Wednesday, July 13
Cedar Haven Campground
We left North Hampton around 9 am and arrived at Cedar Haven Campground near Freeport, ME, around 2 hours later. The sites are wooded and nicely laid out. There was a pond with kayaks and rafts to use, laundry, a game room, and a playground. They even had a concrete area full of riding toys and other items for kids to play with for free.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
After setting up, we headed to Coastal Maine Botanical Garden, about an hour away. We stopped at a pharmacy and Walmart briefly to see if we could find a knee brace for Lisa but were unsuccessful.
We arrived at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden at 1:30 pm. The CMBG is the most extensive botanical garden in New England. It comprises 295 acres, 17 of which are gardens featuring native plants of Maine and other plants suited to northern coastal conditions.
Besides the beautiful plants, it featured seven giant trolls called the Guardians of the Seeds, built by Danish activist Thomas Dambo. Each troll has its Danish name — Roskva, Birk, Gro, Lilja, Søren — and represents a different part of a tree. The tallest of the group is about 28 feet high. Together, they promoted a theme of biodiversity and sustainability that continues the story from Thomas Dambo’s trolls worldwide, from China to Puerto Rico.
The gardens were gorgeous, and we enjoyed the trolls. We ate a sandwich at the restaurant overlooking the gardens before departing around 4 pm.
Pemaquid Point Lighthouse
We then headed toward the 1835 Pemaquid Point Light at the tip of the Pemaquid Neck. The picturesque lighthouse is featured on the Maine quarter, the 23rd in the 50 State Quarters Program issued by the U.S. Mint.
We arrived at the beautiful lighthouse around 5 pm and walked outside the house and lighthouse. A lot of exposed bedrock descended from the lighthouse to the ocean, adding to its beauty. Though there was a warning about how the crashing waves made climbing on the rocks dangerous, several people were close to the water.
Sprague’s Lobster
We stopped at an outdoor lobster shack near a bridge in Wiscasset, ME, on our way back. There was a small parking area, and it was challenging to get the truck parked, but we made it. A large sitting area with several food concessions was closed, but the lobster shack was open. Their specialty seemed to be fresh whole lobsters, which we saw being boiled in a separate shack, but we got the Crab Roll, and Lisa got a Lobster Roll instead.
Fort Edgecomb State Historic Site
Even though it was already 7 pm, we decided to explore the Fort Edgecomb State Historic Site, which was only Just down the road from Sprague was a mile away.
Fort Edgecomb is a two-story octagonal wooden blockhouse with restored fortifications built in 1808–1809 on a peninsula jutting into the Sheepscot River. When the fort was built, Wiscasett was one of the largest shipbuilding centers in New England.
The first was locked up, but I enjoyed walking around the fort and the grounds. As we left it, it was starting to get dark fast.
We got home around 8:15
Thursday, July 14
This morning, we decided to explore Portland, ME.
Portland Duck Tour
I took off around 9 am and headed to Portland for a 10 am Maine Duck Tour.
We had to catch the Duck at Long Pier, a popular tourist area. Many land and sea tours use the location to launch their tours, and it has a sizeable seaside restaurant and retail area. Short-term parking was hard to find and expensive, but we were lucky to get a good spot when we saw someone leaving their place. While waiting, we saw a section of the Berlin Wall slabs installed as a memorial and a lighthouse monument.
Unlike the WW II amphibious vehicles we had ridden in on other Duck tours, the Bufflehead is a custom-built 36-passenger amphibious vessel built in Maine. The Duck Tour was about an hour long and drove us around the historical East End before launching at East End Beach into Casco Bay. The water was nice and calm, and though it was brief, it was fun.
Port of Portland
We decided to check out Goodwill across the Fore River and then a Salvation Army store on the way to a brewery for bargain souvenir t-shirts. Souvenir T-shirts are so expensive, and I thought we could find some good deals there and get a bit of sightseeing in. Surprisingly, we found no souvenir t-shirts or anything with local flair.
We got a glimpse of the Port of Portland which is the second-largest tonnage seaport in New England as well as one of the largest oil ports on the East Coast. The majority of Portland’s non-passenger terminals are for petroleum products.
Allagash Brewing Company
We met up with our friends at Allagash Brewing Company a little after noon. The brewery was renovating, so only their outdoor patio area was open, which was perfect for us. We ordered some beers and some food while we were there.
International Cryptozoology Museum
We then drove to a quirky museum called the International Cryptozoology Museum. Cryptozoology studies hidden or unknown animals such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and Yeti. Set in a fancy strip mall, this small museum had two floors of exhibits containing the collection of Loren Coleman, who has been collecting, researching, and curating for over fifty years.
