I saw the plant in the Raintree nursery, it sounds like the wild blueberries also pack lots of antioxidants. Yummy and healthy.
To this day, blueberry pie remains my fav. I do like stopping at the discount mall, but I’m selective. I bought towels at the Ralph Lauren store and great PJs at LLBean. I skip the others. I drool over the local restaurants mentioned above.
One of the things I love about Maine, in addition to the beautiful views, is the ease of finding local craftsmen, great independent restaurants, and small mom & pop stores. When so much of the country has the same ubiquitous chain restaurants and retail stores, that sameness without very little local flavor, its very refreshing - a throwback to the days of my youth.
Absolutely…blueberry pie is terrific!!
All this pie talk, I had to get a blueberry pie to go along with my peach pie. Luckily my daughter is coming home to use the pool and maybe they can help eat some of the pies.
My favorite stop for lunch or dinner when driving on the Maine Turnpike: Fisherman’s Catch Restaurant in Wells, ME. We always get haddock sandwiches and onion rings. It’s only about 5 minutes off the turnpike.
I live 10 miles north of Portland, and I’d say that most of the advice here is pretty good, but whatever you do DON’T go to South Portland and eat at Captain Whatsit’s! 
Portland Head Light and Two Lights are both in Cape Elizabeth, not Portland. At Two Lights, you have the choice of the state park, or just continuing down the road to the actual Two Lights point. I would recommend the latter. You can have lunch at The Lobster Shack and climb about on the spectacular rocks, examine rock pools, etc.
Personally, I think that lobster rolls are highly over-rated. If you want to eat a lobster, you should eat it a) steamed in rockweed over a small amount of sea water, preferably in a big old pot over a wood fire while you sip bourbon as you wait, or failing that b) boiled in salted water. In either case with melted butter.
If you must eat a lobster roll, I’m told that Red’s is the best: each one contains 1 1/2 lobsters and is doused with Kate’s Butter. (A local butter I used to use in my truffles, caramels, et al)
In South Freeport village there is a good traditional lobster pound on the water, the Harraseeket. (Not the same place as the Harraseket Inn.) That may be where your friends go for lobsters. I buy them at The Fisherman’s Net on Forest Ave in Portland, or at Harbor Fish on the waterfront in Portland, but that would be a bit of a hike for them.
If you go to Acadia, I hope you take the opportunity to do an actual hike. The Penobscot Mountain hike is a great one, the view from the summit is lovely–or Penobscot/Sergeant if you are more ambitious–and begins and ends right by the Jordan Pond House. No visit is complete without tea and popovers on the lawn at the Jordan Pond House. If you can’t do that much, at least ascend The Bubbles to earn your popovers.
Portland is full of great restaurants. My favorite one, Bresca, which seated only 14 people, unfortunately closed when the chef got tired. Duck Fat is a fun place: a cornet of fries cooked in duck fat with fresh cheese curds and duck gravy, anyone? You should probably look at Chowhound and see what catches your fancy.
Between Boston and Portland, I’d skip the Ogunquit/Kennebunk touristy stuff in favor of a few hours at Strawbery Bank in Portsmouth. If you have any interest in history or houses or interiors at all it is a really fascinating place.
Stopping at Gelato Fiasco in Brunswick is practically de rigeur. The Bowdoin Art Museum has a really outstanding exhibition on right now called Night Vision. You could do that, then go to Gelato Fiasco for some gelato and a cup of God of Thunder coffee, only available there. (As a matter of fact, that’s what we did yesterday! )
Gelato Fiasco. Strawbery Bank. Penobscot Mtn. All written down, @Consolation! Thank you!
Oh, @Consolation , while I agree that steamed lobsters with melted butter are good, I must come out in favor of the lobster roll. Of course, I may have been simply lucky in my choice of lobster roll sources, but I’ve never had one that didn’t bring me great happiness 
Of course, my first choice of lobster roll source is a food truck just past the exit from the Vinalhaven ferry (from Rockland), which was rated the best lobster roll in Maine last summer… I will also freely admit to enjoying lobster rolls partly because someone else had the chore of picking the meat!
(I am unable to eat whole lobsters when anywhere other than Vinalhaven now–I will miss our trips there, since FIL died last year–as FIL’s neighbor is a lobsterman, who always brought us the second-best lobsters off his boat on his way home.) (The best were for his own family, of course.)
I also don’t get lobster rolls but my wife sometimes craves them. Near Boston, many people like Belle Isle Seafood, which is on the water, has really big lobster rolls and the requisite lack of amenities.
BTW, if by any chance you are going to be in Portland on the first Friday of October, you MUST do the First Friday Art Walk, which starts at about 4:30-5:00 and goes to about 8 or 9. The museum is free of charge, and the whole area around it is full of art galleries and the Maine College of Art, all of which stay open. Lots of the galleries offer wine and cheese. There is music, both on the street and in some gallery spaces, people selling crafts and art on the sidewalks. Sometimes there’s theater, and I’ve seen flashmobs and bike parades. The entire art district is filled with people, and it’s lots of fun.
Then you can walk to one of Portland’s excellent restaurants for dinner.
Sadly, we’ll miss First Friday, Consolation.
My better half and I each ate two (smallish) steamed lobsters tonight. SO good! Local corn on the cob, caprese salad, now about to eat some maple walnut fudge while I watch the craziness of the debate. My kind of late summer, New England dinner and super quick and easy.
@katliamom, hope you are looking forward to you trip!
@doschicos – indeed I am! Lobster is a treat I usually have only in Maine – though I’ve been known to occasionally eat it in/around Boston.
So that’s one thing I’m looking forward to… the other is – the coast. The sights, sounds and smells of the ocean. I live in a dry, mountainous and landlocked state and miss water more than any of you lucky East- or West-coasters can imagine!
Grew up in Indiana and saw the ocean for the first time when I was 19–so so get you.
This thread makes me homesick.
Peak foliage in Portland is usually around October 14 (I can remember that easily, because it’s my sister’s birthday). I think you’ve gotten wonderful ideas. In Camden, make sure to drive up to the top of Mount Blue - you’ll get a gorgeous view of the harbor. In Acadia, besides going up to the top of Mt. Cadillace and driving the Park Loop, you should check out one of the carriage roads. John Rockefeller built them in the early 1900s. They are 12-feet-wide, gravel roads that cars are not allowed on. There are a lot of gorgeous stone bridges. Incredible views of the ocean at some points. Go to Jordan Pond and have tea on the back lawn, which overlooks the pond.
Go to the Portland Head in Cape Elizabeth. It’s the famous lighthouse that shows up on a lot of stamps, posters, etc. It was commissioned by George Washington in the late 1700s.
I do think a trip to the LL Bean flagship store in Freeport is worth the trip - it’s about ten minutes from me! 
Make sure you ask where the big moose display is. When you look at the closer moose, picture his head inches away from your front windshield - that’s what I saw when a moose ran at our Tahoe a few years ago.
Just yesterday, we had friends visit from Iowa. I took them to LL Bean and then to Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, also in Freeport. You can take a short walk through the woods and then sit on some rocks right next to the ocean. There’s an osprey’s nest on a nearby island that’s fun to watch.
If you want to see some moose, go to Greenville.
If you want CHEAP lobster, go to Hannaford’s and ask them to steam a couple of lobsters for you. It takes about 20 minutes and doesn’t cost anything extra. Yesterday, the price was $5.99 a pound for small lobsters and $7.99 for larger ones. Don’t spend a fortune on lobsters in a restaurant!! You can buy some salad from the deli, as well as some good bread, then have a picnic.