Kennebunkport Area

7 September 2023 to 13 September 2023 - Bar Harbor ME to Kennebunkport, ME

The good weather genie did not follow us to Kennebunkport. We had rain on and off and grey clouds almost every day. Plus, it is definitely cooler, in the low 60s and upper 50s. It was raining hard the day we traveled into Kennebunkport proper and since it was very crowded with no parking, we decided to take a drive through the area instead. Kennebunkport is definitely a tourist spot with several t-shirt and souvenir shops and lobster shacks. Don't think we missed that much.

On the way down to Kennebunkport, we stopped in Freeport for a bit of retail therapy at the flagship store of L. L. Bean. Explored Portland one afternoon and then went south on another day to visit Portsmouth. I really liked the old town center of Portsmouth, interesting twisty streets with some unique shops and nice restaurants along the harbor edge. Now we head home in earnest. A few quick stops along the way to break up the long trek. Hurricane Lee is starting to dominate the news in the area. If it doesn't take a sharp turn and lose energy, it will hit this area with devasting results. We thought about pulling the plug and just heading home but decided to continue monitoring the weather and make that decision later in the week.

Stopped in Freeport to shop at L L Bean's flagship store, all 220,000 sq ft! Found some Christmas gifts and a couple things for us. This place is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! That started in the 1950s to accommodate the hunters and fishermen that were driving through the night to get to their camping spots. Other retailers (North Face, Under Armor and other upscale stores) have built stores in the nearby area and have created a destination shopping center for Maine.

We took Route 1 along the coast from Bar Harbor to Kennebunkport. Passed over many bridges. This was one of the more dramatic ones.

Typical of the coast villages along Route 1. Homes are well tended with a mix of Cape Code, Victorian and colonial styles.

There are many very nice Victorian homes in Portland. We ran into this 1800s Jewish synagogue that still holds services.

Weathervanes are quite popular in Maine, but this is the first church we have seen with one. Appropriate that it is a fish.

This is one of the largest homes we saw in the Kennebunkport area. There were lots of large and beautiful homes in the area. Definitely a summer vacation spot for the rich. There is a vantage point somewhere along the coastline to see the Bush's enclave, but we didn't take the time to look for it. I don't think it is a regular visiting place for the Bushes now that the first George and his wife, Barbara are gone. His presidential library is in Texas, not here.

The Portland Head lighthouse, located in Cape Elizabeth, is supposed to be the most photographed lighthouse in the country. It is located on a point in the Fort Williams Park and is the oldest lighthouse in the country (constructed in 1790.) It has a long history of providing aid to ships along the coast. We saw a rock adjacent to the lighthouse painted with the name of a ship (Annie C. Maquire) that hit the ledge the lighthouse sits on in 1886. The caretaker and his family helped to rescue the ship inhabitants and it provided quite a spectacle for the townspeople until it broke up several weeks later.

The home is now a very nice museum and gift shop. The light has been rebuilt several times over the years and is now taller than the original one.

Being a math geek, I was interested in a poster in the museum drawing a parallel between the golden mean and the proportions of the lighthouse. The architects designed this version not just for purpose, but also for beauty. Not sure if the ratio holds for the original lighthouse, it was much shorter.

Another lighthouse, out on an adjacent island, provides guidance on entering the bay. There are over 57 active lighthouses in Maine, all automated today. But Maine doesn't hold the record for the state with the most lighthouses. That is held by Michigan with 115 lighthouses along the Great Lakes.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow often visited one of the caretakers and his family at the lighthouse. He sat at this rock to draw inspiration for his poetry.

Most of Maine's coastline is rocky and treacherous, like this area next to the lighthouse.

Another interesting bridge. This one is a drawbridge, lifting up a center section to allow ships to pass.

Near Portsmouth, we visited the U.S.S. Albacore Museum. This submarine is the third one with this name and is the first one with a true underwater hull. Previously, the submarines were designed similar to surface ships, but this created a lot of drag underwater. The Albacore was a testbed for the electronics as well as hull design that is now the standard for submarines worldwide. In 1966, it was the fastest submarine in the world.

The ship is outside the museum building, sitting out of water. You can take self-tours of the inside of the ship. Russ couldn't wait!

The submarine served as a engineering test platform from 1953 to 1972. The museum told a story of the first time the ship submerged. Because of a ballast issue, the submarine went straight down and got stuck nose first in the seabed. They were not able to successfully back it up and were stuck for a fair amount of time. Finally, the seabed let go of the ship and it was able to surface. Obviously, it was fixed, but boy, it takes a special type of person to be a submariner.

As is typical, living quarters are very cramped and sparse.

An office for one of the officers.

The control room - state of the art in its time.

The Mess, the center of social life for the crew members. They ate in shifts with 15-minute mealtimes.

The grounds also included an experimental hydrofoil. This was built by a private firm, and it wasn't clear if any contracts with the government were let to build more.