1. Maine Sport Outfitters
City: Rockport, ME
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (207) 236-7120
Address: Route 1
Description: A gigantic outfitter, this Midcoast staple recently finished another expansion and now has 30,000 square feet of space. It fills it with a good selection of outdoor products, from tents to packs to canoes, but the place has a reputation for being expensive (and you don’t get the unconditional guarantee here that you do at L.L. Bean).
2. Michael Good Designs
City: Rockport, ME
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (207) 236-9619
Description: Anticlastic raising—this guy is synonymous with it. If you want anticlastic raised jewelry, you want Michael Good’s designs. What is it? It’s a jewelry-making process taken from hammered sheet metal, and it’s characterized by twisted and flattened pieces. Good has made a big mark in the field. See his Spirit Sun pendant; it’s truly beautiful.
3. State Of Maine Cheese Company
City: Rockport, ME
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (207) 236-8895 or (800) 762-88
Address: 461 Commercial St.
Description: There’s a lot more going on at this Route 1 store between Rockland and Camden than simply cheese making. The company expanded a while back and opened a 9,500-square-foot space where they both make their Katahdin cheddar, Saint Croix black pepper, Casco Bay garlic jack, and variety of other flavors—you can watch the production from windows in the store—and where they sell a slew of Made in Maine items. You can load up on cheeses, condiments, jellies, coffees, mustards, pickles, honeys, even chocolates, bringing home the tastiest souvenirs you ever did buy, or fashion a gift basket for friends and family back home.
4. Sweet Sensations
City: Rockport, ME
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (207) 230-0955
Address: 309 Commercial St. (Route 1)
Description: This is the pastry store of all pastry stores in the Midcoast. Great cakes and pies—by the slice!—cookies, macaroons, brownies, and sweets of all sorts fill a nice old Cape on Route 1. Certified pastry chef Steven Watts also does wedding cakes and custom orders.
5. Bay Chamber Concerts
City: Rockport, ME
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (207) 236-2823 or (888) 707-27
Address: 10 Summer St.
Description: Best known for its summer chamber music concerts, this outfit established in 1961 also hosts jazz, folk, and world music shows by acts like the Paul Winter Consort, Judy Collins, and Inca Son. They do 30 shows a year, at 8 p.m. every Wednesday and Thursday in summer, and half the fun is just getting inside the beautiful old downtown opera house, which has been attractively renovated (and cooled with air-conditioning). Bay Chamber also has a radio broadcast series of its archived concerts. Ticket prices vary.