Kennebunkport, Maine

We left camp for a long day of driving, with more than 500 miles between Niagara, New York, our starting point, and Kennebunkport, Maine, where we set camp. The rain followed us for the first half of the drive, but we steadily made our way across New York and Massachusetts before clipping the southeast corner of New Hampshire and finally crossing into Maine.

I rewarded myself at the end of the long drive with dinner for one at Nunan’s Lobster Hut in Cape Porpoise, thus kicking off my quest to eat a lobster roll every single day that we are in Maine.

Our next two days were a little bit of a wash out. The first, a true wash out day with rain so strong and constant we did little more than hunker down in the trailer. The second, an attempted biking day, where things started really great with sunny skies and good moods.

But, in a stroke of bad luck, Ben’s rear brake derailer snapped suddenly while going up a hill and we had no choice but to call it off. Eli and Ray rode back to get the car and eventually, we got Ben’s bike to a shop for a repair. We were able to make arrangements to fix the bike before departing Kennebunkport, but the day was something of a bust.

But, there was no need for sour moods because reinforcements were already on the way! By about 4 pm, our friends the Doppelt’s had arrived in camp. Adam Doppelt is Eli’s best friend from childhood and although he and his family live in Seattle, Washington, we coordinated plans to anchor their travels east with a few days together in Maine. Adam and Shannon, along with their two oldest kids, Elle (15) and Theo (13) were a welcome sight in Kennebunkport! (Their youngest, Bridget, is at overnight camp in New York this summer, so we didn’t get to see her).

Our campground had many ‘ways to stay’ including some super-cute glamping tents that offered them enough creature comforts that they could join us in our campout without needing to travel with a ton of gear. We planned some easy camp cook outs and spent a good amount of time just hanging out in camp.

We did motivate for one big-ish adventure, venturing into Portland and taking a short ferry to Peak’s Island. On the island, we rented some (lousy) bikes and pedaled our way around, a fairly easy four-ish miles if your bike has working gears (most of ours did not) and you don’t take wrong turns (we took many).

At one point, we split into two groups, with a party returning to the town area and the rest of us venturing on for the remainder of the ride. We all met up again for lunch where I ate – wait for it – a lobster roll. It’s notable as the best one I’ve had so far. Notable enough to serve as Covergirl for this blog post.

Back at camp that evening, Theo and Ben took a serious interest in fire-building, and we all hung out until bedtime.

The next afternoon, we said farewell to the Doppelts and set-off again for the bike ride around Kennebunkport that had eluded us a few days before. We pedaled a slow and steady 12.5 miles, rewarded ourselves with lunch in town, some delicious mini-donuts, and a stop at the road-side stand selling homemade jam on an honor system.

The only ding on the whole experience was the number of mosquito bites we collected in Kennebunkport, which were numerous and included one that swelled to the size of a baseball on Ben’s behind. The local General Store is doing big business in After-Bite and Benadryl, thanks mostly to our family.

Overall, I think we give it high marks for a great campground, great fun, and great friends.