Goose Rocks Beach and Kennebunkport Mentioned in NY Times....
Now, this is the way life is supposed to be and they way I remember it.....now all the freaks will be checking out our little corner of paradise, Goose Rocks Beack since it was just mentioned in the NY Times (sidenote, all of the things mentioned, I have done and enjoyed immensely......as I remember!)
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Subject: Goose Rocks in NY Times
Gents, Hope the summer is going well. Not sure if you saw it but Goose Rocks made the NY Times last week. The email is attached below. If you skim through it, you will notice I added a little bonus paragraph at the end. I'll be back in Boston as of Friday (8/5) and should be able to get up to Maine anytime, week or weekend. Let me know if you guys plan to hit the beach at all over the next few months and I'll plan on being up there.
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July 29, 2005
Kennebunkport, Me.
By KIMBERLY RIDLEY
THERE'S more to Kennebunkport than pricey shops and hordes of George and Barbara Bush watchers gawking through binoculars at their Walker's Point compound. Exploring by foot, bike and boat reveals this old coastal town's enduring charms. It has been a seasonal destination since the end of the last Ice Age, when Indians fished there and hunted on coastal plains. Europeans later fished the region's rich waters, and the area was incorporated by Massachusetts
as Cape Porpus in 1653. In the early 1800's, shipbuilding boomed on the Kennebunk River, and by the late 1800's, well-heeled summer people were building grand cottages along Ocean Avenue. Their descendants tend to keep to themselves, but you can occasionally glimpse them as they dismount large S.U.V.'s for an early morning tennis match or a round of golf.
Friday
4 p.m.
1) Drinks, Roses and Sea Spray
What better way to get into the Kennebunkport mood than by having a late-afternoon gin and tonic? You can order one at the venerable Colony Hotel (140 Ocean Avenue, 207-967-3331), (HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE STAYED HERE, HAD DINNER HERE, LUNCH BY THE POOL, ETC....THEY EVEN USED IT IN THAT HBO MINI SERIES "EMPIRE FALLS") a sprawling, white early 20th-century affair, and stake out a table on the poolside terrace to savor the breeze, the perennial beds and the sweeping views of ocean. Afterward, skip stones on Colony Beach and watch fishermen on the jetty. Then wander down Ocean Avenue, which follows the Kennebunk River and winds around the rocky shore, where wild rugosa roses bloom in profusion above crashing surf. If wind and tide are right, look for spectacular plumes of sea spray at Blowing Cave and Spouting Rock. (I MISS SPOUTING ROCK....USED TO SULK THERE DURING MY TEENAGE YEARS WHEN MADE TO STAY AT THE COLONY WITH THOSE THAT I THOUGHT NEEDED TO BE EMBALMED INSTEAD OF SPOKEN TO......HOW I WISH I HAD TAKEN THE TIME TO GET TO KNOW THOSE GREAT PEOPLE MORE...THE STORIES THEY HAD TO TELL!)
7 p.m.
2) A Fancy Fish Shack
Stripers Waterside Restaurant - at the Breakwater Inn & Hotel (131-133 Ocean Avenue, 207-967-5333) and formerly called Stripers Fish Shack - serves seafood so fresh it doesn't need to be sauced to death. Start with a Pimm's Cup No. 1 ($6.50) and a half-dozen oysters (market price) and proceed to a grilled halibut steak ($22.50) served with "mushy peas" (fresh peas lightly mashed with cream and mint) and Stripers fries. With windows that overlook the Atlantic and the Kennebunk River, and a well-groomed crowd in khakis, it feels more like a nice sun porch than a shack.
Saturday
9:30 a.m.
3) Bike to the Beach
You need a sticker to park at local beaches (NOT THAT THAT STOPS PEOPLE!) but not if you're riding a bike. Rent one at Cape-Able Bike Shop (83 Arundel Road, 207-967-4382) and pedal the back roads northeast to Goose Rocks Beach, about 11 miles round trip. Rentals are $20 for a day or $15 for a half-day. Goose Rocks, a two-and-a-half-mile stretch of sugary sand, is worth the effort because it is much less crowded than the Kennebunk beaches. Plop down on your blanket and watch seals lounging on the ledges and terns dive-bombing the waves for little fish.>>1:30 p.m.
4) Down-Home Down East
Pedal back toward central Kennebunkport via Mills Road-Route 9 into Cape Porpoise, a classic fishing village with lobster boats and yachts moored off long piers and jumbles of wooden fish houses, some of which have been converted into cottages. Stop for lunch at the Wayfarer (2 Pier Road, Cape Porpoise; 207-967-8961), a down-home place where patrons can still be heard dropping their R's. The buttery fish chowder ($3.95 a cup) is lush with fresh haddock and red potatoes. Also good is the fish sandwich ($8.25) slathered with lemon dill mayonnaise.
3 p.m.
