Mon, Sept 11 -17 Exploring the community during the week in Saco, ME

We got a campsite at the Saco, KOA for the week before my nephew's wedding.  It was nice to sit in one place to relax and not drive 200 miles a day.

This KOA served up pancakes and waffles every morning so we had some for the first breakfast.

We came up behind this car at a light. I like it!

NY wine choices sold in the KOA tasting room.   I now have several blue bottles to add to the tree at home.

Every trip to Maine includes a stsop at
LL Bean in Freeport.  These little
cubs were playing in the parking
lot.

You can just barely see the giant pine cones in
these trees on the Bean commons.  In the
winter, I've seen the trees decorated with 
red, blue and yellow sliding saucers.

The famous Bean Boot 

This statue stands on Route 1 in Freeport.
There is another one in Skowheagon.
The Freeport Indian is 50' tall and is known locally as the "FBI" (Freeport Big Indian). In the interests of political correctness, this Indian is now Maine's Big Native American. He was originally next to a clothing and gift shop (Casco Bay Trading Post). The building was converted into an auto shop, then a clothes store and later the Conundrum Wine Bistro (a restaurant). The building is now occupied Winter People Image Marketing which specializes in clothing that reflects the Maine way of life. The Indian is made of fiberglass, plywood and steel rods. He was brought here from Rod's house in Strasburg, PA via flatbed truck in 1969.

This trip, I had a chance to catch up with a couple of college friends for an afternoon  Merry brought her picture album and we had some good laughs reminiscing old times. One of my favorites is the 3 of us dressed all in denim with our snow mobile boots on high on a birch tree branch. Too bad I didn't have it here! We had more than 25 years to catch up on.  (Chick doesn't like her picture taken so she is turned away!)

The park was expanding their sites so

every morning, this rig started up and

got to work.  It did make for an

amount of dust on everything as it

rolled on by.

One day, My sister and niece came by for a few hours on
their way to Boston.  My niece works for UPS so she was attending  a 4 day training.   She had most afternoons free so she and my sister explored Boston.  Kimberly Lynn, my niece, brought me orange spice Peeps!  They didn't last too long.

Reny's is a well known variety store chain in Maine.  My sister and I always make a shopping stop  there for Maine  things. This year, my theme was pine cones and I found many options.  There are now 17 stores in Maine. One year, we'll get to all of them.

 The leaves are very slow to change this year but I did
find this one.  A friend in Gig Harbor gave this heart shaped rock for good luck on the trip.

There were many oak trees in the campground.  The acorns made loud noises when they hit the mental roof over the kitchen.  I collected up a few to plant. I read that only 1 in 250 acorns actually becomes a tree.  The planting instructions said to soak the nuts over night before planting,  Throw away the ones that float.  Lay the acorn side ways in the pot and keep safe from the invading squirrels.

We stopped at a park to get a walk on the beach. This beach is really sand  where beaches further north are crushed shells.

The beach path was a board walk.

Old Orchard Beach is a tourist attraction on the Maine coast.  Thousands of Canadians visit here each year as well as tourists from all over the world.  I was trying to capture the beautiful flowers at this motel.

Looking back at the beach activities.

The main pier at Old Orchard.