Thursday, November 11, 2010

GORGES SEALS

No, I did not misspell that… these seals are on the rocks next to Fort Gorges, an old fort in Casco Bay, not very far off shore between Peaks Island and Portland. And , yes, it is pronounced, gorgeous.PeaksFortG

Gorges is a strange looking thing sitting out there in the middle of the water on what was a small island – there are lots of them in the Bay… small islands, that is. fort gorges

Can you see it sitting out there in the Bay? This is from the webcam at Portland Head Light.

Gorges is the only military structure on its own private island, but there are lots of ‘fort” type structures – military bunkers, spotting towers and fascinating tunnels and other military “stuff” on most of the islands. I say fascinating, tho I don’t really mean it anymore. They were fascinating when we were kids because they were forbidden territory. Small wonder, they were and are even today, dangerous, especially for small kids. We, of course, visited them more than once, climbing around and exploring most of them, swearing an oath to each other to never ever tell Aunt Kathryn. Funny, I don’t remember her ever hitting any of us, but I do remember her picking up a ping pong paddle and LOOKING at us. I memorized the LOOK, and it came in handy when I became a teacher. Stop ya in your tracks! LOL!

Anyway, I only remember being on Fort Gorges once when my boy-friend of the month “borrowed” his dad’s boat and we went exploring in the old fort. The fort was not as interesting to me as the seals that flopped around on the rocks. They did not like visitors. seals gorges seals 2 Gorges seals

The seals are easy to miss to the casual tourist – they seem to blend into the rocks. These shots aren’t the greatest, they were scanned from a couple of shots my sister took on our trip in 2003.

Yeah, this shot is back at BaHaba… the last pic taken of Luanne before we headed for home. Just had to post it before I pack up all the old shots and put them away again…  Luanne BH

OK… I have packed the pictures up… they will go up on a shelf, probably never to come down again. Some things are just too hard to do. Maybe I will get back to Maine… maybe…

3 comments:

Ginnie said...

Seal watching is a great sport! I hope you do get to Maine one last time... never say never!

ancient one said...

I am so jealous of your travels and always jealous of people who could actually live at the ocean. My former hair cutting person lived at Cape Lookout in NC as a child. Her dad ran the light house. I really like her so much and wish I'd have known her as a child. I love hearing her tell of that life. I have never, ever, heard of anyone who lived near the beach say they didn't love it!! I expect you will get back to Maine.

Tossing Pebbles in the Stream said...

Your pictures made me want to make another trip to Maine.