New England Road Trip Day 4-5: Freeport, ME to Bar Harbor

Leaving Portland, Maine, our New England Road Trip continued onward to the main event– Acadia National Park! On the way, our drive north from Portland took us though Freeport, home to the L.L.Bean Flagship Store. Usually this store is open 24/7 and I jokingly requested we make our visit at 4am for kicks and giggles, but I’m glad Michael didn’t indulge me because they have more limited (i.e. more normal) business hours at the moment due to COVID.

I was quite excited to visit what I affectionately called “Lala Bean!” (Yes, the exclamation point must be there.) I love browsing camping stores like REI, envisioning myself in faraway lands living in nature miles and miles away from hospitals and residency programs, and have camped out at my fair share of REI garage sales to get more gear that I definitely don’t need. Needless to say, I was building Lala Bean up in my mind as we drove up Highway 1. Thankfully, I was not disappointed. The L. L. Bean flagship in Freeport is…wonderfully…amazingly…gigantic. It was a campus of several separate buildings (yes…buildings) showcasing gear for hiking, fishing, biking, even homeware. We spent a few hours browsing through all the gear, and you should be proud that I didn’t come out of there with more than I did.

Wiscasset, Maine: Home of the 1-Pound Lobster Roll

After Freeport we drove to Wiscasset for more lobster. Wiscasset is home to Red’s Eats, a small road-side shack with a big reputation for serving up gargantuan 1 pound lobster rolls. Unfortunately it’s also known for long lines, and we contributed to one for about 90 minutes. Only 4 people were working in the shack, and there probably wasn’t room for another. We ordered two lobster rolls, and in hindsight really should have just shared one. When they came out, we kind of just stared at them, awestruck. They weren’t quite rolls, or even sandwiches of any kind. They were more like huge mounds of fresh lobster meat absolutely smothering a relatively miniscule ciabatta crouton. I’m not complaining because this was obviously the most worth it sandwich ever— the lobster meat was very fresh, and the butter (Kate’s Homemade Butter, also a local love) made it even better— but I felt a bit sick after eating the whole thing. I would 100% share with someone else if I ever came back, but I probably won’t return because I can’t justify spending 2 hours of my precious travel time here standing in line. Pro tip- if you brought your own bread and shared one lobster roll with a friend, you would have two lobster rolls double the size of those from other places…

Bar Harbor, Maine

As Red’s Eats stole so much of our time in line, it was dusk by the time we arrived at the final destination- Bar Harbor, Maine. Bar Harbor is the bustling touristy village full of seafood restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, ice cream parlors, and quaint inns and motels. We were quite lobstered out after Red’s Eats, so opted for a calzone from Rosalie’s Pizza and a cup of blueberry soft serve from CJ’s Big Dipper before heading to our home away from home for the next four nights.

Belle Isle Motel

As cute as the inns in Bar Harbor proper were, we opted for something a little more rustic. We stayed at Belle Isle Motel, a stretch of cabin-like motel rooms a short drive away from Bar Harbor. It was cheaper than the luxurious inns and still nice and clean but let’s face it— the real reason I gravitated towards this abode above the others was their nightly campfire! Another pro tip- be sure to stop by the Hannaford grocery store in Bar Harbor to stock up on s’more supplies before heading home for the night!

The rest of our evening was spent sipping a local beer, roasting marshmallows and shishito peppers (I was craving something green, and they turned out delicious) by the crackling fire underneath a starry nightscape. It was perfect.