Coastal comforts

Along this southern coast, west of Brunswick and east of Boothbay Harbor and Camden, is Harpswell, a group of finger peninsulas and over 200 islands that include Great Island (Sebascodegan), Orr’s Island, and Bailey Island. In spite of the names, the peninsulas are connected by bridges. Harpswell Inn is located on Harpswell Neck, the peninsula closest to Brunswick. It faces Middle Bay, which is filled with lobster boats, a picturesque scene that everyone can sit and stare at for hours. Another bird lands on a lobster boat and it feels like an event.

The inn offers plenty of places to contemplate the water. Dick and Anne Moseley bought the 1761 house seven years ago; they lived across the street for 38 years. She was raised here and had her eye on it. The two are gregarious, she more so than he. The inn had been a cookhouse when ship building was a thriving industry, then a boarding house, which is when Anne first went inside as a little girl. “We summered in our own house across the street,’’ she says, “and we took our meals here.’’ She remembers cookie and doughnut jars in the kitchen; the couple continues that hospitality.

Members of a car group meet here annually, as do cyclists, knitters, weavers, and quilters. An inviting sitting room is like an old shoe, with an oversized stone fireplace, chairs that you sink into, a grand piano, big stacks of board games, and two puzzle tables. There are nine rooms — only one where you cannot see the bay, except from the bathroom — three suites, four cottages, and a 50-seat function room.

Our high bed comes with a footstool. The room has a loveseat, framed artwork to match the yellow and blue wallpaper, and a large bathroom with a dark Burgundy tub and separate shower. It’s the kind of comfortable place you might have stayed in if your grandmother owned a nice house.

Dick Moseley was a vocational cooking teacher in Brunswick for 22 years. Anne ran Auburn Colony in Harpswell for 20 years, a private summer resort started in 1886 by Auburn textile factory owners, who arrived via Portland and a steamer at South Harpswell.

Over lunch, our waitress at Cook’s Lobster House on Bailey Island, where picture windows overlook Cribstone Bridge, tells us about it. The bridge was built in 1927 from interlocking granite bricks. The stone, which is local, was considered strong enough to withstand the beating of daily tides. It did eventually erode and was rebuilt last year. Cook’s, a family-run operation opened in 1955, serves honest and delicious seafood — fish chowder, lobster roll, fish cakes — and Indian pudding, all homemade. There are other spots, or take the scenic route and drive around and find a sign for “Public Haddock Supper’’ or “Bean Dinner.’’

At Harpswell Inn, Anne Moseley makes a blueberry pound cake with tiny wild Maine blues. She thinks the recipe came from her cousin’s grandmother. Instructions read: “Fold in the blueberries lovingly.’’ Dick does most of the other cooking. The blueberry cake or another homemade confection is a first course at breakfast, then comes a hot dish, perhaps an omelet plump enough to split between two diners, or thick French toast.

There are hard and easy hiking trails in the region, lots to do in neighboring Brunswick and Bath, beaches, and good antiquing. Shopping is what gets visitors off the lawn chairs and into the car. They come to one of the most serene places on earth, then leave the tranquillity behind and head to Freeport. “The No. 1 thing people do is go to L.L. Bean,’’ says Anne Moseley.

After a breakfast of her divine blueberry cake, no doubt, and a great blue heron sighting.

Sheryl Julian can be reached at julian@globe.com.