Road Tripping - LLBean

Believe it or not, I thought I would be gone just for a short trip, but it was one of those things that just kept getting extended for reasons beyond my control! I am OK!!! Many of you wrote to ask me if everything was OK, and yes indeed-y it is! Your concern is so sweet, thank-you. I was just out of touch for awhile there because - hard as it is to believe - I had NO internet access. Ouch. Let me tell you, I missed it! I had 1 and only 1 chance to check e-mail and that was at the library - where the libriarian lent me her very own personal computer just so I could do a quick check of e-mails, while simultaneously entertaining Little Boy in the children's section. Quick. Yup, very quick check.


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But, I am happy to report, that I am now safely home, laptop in hand, oohing and ahhing over my trip photos - up to the point where the camera battery went dead. Lesson learned - even if you think you are just going to be gone for a FEW days, pack the charger anyway.


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Anyway - a bit about LL Bean's Mother store in Freeport... this is a wonderful place just to visit!!! There are several buildings and they all have wonderful displays. Great, great place for little legs to stretch and fun things to see - it is almost like going to a mini natural history museum. It is along the way and just where we really could use a break.


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So - we stopped and here are some photos! First off - the Boot outside, of course. Little Boy was very impressed by it and wondered where the giant's other boot was! Too funny!!! Inside the main store there is a great big fish tank with all kinds of trout and fresh water salmon. The viewing bubble really gives the kids a different view! I think we spent about 45 minutes at the fish tank. I thought it was interesting that the fish like to "stack" themselves up on top of each other. The tank is very long - extending far beyond the photo frame.
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Here is Little Boy at a small tank where there are more fish. He is saying... "quick Momma, I need your camera! Actually, he takes very good photos and I always like to see his perspective on things... he took the following 2 photos from the big fish tank - pretty impressive that he was able to follow that big fish and get 2 shots - remembering that the little camera I let him use has about a 4 second delay - I printed them out and you can tape the 2 together to get a pretty good photo.
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There are quite a few displays of stuffed animals... and here he is admiring a moose, porcupine, skunk... there might be a beaver, bears, fox, otter or some other animals in this display too, but I can't remember exactly what animal was where as there was more than 1 display.
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The TENT room is always lots of fun - many of the tents are set up and going in and out of all of them is grand fun- he is inside the bottom right tent.
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Here is a light fixture that I thought was fun.

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There were lots of great bargains too - lots of the winter coats are about 75% off, but guess what? I am still wearing my LL Bean coats that are years and years upon years old, so I didn't even look at them. We ended up getting groovy purple sunglasses for Little Boy and then had a $3 croissant at the little restaurant. He was so excited to sit in the restaurant area and eat his snack. Not a bad fare for so much entertainment!

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So, I'm back on-line, phew! I have more photos/tales to share and will add more as I have time! And I am really, really hoping that I won't have to drive in any more winter storms for a very LONG time!!! I think it is a toss up over which is worse - heavy summer traffic or snowy winter road conditions? Ice is the worst though.

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My happy Road-Tripper... always up to a 14 hour trip as long as he has plenty of food and exercise along the way. Oh - and here you can see him sitting in that new, pretty (pink and flowery) booster seat. He thinks he is the luckiest boy because it was the ONLY one like it at the store and the LAST one left - oh lucky day! "Because you know Momma, I really like to garden so I should have the seat with flowers on it". Yeah, ok. And it is super comfy and supports his head when he sleeps, infrequently as that is.