Finding a Gem in Freeport, Maine

When I was planning this trip to Maine last year, I spent a bit of time poking around trying to find a campground in or near Freeport.  Alan and I had visited Freeport more than two decades ago when Ryan was only two, and Kyra wasn’t even a twinkle in anybody’s eye.  I remembered it as a sweet little town, and I remembered being impressed by L.L. Bean’s enormous flagship store there.  Thinking that it would be both fun to revisit and a good place to layover for a couple of nights on our return trip from Acadia National Park, I started searching for a campground that would be a good fit for us.  I happened across Winslow Memorial Park and Campground (link HERE), a 100 site city-run park on the outskirts of Freeport.

On the campground’s website, the city makes it clear that this campground has NO HOOKUPS.  Very clear.  So very clear that I’m guessing more than one camper has shown up expecting them, for some reason.  We’re no strangers to dry camping (camping without water, sewer or electric hookups); in fact, we thrive on it because dry camping allows us to stay in so many incredibly beautiful locations.  The location is exactly what appealed to me about Winslow.  The sites were all grass, and probably about 20 of them were waterfront.   The park also had a day use area with a beach, a playground and a boat launch.  The only thing we didn’t like about Winslow Park was the setup at the dump station.  The dump itself was on a very slight knoll, and it would have been better had it been on level ground with a slight tilt toward the drain.  Plus there was limited swing room for a big rig.  Alan went slow and easy, and he didn’t have any trouble navigating with our 32’ trailer.  I wouldn’t give the dump station high marks for “ease of use,” but that's not going to stop us from returning to this campground.

We loved our site - and we got to stay an extra night!

This little gem of a campground is situated directly on what I believe is Broad Sound, and the waterfront campsites have views out past the nearby islands to Casco Bay.  It’s a gorgeous location!  When we backed into our waterfront site, Alan and I were so impressed with our view that we immediately checked the website to see if, by any chance whatsoever, there might be a waterfront site available that would allow us to extend our stay.  We had arrived on a Wednesday, and planned to stay just two nights.  That would mean, of course, that we’d be looking for a site on a Friday when everyone else wants to start their camping weekend.  By some amazing stroke of luck, a waterfront site was available for one single night – Friday.  You’ll probably find this as hard to believe as we did – it was actually the site we were on!  We couldn’t believe our good fortune, and I think I booked it even before we had the trailer completely set up.  Once we had settled in, I went back to the gatehouse to let the young woman who had checked us in know that we were staying another night.  She cheerfully wrote a new vehicle hang tag for me right then and there.  When I commented on what a beautiful park it was, she grinned, and told me that she loved it.  Something in the way she said it made me think she had probably come to the park often as a kid, and was happy to be working there now as a young adult.

Sunrise photo from our campsite - someone needs to move that tree!

The fact that we were able to extend our stay an extra night meant that we had Thursday and Friday to explore the area.  We wasted no time revising our “scavenger hunt” for Freeport and the surrounding area, adding back a number of things we had wanted to do, but had crossed off because we knew we wouldn’t have the time.  That evening (the Wednesday after Memorial Day), we took ourselves into Freeport to see how much the L.L. Bean flagship store had changed.

I wonder what size that boot is.

Well, the big ol’ flagship store was still huge.  It wasn't at all like I remembered it, though, and I'm thinking it must have been renovated at some point during the past 20+ years.  Plus, a whole L.L. Bean complex had grown up around it!   The flagship store held their apparel lines, and the company had added a home goods store, a bike/boat/ski shop and an outlet store across the street in the factory outlet mall.  There was plenty of parking in lots around their buildings, benches to sit on and cornhole out on the lawn for guests to enjoy.  Not only did we get to see the humongous L.L. Bean Boot, but the L.L. Bean Bootmobile was there, too!  (A special note to Mike over at Phannie & Mae: Listen, my friend, if Sandy visits the home goods store, I can pretty much guarantee you that her credit card is going to be molten plastic by the time she’s done.  Consider yourself warned.)  I enjoyed the home store and the boat/bike/ski shop the most.  So. Many. Wonderful. Things!!!

It must be tons of fun to drive around in this thing.

I thought long and hard about whether or not I should share this story with you.  In the end, I thought it was too funny not to, and embarrassment’s not fatal – at least, I don’t think it is.  I guess I’ll find out.  I had long been looking at L.L. Bean’s waterhog mats, but the prices were a little higher than my frugal heart could handle.  However, at their outlet store in Freeport, I found a small selection of waterhog mats marked 30% off.  One of them was in a shade of blue that I liked and that would fit in with our color scheme at home.  It was all rolled up and taped closed.  I was so excited about the price that I failed to notice it was a personalized mat that must have been returned for some reason – and I didn’t find out until long after we had arrived home.  With 26 letters in the alphabet, the chance of the personalization matching our last name was pretty slim and, of course, it didn’t.  But now, we have a . . .

"D" - for Doormat!

Next up, our adventures in and around Portland, and west along the coast of Maine to the York Beach area to revisit a family favorite.  In looking back at my photos and notes, I’m actually kind of astonished at how much we managed to fit in during our 11 days in Maine!