MAINE: my final frontier. These are the voyages of the Scooter Vespa 250 i.e. Super. Its continuing mission - to explore America's most heavily forested state - to roam the vast coastline, numberless lakes, and mighty mountains. To boldly go where no scooter has gone before!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The President's Summer Home

After hearing from my three son's, each wishing me a Happy Father's Day, I took advantage of the perfect weather and the blissful freedom of retirement to ride my Vespa to Walker's Point, down Kennebunkport way. This is the summer home of the two Presidents Bush.


This runner nearly ruined my first shot of the Bush compound ...



...so I took another, uncluttered by tourists, etc.


Last year, several dozen friends and neighbors of the 41st President presented him with a three-ton anchor from a Navy destroyer.


Here I am by the anchor, in front of the estate at Walker's Point.


The President's boat rocks at anchor.


Artist Robert M. Henry (lower right in cap) paints at Walker's Point. He painted a view of the Bush compound with sisters Chantal and Jessie, which they presented to their dad, Shawn, today, on Father's Day.



Jessie, left, and Chantel, hold the completed painting.


The artist himself photographs the family, including father, Shawn, and mother, Angela. Both parents are from Canada - Angela from Vancouver, Shawn from Prince Edward Island. They settled in Maine because, as Shawn said, "I've lived in 22 countries, and this is where we want to raise our children!"


A few miles down the coast from Walker's Point is Gooch's Beach, the name it's been called since 1658, maybe even earlier. Gooch's is 3,346 feet of the purest, softest, 'talcum powder' sand you'll ever find. 

Four modes of transportation can be seen - sort of - in the photo above.

Just behind the Vespa is an approaching bicycle, and on the sea are a stately sailing ship which has just been passed by the louder, newer, far less romantic method of traveling by water.




These three gentlemen just discovered that the ocean anywhere north of Florida is not really warm in June. Off the coast of Maine, the sea stays ice cold until late July, then warms up to frigid until the end of August, when, for several days, the water is actually simply brisk.


As you can see here, most of the people are on the beach. The few who braved the water will surely suffer the shivers well into the evening.

2 comments:

  1. I am that runner/tourist and happened to have stumbled onto your blog site where you have chosen to include a photo of me running by the Bush compound... Given that I nearly ruined your shot I'm suprised to see that you included the photo.

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  2. Natalie,

    Thank you for visiting, even if by accident! If you will browse through my posts, you'll see that my comment was completely tongue-in-cheek. My "sense of humor" tends toward the ironic, the under-stated, and the, frankly, odd.

    So, saying that you ruined the photo was, in my mind, saying that the house spoiled my photo of a beautiful young lady jogging along the coast of Maine.

    Please let me know if you see this comment at thomaswkeene@gmail.com
    And please believe me - you did not ruin the picture.

    Tom

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