The holiday season is here once again and we wanted to take advantage of it by visiting the quintessential New England town of Freeport, Maine to help get us into the Christmas spirit. In the area of Maine where we live, there isn’t much in the way of big shopping areas for the holidays. The closest mall is located in, well I don’t know, because I have never gone to the mall since moving here.
The drive to Freeport took us about an hour and a half. When we left the house, it looked like we were in for another cloudy day. When we were almost in Freeport, the clouds had given way to a beautiful sunshine-filled day. When we got to Freeport, the sun remained and the town was full of hustle and bustle. There were a bunch of people carrying their shopping bags full of holiday goodies and the streets were beautifully decorated for the holidays. If you ever get a chance to visit the area, this time of year would be the time to do so. Not only is it beautiful, but I’m also sure it’s less crowded than in the touristy summer season.
Freeport is a charming town located on Casco Bay in Cumberland County, Maine, approximately 20 minutes north of Portland. This town is known for its numerous world-famous outlet stores as well as its local shops. Many of the boutiques are located in charming brick buildings, with some dating back as far as the 18th century. Freeport is home to stores such as the world-famous L.L. Bean Flagship Store and headquarters, Maine Sea Bags, and Georgetown Pottery.
We first visited the L.L. Bean Flagship Store and did some window shopping and photograph taking. The store was filled with holiday decorations from top to bottom. L.L. Bean was founded in 1912 by hunter and fisherman Leon Leonwood Bean in Freeport, Maine. The L.L. Bean Flagship Store is their first and largest store and has been located on Main Street for over a century. The 220,000 sq ft L.L. Bean retail store campus is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. After our window shopping, we walked around the town visiting other stores and had taken more photographs along the way.
L.L Bean sign
L.L. Bean Flagship Store in Freeport, Maine
A view of Maine Street from the L.L. Bean Flagship Store
The exterior of L.L. Bean Flagship Store decorated for the holidays
The inside of the L.L. Bean Flagship Store
The L.L. Bean Riverbed Aquarium located near the hunting & fishing store
Brown trout Salmo trutta
Brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis
L.L. Bean holiday shoppers
L.L. Bean Christmas ornaments
The Dennison Memorial Clock Works. The clock plays a tune every hour.
L.L. Bean merchandise
Christmas carolers inside the store
L.L Bean Christmas tree
The pond outside of L.L. Bean
A view of L.L. Bean from across the street
Wilbur’s of Maine Chocolate Confections
Bow Street in Freeport
Maine Wreath and Flower Factory
Maine Sea Bags
Maine Sea Bag display window
The back of Linda Beans and Maine Kitchen
J. Crew Freeport, Maine
We have gone to the Mexicali Blues in Bangor and we wanted to check the Freeport store out too, since we were in town. We had a pleasant experience at the store in Bangor and we had the same experience here. Everyone was very welcoming and the store offers a variety of beautiful things. We bought a few sticks of incense during our visit.
Hanging stars
The inside of Mexicali Blues
Incense Display
Georgetown Pottery sign
I purchased an Ikebana vase online from Georgetown Pottery a while back for a presentation I did pertaining to the art of Ikebana. They have such beautiful things here and if you would like to read about my experience with the vase I purchased, you can read about that here.
A Christmas tree on its way home
The second place on our agenda was making a stop at Bull Moose in Brunswick. I’m not one for retail therapy, but I do like browsing for rare CDs and books and Bull Moose is just the place to do so. We have been to the Bull Moose in Bangor and we enjoyed our experience so much that we made sure to add this to the day’s activities. You can read all about our experience in Bangor here. We also needed to use a gift card and decided that this would be a good time. We had a list of a bunch of Christmas movies that we wanted to add to our collection and we lucked out in our search for those.
The Christmas DVDs that made their way to the checkout counter were National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (A family favorite when I was growing up), A Christmas Story, and Disney’s A Christmas Carol. We also purchased some more incense and a DVD that has been on my list of must-haves for a while. This movie is called Wild Target and it stars Emily Blunt, Bill Nighy, Rupert Grint, and Rupert Everett.
Wild Target is a cheeky British comedy that I have seen several times and now I will be able to watch it even more.
Driving through Brunswick
The Skolfield–Whittier House is one half of an Italianate-style duplex. Two brothers whose family made their fortune building ships and freighting goods around the world completed it between 1858 and 1862. Each brother lived on their own side of this semi-detached structure. One-half of the house was sold through the years to various owners, the most recent being the Pejepscot Historical Society.
A wrought iron fence decorated for the holidays
Pauline’s Bloomers
Bull Moose in Brunswick
While in Brunswick, we drove through the campus of Bowdoin College, located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. By the way, Bowdoin College is Leon Gorman’s alma mater. Leon Gorman was the grandson of L.L. Bean who led various parts of L.L. Bean for more than four decades. Gorman transformed L.L. Bean and American business. In 2010 he was awarded the Bowdoin Prize, an award given out every five years to the alumnus who has made the greatest contribution to the world.
Our last stop of the day in Brunswick was for lobster at Cameron’s Lobster House on Bath Road. Cameron’s Lobster House is a local, family-owned seafood restaurant. The restaurant is casual with indoor/outdoor seating and carhop service. Besides selling lobster, they also sold Christmas trees for the holiday season, which offered an intoxicating fragrance of evergreens. My partner had a lobster roll and I had lobster with a garden salad. The food was delicious and our hostess, Kim, was very warm and welcoming.
Cameron’s Lobster House
The entrance to Cameron’s Lobster House
Old lobster cages
Christmas trees for sale
Inside Camerons Lobster House
Eating at Camerons Lobster House
After eating, it was time to hit the road for home. On the way, we spotted the Waterfront Flea Market. We have explored this place on the internet and it’s currently on our list of places to visit, but since it was getting sort of late, we decided it would have to wait for another day.
Waterfront Flea Market on Maine Street in Brunswick
Crossing the Androscoggin River on Route 201
I think we got our fill for the holidays. As we were driving home, we thought, “Here’s to another great day in Maine!”
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