By Nate Jones
Staff writer


6:30 a.m. – I roll out of bed to the sound of rain on the deck of my boat, fog horns blaring around Portland Harbor and a very hungry cat. I try to disguise the sound of keys, gum wrappers and loose change rattling around in my wife’s pocketbook as I rummage through it in search of a $20 bill. Sure enough I discover a crumpled and frayed Andrew Jackson smiling up from the mess. Undeterred by the dismal morning weather, I find a spot for the bill inside my raincoat and we hit the road.

7 a.m. – May is the month of warblers, and all this month the York County Audubon Society hosts a number of bird spotting walks throughout York and Cumberland county, including Hinckley Park right off Highland Avenue in South Portland. Having never been bird watching, I am astounded at the knowledge warbler connoisseur and Audubon volunteer Bob Cash shares with me while we wait for other bird watchers in the damp Hinckley Park entrance. Despite the morning drizzle, three other Audubon enthusiasts join us in a walk through fields, over streams, next to ponds and beneath power lines with binoculars and bird books at the ready. I spot what looks to be a large white tuft of feathers in a large Elm tree, and sure enough Cash identifies the large bird as a Black-crowned Night Heron, one of the rarer species we spy before returning to the parking lot, now steamy in the brightening mid-morning.
Total spent at this activity: $0.00
Total spent for the day: $0.00
Money left: $20.00

10 a.m. – While spying birds takes skill and knowledge, it can be rather cumbersome, and the increasingly warm sunlight beginning to spill through the trees makes me want to fall asleep in the driver’s seat. I need coffee and food. Fast. Weaving my car through traffic headed out of South Portland’s downtown, I spot a café just as their neon ‘OPEN’ sign lights up in the middle of the waterfront market area. I park my car by the post office and stumble into Emma D’s on Ocean Street, where the coffee is self-serve and their breakfast burrito is hot and spicy. I take a seat at one of their outside tables and search the calendar of the Sentry for what to do next. The cook, waitress and part-owner of Emma D’s recommends I visit Bug Light or Two Lights park, maybe even head to the mall, when she brings out my burrito. I make a mental note about the different parks, and we agree the mall probably isn’t the best place to try and stretch $20.
Total spent at this activity: $6.40
Total spent for the day: $6.40
Money left: $13.60

11 a.m. – It’s no longer warm, but downright hot; I regret not leaving the sunroof open as a blast of muggy air wafts out of my car. With a belly full of breakfast burrito and morning blend coffee, I have enough energy to once again move away from downtown in search of cheap stuff to do. Although I’ve lived in South Portland for nearly three years, I find myself on roads I have not been on before, passing a variety of convenience stores, furniture outlets, barbershops and art galleries. My eye catches the open door of Artascope studios on Cottage Street. Although their art lessons start at $35, Studio Manager Suzane Kiertianis sells me a copper beaded earring kit for $10.50 and directs me to a workbench in the back of the studio where I can put it all together. Using several pairs of needle nose pliers and the expert advise of Kiertianis I assemble five pairs of earrings which helped bail me out of having to buy a Mother’s Day gift and diffuse an argument with my wife once she figures out where her $20 went.
Total spent at this activity: $10.50
Total spent for the day: $16.90
Money left: $3.10

12:30 p.m. – The sunshine sears the skin on my face and neck, the temperatures must be reaching near 75 degrees; I have the windows down and the earrings in my passenger seat as I work my way farther south. With the small nerd inside me cheering, I walk through the front door of Game Geeks new location on Main Street in South Portland. Part-owner Rob Wheeler introduces me to two of his lifelong friends and I watch an epic, but miniature battle waged with dice, tape measures and a multitude of words I don’t understand unfolding on a large table. After the battle is over, I find myself engrossed in a three-player round of a “Magic: The Gathering” card game, which Wheeler meticulously walks me through to victory. Although the small “booster-pack” of cards costs $3.99 for veterans, Wheeler says he often offers new players a pack “on-the-house” and invites me to a rematch at a later date.
Total spent at this activity: A little self-esteem
Total spent for the day: $16.90
Money left: $3.10

2 p.m. – Skyrocketing temperatures and clear skies have me bound for the coast. I have seen Cape Elizabeth’s Portland Head Light from the water on more than one occasion – I’m a sailing fanatic – but I am surprised by how much larger it looks on land. Although the museum is closed this time of year, bands of foreign tourists are congregating around the base of the lighthouse, children are flying kites in the nearby fields at Fort Williams Park and a large group of teenagers are tossing a Frisbee back and forth. I notice a sailboat coming from the south and take a closer look via one of the pedestal viewers. I wonder how many times someone took the time to inspect my sailboat from this same point?
Total spent at this activity: $0.25
Total spent for the day: $17.15
Money left: $2.85

3 p.m. Inspired by the kites at the park and a warm southerly breeze, I make my way down Route 77 to Jordan’s Lawn and Garden center in search of the world’s cheapest kite, only to find they haven’t come into season yet. I realize I haven’t eaten anything in a while and spin into Rudy’s, where I grab a bag of chips and the largest can of iced tea I have ever seen. By the time I reach Crescent Beach State Park, the chips and half of the iced tea are gone. There is only one other car at the entrance to the park, which is only open to pedestrians, and I wave to a woman laying in the grass with her dog before taking a trek through the forest. I can hear the surf beyond the trees, and on the other side of a large field I come upon a rocky, seaweed-covered beach. I have the large, rocky, reddish sand beach all to myself, and pass through an eerily empty parking lot on my way back to my car. I can only imagine the tremendous amount of people who will descend on the now desolate spot in just a few weeks.
Total spent at this activity: $2.28
Total spent for the day: $19.43
Money left: $0.57

5 p.m. – Sunburned and tired I am back onboard at home. If I wasn’t in dire need of aloe and a nap, I could go on to do even more with jaust a few extra dollars, including attending a Cape Elizabeth lacrosse game later on that evening, any of several art gallery exhibits or grabbing another bite to eat at a different diner and I never did get around to visiting Bug Light Park.
I drift off to sleep with a feeling of accomplishment after having entertained myself for more than 10 hours with only $20.