With camping season now behind us for 2018, we had planned a 2 night-3 day trip on the Canadian border in eastern Maine after Thanksgiving. Even though this had been planned for months, that all changed less than a week out when we were just simply too tired from everyday life. Instead of canceling the whole trip, we came up with another less intense option on the fly. There were a couple state parks in the mid-coast area that were still on our list to visit and since we never visit more than one a day, we figured we’d spend just one night in the area to break up the trip.

As many of you can relate, working full time jobs and having a full-time daycare kid means rushing out of the house at least 5 days a week. It’s like working on Jeff Gordon’s pit crew during the Daytona 500. Not having to rush out of the house for a trip like this started things off with what felt like an easy parental win. We departed Friday morning after Turkey Day, just the 3 of us. The dogs sat this one out and you’ll understand why at the end. Our destination was Fort Point State Park. In classic Eloise fashion, after 2 hours and 8 minutes of driving and only 4.5 miles from turning into the park, she fell fast asleep. Being that she only averages one 30-45 minute nap a day, it didn’t throw the train off the tracks much at all. Her power nap M.O. is a blessing and a curse at times.

With a little time to kill, enter Nautical Scribe Books. Located on Rt 1 in Stockton Springs, it’s near the turn to head toward Fort Point State Park. We met the owner inside and she said they recently moved the store from downtown Belfast so they could have a “live-in bookstore and coffee shop.” This bookstore is a place you would want to kill an afternoon at on a rainy day or even this particular day in which the weather was around 22 degrees before taking in the wind chill. We bought a hot chocolate, coffee, scone, cookie, post card and a children’s book, all for $11. The coffee was a pour over blend of Blue Mountain, which is a Jamaican brand. This is the same coffee we love to drink at our honeymoon spot in Negril. We haven’t had a sip of it since we last visited the island in over 5 years, yet this is where we find it.

The owner also did us a solid and mentioned that the park entrance was gated. This is the case at many of the parks during the winter and spring but here it meant that we would have had to walk a long way in. She said there was a side road (Lighthouse Rd.) that ran parallel with the park and it would bring us directly to the lighthouse. Nailed it!

It is slim pickings for information about this park online, hence why we do these posts. We came for the lighthouse and that ended up being the least interesting thing about the park. We never do the copy/paste history lessons because you can do that from your own living room. What makes this lighthouse cool is that someone lives in it, and what makes this lighthouse uncool is that someone lives in it. There is a house attached with a long history of keepers throughout the years, but it’s kind of like being at an open house, you’re trying to take it all in but you find yourself rushing around at the same time because it’s just awkward in someone else’s space.

We spent more time checking out the awesome bell tower that was built in the late 1800s to warn ships in the fog as they entered the Penobscot River. The oil house was super cool too and it was amazing to think that they would get a year’s worth of fuel for the lighthouse brought in on horseback.

In all seriousness it’s crazy to think that this lighthouse was built in the mid 1800s on the edge of Penobscot Bay to guide ships up the river and it was the first in Maine to do so. Crazier to think that a fort was built behind it in the 1700s and the bones of the foundation still lie there today. The men that ordered the lighthouse to be built and fort to be constructed have towns and counties in Maine named after them today.

Probably the coolest thing was trying to envision a 200 room hotel on the state park property loaded with all the bells and whistles of a luxury spot. Apparently, it wasn’t too hot for tourist but hot enough for it to burn to the ground in about an hour after a fire started, all before 1900 and never to be rebuilt again. Now you get to stand on a lot of what it once was but with the same old incredible views.

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On a day where it dropped into the teens from the wind, there were a lot of lonely picnic tables scattered along the water. If you like history, then this park is up there for historic spots for sure and you wouldn’t really know it until it’s standing in front of you.

This place probably would have different scores for different seasons but certainly a total of 7 Rubies for us on this November winter day. Being a park of low priority on the list, we got a slap and talking to after this visit. “Wow” and “look” were definitely the words of the day. Oh, and dogs are allowed here but we didn’t bring them because from this location, we stared to drive to our Airbnb in Lincolnville for the night and it was what some would call a “tiny house.”

If your tummy is rumbling like ours was and you happen to find yourself in Searsport or maybe more likely just driving through Searsport, then you NEED to stop at Coastal Cafe & Bakery. We warmed up after the park and vegged out at this amazing little eatery. It also took a lot of restraint not to take some baked goodies for the road.