Kennebunkport

Kennebunkport is a well-known Maine vacation town, made all the more famous as President GHW Bush who has a family home there and made it his summer White House; in fact he still spends a great deal of time in Kennebunkport.

 

Several years ago we had driven through this area but missed out on a real exploration, not so this time. Our RV Park was very nice and quite near the town; most of our neighbors were French Canadians so we had many “Bonjour” greetings as we came and went. We arrived on July 15^th and needed to mail birthday cards to Sairsha and her Mom Leslie; so after hooking up we went downtown to find the Post Office but by the time we found it, it was closed! The beach beckoned, where we had a cooling swim.

Eileen and Carl drove down from Winthrop to visit the next day which was the hottest day in Maine for about 15 years! Intrepid travelers that we all are that didn't stop us; we parked our car outside the town center (no time limit) in order that we would have no concerns. We had a delicious lunch in Allison's Restaurant which has been in town for years, excellent food. Afterwards we walked miles out of town to see the Bush Summer Compound and a very elegant Episcopal church the recipient of endowments from the Walker family; an unusual feature of the church property is that it has an outdoor sanctuary where services are held during the summer months. From there we returned to town for ice cream after which we ended up in Ryan’s Irish pub for a few cool drinks and to avail of their air conditioning.

The following day we drove south to see the town of Wells which is in no way as pretty as Kennebunkport. It appeared the beaches were mostly privately owned with very little public access. We drove along the beach road behind the houses which front on to the beach; they looked lovely, we reckoned that the owners know one another for decades. Without access to the beach we headed back to Kennebunkport Beach for a swim. The day was little cooler with a gentle sea breeze; we enjoyed the water, the beach and the breeze from under our beach umbrella.

Kennebunkport is a thriving prosperous town with a very busy little harbor sheltering lots of sail boats and motor boats. In the middle of town near the bridge in perfectly safe waters we watched children learning to sail while others were swimming to a central river float. There’s a great buzz about this town and is well worth a visit.

 

We were so busy we missed out on visiting the Bush's!