We own a kite that sadly has gotten little use over the years. We purchased it when our girls were young because kite flying seemed to be just something you do with toddlers. We did attempt to fly it a few times but never to much success other than a few perfectly windy days at the beach, so eventually it went into storage in our garage. Somewhere along the line we picked up a friend for our little kite. I don’t remember where, but most likely it was from a yard sale find that was just too good to pass up. Even though the one kite we owned wasn’t getting much use, a second one somehow seemed like a good idea.

I never thought much more about it, until I found out that South Portland has a spring Kite Festival at Bug Light Park. It felt like the perfect time to pull our kites out of storage and let them fly free again. There was a reason we had kept them all these years.

During the festival they ask that you to park in the lot by Southern Maine Community College and walk over to the park as the festival can get crowded. It was easy to find our bearings and fun to approach the park and see all the wonderful kites filling the sky with bright colors. Another thing vying for our attention, as we approached the park, was the massive field of dandelions blanketing the grass and creating a dramatic view.

As my husband prepared our kites, my daughter and I did a quick visit to the lighthouse located at the park. While the lighthouse is officially named the Portland Breakwater Lighthouse, it’s also called Bug Light because of it’s small size. It has a distinctive personality and great views of the harbor. During the festival the lighthouse was open and we were able to make the short climb up the narrow stairs to the top. When we arrived, one of the event volunteers provided us with a brief overview on the lighthouse.

After our lighthouse tour, we spent some time walking along the path by the water’s edge and enjoying the views of Casco Bay. It was a windy day, great for kite flying and riding sailboats. Both were out in force.

After our detour to take in the sites, it was time to get down to business and get our kite into the air. Since our kite was bought when our girls were young it’s a little on the smaller side. We did get it into the sky but it was pretty well dwarfed by some of the other more impressive kites in the air that day. Not that we minded, it was a lot of fun to watch all of the other kites.

We were only able to launch one of our two kites as we discovered a missing piece on the yard sale find. As soon as we returned home, we found the piece tucked into a random organizing bin in the garage. I’m sure we found it lying around at some point and had no idea what it was at the time. It has now been returned to the kite bag and the next time we venture out to fly our kites we’ll be able to launch them both.

Even if we only got one kite up in the sky for the Bug Light Park Kite Festival, it’s still important to document our kite flying success no matter how limited. So here is a brief video of our little guy up in the sky and definitive proof that we had a successful launch. It’s a quick video. We had success getting it to fly, but it was a little more challenging to keep it up in the air.

The kite festival at Bug Light Park was a wonderfully kid friendly event. There was live music, and a cookout area by the museum where you could buy hamburgers and hot dogs. You could also indulge your sweet tooth and visit the Love Kupcakes food truck which was parked by the cookout area.

As we headed out, we did a quick stop into the Cushing’s Point Museum operated by the South Portland Historical Society. It has wonderful memorabilia on the history of the area from shipbuilding to sardine canning as well as information on the lighthouse. It is a small museum, but packed with great stuff. The docent told us that they’re in the process of making many of their archives more accessible to the public.

It was a fun day to explore Bug Light Park and enjoy kite flying with other enthusiastic novices and seasoned pros. The park also has amazing views of Casco Harbor.

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things to know
Location	Bug Light Park. South Portland, ME 04106
Event	Kite Festival
Date	May 21, 2014 | 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Website	Bug Light Park Website
Favorite ♥	Getting Our Kite to Fly