Maine Travel: Kennebunk & Wells

When we left the house last Saturday, we had a few ideas of places we wanted to check out that day. We were in southern Maine, in Biddeford, and planned to head to Kennebunk and Wells.

Saturday was May 1st, and Mayday has been celebrated for centuries. In Kennebunk, this year marks the 12th Mayday Festival, always held the first Saturday in May. My daughter and I have attended the festival since she was in a stroller and it always proves entertaining. Some years the weather cooperates and some years, well, the chill or precipitation forces you to scurry from venue to venue and juggle hot drinks while enjoying the Maypole dance. The sunny, blue sky day we had this year was perfect for a street festival. Route 1 runs through downtown Kennebunk, and from the Kennebunk Free Library, through to Rotary Park, and on both sides of the street. The library hosts a bake and book sale and is home to the festival’s Fairy Garden and story time. A group of volunteers also helps little girls and boys make flowered wreaths to wear on their heads, complete with long colorful ribbons that trail behind them. Across the street, at the Brick Store Museum, kids can make their own May baskets. The museum offers a display of traditional may baskets, encased in glass, and set up a long table. Kids start at one end and select a small plastic cup like basket, then move down the rows, choosing from the other baskets on the table, filled with small items like colorful bracelets, foam airplanes, and rubber bouncy balls.

The Brick Store Museum wisely chose an alternate entryway this year. Rather than open one of the front doors and set up the basket making directly at the entry, curators had festival goers enter through a side door and wind through the museum to the table, passing displays and the donation box along the way. It gave me the opportunity to check out the museum, even go upstairs to see the portraits and lifestyle displays, and make a donation on the way out. In years past, we hurried in and out with our baskets, not seeing much of the interior of the buildings that are linked together by addition after addition, and occupy a sizable section of Kennebunk’s Main Street. Working our way down the street, we passed musicians, street vendors selling hot dogs, chili, coffee, cotton candy, and ice cream. Behind a gas station, wedged between Nason Ct and Grove Street off of Main street to the east is a large parking area, that on this day, and others throughout the summer, was an abundant farmer’s market. At this point in the season, most were selling potted plants, herbs, vegetables and some had brought the fruits of last years harvests, soaps and dip mixes, jams and jellies. Most years, a horse drawn trolley picks up and drops off here and provides a tour of the festival. I didn’t see it at this years celebration.

The highlight, in my opinion, of the Mayday festival is the Portland School of Ballet’s Maypole dance. The school brings young dancers to perform traditional mayday dances for the crowd that inevitably gathers in Layfayette Park. This year, festival organizers chose to move the craft vendors to this location, giving them more traffic than at their previous site, in Rotary Park, at the end of the festival area, generally used to stage the parade. Four maypoles had been set up in the grassy park, their colorful ribbons tied up until the time was right. The tallest was reserved for the dancers. They performed a few dances, then unfurled the ribbons and with choreographed steps, wound the ribbons until they formed a basket weave down the pole. Surrounding the maypoles and throughout the park, there was live music (provided by Tony Michaud and his band), a bounce house, a BBQ trailer, craft vendors, and demonstrations. The parade was at 1:30, but this year, we decided not to stay, although folks were lining Main street with their chairs, and garnering spots on the curb as we were leaving. My past experience with the parade is that it’s a fun time for the kids, with twirlers, clown driven tiny cars, fire trucks tossing candy, and the usual town dignitaries waving from convertibles. It is fun, but we had hunger and other things to attend to.

Our next destination was to find a place to grab a bite to eat, which, in the towns of Kennebunk and Wells, where we were headed, is really not all that difficult. But a quickie sandwich shop didn’t come into view before hunger overtook us. We passed the Maine Diner and noted that unlike in mid summer, the line at the door seemed relatively short. We doubled back and went in. The twenty minute wait turned out to be more like ten minutes and our party of five was soon seated at a table in the large room to the left of the main dining area.

