Half a block down Main Street, we grabbed a table on the brick patio of the Lobster Cooker, a homespun version of a fast-food joint. Frances had to drag me out of a dressing room to find lunch. And it all started in 1917 when avid outdoorsman Leon Leonwood Bean opened his shop, now a 140,000-square-foot flagship. The town is one of the nation's most popular outlet shopping villages, with more than 150 stores. In Freeport, I got to business trying on travel slacks at L.L. Along with the striking dunes, the Desert of Maine complex has a train to cart you around, plastic camels for photo-ops, and a nature trail through a pine forest that promised remarkable wildlife wonders such as 'trees and birds.' The site formed in the 1880s when over-farming depleted the soil covering a glacial sand deposit. We stopped next at the Desert of Maine, a kitschy 40-acre plot of miniature sand dunes. It's Earth as the astronauts see it-all I could think was how huge the Pacific Ocean actually is. At one-millionth scale, the massive globe has all the world's topographical information, but leaves out political borders. It was as good a resource as any guidebook, but this was to be my trip, and I wanted my own blank slate.ĭeLorme's lobby houses the world's largest spinning globe-130 feet around, over 41 feet high. He'd highlighted his favorite drives, circled memorable towns, and scrawled notes all over. I had borrowed my dad's DeLorme map of the state. Our first order of business heading north out of Portland on Route 1 was a visit to DeLorme headquarters in Yarmouth. As for my feelings about lobster, I have to admit I became a begrudging convert: By the end of our trip it was me-claw cracker in one hand, plastic cup of Maine microbrew in the other-eyeing the largest guy in the tank. Bean flagship store, and meandering drives along the narrow peninsulas. I was far more eager to revisit the Maine I loved from my past: offshore islands, Victorian fishing villages, the gargantuan L.L. She prepared for our drive up Maine's Mid-Coast-from Portland to Penobscot Bay-by trying to work out ways to incorporate lobster into every meal, including breakfast. My girlfriend, Frances, was of another mind. My memories of childhood vacations in Maine are clouded by recollections of sitting grumpily at the picnic table of lobster shacks, morosely longing for a hamburger.

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