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Camden Water pursuits. Any number of boat cruises on Penobscot Bay leave from the Camden landing, where there are benches for viewing the passing boat parade. The famed windjammers are a class apart, and lately some have been giving morning and afternoon cruises, lunch and dinner cruises and even overnight trips in addition to their longer excursions. For more cruises or ferry rides to the islands, go to Rockland or Lincolnville Beach (a favorite excursion is the ferry trip to Islesboro). The Lincolnville Beach is popular for swimming. A more secluded, picturesque setting is the little-known Laite Memorial Beach with treed lawns sloping down to the water, a small beach, picnic tables and old-fashioned fireplaces off Bay View Street. Inland pursuits. Some of the East Coast's most scenic hiking is available on trails in Camden Hills State Park. Mount Megunticook is the highest of the three mountains that make up the park and the second highest point on the Eastern Seaboard. If you're not up to hiking, be sure to drive the toll road up Mount Battie, an easy one-mile ride. The view is worth the $1-per-person toll. More rugged hiking is available on the trails of Camden Snow Bowl overlooking Hosmer Pond. A scenic drive is out Route 52 to Megunticook Lake, an island-studded lake that emerged eerily from the clouds the first foggy afternoon we saw it. A walking tour of Camden and a bicycle or car tour of Camden and adjacent Rockport are available through the Camden-Rockport Historical Society. A favorite drive or bicycle tour heads southeast out of Camden on Bay View Street out to Beauchamp Point and curves along Mechanic Street into Rockport. It returns to Camden via Chestnut Street. Some of the area’s estates may be seen, along with belted Galloway cows grazing at Aldermere Farm. Cultural pursuits. Summer entertainment, from band concerts to vaudeville, is provided periodically in the outdoor Bok Amphitheater next to the town library, just a few hundred feet from the harbor. The Camden Civic Theatre presents plays in the restored brick Camden Opera House. Classical and chamber music concerts are offered year-round at the Rockport Opera House by Bay Chamber Concerts. The Conway Homestead and Cramer Museum, a mile south of town along Route 1, includes a restored 18th-century farmhouse, a barn displaying antique carriages and sleighs, a blacksmith shop and an 1820 maple sugar house. The complex, run by the Camden-Rockport Historical Society, is open Tuesday-Friday 10 to 4 in July and August. Shopping pursuits. Camden is a mecca for
sophisticated shopping, and all kinds of interesting specialty stores
and boutiques pop up every year, particularly along Bay View Street. On
Main Street, Planet is a world marketplace with a trendy
selection of gifts, housewares, accessories, medicinal herbals, toys,
children’s things and more, many with a nature or planetary theme.
Planet’s former location across the street is now Emporium, featuring
contemporary women’s apparel with a worldly theme. A traditional
favorite for men’s and women’s clothing is the House of Logan. Gourmet
foods and wines augment the traditional flowers at Lily, Lupine &
Fern. Surroundings offers “durable goods” for home and garden. The
Smiling Cow, a venerable gift shop with a myriad of Maine items, has
a great view from its rear porch over the Megunticook River, which
ripples down the rocks toward the harbor; you can take in the
picturesque scene while sipping complimentary coffee or tea between
shopping forays. The Right Stuff speaks for itself with home
accessories and women’s wear. Along Bay View Street, The Owl and the Turtle is an excellent, many-roomed bookstore on two floors. Wild Birds Unlimited has an amazing collection of bird feeders, carved birds, birdsong tapes and the like. Custom-dyed cotton clothing is featured at Cotton Garden. Bed and bath accessories and lingerie are the forte of Theo B. Camisole & Co. The Admiral's Buttons has preppy clothing and sailing attire. We bought a handcrafted Maine wooden bucket for use as a planter from Once a Tree, which also has great clocks, toys, bracelets and everything else made from wood. Unique One stocks a great selection of sweaters done by local knitters.
Farnsworth Art Museum and the Wyeth Center, 356 Main St., Rockland. What began as a modest art museum and library in
1948 has blossomed into one of the nation’s leading regional art
museums. With the Andrew Wyeth family deciding to make it the repository
for their Maine-related works, the Farnsworth doubled its size in 1998
and again in 2000. It has sprawled across five new or restored buildings
into a “campus” covering two and one-half city blocks. The heart of
the complex remains the original Georgian-style brick museum and library
funded by the estate of Lucy Copeland Farnsworth, which grew to the
point where it now holds one of the best collections of Maine art in the
world. The opening of the Wyeth Center in 1998 in the former Pratt
Memorial Methodist Church put Rockland on the art map nationally. The
Jamien Morehouse Wing in 2000 was the icing on the cake. Occupying the
site of a former five-and-dime store, it offers more gallery space for
the growing collection (now 9,000 works) as well as an excellent museum
shop fronting on Main Street, which has inspired the opening of more
galleries, shops and restaurants nearby. Despite rapid growth, the
Farnsworth retains a sense of the personal. It is reflected in the
exhibit descriptions and catalogs and is obvious in the tours of the
museum’s Olson House on the nearby Cushing peninsula, made famous by
the Wyeth painting Christina’s World. Dudley Rockwell, longtime
Olson neighbor and Andrew’s brother-in-law, gives tours and lectures
there. (207) 596-6457. www.farnsworthmuseum.org. Open
daily 9 to 5, Memorial Day to Columbus Day; closed Sunday morning and
Monday rest of year. Adults, $9.
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