President’s Friendly Hometown Offers a Few Simple Pleasures

Until George Bush began strolling through his hometown as a presidential candidate, about the last thing of note that had happened here was the Historical Society’s recovery of the old fog bell from Goat Island lighthouse a few miles offshore in the Atlantic.

If you include being totally wiped out by Indians in 1689, Kennebunkport has been home to a few historic events since its founding in 1653. Yet during its 300-plus years it has hardly been a Lexington or Concord.

Farming, fishing and sawmills along inland streams and the Kennebunk River were the first economic activities. But by the beginning of the 19th Century the shipbuilding industry was turning out 100 vessels a year.

During the first half of the 19th Century, those affluent shipbuilders began putting up impressive homes in Greek Revival, Federal, Colonial and, later, Victorian styles. So in addition to being a lively summer resort, the little village has that old-fashioned, lived-in look of a New England seaside town.

But good times or bad, one thing Kennebunkport has had going for it is natural beauty, sited as it is at the mouth of the Kennebunk River near the Atlantic’s Cape Porpoise Harbor.

Any way you look at it, President Bush’s forebears were pretty smart folks to have settled here.

To get here: Fly Delta, TWA or Continental to Portland, Me., with changes. From there it’s 30 minutes by car or bus on to Kennebunkport.

How long/how much? You can do the town’s sights in a day, but with water sports, antique shopping and perhaps a bit of fishing, give it several days. Accommodations are moderately priced, up a notch for the summer season. Dining well is also moderate.

A few fast facts: The busy season is from mid-June until mid-October. And a trolley makes the rounds of many hotels and the mid-village shopping area for a 50-cent ticket.

Getting settled in: Nonantum-Portside Resort (Ocean Avenue; $80 to $125 double) has a main hotel that is more than a century old, plus the new Portside also in traditional style but with water views from every room. There’s a private marina, heated pool, tennis and golf nearby.

Rooms in the newly restored main hotel are comfortably old-fashioned and freshly painted with wicker furniture, TVs and pretty flowered walls. Most of the Portside rooms have their own balcony with trim white banisters. The dining room has a good selection of seafood, pretty straightforward thereafter.

The Welby Inn (Ocean Avenue; $60-$80 B&B; double) was built in 1900 by a prosperous sea captain. Seven rooms have handmade bedspreads, hooked-rag rugs, samplers on walls and flowers all over. Your breakfasts might consist of fresh fruit, eggs to order, apple-walnut bread, blueberry muffins and lots of tea or coffee. This charmer is owned and operated by the Knox family and is very popular, so write ahead for reservations.

The Inn at Goose Rocks (Dyke Road; $75-$105 double) is just outside town in a wooded setting overlooking saltwater marshes and near Goose Rocks Beach. The inn’s 32 guest rooms are spread out in a traditional building, many of the rooms with four-posters. There’s a pub lounge, deck area, pleasant library with plenty of books and a fireplace. The dining room has a blue-nautical motif, attractive stenciling on walls and good food and service.

Shawmut Inn (Turbot’s Creek Road; $90-$150 double) is right by the ocean, a huge complex built in 1913 with a main building, several other large ones and a clutch of separate cottages. A recreational director sees after things around the Olympic-size saltwater pool, volleyball, shuffleboard, jazz concerts on Sunday. All meals served, and a van takes you to and from the port area in town.

Regional food and drink: You haven’t really lived until you’ve dug into a fresh Maine lobster, the world’s best, with a side of “steamers” (soft clams), corn on the cob and a bowl of slaw. These are the basics of a beachside clambake, but many restaurants also serve them. In addition to the steamers you may find quahogs, a mud-loving clam that makes great chowder.

Apart from the lobster-clam headliners, look for sweet shrimp and scallops, baked, broiled or deep-fried. You might also scan menus for fresh ocean perch, pollack, cod, halibut, haddock, sole and shad roe in the spring. Nowhere will you find a greater variety of fresh seafood.

Fruits show up in such favorites as apple crisps and apple pandowdy, blueberry and strawberry tarts and cobblers. Injun pudding is sure to destroy your daily calorie count, a heavy affair made of molasses, cornmeal, milk, sugar, butter and whatever seasonings the cook has on hand.

Good dining: Cafe Topher (Lower Harbor Village) couldn’t be prettier, a downstairs pub with piano music, upstairs a lovely room with crisp pink linens, pink flowers, etched-glass dividers and a grand piano.

Lobster fettuccini heads the list of numerous seafood dishes, several steaks and chicken entrees for landlubbers. The dessert menu promises homemade fruit pies “often,” cherries jubilee “never.”

The Lobster Pot (Mills Road, Cape Porpoise) always has a steady crowd of locals willing to take the three-mile ride out there for simple decor, paper napkins, ceiling fans and unadorned fresh seafood. Choose your live lobster from the tank: $10.95 for a one-pounder, $16.95 for two. Most folks also go for the steamers at $5.85. You may start with clam or fish chowder, rich lobster stew.

Seascapes (Cape Porpoise Pier) is a really lovely restaurant right over the water, with pastel pottery and lots of flowers highlighting the attractive decor. It has a small bar and marvelous views of the water in one of Maine’s prettiest fishing villages.

The menu reaches out with the likes of shrimp a la turkolimani, sauteed with fresh tomatoes and feta cheese; scallops sauteed with arugula and lime pesto; lobster braised in Drambuie cream; Maine crab cakes with tomato-rosemary sauce.

On your own: Eighteenth- and 19th-Century architecture buffs will have a field day here, with the Greek-Revival Nott House, White Columns, being the town showpiece. Built in 1853, it still has original wallpapers, carpets and furnishings. A tour of this one is a must.

Summer Street has a line of beautiful homes of the last two centuries, and the 1826 Wedding Cake House, built by a sea captain, is extraordinary in the true sense of the word.

Sixteen antique shops in a small town are enough to set any antiquarian atwitter, so comb them for pewter, pine furniture, duck decoys, silver, scrimshaw, country cupboards and whatever else you absolutely need.

Feisty striped bass draw fishermen to the mouth of the Kennebunk and Mousam rivers, while the deep-sea types head out on party boats for cod, mackerel, tuna and anything else biting in the Atlantic that day.

And in this friendliest of all small towns, almost every hotel or inn has free bicycles to loan you, so strike out down the road and start meeting Kennebunkporters. You might even run into you-know-who taking a stroll.

For more information: Call the Maine Division of Tourism at (207) 289-5710, or write (189 State St., Augusta, Me. 04333) for a brochure on Kennebunkport, its sights and accommodations. And call New England USA at toll-free (800) VISIT-NE for information on Maine and the other five New England states.