26 July 2015 The Other Shore

Our journey started today on the Wisconsin side. The beach was much quieter. Maybe it because it was Sunday morning. Maybe it was because it was the Wisconsin side. The water was just as clear and the caches were fun.

The 1000 foot Burns Harbor has worked the Great Lakes for over 30 years after being commissioned by Bethlehem Steel. This afternoon she sat docked along the shore.

We had seen the lighthouse from Minnesota and Wisconson earlier in the day Now it was time to take a walk across the rocks to see it up close.

We were a little distracted by the rocks on the way out and back. They were more interesting than the usual breakwall material.

Superior is a town with history. Besides some great older signs, there are older buildings calling back a time when steel making was a huge piece of the US economy and the region's mining and shipping was a big part of that industry. We didn't have a long time to spend, but it would be a great place to return and capture in images.

We returned to Duluth to visit Enger Park. The tower is the main attraction at the park, but the park also includes nice floral areas, a Japanese Garden, and some great views for watching life on the water.

29 September 2013 Last Morning in Maine

We awoke to our final morning in Bitteford and Maine with heavy fog. After breakfast we made a stop to hunt a puzzle final at an lpc in town. The cache was strange since it had been almost a year without a find. Lonely caches have become fairly common even a tenth-mile into the woods, but light pole caches usually continue to get found. We were happy to add our signature to the log book.

Clifford Park was a bit of a gamble. We knew there were caches in the park, but a few had not been found in 17 months. It's hard to believe traditionals in a city park would go unfound that long and a bonus puzzle after three finds would also sit unfound. I was skeptical when we arrived because the front of the park looked like a somewhat neglected city park. Once we reached the woods, rocks, and trails, I was very happy we had found this gem. We had a great time and wished for a little longer time window to hunt a few more hides in the park, but we were both pleased to find two caches which had sat unfound for a long time.

I was happy for a return to Portland Headlight. After our last visit, we had purchased a lighthouse passport book so Ali wanted to stop for a stamp. By the time we left Clifford park the fog and clouds had been replaced by bright blue skies. I struggle more with the question of visiting old favorites or making new memories at new places, but I was really happy for a chance to return again to New England. Hopefully, there is another visit waiting in the future.

Well, it's not far down to paradise, at least it's not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility
Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see

It's not far to never-never land, no reason to pretend
And if the wind is right you can find the joy of innocence again
Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see

Sailing takes me away to where I've always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
And soon I will be free

recorded by... Christopher Cross in 1979

For me the weather was so vivid on the morning we were here, this looks like a scene from a model train layout with a real building and a painted backdrop.

9 June 2013 Lake County GeoTour

Lake County which is near our home has the first Geocaching GeoTour in the area. These GeoTours are put together jointly with the sponsor and the staff from Groundspeak. They are designed to bring visitors to the area as Geo-Tourists. I don't think we qualify as tourists, but we were willing to try the caches since they were all smalls. Our post yard-work adventures this evening took us to the parking lot of the visitors bureau, a local playhouse, Wildwood Park, and Fairport Harbor lighthouse. We had fun on a quiet evening out, but I'm not really certain the attractions are going to make a geocacher set aside the gps and spend the day visiting (and spending money).

We stopped at the visitor center on a Sunday evening so of course they were closed. We travel a lot and other than the visitor center at Wytheville and a couple of visitor center's in West Virginia I can't remember any of these offering information or knowledgeable volunteers that added any great ideas for my travels or were even open tourist-type hours. This one's near the local minor league baseball stadium, but if minor league baseball were your delight, I'm certain the internet would have given you all the traveling information you needed before you arrived.

Our remaining stops were in nicer locations, but not the type of attractions to make either of us say we need to stop what we are doing and spend money or we need to come back to visit here later. There seemed to be some sort of contest related to the GeoTour and uploading images of ourselves with the cache. We had fun with a couple of locations, including an award-winning dramatic stage moment at the playhouse. ;-0 I'm not a big fan of taking one of our pictures at each cache and we are not active in social media so we had fun with a few photos and opted to just collect the smilies after that. We really enjoyed a chance to spot multiple cedar waxwings in the wooded area around the playhouse.

A nice resting spot at Mantor's Wildwood Park

For tourism power, the Fairport Harbor lighthouse was one of the two stops this evening that can draw visitors. The lighthouse is staffed by volunteers and has okay, but not amazing hours. By the time we arrived, it was closed. So was the rest of the town on a beautiful summer evening in July. Ohio like so many non-tourist states just doesn't get how hard you have to work at being successful in tourism. After evening one, we will keep seeking the rest of the series. They are not amazing caches at must-see loactions, but they were a pleasant way to spend an evening. I did think it was interesting that many of these have a 24/7 attribute. I had to wonder, why would you bring visitors/tourists to an area and them tell them it is okay to cache 24/7 when most of the attractions are closed and the local police are most likely to think you are up to bad behavior?