A visit to L.L. Bean in Freeport, Maine

Boothbay Harbor, Maine:  After attending the magical wedding, we moved to the Beach Rose RV Park in Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts, and used this as our base while visiting friends in our old neighborhood in Exeter, New Hampshire. The weather has just been terrible and last night we had another crazy night with thunder and  lightning! Incredible cracks, sounding like they were striking next door. Very scary stuff here at the beach.
 
We drove over three toll roads today. The first said "Cars 50 cents", and we were charged $1.00. So, we figured we were charged for two cars. The second toll road was also one half-dollar, and we were charged $1.40. The third was also one half-dollar and we were charged $1.50. Obviously it is a discriminatory charge.
 
Anyway, today was going to be a Red Letter Day in Our Family History - we were going to the Mother Ship of All Mother Ships - L.L. Bean! DT is sure I am their best customer. He was expecting bells and sirens to go off when I entered the store today, but they allowed me to shop in polite obscurity.

It was awesome. The store was amazing. It covers acres, on three floors. Three million people visit the store every year - easy to do as the store is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! You can buy everything from their catalog - from socks to canoes - in one location. L.L.Bean has been on the same corner in Freeport, Maine for 90 years. An entire industry of shopping has sprung-up around L.L.Bean. Now a fabulous outlet mall surrounds the L.L.Bean Flag Ship store in Freeport, except it isn't really a "mall". The shops line the Main Street of town in beautiful, historic buildings. Very lovely, very quaint, but we didn't shop anywhere except The Mother Ship. We were there for three hours. DT found shoes, I found sweaters (it is COLD) and we bought an altimeter for the motorhome. At checkout, they realized I was one of their favorite frequent-flyers and 10% was taken off our tab! They also offered to ship anything to me at home, free of charge. We declined - we wanted our booty with us now.

The Mother Ship

I realized how close we are to Canada - today we heard so much French being spoken in the store. Many of the clerks spoke French with their Canadian Favorite Customers. Everyone working in the store was SO NICE! It must be a wonderful place to work, as everyone was so happy! The people of Freeport were exceedingly friendly and happy to see us! They also offer plenty of free RV parking!
 
It was 4 o'clock when we finished our shopping. Time to find a campsite - so we drove north on Route 1 a bit to a nice spot near Boothbay Harbor. Our new neighbors (with an incredibly friendly and sweet 9 year old Doberman) told us about a good restaurant on the water, so we drove into the adorable village to try our luck. Lobsters are very popular in Maine, as you probably know. Today we found a shop selling Lobsters, CDs and Tapes! Highly specialized, eh? We did a drive-by of the small town and easily located The Tugboat Inn. DT enjoyed their famous Seafood Pie and I devoured their Haddock Monhegan. Delicious food, great view of the harbor, pretty waitress and Parker House rolls!

Boothbay Harbor, Maine

It did not rain all day, but it was overcast and cold. (I am talking 52 degrees!) The weather is not supposed to improve much over the Memorial Day weekend, but we are going north anyway. (It's not like we don't have enough L.L.Bean apparel to keep us dry, and let's face it - we are Oregonians.)

RV Park: Shore Hills Campground