Lunch with a View

Parking my Vespa in the parking lot at Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth, I took a photo and climbed the stairs to find a nice place to eat.

This is the only pic of the GTS in this post - Two Lights is mostly far too rocky for a scooter. Or even, as you'll see, for pedestrians.

A family has lit a fire in one of the many grills provided at many Maine State Parks. Soon, the wonderful aroma of BBQ will float around me; not for long, for the sea breeze that cools on the steamiest of days also sends the scent inland. Someone walking along a road miles away will stop and sniff, and think: "Ahhh - grilled burgers ..."

 Quickly I set up my table, anxious to eat and explore. Here is a feast fit for a, well, for me. Diet Moxie, chicken and cheese tortilla wrap, tomatoes, cukes, lettuce with Caesar dressing, a netbook loaded with unread news articles, and a MP3 player stuffed with Bach and Beethoven, Scott Joplin and Sousa.

And all this with an unbeatable view. I am continuously thankful that I live in this glorious place, and have the freedom to visit every inch, as I choose.

After lunch, I settle on a comfortable bench overlooking the Atlantic. With Super-Vision, and an as-yet-uninvented Curvo-Scope to see over the horizon, I could see Europe, for nothing lies between me and the Old World in this view.

There's always something to do on a perfect June day, but like me, this lady has chosen to gaze and ponder.

And these folk's have found an ideal reading room

This guy must really love to eat fish, for he sat baiting his hook and casting into the surf for hours without dragging a living thing out of the sea. He was there when I arrived, and remained three hours later.

Another fisherman with apparently the same lack of success.

This crew may very well be hauling the trap that contains a lobster dinner for some hungry visitor at one of the endless seafood restaurants along the coast of Maine.

More fishermen, and again, I saw nothing edible brought up from the deep. I never tell anyone in my family what a waste of time I think fishing is, for I am truly the only man in the extended family who doesn't fish.

I once told a relative who'd invited me on a fishing trip that I was going to a baseball game - a much better use of my time, I suggested. "You'd rather just watch people do something you could never do, than provide food for your family, like a real man ..."

Hence my reluctance to share my opinions on fishing.

Yet another fisherman. He may have entered the park to find a place to fish, or he might be fishing in his backyard! Some folk's actually live right here. Expensive, but more than worth the price.

One thing Two Lights has in abundance is picnic tables. And you have the choice of being practically in the ocean, or just off the paths and trails ...

... or even in the woods - still with a view of the sea.

One final photo and it's back inland a  bit. Tonight is a Portland Sea Dogs baseball game (Boston Red Sox Double A team) and I will be there, as I usually am. For the past ten years, I've covered the team for various newpapers and magazines. 

I am a most fortunate man.