Many readers may not know that Peaks Island was formally a part of the city of Portland, getting its water and electric power from the city through pipes and cables under Casco Bay, and enjoying all the other services that Portland offers its residents. It’s a fun trip for an afternoon in the car.

For a few dollars, visitors can drive right onto the Casco Bay Lines car ferry and enjoy the refreshing sea breezes of a boat ride across the bay to Peaks Island, and then up the hill and turn left onto the road that runs down the lee side of the island, with views of Little Diamond and Great Diamond Islands, and on past the yacht club, with its cute little sailboats, past Trefethen and to the Pine Landing at the north end of the island. Then up the hill and left again to cruise around the north end of the island and my favorite impossible spot.

There must have been a building there once, for the foundation remains. It overlooks Hussey Sound and someone could build a house and live where they could sit on their porch and see the south end of Long Island with its beautiful Silver Sands beach, and watch the seagulls, the waves and the trees dancing in the wind.

Impossible? Yes. I looked the property up in the Portland’s City Hall Real Estate Register, and it’s there all right. It was left in perpetuity to the birds.

Orrin Frink
Kennebunkport