October 12- 19 Maine Coast

Pats gets the boot

Dede checks out Patty O'Room

The coast of Maine is quite spectacular.  The jagged coastline is filled with hundreds of islands, bays, coves, inlets, beaches and rivers.  There are marshes and tidelands along the coast as well.  Settled in amongst this geography are picture postcard villages of  neatly kept white collages with black shutters, white Baptist churches with steeples that tower above the trees.  We are in the midst of the fall colors now and the trees cast a golden red glow which just enhances the charm of these villages.  The towns that have a “downtown” are along “Main St” and look to be small store fronts, stately looking brick banks, and a granite block post office.  The villages on the coast, have marinas adjacent to the town center.  Historically, shipping was the main focus of commerce and transportation.  Now that there are highways, the harbors are mostly for recreation and tourism.  There is the occasional paper mill, granite quarry and other industry, but there doesn’t seem to be enough of them to support the population in the area.

We visited Freeport Maine, the home of L.L. Bean.  It is more than just a store it is a campus, with multiple stores, restaurants, parks, an outdoor performance area, and multiple parking lots on the periphery.  It features the world’s largest boot statue in one of the courtyards.  The store(s) are great with lots of sales people to direct you within the store and to answer questions.  These are big stores with lots and lots of merchandise.  We bought more winter clothes to ward off the winter cold which has caught up with us especially in the early mornings.

We are spending some time in Portland Me.  to get some chores done, car servicing, fixing our oven pilot light etc.  For those of you who know about Patty O’Room, we set it up for the first time.  Patty O’Room is of set vinyl walls we can install around our awning to create a covered patio about 9ft by 16ft.  It is equipped with a door, mosquito netting and flaps that can be rolled down to provide privacy.  It took us about 40 minutes to put up, and just about doubles our living space.