I Love Boston Project: Day Trip to Ogunquit Maine

I bet you thought I possibly gave up/forgot about my I Love Boston Project. I didn't though! I just was a bit busy in there and couldn't do any cool stuff around Boston but I am back to it this summer. I've already done a couple of things I want to write about. Yay! 

Our first adventure in Boston this summer didn't really involve Boston at all, but did involve a nice day trip to Ogunquit Maine. Since I usually am spending a lot of time in the Cape, my experience with Maine is pretty limited but Ogunquit is only about 90 minutes from Boston, maybe even less. 

The drive up to Maine was completely smooth for us. We basically took 95 all the way up, and I love that they have an Easy Pass lane for the toll where you aren't supposed to slow down at all. Awesome. We also drove right to the Perkins Cove area, and had no problem parking. Once we arrived, we decided to eat lunch first. I had done some research on restaurants but I wasn't super successful so we ended up at a place called Jackie's Too which looked awesome, but did not have the best reviews on Yelp. Well, all I can say is we had no complaints at all. 

The view was amazing, we were literally right on the water and the food was good too. Eric had a soup and a sandwich and I had the lobster roll. I will say that we were pretty early for lunch, so it's possible the service would've been less attentive if it was more busy. Oh well, it was good for us :) 

 

Before we ate lunch, we actually bought tickets for a boat ride that was leaving in about an hour, so after lunch we headed right over there. The boat company was called Finestkind Scenic Cruises and we took the Nubble Lighthouse Cruise which was an hour and a half. The boat was nice, and we got a nice spot in the front of the boat which is my favorite place to be. While we rode to the lighthouse, we learned a lot about the geography and history of the area. The lighthouse itself was beautiful too...

 

 

My favorite story about this lighthouse involves a time back when families used to live in the lighthouse in order to run it. Multiple babies were even born out there! But the cool thing was that at one point a little kid who was elementary school aged lived out there, and obviously there is not a school. So, look in this picture below: first look at the lighthouse itself, then look a little below. See that little white swing type of thing below the electrical wires? 

The kid who lived at the house used to get on that swing/seat type of thing, and his parents would pull him across the ocean so that he could get to school on the mainland. I have always thought it would be really cool to take a boat to school/work in the morning but even cooler riding on some kind of crazy swing type of thing across water to get to school. Cool. Apparently, the coast guard got wind of this arrangement and was not happy about it, but it sounds pretty cool to me. 

After the boat ride, we got some ice cream and then headed over to check out the only pedestrian operated draw bridge in the country: 

 

The coolest part was that Eric and I got to actually raise the bridge for a sailboat going through. Such a cool experience!

 

 

 

I'm still a bit amazed that they actually let people like me operate this thing, but hey!

Our last adventure in Ogunquit was to do a beautiful walk called Marginal Way. It begins in Perkin's Cove and is a nice path that follows along the beautiful rocky shoreline. 

 

On the way back to the car, I played with my camera in a beautiful garden...

 

I love trips. Even if they don't involve an overnight stay :) 

Where is your favorite place to day trip? 

I'm hoping to see a bit more of Maine this summer, so stay tuned.