We woke up around 7:30 and everyone got ready for the day. I am always thankful that I take my showers at night, so I don't have to fight with everyone for the one shower in the morning. All I had to do was use the restroom and wash my face. Easy peasy. While I was waiting for everyone, I continued organizing my stuff for the next day's journey back home. Earlier that week, Mindy told us that that she and her husband had plans on Friday to go see his parents and then to go to a concert that night in Augusta. She said we were on our own for the day but made sure she gave us a key to the house because most likely we would be home before they would be. I had chatted with Mindy a little bit about going down to Portland and Cape Elizabeth. She told me some of the things we could do and the best way of getting there and back without getting stuck in traffic.
Before we left for our trip out east, I checked to see where Maine's oldest geocache was and it was just south of Portland on Cape Elizabeth. I HAD to come here, and we weren't that far away from it. Plus, Portland Head Lighthouse was there as well. Everyone seemed interested in going. Amy asked Mindy if there was a cafe nearby that served good breakfast. Mindy told us to go to Forage Market in downtown Lewiston. I guess that was where we were going first.
We told Mindy to have fun, hopped in Amy's Jeep and drove down the hill, over the bridge and into Lewiston. Forage Market wasn't too hard to find but parking was difficult. We did manage to find a place about a block away. We went inside and perused the menu. I wanted chocolate milk and a blueberry muffin and that is what Mom ended up getting as well. Rhonda and Amy both got some coffee and a bagel breakfast sandwich. We sat at the table, ate and discussed how our day was going to go.
Mindy told us to take the back roads so I navigated us on those the best I could. We did stop along the way so Amy could fill up on gas. We merged onto Hwy 202, onto I-95 for a bit and then got off on the 302 through downtown Portland, got onto State Street and then we went over the Casco Bay Bridge into South Portland. We got onto Cottage Road which turned into Shore Road, then followed that to the gate of Fort Williams Park.
We entered the park and soon found out we had to pay to park. We figured out what we had to do and paid for about an hour or so. We really weren't sure how long we would be here. I knew as soon as we left the parking lot that I had a mission. I asked Mom if she wanted to go with me and she said sure. We told Mindy, Rhonda and Amy that we would meet up with them at the lighthouse in a bit. Mom and I followed the coords to the west side of the park, away from the lighthouse, towards the forested part. I wasn't sure if there was a trail or how easy it was to get to the cache. Mom stayed behind while I traipsed through the woods for a few minutes. I found the pile of rocks and found Fort Williams Cache (GC128) - the oldest cache in Maine! I now have the oldest cache in Washington, Nevada and now Maine! Yeah, I know...I should have Oregon's too, but I don't...at least not yet.
I signed our names, took pictures of the trackables and took a TB and left a pathtag behind. I put it back better than I found it and walked back to where Mom was. I did slip and fall and ended up having a nice bruise on the back of my right forearm. It stung like something fierce. I've gotten lots of cuts, bruises and scrapes from geocaching this past year.
On our way back to the lighthouse, we stopped and grabbed Starry Chicken Nugget (GC9B846) because we were literally walking past it. We saw a lot of people enjoying the nice day walking their dogs, children and a few people on steady jogs. I checked my phone to see if there was an Adventure Lab and there was. A five waypoint Adventure Lab called Portland Head/Fort Williams Park. I browsed it quickly to see if we walked past any of the questions yet. Luckily, we hadn't because I hate backtracking.
We spent the next 20 minutes working on those with the lighthouse in the background. Then we had to use the restroom and found out where the porta potties were. We were there for a few minutes and then walked over to the lighthouse while completing the waypoints to the Adventure Lab. Amy and Rhonda were still making their rounds near the lighthouse. Mom and I spent a bit checking out the lighthouse and then we met up with the girls at one of the viewpoints just south of the lighthouse.
We got a few group pictures and then we decided where we were going to go next. I told everyone that Mindy had mentioned another small lighthouse just north of Portland Head. They all were interested so that is where we set our next destination to when we got back to the Jeep.
We got back onto Shore Road and then merged to Preble St then onto Broadway, onto Breakwater Drive and finally onto Madison then followed the signs to the parking lot. The parking lot was large and hardly anyone was there. We almost had the place to ourselves. It doubled as a lighthouse park and a memorial.
The Portland Breakwater Lighthouse or Bug Light (because of its size) was built in 1875 and is one of Maine's most elegant lighthouses. It was built with plates of cast iron and modeled after an ancient Greek monument. It was a cute little thing. The other section of this park used to be the site of a major shipbuilding company that built liberty ships for WWII and is now a memorial. I immediately looked to see if there was a cache here and there was! I saw that the last person did not find Bug Light 2 (GCKXTM) so I might have a challenge ahead of me.
