Camden and Rockport

For our week in Midcoast Maine, we stayed at an inn about midway between the seaside towns of Camden and Rockport. We had our own little cottage behind the inn, and walked over for breakfast each morning. I liked making my own waffles and pouring on some Maine maple syrup, made by the family of the inn’s owner. I enjoyed walking through the neighborhoods behind the inn, with large houses and views of Mount Battie.

Camden

Camden was a pretty town, popular with tourists, but not too crowded. Charming, historic houses held independent shops, restaurants, and other businesses. The lush green harbor park was designed by the Olmsted Brothers. There were some fancy yachts in the harbor, and the local delis offered “provisioning” - delivery to one’s boat. From the harbor, we could see church steeples, a waterfall, and, at dusk, the large, lighted windows of the historic public library.

We walked to town a few times for dinner. One night we picnicked with a free concert in the outdoor amphitheater next to the public library, overlooking the harbor. Another night, after walking to dinner in a restaurant on the far side of the harbor, we rode a small boat back across the harbor as the sun was setting. Lovely.

Rockport

One day I walked in the opposite direction, to Rockport. They also had a picturesque harbor, with a tiny sand beach. Although there was a hotel and an opera house, Rockport didn’t have streets lined with shops and restaurants, like Camden. This was a working harbor; I watched lobstermen unload their catch on the dock. In the park next to the harbor, old lime kilns were a reminder that in the 19th century, Rockport was a major producer of quicklime (burnt lime), used for making mortar and finish plaster. Steam engines would haul limestone from nearby quarries to the wood-burning kilns. The quicklime was packed into wooden casts and loaded onto schooners, for delivery to cities along the east coast.

Camden and Rockport are less than two miles apart. Both have harbors on Penobscot Bay, and both are tiny - population around 3,500 - but grow much larger during the summer. They are what many people imagine when they think about idyllic old-fashioned summers in Maine. In fact, the 1957 movie musical Carousel was filmed in Camden.