The Maine Event

Cheesy title I know but Maine was the one place on the trip that I was really excited to see. I never thought I would ever go there so I made sure that was a stop this trip. Since Augusta, Maine was 3 hours North of Boston we got up a little early and hit the road. The whole trip was a little different to drive through. I'm used to being able to see past the highway and see the towns that were built up around the highway or at least see farmland. We saw trees and lots of the them lining the highway from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. It was a little weird for everything to be so green (the drought this year turned STL brown).

Once we got through New Hampshire



 



and into Maine we stopped at the visitor's center and enjoyed the fresh Maine air. Then it was back in the car all the way to Augusta and a whole lot of toll booths. Once we got to Augusta we headed to the Capital building. While driving through the town it felt more like a suburb of a major city than a capital of a state. We first visited the State Museum and took a tour and learned about Maine granite and jobs of early Mainenites (?). After the museum we walked over to the Capital building.



We took the tour of the building and found out that Maine has 3 Indian Territories within the state, the people are represented but the representatives do not get an actual vote. Not sure that's fair. We took the tour with an elderly woman whose father was a Speaker of the House for the state of Maine in the 60s. It was interesting to see her father's picture on the wall.

[caption id="attachment_2270" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Abe Lincoln Maine House of Reps[/caption]

We needed a quick bit to eat before heading out-of-town to explore a little more of Maine. We headed to the small town of Hallowell for lunch. It was a very cute main street with shops, businesses and restaurants. We had a quick-lunch at The Liberal Cup. The food wasn't too bad. We then walked down the street to a bakery for a cookie and coffee.

[caption id="attachment_2313" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Small town Maine[/caption]

We headed South towards Freeport, Maine. A small town that is the home to the flagship store of L.L. Bean. My parents always got the L.L. Bean catalog while growing up and I've used many of their products, so why not stop in.

[caption id="attachment_2314" align="aligncenter" width="300"] L.L. Bean[/caption]

The store was huge, I would compare it to a Cabela's or Bass Pro shop. We walked along the street and checked out a couple other outlet stores. This town reminded me of a small beach town, like Gulf Shores, AL before everyone. It was a fun stop on our way back to Boston.

Overall, we were not that impressed with the Maine capital. For a building that had been around since 1830s it looked very modern and the town of Augusta wasn't impressive either. The state was pretty, wish we had a little more time to check out the beaches.