Mom and I walked over to the lighthouse while Amy and Rhonda spent some time at the shipbuilder's memorial. The cache was a difficulty of 3.5 with a terrain of 1.5. When we got there and saw what we had to work with, I understood why it was a 3.5, it had to be hidden from all the muggles who visited this lighthouse daily. The only places it could be hidden was inside the cracks of the pathway and stairs. I started looking and could not locate it. I had checked the spot it was hidden in dozens of times. It blended in well and you really couldn't see it. I finally just felt around and felt the string it was attached to. You would have no chance of finding this in the dark unless you knew beforehand where it was. I signed our names just as Amy and Rhonda showed up at the lighthouse.
I put the cache back where I found it, took a couple more pictures of the cute lighthouse and then we walked around the rest of the park and the shipbuilder's memorial before heading back to the Jeep.
From there, I asked everyone if we were ready to go explore Portland and I got a yes in unison. I checked our route on my geocaching app and off to Portland we went. We went the same way out of Cape Elizabeth we did when we entered. We got up over the bridge and got onto Commercial Street. Mindy told me to park at Fort Allen Park and walk to the waterfront. No one seemed to want to walk that far so we found a parking lot that was closer. Of course, we had to pay for a couple hours. The parking lot attendant was helpful.
We really didn't have a set plan, so we just walked around to various shops, did some shopping and explored the historic Old Port at the waterfront. I got my necessary postcards and stickers, grabbed a Maine T-shirt and a pint glass. We probably spent a good three hours in Portland. Mom wanted to go get donuts at the Holy Donut, but they were closed for some reason. Mom was pretty bummed out.
I wanted to go find a cache, so I looked for the closest one to us and that was Thank You David Hasselhoff (GCR48D). I was hoping the hiding spot would be cooler than it ended up being. We were near part of the Berlin Wall so that is my assumption of why this cache was named what it was. This also doubled as a military memorial as well, with a fence of locks next to it. I looked and looked and didn't find it. Then I saw the guardrail nearby in the parking lot. Really? Is it really going to be hidden in the guardrail? Yep, it was hidden in the smashed guardrail which was such a missed opportunity. I signed our names and took the two Travel Bugs because I wasn't sure how long this cache would last here or if the TB's would disappear with the cache. I chose to not do any of the Adventure Labs because I didn't want to walk a lot or subject everyone else to it.
We went into a couple more shops on our way back to the Jeep. I stopped at the Portland Beer Hub to see what kind of blueberry beer they had to bring home. I was hoping they had the UFO brand, but they didn't. I had to settle for the Bar Harbor Brewery blueberry ale instead. I bought a four pack and a sticker. We walked back to the Jeep and to avoid work traffic we went the same route back to Auburn/Lewiston.
We talked about where we wanted to go for dinner since Mindy and Joe weren't going to be back until later on that night. She told us about a couple of them in downtown Lewiston but couldn't remember the names of most of them...we probably should have written them down. The only one I could remember was The 1800 in Auburn. She said she goes there often with some of her buddies. We decided to go there and try it out. We found a parking space on the street nearby and walked in. We must have gotten there super early because there wasn't anyone there except the two guys who worked behind the bar. The live music didn't start until later. Oh well. We were there for some food.
I got a water and ordered a chicken Caesar wrap with fries. I really didn't feel like a burger or anything else. The beer selection wasn't all that great either. Amy ordered cheese curds and we shared those while we waited for our food. The food was pretty good for bar food. We paid, thanked them and headed out to the Jeep. We asked Amy if she could take us to the nearest Walmart so we could get a few things. Amy wanted to get Mindy and card and a gift for letting us stay with her. The Walmart was about a mile and a half north of Mindy's house.
We got out and once inside, I wandered around. I went to scope out what kind of deals I could get on shirts because sometimes Walmart had discounts on sports memorabilia. I found some Red Sox shirts for $5 so I got three of them to take home. Amy and Rhonda found some Halloween stuff that was on sale, and they had an idea for them. We checked out and headed back to Mindy's house.
We took our stuff upstairs and Amy and Rhonda looked for places to hide the Halloween masks they bought for Mindy. They were hoping to scare here when she got home. I took a quick shower so I could start another load of laundry. There weren't any sports on to watch and we all went upstairs to the TV room. Mindy had a timer on that TV, so we were forced to watch 90-Day Fiancé on TLC while we chatted and ate popcorn. I did some internetting on my computer while I sat in the comfy chair that massaged my back. Mindy and Joe arrived shortly after, and Mindy told us that the concert was a great time, and she found her Halloween presents scattered all over the house and absolutely loved it. She also added that 90-Day Fiancé was one of her guilty pleasure shows.
I chatted with Ben for a little bit, got ready for bed and started packing up some stuff so I didn't have to do all of it tomorrow. We went to bed around midnight after getting comfortable on the blow-up mattress with the stuffy nose. The Sudafed has helped.
MA-VT-NH-ME Girl's Trip: Portland, Baltimore, Denver and Home to Seattle (Day 10)
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