5) Time Travel
The History Center of Kennebunkport (125-135 North Street, 207-967-2751) offers a self-guided walking-tour map ($4) of historic homes, which includes fine specimens of Colonial, Greek Revival, Federal and Victorian architecture. The highlight: the Nott House
an 1853 Greek Revival mansion with massive Doric columns and original finishes right down to the hand-painted French wallpaper in the front hallway, which still holds its arresting greens thanks to the arsenic used to make it in the mid-19th century. Don't miss the meticulously restored Victorian garden that wraps around the house with its allée bordered by lilacs that runs down to a mill pond. (Don't forget the Lord Mansion, a beautiful period home that has been turned into luxury accomodations for the well-heeled tourists who overrun Kennebunkport during the summer months!)
4 p.m.
6) Shop Crawl
Head for Dock Square, where former homes and 18th-century warehouses are now packed with shops, galleries and antiques dealers. Stop at Beneath the Willow (10 Ocean Avenue, Second Floor; 207-967-2423) to stock up on handmade guest soaps scented with essential oils and wrapped in handmade paper. A few doors down, the Kennebunk Book Port (10 Dock Square, 207-967-3815) occupies the loft of a 1775 rum warehouse and offers a solid collection of books about Maine.
8 p.m.
7) Moonlight on the Water
The Cape Arundel Inn (208 Ocean Avenue, 207-967-2125) occupies a grand Shingle Style cottage built in 1895 with views of the wide open Atlantic right across the road. The old Kennebunkport crowd, sporting blue blazers, big jewelry and vintage Chanel, hangs here, and you're likely to overhear phrases like "I almost sailed off without my purse!" Flickering candle lamps and a piano player who obliges your requests for jazz ballads add to the aura of moonlight sparkling on the water. The menu offers subtle twists on regional fare like grilled fillet of salmon crowned with a brunoise of vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh basil and sea salt served with roasted fingerling potatoes ($27.50). Keep your eyes open for a couple of empty wicker chairs on the porch after dinner.
Sunday 10 a.m.
8) The Lily of the Mohawks In the late 1940's, Lithuanian Franciscans bought an estate on the Kennebunk River and established St. Anthony's Franciscan Monastery (28 Beach Avenue, Kennebunk; 207-967-2011), about 60 acres of serene grounds, a guesthouse and a short, lovely trail that winds through the woods across the river from Dock Square. Follow the trail to the end, where St. Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680), "The Lily of the Mohawks," presides over a peaceful grove of oaks. Wilted bouquets of wildflowers adorn the white painted concrete statue of the saint, who wears a fringed dress and clutches a cross over her chest.
11 a.m.
9) A Two-Hour Tour
Sailing on the Schooner Eleanor (Arundel Wharf Restaurant docks, Ocean Avenue; 207-967-8809) makes you almost pity the people in Hinckley Picnic Boats zipping frenetically over the waves. Captain Rich Woodman, who built the 55-foot gaff-rigged schooner with a crew of local boat builders, takes passengers out for a blissful two-hour sail for $38 a person. From Eleanor's spacious decks, you can watch lobstermen haul their traps and scan the water for scoters, gannets and other seabirds as you sail along Cape Arundel and Cape Porpoise.
1:30 p.m.
10) A Perfect Lobster Roll
The Clam Shack (OH MY GOD, a personal fave!) (on the Kennebunk River Bridge at 2 Western Avenue, 207-967-2560) serves the most unadulterated lobster roll around ($13.50): the meat of a one-pound lobster topped with a bit of mayonnaise or doused in drawn butter (or both!) and tucked into a toasted bun. Order at the take-out window of this teeny shack perched at the river's edge and use the bridge railing for a table. Keep an eye on the gulls, which watch hungrily from the rocks. (They have been known to take your entire dinner right out from under your watchful eyes!)
10:00 PM
11) Bon Fire and Beast Lite
And for the perfect weekend, we saved the best for last. Head down to Goose Rocks Beach for an old fashioned bon fire. Enjoy commentary from local loonies like Crazy Man Flynn (personal friend of Hellofachick's!) and a night cap, or 24, of warm Beast Lite. Be sure to piss out the fire when your done and head home to pass out in front of a Simpson's rerun with American Chop Suey dripping down your chest.
Maine - the way life should be..........Amen!
(Additional commentary by moi!)
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I should add that a great deal of my fondest memories take place on Goose Rocks Beach and Kennebunkport. Between the chlidhood friendships forged over sandcastles and curfews, to the stolen moments in later years making out on the fringes of a bonfire (three sheets to the wind, I might add!) and other things that shall go unmentioned.....needless to say, with my brother and I being the fifth generation in our family spending our summers up in Maine, it is our second home and I've been away for far too long. Although, as the circle of life turns, most of our friends are now married and parents in their own rite. Wonder if they will let their kids get away with what we did?
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I should add that a great deal of my fondest memories take place on Goose Rocks Beach and Kennebunkport. Between the chlidhood friendships forged over sandcastles and curfews, to the stolen moments in later years making out on the fringes of a bonfire (three sheets to the wind, I might add!) and other things that shall go unmentioned.....needless to say, with my brother and I being the fifth generation in our family spending our summers up in Maine, it is our second home and I've been away for far too long. Although, as the circle of life turns, most of our friends are now married and parents in their own rite. Wonder if they will let their kids get away with what we did?
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