In reality, the trip to Ogunquit was to take care of some old business. We had gone to Portland, OR to celebrate our 40th anniversary. Each year for our anniversary, I try to build a rock cairn somewhere as a celebratory process. I had hoped to find a good spot in Portland, but alas, it did not present itself.
I decided to head for Ogunquit (where I had done an anniversary cairn before) to get the job done. And … I am retired … so why not on a Wednesday as a day trip combined with the beach, relaxation and a nice lunch.
We headed out early in order to get to the beach around 10:00 AM. Yes, I was stunned by the $25 charge to park on the beach lot (I am on a fixed income you know). It was high tide and the throngs of people were sardines in the can on the limited beach. I later took a picture from higher ground.
The beach was a solid mass of multi-color umbrellas … you could not actually see the beach.
We did the beach thing … first a long walk. The walk finalized my self-diagnosis of Plantar Faciiatis. Next came relaxing on the beach blanket and chair to read (I love my Kindle) for about an hour. Then, it was off to hike the Marginal Way.
The Marginal Way is a wonderful walk. The ocean views, rocky coastline, and pounding surf are incredible. We happened upon a section where there must have been 50 + small rock stacking left by other tourists.
No doubt, I am drawn to rock stackings. Nothing to do but I had to leave one of mine with the grouping.
Further on, we found a good spot with lots of available loose stones to do our anniversary cairn. Anne stayed on the path to avoid the necessity of a 911 call while I went down to do the actual stacking. It is as it should be since it is really my thing. Anne seemed to enjoy sitting on the bench above, talking to passer-bys and pointing out the crazy man below hauling stones and beach debris to make a rock sculpture.
Forty stones and one for good luck later, our anniversary monument was complete.
We finished our hike and took the trolley from Perkins Cove back to the center of the village and enjoyed a lunch of fish and chips for me and lobster roll for Anne. From there, it was back to the beach to relax and enjoy the activity around us. We finished off the day with a ride on the Trolley to Wells (just for the heck of it) and headed home.
It is amazing how tiring retirement can be … this relaxing is hard.
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