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GEORGE WASHINGTON escaped to Mount Vernon. John Kennedy headed for Hyannis Port. And Ronald Reagan always found solace at Rancho del Cielo. But no president's personal hideaway has meant more to him than Kennebunkport means to George Bush. "It would just kill me," the president once declared, standing in the salt-scented wind on Walker's Point, "not to come to this place." Bush tells friends he has always found "refurbishment" at his $2-million family estate on the rocky Maine coast, where he and the first lady relaxed during the long July 4 weekend and where they plan to spend nearly three weeks starting this Wednesday. Surrounded by family, friends and staff, the president pitches horseshoes, jogs, goes fishing and watches the antics of his grandchildren on a greensward littered with their tricycles, Big Wheels and other prepubescent paraphernalia. He regularly ambles from his huge pastel-green sunroom to a deck overlooking the Atlantic and, if the wind and tides are right, bounds into his Cigarette boat, Fidelity, for an exhilarating ride toward Bumpkin Island or Cape Porpoise. But Walker's Point (named after his grandfather and namesake, George Herbert Walker and his great-grandfather) is much more than a Club Med where grandfather knows best. It is the place where George Bush feels most comfortable spending time in contemplation -- a pursuit that does not come naturally to him. "He likes that setting to consider complex issues," says a key member of his administration. "He likes to make big decisions there." In June 1988, lagging 20 points behind Democrat Michael Dukakis in the polls, Bush convened his brain trust, including Lee Atwater, Dick Darman and John Sununu, in Kennebunkport and made a variety of decisions crucial to his victory. He concluded, for example, that only a highly negative attack strategy would win that fall. And he decided to emphasize his goal of becoming the "education president" and to vehemently resist tax increases as part of his "flexible freeze" budget strategy. Two months ago, riled by criticism that he was being outfoxed by Mikhail Gorbachev and was incapable of bold initiatives, Bush summoned his national-security advisers to Walker's Point and finalized the conventional-arms initiative that he unveiled at the NATO summit. Over the Independence Day weekend, Bush made final plans for his successful July visit to Europe, including putting finishing touches on his economic-aid package for Poland and Hungary and his environmental initiative at the economic summit in Paris. White House chief of staff John Sununu had initially made plans for a serious policy-making jag during this month's stay in Maine but pulled back after the president and first lady emphasized their desire to make the trip "largely vacation," in the words of one White House official. But since then Bush has been building his schedule back up again. He decided to host Danish Prime Minister and Mrs. Poul Schluter at the retreat on Aug. 24-25 and Canadian Prime Minister and Mrs. Brian Mulroney and their family at the end of the month. It is also clear, aides say, that Bush will have to make decisions on his administration's drug policy, set to be announced the week after he returns from Maine on Sept. 4. Bush's use of Kennebunkport as a decision-making venue is a major departure from the approach of his supposed mentor. Ronald Reagan seldom made decisions or even held meetings at his Santa Barbara ranch, preferring to spend time engaging in his trademark activities of chopping wood, clearing brush and riding horses. "But solitude does not rejuvenate Bush," says a friend. "He likes to have people around him. He likes to ask them about issues and things on his mind. He does not seek quiet time." At Kennebunkport, he is almost never alone, spontaneously inviting local friends over for dinner or summoning pals and officials from Washington (a 90-minute flight) for serious discussions and informal chats. Perhaps the best comparison is with John F. Kennedy's family compound at Hyannis Port, another elite New England community where, a generation ago, JFK both relaxed and set policy. Bush's willingness to make big decisions at Kennebunkport stems from the supportive familial atmosphere he finds there, an atmosphere from which he has always drawn strength and confidence. He has missed only one summer in Kennebunkport since boyhood, and that was in 1944 when he was piloting an Avenger torpedo bomber in the South Pacific. Bush recalls in his autobiography, "Looking Forward," that his family was "never closer or happier than when he crammed into the station wagon each summer five kids, two dogs, with Mother driving -- to visit Walker's Point." With such deep-rooted attachments, it's no wonder that he can't stay away now that he is president. "Kennebunkport has become part of the decision-making apparatus," says a senior White House official. "It's an extension of the Oval Office." Kenneth Walsh is a senior editor and the White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report.

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