Sharp's Travels

We decided about 8am this morning to head for Pemaquid on the motorcycle. It was a little cool riding but warmed up fast.
We went down to the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse first. This lighthouse was first commissioned in 1827 during John Quincy Adams administration. The tower is 39 feet tall. We climbed up the 36 step spiral staircase to a ladder. You then climbed up the ladder through an opening that brought you to the top of the tower, where the Fresnel Lens that lights the lighthouse is located. The lens was invented in 1822. It looks like a giant glass beehive, with a light in the center. Pemiquid still has the original Fourth Order lens. The 1000 watt bulb in the lens is visible for 14 miles. The fixed white light flashes once every six seconds. The view from atop the lighthouse was beautiful. We picked a perfect day to visit the coast. You could see for miles.
We strolled along the cliffs of the rocky shoreline. Gay took lots of pictures. We found out that this lighthouse is depicted on the Maine State quarter released in May of 2003.
The lighthouse museum had lots of neat artifacts on boating and a picture of a 28 lb. lobster and another picture with a little girl standing beside two 45 lb. lobsters. WOW!
We stopped at a gift shop where all the items were handmade by Maine residents. They had some beautiful things.
We were told to have lunch at Shaws restaurant on the bay in New Harbor. While we were there we watched the lobster boats come and go unloading their catch for the day.
Our next stop was the Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site where Fort William Henry is located. The partial reconstruction that now stands there was completed in 1908’ we climbed to the very top and got a great view of the coastline. We also went through the Fort House and the museum.
We rode about 130 miles today and returned home by 5pm.
Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album Pemaquid