The Lion and the Owl’s Head |

So we’re beginning a new series here at the Traveling Pear called Meandering Maine. It’s basically going to chronicle the discoveries that we find lurking across the state. Over the last few months the adventure of chance happenings and coincidental meetings seem to be the way life is going so why not keep the ball meandering in that direction? Who needs planned itineraries anyway?

This past weekend the downpour of rain finally broke and the threat of coastal flooding dissipated, so off we went…in search of the owl’s head on the peninsula of well…Owls Head. Apparently mariners in the early 1600s and the local Abenaki Indians thought the point of the peninsula resembled that of an owl’s head, so why not name it that? Makes perfect sense.

After a tour of the lighthouse which was built in 1826 to mark the southern entrance to the Rockland harbor and a green eyed glance over at the lighthouse keeper’s cottage (that’s one lucky Coast Guard couple) we began wondering where’s the head?

**On a side note: The Chef failed to mention that being a lighthouse keeper is an actual job in the USCG and comes with the special privilege of living at the base of a lighthouse! How romantic! I’m sure he has good reason for neglecting to tell me about this job. Like who really wants to be responsible for keeping the light on in the midst of a*hellacious* Nor’easter when hurricane blizzard winds come whipping through with razor blade sheets of ice and snow (I’m dramatizing, I have no clue what a Nor’easter is like). However, that would zap the romance out of the whole deal…and back to Texas this pear would go!

After about an hour we finally discovered that the real owl’s head can never be seen, at least not with these eyes. Maybe in pictures before erosion took away the beak. What we did notice was this resting lion…maybe he ate the owl’s beak or possibly the entire owl? Guess they need to rename it to “Lion who Ate the Owl’s Head.”