27 Sept 2023
Did you know there’s a desert in Maine? Yeah, me neither, but Matt knew and it was on his “must see” list (the only thing on his list, actually), so today’s plan is to find the desert!
Unfortunately, it doesn’t open until 10am; fortunately, there’s actually a lot to do in Freeport (where we spent the night) including the L.L.Bean flagship store, which is open 24/7!
Taking a picture with the giant boot seemed like an appropriately touristy thing to do 🙂 I also found this cool mural:
There are quite a few shops in the surrounding area, so Matt and I walked around for a while and found a Lindt store! We like taste-testing various chocolates, and the Lindor truffles are what started it all, so we picked up a few flavors we hadn’t tried yet:
They’ll make for tasty snacks during our trip! But we killed enough time and it’s time to check out the desert!
Unfortunately, this cool train wasn’t running today 🙁
They also had a mini golf course and, since we were one of only a couple people here and Matt hasn’t mini golfed in ages, we opted to get in a round before more people showed up:
Matt, golfing:
Me, not golfing:
Over-grazing by sheep helped create the desert:
And back in the day, camels were brought in to attract visitors to the desert:
This was the coolest hole ever! If you hit your ball up the ramp into the tower, it would be blown up to the top of the tower and zig-zag its way back down!
Matt totally dominated and won 45 to 53, but I’d forgotten just how fun mini golf can be!
And now, to the desert! No more live camels, but I found this fun, painted fellow:
Sand:
More sand:
About 20 acres of some of the finest sand I’ve ever felt! Because it’s so fine, it blows around quite readily so the dunes are always changing.
Just a cool bench:
We spotted this trail leading through the forest on the outskirts of the desert:
They’ve had a lot of rain here recently and some of the sand tried to escape:
A fancy (and kinda creepy) monkey chair:
There was a kids area where you could mine for gems, but seriously, who doesn’t like shiny rocks?! So Matt and I went rock hunting too 🙂
Matt found a Hobbit house (or a Hobbitat, as it was labelled):
The original farmhouse burned down, but they found a similar one nearby, restored it and transplanted it here:
The beams are marked so you know which ones mate up properly:
A rogue pumpkin:
An old Model T:
The seat was removed to deter people from climbing into it:
But Matt did gently open the battery box:
Storage box:
Headlight detail:
An old gas pump:
We were both starting to get hungry at the point and greatly appreciated this sign:
For lunch, we headed back into Freeport and ate at the Tuscan Brick Oven Bistro:
I got these small but awesome crab cakes:
Food photographer, I am not
So tasty! but they had a bit of a kick to them- my mouth hurt!
Matt stuck with traditional spaghetti and meatballs, which was also delicious!
Then, it was back on the road for the ~3 hour drive up to Bar Harbor. The viewpoint for this bridge was closed due to construction, but the Penobscot Narrows Bridge had such a strange lane set-up:
Each direction of traffic got its own side of the bridge.
Other strange things- road names in Bar Harbor:
We found these gummy lobsters while wandering around Freeport and they made a very tasty bedtime snack 🙂
