On the Road: Portland to Camden

Here in New England, we’re deviating from our usual pattern of slow travel. Instead of staying a month in one place, we’re spending a week at a time in different cities and towns. It’s similar to what we did in 2021, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It’s more expensive because we can’t get a monthly discount on our lodging and sometimes have no way to cook meals. It’s more work, with more reservations to manage and more frequent packing and unpacking. The upside is more flexibility in finding places to stay, and more opportunities to visit interesting places that we’ve heard a lot about. Plus, New England is very compact, so we don’t have to do much driving between towns.

So after a week in Newport, Rhode Island and a week in Portland, Maine, we headed to Midcoast Maine. It was only 80 miles or so from Portland to Camden, so we had plenty of time for stops along the way. Unfortunately, it was raining, which narrowed our options a bit.

We started by visiting L.L.Bean’s flagship store, on Main Street in Freeport, Maine, less than half an hour from Portland. It was a mega-store filled with apparel and gear for every outdoor sport and activity you can think of. I tried on several rain jackets - alas, my North Face rain jacket was not truly waterproof - but didn’t really love any of them, so we moved on. Note, there were at least two other specialty L.L.Bean stores nearby, and a huge outlet mall across the street. The sidewalks were surprisingly busy with shoppers, even with the rain. Freeport was a surprisingly popular destination.

After Freeport, we traveled on Interstate 295 for a while, and then turned off on U.S. Highway 1 at Brunswick. US-1 was a good 10 miles from the Gulf of Maine, but it crossed many rivers and inlets. We also passed through many small towns. In Woolwich, we saw Larry, the World’s Largest Inflatable Lobster.

In Wiscasset, just before the bridge over the Sheepscot River, we saw a small shack with what looked like at least fifty people patiently waiting in line, in the rain. It was Red’s Eats, famous for its lobster rolls. I didn’t get a photo, so I am borrowing this one. Imagine this with a much longer line of people. In the rain. Based on the length of the queue, we estimated it would be a wait of at least one, maybe two hours, for a lobster roll. Um, no thanks.

Photo credit: David Brossard on Flickr

Soon after crossing that bridge, we left US-1 and went south toward Boothbay. Fortunately, the rain had stopped, and we had fun hiking at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Terrific place!

After our hike, we went back to US-1 and drove another hour to Camden, our home for the next week.