Copy/Repost Hike

DAY 1: Sunny weather! We had a few members initially signed up and for various reasons, dropped out one member was a NO SHOW. That said, we were happy to enjoy the company of Jonny for one night. We left our house in Waterville Valley, NH around 10AM and arrived in Freeport around 1PM. Of course, we had to first stop at LL Bean, Patagonia and North Face.

Arriving at 3:30pm, our ‘ocean’ site had limited views of the ocean [trees blocking the view]. We expected to hear the sounds of the ocean and surf crashing…NOT! We purchased a king size, deluxe air mattress right before this trip…hey, we are car camping after all…and thought Jon’s air pump would inflate it…NOT!!! It did inflate it a bit so we were somewhat comfortable sleeping on it. But wait! Something else broke down. The front door zipper of our tent tore so we left the door open all night. I think we are better at backpacking than car camping…LOL!

Jon made a delicious dinner. We took a stroll to the other end of the campground and found a small path that led to the ocean with a stone bench to sit on. Jonny joined us for our campfire soiree and we all had a good time catching up, laughing and sharing stories.

DAY 2: Clear skies, sunny with comfortable temperatures in the 60’s! Jonny packed up in the morning and drove up further north for some hiking adventures. We decided to drive up to Boothbay and visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. It was amazing and is most beautiful botanical garden we have ever seen! The native butterfly garden was a singular experience – a garden of nectar plants for butterflies interplanted with host plants for caterpillars.

Hidden throughout, we found the five giant trolls: Soren, Lilja, Gro, Roskva and Birk. Lots of fun looking for them. They were absolutely magical! Walking through the Fairy House Village was spooky with structures built by spirits. Besides the gardens, there were beautiful sections of woodlands by the ocean to walk. What a walk through a stunning array of gorgeous floral and natural scenery! The various gardens wowed us, with so many types of plants and gardens.  

This was by far our favorite thing to do on our camping trip! We spent more time here than expected…four hours and well worth the drive from Freeport. I would recommend this to anyone. Back at our campsite, we looked at our deflated air mattress. Even though it was quite a big mattress, we decided to inflate the old-fashioned way. Our own air. And guess what. It worked! Yippee!

We ate these delicious grilled Sirloin steaks, walked to the same spot as yesterday by the ocean but this time saw a nice sunset and sat beside a warm campfire to finish the day!

DAY 3: The day was cloudy with possibly rain later in the evening. Mindful that our tent door could not close it was best we pack up. Our plan was to drive down the coast and then drive back west to our home. Our first stop was Portland’s Old Port City. We walked down Commercial Street looking at the trendy storefronts, checked out the cobblestone streets, smelled the salty air strolling down the piers and finished with eating delicious ‘Holy Donut’ donuts with hot coffee. Our next stop was Clambake at Pine Point [near Old Orchard Beach] eating a mound of food in their fisherman’s platter. We then took a couple of ocean strolls at Pine Point and Ocean Park beaches.

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