We had a relaxed start today as our first stop is actually only a few miles away in Kennebunk (we are in Kennebunk port) where we have a walk around the historic quarter. The town was settled by the Native Americans and the word Kennebunk means long cut bank. In the 1650s through to the early 1700s it was the site of a number of Indian wars with the Europeans living in garrisons. In about 1750 the hostilities ceased and saw mills, grist mills and iron works grew up along the river. Shipbuilding started in the early 1800s but when proprietors realised the river was too shallow they moved down river to Kennebunk Port. For over 150 years over a dozen shipyards built over 600 ships for trade. They left loaded with ice and lumber and sailed to the Carolinas, Louisiana or Europe. The area was so prosperous that in 1848 several shipbuilders formed a company that built the Kennebunk lock allowing larger ships to be built as the shipbuilding industry moved elsewhere it became a home for manufacturing and also known as a holiday destination. The walk took us round the site of a number of former merchant and sea captains houses and finally to the town hall and commercial area, then back to the car. They have a sign saying that this is the only village in the world called Kennebunk, we rather have to take their word for it but I haven’t heard of one. The walk didn’t take quite as long as we expected so we decided to head out to one of the lighthouses we planned to see tomorrow as it is only about an hour away. On the way we saw a few trees that are starting to change colour so hopefully over the next few days we will see some lovely areas. Portland Head light is in Fort Williams Park near Portland. The light is at the head of land at the shipping entrance to Portland Harbor, it was completed in 1791 and is the oldest lighthouse in the state of Maine. It is now managed by the US coastguard and has an automated light. We walked round the light which is one of many in the area and looked at the others we could see then took a bit of a walk along the coast path then went back to the car. We got back to Kennebunkport around lunch time and realised what a tourist destination it is as the town was packed! We decided to have some lunch before going for a walk round the town. We walked through the town which is very much a tourist destination and we were both surprised at how may coaches were here but they all seemed to stop, go and get clams from the clam shack, possibly have an ice cream as well then get back on the coach. There is a coast road that is about 2 miles out to Walkers Point which is actually the summer home of George Bush senior, it is in quite a nice location but I am not sure I am that keen on the house. Unfortunately the tide was out as this area is also famous for it’s blow holes but we rather felt this was like New Zealand you need to be in place at the right time and for the right tide! We walked back along the Ocean road which took us round the headland to the start of the channel which is really narrow, it may have been made worse by the fact it was low tide but I am not sure it just looked really narrow. We walked all the way back round to the town admiring the nice houses then once we got back to town we treated ourselves to a really nice ice cream and headed back to the room.
