Our home base for the week was the scenic campus of the College of the Atlantic, a small, ecologically oriented liberal arts school within walking distance of downtown Bar Harbor. Visiting families, generally around 20 per session, stay in sparsely furnished dormitory suites with shared bathrooms. Most families sleep two campers to a room, which can be quite a bonding experience if your roommate is a hamper-challenged 12-year-old boy (my daughter wisely chose to room with her mother).

Just a short stroll away was the college's airy cafeteria, where three times a day we were treated to that rarity of family life, a stress-free meal. I had forgotten how easy cafeteria dining is: there's no agonizing over the menu, no waiting for food, and no problem going back for seconds. We could eat our fill in 15 minutes and be off to our next activity, which, thanks to hard-to-resist offerings like homemade fish chowder, chicken potpie, and blueberry cobbler, was often heading back to the dorm to digest. Because COA students tend to reject anything institutional, "most everything served is made from scratch," notes Jean Boddy, the camp's program director.

Still, eating off cafeteria trays and sharing bathrooms with strangers aren't usually the stuff of vacation memories, and initially the forced intimacy of the arrangements made us all feel a bit like awkward freshmen. By week's end, however, the luxury of being able to enjoy wholesome meals without grocery shopping, cooking, or washing dishes made up for the pitter-patter of strange feet in the dorm hall. And as Sarah noted, it was a good way to introduce the kids to college life -- minus all-night cram sessions and frat parties, of course.

Please keep in mind that phone numbers, addresses, and prices are subject to change. Updated July 2005.