Labor Day 2012 - beautiful sunshine and low 70's made for more great shopping. You are probably wondering (especially the guys) "How can she possibly shop so much"? Not a problem.....and although I've bought things to help the Maine economy (and tackling my Christmas list), there's a lot of browsing, too. Mark is so good about stopping and he walks down by the water, checks out the boats, stops by a bookstore or other guy place (hardware store), reads, etc. He's the best!!!!
Along the way today...
We stopped at Miss Wiscasset Diner on the outskirts of Wiscasset for breakfast.
The sign says it all!
I had blueberry pancakes and Mark had an "egg in a hole" - egg fried in middle of piece of bread which had been cut out, along with sausage and potatoes. We were both happy campers when we left! Off to Freeport, home of L. L. Bean. Neat little town but hard to find a spot to park Daisy. Ended up in the high school parking lot (schools start tomorrow) and walked a few blocks. Along with several buildings for L.L. Bean which all smell like fresh pine, Freeeport has several outlet stores and a bunch are in their own separate building with neat architecture. Enjoyed strolling around here.
In 1982 McDonalds wanted to purchase an old historic home, tear down and build a restaurant....well, the zoning commision said "NO way" and residents were up in arms... so McDonalds remodeled the old home and it is now in a very prime location and doing well even occasinally serving lobster rolls or blueberry milkshakes.
Side view of McDonalds in Freeport, Maine on 9/3/12
and then how it looks in the wintertime....
pretty impressive, eh???
We left Freeport and drove to Portland - whoaaa...back in the big city (66,000) and after stopping at Whole Foods, we parked Daisy in a church lot and took Toad to Old Port (historic area of Portland down by the water). It was very quaint.....some touristy stuff, but overall....many others that were just "my kind of shop". They even had a store called "Nomads". I was in one shop and "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" came on.....yikes, its only September 3rd!!! Spent a few hours in Old Port and then moved on.
Highway 1 in Maine is just one little town after another and not that far apart. You could easily spend weeks up here if you wanted to visit each or get out and explore the countryside. We remember talking to the RV guy from Arizona (only other person we've seen exercising). He and his wife had just spent 5 weeks in Maine and now on their way to the maritime provinces. Maine has so many beautiful old inns and B and B's, pottery shops, antiques, flowers, and the roadside stands now have their pumpkins, mums, etc., on display big time!
From Portland we drove 30 miles to the Salty Acres Campground, 4 miles northeast of Kennebunkport. We settled Daisy in, exercised (too chilly this morning), cleaned up and drove into the very upscale, beautiful town of Kennebunkport. Of course, sooo many shops, restaurants, etc.......all new stuff to explore and check out! We had a wonderful dinner at Alisson's (Mark had the lobster and I went for a peach salsa burger - one of their signature dishes with deviled egg potato salad).
Nothing quite like fresh Maine lobster
After so much seafood for weeks, a burger sounded good and it was a winner as was my bluetini (blueberry martini with 5 floating blueberries). We drove around and saw sooo many enormous, old, gorgeous homes (lots of red, white and blue flying today), huge yachts, and just $$$$ signs wherever we looked! Going back tomorrow as shops were closing around 5ish.
Although a lot of tourists come to New England in the fall, their really busy season is summer. After Labor Day, traffic and the occupancy at inns, motels and campgrounds slows down, shorter hours for shops, etc., we were told!
One more thing about Maine (love this state)....they've come up with clever names for some of their businesses...
"Mainly Meat on Main"
"Mainly Music"
"The Maine Grind"
and their sales tax is only 5% versus 15% in Canada!
Dunkin Donuts are everywhere, too (headquartered in Boston), but have not seen a Tim Horton's since we arrived back in Maine.....there are some in the states, so maybe one final "Tim fix" coming up?
Enough rambling from me....here's our IL grandsons enjoying the Labor Day parade. Hope you all had a great holiday!
Connor and Liam - proud little Americans!!!
