My love affair began three years ago, when a new friend, now my best friend, gushed about what sounded like a mystical place on the Maine shore. We had just been to Portland Headlight in what use to be Fort Williams and I was running on a Lighthouse high.
If you have ever been to the Maine Coast you can understand what I am talking about, especially the closer you get up North where the majority of the lighthouses are.
Lighthouses have a way of invoking, a strong sense of hope and inspiration to those who visit. It is a beacon of strength to sailors. That pillar that stands against not just time, but the fierceness of the waves. It shines its caressing light, leading others safely home.
As she descriptively described this wondrous place, I was giddy with anticipation. I could not wait to see it.
Two Lights is in Cape Elizabeth Maine, on a winding road with picturesque houses, the State park is a half mile before the lighthouses which are at the end of the road jutting out into the ocean. Only one is operational, the other having been decommisioned and now privately owned. (my dream!)
The parking lot is small at the lighthouse and overlooks a small beach where people will scuba dive. There is also a very well known restaurant, famous for their lobster. On my last visit there, I also happened to find sea glass. Mostly small pieces in whites and browns, but they are all extremely well cooked.
And when I visited yesterday, I found the money maker, when I stumbled upon a beautiful well cooked, pale greenish blue piece. Purely by happenstance when I was getting ready to leave to meet my friend at Rudy’s, a quaint restaurant literally across the road that leads to Two Lights.
You have to pay (five dollars for Maine residence and seven for everyone else) to enter the State Park, but they do have bathrooms (though as my friend and I found out the other day, not during the winter months) they also have a picnic area complete with a swing set for kids to enjoy.
While the park can get crowded, you still feel like you are the only one in the world, especially as you walk along the winding paths that lead you to the rocks. These rocks resemble drift wood, but have in fact, been around for millions of years, taking the brunt of the ocean’s wrath, withering it away to what it is now.
On my first visit, I felt like I was walking through the Magical Forest from Harry Potter, visiting Neverland, and Narnia all at once. Since then, that feeling hasn’t subsided. One minute you are in the woods, the next you are standing on rocks, overlooking the ocean.
It is a mermaid’s playground.
To sit or lay out on millions of years, of history, gazing out at the ocean, gives you that feeling that you are at the ends of the world. Their is nothing but water, and sky, and maybe an occasional bird.
It gives you that feeling of being one with something greater then myself. That you are experiencing one of nature’s greatest mistresses. The ocean.
Since that first adventure, on a hot summer’s day, I have gone to Two Lights many times, to ponder, to create, to appreciate. I have introduced it to friends. And every time I discover new secrets, as if I have finally become worthy to be told. From the discovery of Seaglass, to new outlooks, to discovering me, it is as close to heaven as you can possibly get in this life time. It is a mermaid’s secret playground, and one of these days, I am sure I will finally see one frolicking in the waves, as they make their mermaid tears.
