Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 29, 1994 TAG: 9405280001
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ELIZABETH GUNN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Sometimes the Maine coast seems too postcard-perfect to be true. Can the water in the harbor really be so deeply blue, the town that rings it set so tidy and gleaming against the green hills? The sails of small boats ride the wind outside the jetty like Winslow Homer paintings come to life.
Rocky headlands jut into the cobalt sea, their towering lighthouses dominating the coastline for miles. Massive tides, surging 12 to 20 feet, wash the deep, cold harbors clean twice a day, and the small towns, isolated by weather much of the year, develop unique character that they guard with pride. Their citizens manifest a fascinating duality: a hardy population of no-nonsense pragmatists, plain as salt in their attitudes, clinging fiercely to a difficult landscape of breathtaking beauty.
Seafarers since their earliest European settlements began, hard-working Maine watermen bring a seriousness to their ports, which is reflected by the recreational boaters; up here, you seldom see girls in bikinis draped over the front of sailboats, or cigarette boats bombing through traffic. A stroll along the waterfront is educational and entertaining - a view of sleek, handsome yachts tucked alongside sturdy, practical workboats
Portland, on the South Coast, is the largest city and has an international airport with daily connections to most major American cities. It offers big-city things - an art museum, a symphony, the University of Southern Maine - and a shipping and shopping center. The cruise ferry Scotia Prince links Portland to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. In front of the city, Casco Bay, filled with 100-plus islands, gives Portland boaters all the adventure they need, and across the island-dotted bay lies Falmouth Foreside, home of the Portland Yacht Club, anchorage for hundreds of pleasure boats and bustling venue of daily races, classes and regattas.
From Portland, U.S.1 goes south, to "the Kennebunks" and "the Yorks," the clustered resort towns of the southern coast that offer every luxury and service. Besides the usual golf and tennis, bike rentals and riding lessons, there's whale-watching, deep-sea fishing, historic tours and island cruises.
Kennebunkport, the famous resort where George Bush and many other celebrities have summer homes, demonstrates the range of sightseeing along the coast. Kennebunkport is crowded with luxurious homes, hotels, restaurants and stores; its ambiance is casual elegance, with the emphasis on the sea and its diversions.
One bay to the northeast, tiny Cape Porpoise, offers a glimpse of a working Maine seaport: lobster trap markers strewn across the harbor, and a handful of pleasure boats anchored in the bay.
Above Portland, the landscape turns rugged, with boulder-strewn bluffs forming giant fingers reaching into the sea; between the fingers, big rivers come booming down. Along the knuckles of this formation, U.S. 1 runs northeast; branching off it, state roads lead down to small towns, each with its special charms, its own recipes, boat yards and antiques.
Probably no place in America better rewards the random wanderer than coastal Maine from Portland to Penobscot Bay.
Freeport, where the success of the L.L. Bean sports outfitting store has spawned several blocks of retail and outlet stores, creates a startling change of atmosphere in the midst of a bikers' and hikers' heaven. The bizarre Desert of Maine, nearby, is another rare sight, an ecological meltdown surrounded by lush forests.
At the top of the Sheepscot River, Wiscasset typifies old, quirky Maine towns, with its narrow main thoroughfare winding uphill, two ancient hulks of wrecked schooners resting at the quay, a clutch of tiny antique shops, improbable bakeries roosting in other shops and a bright red Toonerville Trolley wannabee that toots and clangs through town several times a day.
Boothbay Harbor, at the tip of the finger between the Sheepscot and Damariscotta rivers and blessed with a splendid natural harbor, is jam-packed with working and pleasure boats and does a booming summer tourist business in its many inns and restaurants. A fully developed summer resort community, it offers art exhibits, dinner theater and boat trips, as well as the premium biking and hiking, golf and tennis that most Maine coast communities afford.
The drive from Boothbay Harbor to Ocean Point by way of East Boothbay is renowned for its ocean views, though it only just beats the view you get anywhere around Boothbay Harbor.
Christmas Cove, at the tip of Rutherford Island at the mouth of the Johns River, is a community of summer cottages clinging to the hills around a tiny, crowded mooring.
At Rockland, U.S. 1 turns north to circle Penobscot Bay, a sailors' safe haven, workplace and playground since earliest times. The towns that ring the bay reflect its maritime history in museums and antique shops and the paintings in its many art galleries. Because summer colonies full of city folk have long thrived in Penobscot Bay, the area supports art colonies, summer theater, and events like the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland, a chance to eat lobster, clams and corn on the cob while admiring local arts and crafts.
A few miles north, Camden, back of a deep natural harbor with hills rising steeply behind it and a glorious waterfall cascading right through downtown, is a photographer's paradise, and home port to many yacht races. Near the top of the bay, Searsport maintains an outstanding collection of boats and marine artifacts in the Penobscot Marine Museum, as well as many historic houses and an extraordinary number of antique shops.
Besides biking and hiking, which can start and end in any town around the bay, the area offers windjammer cruises, and motor vessel tours to watch whales, puffins and the many other rare seabird species which are making a comeback on protected islands in Penobscot Bay. A ferry trip to Vinalhaven will give you a glimpse of tiny fishing and lobstering villages dwarfed in their bays by the vast, wild ocean that rolls up to their doorsteps.
Acadia National Park occupies most of Mount Desert Island, with Bar Harbor its largest town. Once a retreat for the very rich, Bar Harbor's ornate "cottages" were destroyed in a 1947 fire, and the town has been rebuilt as an upscale tourist mecca.
Inns, restaurants, specialty ice creams, handknit sweaters and curio shops abound, cruise ships ply its small, deep harbor and surrounding waters, and a ferry leaves daily for Nova Scotia. Behind the town, the steep, rocky hills of Mount Desert lead up to Cadillac Mountain, highest point on the eastern seaboard at 1,530 feet. Hikers crisscross the island's many trails, and canoe and climb around Somes Sound, the long, fiord-like inlet that nearly splits the island.
Outside the park a half-dozen small towns ring the south edge of the island - each with its own harbor. The towns serve a handful of year-round residents and a steady stream of summer visitors. Mount Desert is Maine's premiere summer vacation spot, and greatly loved by yachtsmen.
Most Maine visitors find their own favorite spots and make a list of must-return-to places, perhaps quite different from this one. Many people come back year after year, to pursue their secret longings - to paint, read, sail, write, hike - with the same single-minded passion that keeps the native population tying flies, weaving baskets and quilting through the long winters.
Elizabeth Gunn is a free-lance travel writer who lives in Key Largo, Fla.
by CNB