East Coast Cruising - Kennebunkport Maine

This portion of the shore excursion was titled "Portland and Kennebunkport Maine". In reality it was a fly by of an ordinary mid size town called Portland with a stop at picturesque Fort Williams Park to see the lighthouse and military battery, and then off we went down the road to Kennebunkport.

Kennebunkport is a name that sticks in your mind as it is an odd name to start with, it also associated with American President's names as it is a fave recreation place of many presidents.

It is a very pretty town, kept pretty I'm sure for the hordes that come here every day aboard cruise ships like our own, and from the wealth of the local citizens.

The houses on the edge of town are well tended, and many houses hint at their original function as true summer houses for the well to do. Two story wooden houses sit on an acre or two of land, old trees front the yard with swings hanging from a lower branch were possible. You can still imagine kids playing on the swings while adults picnic in the grassy front yard.

The tour bus dropped us off in a back lot off Main Street and we were free to wander for an hour to spend as much money as we could to help the local economy.
As I stated, the town is pretty and you can see the amount of money spent on buildings and paint and sidewalks and lighting and everything else that goes into making a town tourist friendly.

The town is a typical tourist trap but we still enjoyed wandering in and out of the shops, and we found some good kid stuff to buy for the grand kids as things Grandma and Grandpa brought back from their "boat cruise"
Soft lobster stuffies and sea side hats were the items that were purchased and stuffed into the back pack to be carted back to the cabin for packing into suitcases.

The hour went fast and soon enough were were back on the bus for the 45 minute trip back to the ship.

On the way out of town we took the sea shore route and passed a beach where Barbara Bush walked every day. It's said that she would have her Secret Service men walk up on the sidewalk so that the towns folk would not be afraid to stop to talk to her. And they did regularly - the town loves the Bush family and vice versa.

Barbara Bush would often sneak into the local area hospitals in Portland to read books to the kids in the hospital. There was no fan fare involved, no photo ops, most of the time no one knew she was there. She would just come in to read to the kids to brighten their day.

We went past the Bush family compound which sits on a small peninsula on its own. George H and George W, as well as Jeb and other family members. The Secret Service enforce the "no stopping" policy on the road that winds around the compound. It took all of 30 seconds for a couple of tourists whom stopped to take a picture to have a big black Suburban leave the compound and make it's way over to them to move them along.

So, a short spin around Portland, a trip to Kennebunkport for a bit of shopping and sightseeing, then we were back on the point in time for dinner.
The meals were consistently good, at times really good, and we were beginning to look forward to dinner times.

 It was Ken and Linda's 41st wedding anniversary, so Annette and I bought them a bottle of champagne to celebrate their happy day, as well as a fun cruise with family.

For Annette and I, every day is a wonderful day that we are together. Yeah, right she says  :)

And you are right as well if you just said "not many pictures here"
I only gave a couple of teasers.I know, what a pain I am.  :)

All of the pictures of Kennebunkport can be found here on my Flickr site.