Portland Head Light
We then drove south to visit Fort Williams Park and the Portland Head Light. When we got there, we found that the entrance to the park was blocked for what we learned later was a Governors Conference event.
Big Indian
We decided to head back to Freeport and check out some of the quirky attractions near there. Our first stop was a large statue called the Big F Indian.
His official name is Chief Passamaquoddy. The legend goes that it was commissioned by Julian Leslie, who was known for parking junk cars in front of his store, Casco Bay Trading Company, to make it look busy. Because he sold moccasins, he built this statue in Pennsylvania in 1969 and trucked to Maine in the dead of night to avoid rubbernecking accidents. The statue stands 40 feet tall on a six-foot concrete base and weighs 1,500 pounds. The store is no longer open.
Desert of Maine
When then, we drove up to the Desert of Maine. The Desert of Maine is just 20 acres of rolling dunes in the middle of a lush forest that has been a natural curiosity and tourist attraction for over 100 years. The area was created by sheep overgrazing the land, exposing the sand underlayer.
There is not much there but an opportunity to walk around the dunes. There were some activities for children, a mini golf course, and a campground. There was an entrance fee to enter the dunes, so we did not bother doing more than driving through the parking lot and looking at it from afar.
LL Bean
We then drove into Freeport, which is the headquarters of LL Bean. They had a massive complex with several retail buildings. We walked through a couple of the buildings, but the prices of their products were too high for us. It was fun seeing their giant boot sculpture and their boot car. Their boot-mobile was large enough inside to pass as a Class B camper.
Ben & Jerry’s
There was a Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream stand near the LL Bean parking lot, so we decided to enjoy some ice cream.
Cedar Haven Campground
Back to the campground at 6 pm. The campground had a lot of cute wood carvings scattered around it, so we decided to drive around and check them out.
Friday, July 15
Maine Maritime Museum
We took off around 10 am and headed to the Maine Maritime Museum, about 50 minutes away. The museum is set on a scenic active waterfront on the banks of the Kennebec River. It includes the historic Percy and Small Shipyard with five original 19th-century buildings, a Victorian-era shipyard owner’s home, and New England’s most significant sculpture – a full-size representation of the largest wooden sailing vessel ever built, the six-masted schooner Wyoming.
One of the first exhibits we visited was the Wyoming sculptures, where a staff member talked about the shipyard operations and demonstrated how Wyoming was launched with a scaled-down version of a launching area. We then explored the various houses that had exhibits about lobstering, the Bath Iron Works (BIW), the Snow Squall remains, and shipbuilding and sailing in general. We could see the Bath Iron Works a short distance down the river with its huge floating dry dock. It was a fascinating museum.
Lobster Cruise
We had a Lobster Demo and Wildlife Cruise with Seacoast Tours scheduled for 2 pm. Because there was very little parking available at the South Freeport Marina, they had us park in downtown Freeport near LL Bean and they took us by shuttle to the port.
The pilot and the guide took nine of us into Casco Bay while pointing out attractions and telling us about the area’s history and lobstering. We passed several islands that held summer homes that often lacked public utilities. One island was so small it held only one home. We also passed some rock reefs with seals on them, but we did not disturb them by getting too close.
The highlight was when we were given orange aprons and gloves and took turns pulling lobster traps from the ocean floor. We could then handle the crabs and lobsters caught, but we were not allowed to keep anything because they did not have the proper license.
Whoopie Pies
When we got back to Freeport after the cruise, we stopped in Wicked Whoopies. A whoopie pie is a cross between a cookie, pie, sandwich, or cake. It is made of two round mound-shaped pieces of cake with a creamy filling or frosting sandwiched between them. They are considered a New England classic, a Pennsylvania Amish tradition, and the official state treat of Maine. The store had many varieties and sizes of whoopie pie, but we settled on one apiece for each of us.
Fat Boy Drive-In
It was about 5 pm, so we decided to go to an old-fashioned drive-in restaurant established in 1955 called Fat Boy Drive-In in Brunswick. Established in 1955, it looked original. The parking under their awning was tight for my large truck, but it was not crowded, so I had plenty of room. We had to use our headlights to signal for service.
Laundry
After dinner, we drove to Lisbon on the Androscoggin River to do our laundry.
Saturday, July 16
The following day, we ran up to Shaws Grocery store in Freeport to get some groceries, and then we departed for Acadia National Park at around 10 am.