Tuesday, July 27, 2010

We are so lucky that the weather has been behaving and we are enjoying such beautiful sunny, warm days – sure hope it continues but it would be nice if it just cooled off a tad.

This morning we were out of the hotel before 9 a.m. and went to Freeport, home of L L Bean and all their stores, as well as tons of other outlet shops. I wandered around the women’s section of L L Bean then went to Starbucks and used the internet on my iPod Touch and enjoyed a coffee while the others shopped. Kel came back and met me and we went to the L L Bean Home Store, then met Pat & Nan and it was off to the L L Bean outlet store. My, oh my, what a lot of L L Bean stores and I didn’t buy a thing!!

We left Freeport shortly before noon and headed south to Portland where we were going to do the mail boat cruise, a 3 hour cruise of all the islands outside Portland. We finally found a parking spot and then walked about 8 blocks to the pier where we bought our tickets for the cruise, then went to a restaurant for a quick lunch – two of us had clam chowder and two had seafood chowder – all of it being totally delicious.

The cruise was fun with lots of beautiful homes and boats along the way and the mail boat stopped at about 5 islands to unload supplies and passengers as well as picking up new passengers. We sat in a covered area until about the last hour when the sun wasn’t as strong so we could comfortably sit out front in the open.

Bug Light

Old Fort

One of Many Boats We Saw Today

Golf Carts Lined Up At Dock Waiting for Owners to Return

Other Views from the Boat




Once off the boat we worked our way back to the car with tours through a few shops to cool down in their air conditioning as it was still really hot.

Statute of Lobster Man


We then headed for the Portland Head Light, the oldest working lighthouse in the U.S. It is an absolutely gorgeous lighthouse and the keeper’s house, which is now a museum, looked beautiful.



Just a Small Cruiser Going By Portland Head Light


From there we went to Old Orchard Beach where we had dinner at the Clam Bake, it was a huge place where we ordered our food then picked it up when our number was called. Nan, Kel and I had fried clams with French fries & coleslaw and Pat had Haddock & chips and we all agreed that our meals were delicious.

From there it was a quick tour through the Gift Shop then down to the beach, just as it was getting dark, for a walk along the beach. The mosquitoes chased us back to the car after about half an hour but the rising moon over the water was spectacular, a bright orange orb rising up in the sky. Of course, guess who didn’t have their camera with them!

We got back to the hotel shortly after 9 p.m. so another long but fun day. Pat did laundry and Nan & Kel spent some time computering so I am now getting this done when they all have gone to bed as Nan was using my computer earlier.

And so ends a great gift of a day and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.