Category Archives: Travel

Geocoin Drop

 

Apologies that this week’s post has arrived a day late. I spent the past few days helping my mother do yard work and only now have I had a moment to catch my breath.
A few weeks ago I went hiking with a mission. I’d found a geocoin while geocaching (if you don’t know what geocaching is, I’d suggest you read up and join the fun, it’s awesome! Go here Geocaching.com) quite some time ago and while looking up the coin’s tracking number on the geocaching site, I found out that it originated in Texas and the owner of the coin wanted it to make its way to Canada.
I was able to make that possible.
I traveled to Campobello, GPS in hand (though I ended up not even needing it to find the cache. I remembered where it was!), and hiked out to my favorite cache location on the island. The Sunsweep sculpture.
I proudly deposited the coin in the cache (after taking a few pictures of course) and enjoyed the view before heading home.

 

 

Trackable Coin and the Sunsweep Sculpture

 

 

I’m glad I was able to contribute and get a geocoin to its destination.

 

 

 

Until next time…

 
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~A.M.

Lighthouse Adventure….Round 2!

Back in 2012, I went on a little trip to the Little River Lighthouse in Cutler Maine (you can view that post here).

This past Saturday was the Summer Solstice and I managed to view another lighthouse, but this one was in Canada.  The Head Harbour Lightstation on Campobello Island to be exact.

The only way to get to this lighthouse is by foot at low tide.  It’s not just a straight shot walk though.  You have to climb down some old rusted metal stairs, cross a small beach, climb up more rusted metal stairs, cross a small wooden bridge, climb down MORE rusted metal stairs (these were a little treacherous as they were more like a ladder and were slanted), and cross another little beach to the actual lighthouse.

I saw this lighthouse before about year or two ago, but I wasn’t there at the right time to get over to it.  So, I just settled for taking a few pictures from the parking lot back then.  This time, I hit it just right (lucky me!)!

It costs $5 to even walk over to the light house and there’s another $10 charge if you want to tour the inside of the keeper’s house and climb the tower.  Well, for me, all that’s a little steep, but I don’t do this every day (or even every year), so I went for it.

The coast guard had possession of this lighthouse for a long time before they decided to shut it down, board it up, and forget about it.  Then, it went down the line, being offered to different outfits/agencies before it was offered to, accepted by, and taken over by the town.  Volunteers and students are still working to restore the lighthouse and keeper’s house to it’s former glory (the full fee for walking over to the light house and touring it goes directly to the restoration/up-keep fund so that made me feel better about paying the price).

It’s a cute little lighthouse.  Getting into the tower, I expected to find the typical spiral staircase curling around the tower, but instead, there were two normal flights of strait stairs and a ladder leading to the light at the top.

It’s typical to see seals and whales from this lighthouse.  I did glimpse a seal, but it was camera shy and dove under the waves just as I lifted my camera.  Oh well.

Head Harbour Lighstation (Campobello)

As I mentioned in my last lighthouse related post, if you ever have a chance to tour a lighthouse and climb the tower….do it!

And if the lighthouse adventure weren’t enough for the day, I also went hiking over in the Roosevelt International Park.  I would highly suggest this park’s trails to anyone that enjoys hiking.  They’re pretty and the views are amazing.  There’s also something called the “Sunsweep Scuplture” near Liberty Point that’s worth checking out.  The cliff it’s on was covered in wild Irises.  I saw an eagle the minute I got out of the car.  I also saw a wild rabbit on the trail!!  Yay wildlife!!

 

 

Eagle

 

Wild Rabbit

 

So, aside from the fact that I fed the mosquitoes and black flies, it was a nice day.

Until next time…

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~A.M.

Rights Of The Photographer

This week’s post is going to be short and to the point as I’m currently dealing with some family issues.

Have you ever wondered just what rights you have as a photographer?  Have you ever been taking pictures somewhere and been stopped by security who then tried to confiscate your camera and/or memory cards?  I’ve been lucky enough not to have been accosted by security guards wanting to pull rank, but I’ve educated myself enough to be ready should that moment arise.   One of the first things you need to do that kind of situation is stay calm.  Next, be respectful even if you’re not being respected.  The worst thing to do is snap back with some aggressive comment when you’re being confronted by a security guard or other authority figure who has an inflated ego and is ignorant to your rights as a photographer.

To learn the basics about your rights as a photographer when photographing in public places, check out this site and download the PDF file.  You may also want to check the local laws of your state for anything governing photography, as well as the laws of any state or country to which you plan to travel.  I also purchased the book listed on this page from Amazon.  It has some good information on not only your rights to photograph but also rights concerning copyright and more.

Until next time…

[-_-]

~A.M.

Lighthouse Adventure!

This past Saturday (August 4, 2012 for those of you not paying close attention [-_^]), my parents and I decided to attend an open house at the Little River Lighthouse in Cutler, Maine.

Interesting point number one:  The only way to access this particular lighthouse is by boat.

Now, I haven’t been on a boat since I was a kid and I used to get sea sick so I wasn’t looking forward to that part of the journey.  Luckily, I think I outgrew my sea sickness because the boat ride to and from the island didn’t affect me too much.  Yay!

Interesting point number two:  Before we could even get on the boat, we had to sign waivers releasing the volunteers and the boat captains from any liability should something happen to one of us.  Yay!

Once at the island (which is only 15 acres in size, fun fact), we walked along a wooden boardwalk across the island to the lighthouse.  We toured the keeper’s house which brings me to…

Interesting point number three:  A direct descendant of the lighthouse’s last civilian keeper was there to tell us some history of the lighthouse.  That was pretty cool.

Interesting point number four: During this open house, visitors weren’t only allowed to tour the keeper’s house, we were also able to climb the lighthouse tower.

Not many functioning lighthouses allow visitors to climb the towers unless it’s during a special open house like this or during Maine Open Lighthouse day (September 15th).  Again…Yay!

Right before we headed back to the dock to return to the mainland, we went up into the tower.  Thank goodness I’m not afraid of heights!

I managed to take a few interesting shots during this little adventure and it was awesome to travel to a lighthouse that’s only accessible by boat.  That was a first for me.  I didn’t want to just snap a few shots of the lighthouse head on like you see in postcards (although I did take a few of those…just because I could!).  I wanted to take an interesting shot of the inside of the lighthouse tower.  So I did.   YAY!!

The only downside to the day was the fact that I got a slight sunburn in spite of slathering on sunscreen before I left home.  [-_-]

If you ever have a chance to visit a lighthouse and climb the tower, I would highly recommend you do it.  It’s awesome.

Until next time…

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~A.M.

Imagining the Emerald Isle

I’ve said for a long time now that I want to visit Ireland.  The rolling hills, the amazing coastlines, the castles, the leprechauns.  That‘s right, I said leprechauns.  I’d love to catch a glimpse of leprechaun in its natural habitat.

But seriously now, I would love to visit the Emerald Isle.  Unfortunately, travel (especially abroad) isn’t in the cards for me at the moment.  So, I’ll just have to console myself with the landscapes of my home state of Maine.  I’ve come across a few places here in Maine where I can pretend that I’m wandering the Irish countryside.

Here’s a perfect example.  One day while my mother and I were taking a walk along the Sunrise Trail between Machias and East Machias, we came across this misty vista that immediately made me think of a place I’ve never been.  Awesome how that happens sometimes, isn’t it?

 

 

I will go there someday.  Oh yes.  I will go there someday.

Until next time…

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~A.M.