The Maine Diner is an institution of sorts. Its celebrity visits and newspaper and television endorsements are lauded on the walls. Many make this a stop on their stay in Maine. The menu is diner fare with a decidedly Maine twist. Along with club sandwiches and breakfast all day, there’s the lobster macaroni and cheese, lobster pie and blueberry everything. My daughter and our friend’s daughter both ordered the kids macaroni and cheese (what else?). Our waitress told them that it came with muffins, either corn or blueberry. We commented that since it wasn’t noted on the menu, perhaps it was the diner’s way of getting rid of the morning’s muffins. Regardless of the motive, they were delicious. Our friend’s daughter got the corn, and my daughter got the blueberry. The girls sliced them open and buttered their insides. The tops were crunchy, with soft, tender, cakey insides. Perfect large muffins. The girls macaroni and cheese dinners came with very tasty, seasoned French fries. Our friend commented, after snatching a few from his daughter’s plate, that they were the best fries he had had in a long time. I force myself to try some from my daughter’s plate, for the sake of the review, and agreed. The macaroni and cheese was of the home baked, crunchy topped variety, not the blue box version that kids seem to favor.

Nonetheless, the girls finished theirs, minus their parent's nibbles. Our friend and I ordered the same thing for our lunch, the grilled yellow fin tuna sandwich. It arrived on a bakery bun, lettuce and tomato, with a side of tartar sauce. The Cole slow that accompanied it was creamy and fresh. The tuna itself was moist and tender and flaky, not a tough burger like sandwich at all. My husband had the tuna salad wrap and it was huge! Cut in half and served with potato salad, he struggled to finish it. We left the Maine Diner well fed. Would we go back? Of course, it’s a must in Maine and with so many items to choose from, everyone can find something. I would suggest you go for breakfast, too. Most of my past Maine Diner experiences had been for breakfast and though I can’t recall exactly what I ordered on those visits, I do remember fondly that they were delicious. Good strong coffee, too. The menu and hours can be found at http://www.mainediner.com/.



Next was our planned nature walk. I had printed off the information about both the Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farm and the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge. Simply because it was a right turn out of the diner parking lot onto busy route 1, we chose the Rachel Carson Wildlife Reserve.

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, environmentalist, and author of several books, including Silent Spring, in which she linked unrestrained chemical dumping by industries to deathly consequences in the environment. She died in 1964 of breast cancer and is credited with beginning the environmental awareness revolution. The Wildlife Reserve was established in 1966 to preserve the salt marshes and estuaries for migratory birds. The walking paths are wide and well tended, and would be wheelchair accessible, with long inclines rather than steps along the way. At the entry area and parking lot, there are picnic tables. My husband commented that had we found a sandwich shop, this would have been the perfect place to have our lunch.

Several platforms have been built to view the marshes. Though not far from route 1, the area is very quiet and bird’s song is the only sound you hear other than your own footsteps. We watched a large group of geese paddle in from the estuaries, calling to each other as they waddled onto the grass. Fiddleheads were beginning to unfurl and flowers were blooming everywhere. It was a beautiful spring afternoon for a nature walk. The trail was relatively short and at a leisurely pace, we finished the loop in about 45 minutes. Just enough to have walked off our lunch. Information about the reserve can be found at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/rachelcarson/.

Spend a day in Wells and Kennebunk. Though the Mayday festival is held only once a year, there are many other things to do and eat. Another right turn, this time out of the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge will lead you back towards Kennebunk, this time on Route 9. You can follow this for a tour of Lower Village, Kennebunk, into Kennebunkport, past the Bush compound, into Cape Porpoise and the beaches of Biddeford. The roads are windy and afford stunning ocean views. Even as a native, I never tire of the scenery. If you decide to visit the area, check back here for some tips and sites to see that only this Mainer can give you. You can email me directly at celeste@celestecota.com or comment to this post.

Information about the Kennebunk area is available at http://www.visitthekennebunks.com/