After the luxury of the three night stay in one bed we packed up the bags this morning and set out again. As we drove back off the island we passed one of the many “Lobster Pounds” that dot the area. These are places where fresh lobsters are prepared and sold to the hungry public. Some of them have big vats out the front where they boil up the days catch.
Our final destination for the day was Freeport , Maine, and the road ( Mostly US Highway 1) took us through several pretty Maine coastal towns. However we didn’t take the direct route. Neil had another “Must See” quirky place that he’d found. We detoured off Highway 1 and headed down a long peninsula to the Marshall Point Lighthouse. Now lighthouse viewing is a popular activity for Maine tourists, some people visit all 65 of them! That wasn’t part of our plan though, the only reason we went to Marshall Point Lighthouse is because it features in the movie Forrest Gump, one of neil’s all-time favourite movies. We arrived just a few minutes after the little museum opened and there were already about a half dozen cars in the carpark. It really is very pretty on the edge of the bay, especially on a glorious sunny day like today.
When we walked inside the little Museum a friendly guide met us at the door and asked where we were from . There were gasps from the other people in the room when we said Sydney, Australia 😂 They obviously don’t get many Aussies in this off the beaten path place. However the guide was tickled – it turned out he’d visited Australia several times for work ( Blacktown of all places! but fortunately he’d traveled to other parts such as the Great barrier Reef). he was keen to chat to us for a little while. Then we took a look around the museum which had all sorts of memorabilia from local fishermen etc. There was a large board containing all the Lobster Bouy colours for the local leases. We’d learned on our lobster cruise that every lease has a unique set of colours for their bouys, there are no two the same!
They also had a folder with photos and stories of the days that Tom hanks and the crew spent here filming the (very short!) scene for the Forrest Gump movie.
They all looked VERY busy with visitors on this first Saturday of the Columbus Day long weekend. I particularly liked the look of Wiscasset as we crossed the bridge on the way through the town.
As we headed out the south side of town we were deeply grateful we were going south. The stream of bumper to bumper holiday traffic heading North into town went for miles. The other big queue in Wiscasset was the long line of people waiting to sample a lobster roll at Red’s Eats. We’d never heard of it but it turns out this little red shack is one of the most well-known and most-written-about restaurants in the state! Apparently the Lobster Rolls have been voted Best in Maine for several years.
From Wiscasset it was only about 40 minutes until we pulled into Freeport. Now Freeport was a convenient stopping place between Bar Harbor and Cape Cod… but it’s also the home town of L.L. Bean. In 1911 Leon Leonwood Bean invented the Maine Hunting Shoe. “L.L.” returned from a hunting trip with cold, damp feet and a revolutionary idea. By combining leather uppers with rubber bottoms, he created an innovative boot that changed footwear forever. The fame of the boot grew and then he expanded into outerwear coats rugged enough to cope with a Maine Winter. A mail order catalog followed and the business just grew exponentionally from there… and it all started in his home town of Freeport Maine. The center of the town is now dominated by the HUGE L.L.Bean campus. There is one enormous store that caters for clothing ( for the whole family) as well as hunting and fishing needs. There’s another building for Ski supllies and another for homewares! Across the road other stores have piggy backed on the success and opened outlet stores. I was very keen to visit the Flagship store and just absorb the atmosphere – sadly I dind’t find anything that I wanted to buy but neil picked up a nice pair of shoes.
WE drove a short way down the road and checked in to the Holiday Inn Express, where we are staying just one night. We’d passed the Maine Beer Company Brewery and Taproom on the way in so after doing some laundry we headed back there for a really yummy pizza and salad for dinner.
