. It is fun to 
I wish I could have spent more time watching and taking
pictures to experiment a bit. Experimenting
with camera settings will be my challenge for next year.
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