BOOTHBAY & RED'S EATS

September 25

We moved further south along the coast of Maine to Boothbay.  We have a beautiful wooded campsite overlooking tidal backwater.  It's a peaceful spot, and when the tide is out we are entertained by birds looking for easy pickings of small fish trapped in the little pools of water.  When the 11 foot tide comes back in, the mucky looking area fills up with water.

Relaxin' and talking on the phone.

Tide is in.

We drove to Wiscasset to have a look-see and get some lunch.  Coming into Wiscasset is a sign that reads "Welcome to Wiscasset -- The Prettiest Town in Maine".  We stopped at Sarah's Cafe which was listed in the area tourist information as being "world renowned".  With high expectations, we were somewhat disappointed in the food.  While eating our lunch in Sarah's Cafe, we noticed a little food stand across the street (Red's Eats) that had a constant line of people.  Now if that isn't good advertising, I don't know what is!

September 26

Today we drove to the flagship store of L. L. Bean in Freeport. Since we would be driving through Wiscasset, we made a point of stopping at Red's Eats for lunch.  We got there about 11:15, and a line was already forming for the opening of the food stand at 11:30.

Red's Eats has been in operation since 1938 and moved to it's present location on the corner of Main Street in 1954; it's open from mid-April to mid-October, and only offers a small area of outdoor seating.  We were told that it's not unusual to wait in line for an hour or two; we were happy we only waited about a half hour after they opened to get our food.  Waiting in line is part of the "Red's experience".  We asked our line-mates "what is your favorite thing to order?"  Many answered "the lobstah rolls!" (which are loaded with over 1 pound of lobster meat); one man said "I always get the fried clams".  Also, there are pictures of various menu items tacked to the side of the shack; the blueberry cake caught my eye.  As people stated walking away with their food orders, we both agreed that the onion rings looked mighty tasty.  We ordered 1 lobster roll, 1 pint of fried clams, onion rings and blueberry cake.

The lobster roll has big chunks of lobster meat piled on a toasted bun, mayo and butter are served on the side.  The fried clams were mushy, but I'm not sure if that is just the nature of frying clams.  The onion rings and cake were good.  We were glad to have had the Red's experience, but wouldn't stand in line for an hour or more to do it again.  (Google Red's Eats to see more pictures.)

Got our spot in line!  Hope they open soon.

Red's is open for business!  The line is getting longer, but we are moving up!

Our shopping trip to L. L. Bean was a success!  Jim found some heavy duty fishing rain gear, and I managed to find a couple of things too.  At another store, I bought a unique rug for outside the RV made from reclaimed fishing rope.