It was great to be able to sleep in this morning. Nothing to do and no where to be so I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep. The Freeport Hampton Inn is pretty new and very nice and quiet. The breakfast in the lobby was the normal fare. I checked out of the hotel around 10:00 and went into Freeport. First stop was LL Bean where I looked at GPS units. But I don't really need one and resisted the temptation to buy what would just be another toy.
Almost at the north end of the commercial area of Freeport a couple of buildings south of the McDonalds, is a Matthew T Moser furniture store. They have some of the most beautifully designed and built furniture I've ever seen. It's all hand made in New Gloucester, Maine. The prices reflect the quality. A bedroom dresser is $8,500. You can see their products at http://www.mtmoser.com/. Now if I just had the house to put them in.
I had planned to eat lunch in Freeport but the only places that were appealing were expensive and crowded with tourists, so I hit the road north. I ended up stopping in Bath. I went down by the Iron Works looking for a good local restaurant. I found one with a nearly full parking lot, one of the things I look for, and went in. The restaurant was nothing special and there weren't that many customers. The cars in the lot must have been parked there for other reasons. Deceiving. Food was very ordinary, not bad but not noteworthy.
Back on US 1 north, traffic was heavy with long lines forming to go through each tourist town. In Maine, pedestrians in crosswalks have the right-of-way so the tourists cross the highway at will and hold traffic up. Not that it's a bad idea, but some folks don't think before stepping out in front of traffic. I stopped for a while in Wiscasset where I got today's picture of long lines of tourists waiting to buy food at this little walk-up, Bill's, while long lines of cars waited to creep through the town. This town is an antique shopper's heaven. I visited several shops looking for a candle holder with a handle and a reflector that folks used to use to light their way walking in the dark. Still no luck finding one.
Just south of Rockport, I saw a sign for Center for Furniture Craftmanship and Messler Gallery which piqued my courisity. It is a school and workshop for woodworkers and carvers. The Messler Gallery has works made by staff for sale. There are some very beautiful pieces. Check it out at http://www.woodschool.org/. This might be something I can use as a subject for my photo essay class.
I got to the Rockport area around 4:30, and drove around a while before I found where the Maine Photographic Workshop is located. Then I needed to find a hotel. A couple I met at the Messler Gallery had made a couple of suggestions. One was too far to the south, and the other they said was on the water, but a little run down and had been featured in a Stephen King novel. I checked it out and with the fog coming in off the water, I didn't even want to stop to take pictures let alone spend the night there.
I found a very nice inn in the heart of Camden where there are shops and restaurants all around, several on the water. After checking in, I walked down to the waterfront. Ended up eating at the Water Front Restaurant on the bay. I would definitely go back.
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