An Explorer's Guide
Maine

INNS AND BED & BREAKFASTS

Five Gables Inn
207-633-4551
1-800-451-5048
www.fivegablesinn.com
Murray Hill Road off Route 96,
P.O. Box 335,
East Boothbay 04544

Open mid-May through October.  Quite frankly, this place is perfect.  The best-kept secret in the Boothbays, Five Gables combines incredible luxury with unstuffy relaxation, two desirable qualities that don’t always go hand in hand.  Fifteen of the 16 rooms offer gorgeous views of Linekin Bay; most have queen-sized beds ( many with handmade quilts), and 5 have a working fireplace.  De and Mike Kennedy have renovated each one, adding details such as mural of a seascape and driftwood; built-in beds and book shelves crafted by Mike; and a marble mantel hauled by De all the way from her family’s ancestral home n Savannah, Georgia.  Try one of the third-floor gable rooms, which are smaller but offer some of the best views of the water.  In good weather take a dip off the public access dock across the street, play games by the fireplace in the common room, pick Mike’s brain about surfing the California coast in the 1960’s, or just hang out in the hammock on the wraparound veranda, watching one of Maine’s famous summer thunderstorms.  An extensive buffet breakfast, prepared by Mike, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, is included in a $130-195 double.  Afternoon tea comes with home-baked goodies and port.