It was foggy again on our first day, so we chose to stick to the coastal areas because we figured we could at least see things close up that way. A mountain hike would be very anti-climatic since there wouldn't be anything to see once we got to the top. This turned out to be a great choice, as we were able to stay busy all day without the fog or rain interfering at all.
We spent the first part of day one in the beautiful town of Bar Harbor, exploring the town and enjoying a coffee from a local sweet shop on the pier as we strolled through the streets.
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| The obligatory tourist photo in Bar Harbor |
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| Restaurant area of Bar Harbor on the Pier |
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| Sorted lobsters at a restaurant on the Pier |
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| This isn't looking good for the sorted lobsters. Huge lobster pots |
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| Lobster traps sitting on the pier |
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| Downtown Bar Harbor, Maine |
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| Downtown Bar Harbor, Maine |
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| We had lunch at the Thirsty Whale in downtown Bar Harbor |
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| Fish and Chips with salad and the best lobster corn chowder we've ever had....excellent! At the Thirsty Whale. |
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| The Ticket Pier, Bar Harbor |
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| A walk along the coast, Bar Harbor, Maine |
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| Look at all the moss, it's a little bit humid here! |
Then we headed south out of town and into the national park. Somehow we missed the actual park entrance, and ended up further into the park than we had anticipated, and missed a few of the attractions that we had hoped to see, but the main road through the national park is one way, so we just kept going. Some of the main attractions we saw on day one were: Otter Point and Otter Cove (during low tide), then we wound around through the Blackwoods, going under several of the old carriage road bridges, which are exquisite, and are all unique.
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| Otter Point |
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| Otter Point |
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| View from above Otter Cove |
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| View from above Otter Cover |
Unfortunately we were not able to get a picture of any of the bridges because we would have had to stop in the middle of the road to do so, and we really didn't think that would be safe.
We continued on to Seal Harbor, with it's beautiful sand beach.
We enjoyed our time there for awhile, then continued north on Route 3 and back to our motel. After cleaning up for the evening, we went back to the pier in Bar Harbor and had a lobster dinner on the pier at the Fish House Grill.
If you are in before 6:00 it is $17.99 (the price went up to $24.99 after 6:00) for a lobster dinner including a nice dinner salad, potatoes and corn on the cob, and happy hour included $4 house wines and $4 microbrew drafts. It was a fun, relaxed dinner on the pier.
On day two, the fog cleared, and we talked about heading on one of the mountain hikes, but decided that it would be fun to repeat yesterday, and see everything again from a completely different perspective without the fog. We are very glad we did, because it ended up being a completely different day than yesterday. For starters, we were more careful going into the park, so we went through the real park entrance, paid our $25 for a seven day pass (one of which we used yesterday accidentally), and hit a few of the highlights that we missed yesterday. These included Sand Beach and Thunder Hole. Sand Beach was exactly that, a sandy beach, amongst all of the rock beaches on the east coast of the island.
We then continued along the rocky eastern shore and stopped many times to see the amazing views that were completely non-existant yesterday.
We really enjoyed relaxing to the waves on the coast. Below is a short video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0_CDxRfWCk
We returned to Otter Point and Otter Cove (which today was at high tide, so we didn't even get out) and continued on again to Seal Harbor.
At this point we were getting hungry for lunch, so we were in search of some fruits or vegetables to go with our bread (from the bread artisan yesterday) and hummus which we had purchased at the local market.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to find a market in Seal Harbor, so we continued on to Northeast Harbor, again with no luck. So we drove around the Somes Sound, and found ourselves in Southwest Harbor, where we stumbled upon a local farmer's market. As we waited for a parking spot, a very irate woman behind us just kept laying on her horn. She could have very easily gone around us, but we think she was trying to intimidate us into giving up on the spot we were waiting for so that she could have it. For those of you who know Steve....that wasn't going to happen! One of the booth operators at the farmer's market came out and waved her on, and then nicely told her off for not just going around us.
When we finally got parked and headed into the farmers market, his was the first booth we went to. We were very appreciative of his help with the parking situation, and thanked him, and were determined to buy something from him. Much of what he was selling was perishable and couldn't have been taken back home, so we ended up buying some homemade pepperoni from him (something that we would normally not buy, but decided to treat ourselves and help him out too). His family owned Brown's Family Farm, and their pepperoni was very good! As we made our way down the farmer's market, there were several organic produce stands, so we picked one that we liked and bought a pint of tomatoes to go with our bread, hummus and pepperoni.
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| The farmer's market |
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| The stand where we bought our tomatoes |
We drove further around the harbor and stumbled upon a big lobster pier, where there was a place called Beal's Lobster Pier (since 1932). It was a huge operation with lobster boats coming in and delivering to their dock, and a large lobster sorting shed also on the pier, where they sorted the lobster by size for cooking or shipping. We talked to one of the workers who did the cooking. He told us that he had already cooked more than 1,000 pounds of lobster that morning and it was barely noon!
The land side of the pier was their restaurant. Unfortunately, we already had our lunch waiting for us in the car, so we didn't want to eat here, but everyone was so friendly and allowed us to look around and take in all of the sights of this big lobster industry. It was really fascinating to us.
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| A full service lobster operation from boat to plate |
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| Unloading the lobster boat |
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| Crates of Lobsters floating until they can be brought in for sorting |
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| Lobsters ready for sorting |
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| buckets and buckets of lobster bait |
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| Storage tanks hold the sorted lobsters |
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| The restaurant |
When we left the lobster pier, we drove further around to the parking lot for the Cranberry Island Ferry. We set up our lunch on a stone bench, overlooking Southwest Harbor, and sat there for a long time enjoying the sights and sounds of the harbor.
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| What a great spot for lunch |
Many people came and went as we sat there. They were all extremely nice, most of them went out to their personal dingy's and headed out into the harbor to get on their boats. After lunch we made our way out onto the pier that you can see behind us in the above picture.
We then headed further down the coast to the Bass Harbor Light House, and then to Bass Harbor.
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| Bass Harbor Lighthouse, run by the U. S. Coast Guard |
We are amazed at how many working harbors there on along the east coast. Coming from a land locked state like Colorado, this is a whole new world to us, and a very busy world at that.
Our final stop on today's journey was a place called Wonderland. It is a beautiful hike through the woods that leads to a flat rocky shore full of tide pools. This place was so fun! We stayed for a long time exploring the sea life left behind when the tide retreats.
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| A huge wasp nest we discovered on our hike in to Wonderland |
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| bogs along the hike |
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| A Peekytoe crab and other interesting creatures |
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| Hundreds of these tide pools everywhere, and rangers helping tourists look for fun creatures |
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| Andra was in here element looking for fun stuff in the tidal pools! |
We finally headed back to our motel and got ready for dinner. We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Fathom in downtown Bar Harbor.
It was great. The food, the service and everything about it was perfect. We started out with a bottle of zinfandel, and then shared a Peekytoe crab cake appetizer. It came with a smoked tomato infused oil that was out of this world. We then shared a pickled beet with poached pear and goat cheese salad which was also amazing. For our entree's, Steve had lobster with gnocchi and I had pan seared sea scallops with carrots and green beans. They were both amazing, so we shared a maple syrup bread pudding for dessert. We would definitely go back! It was our best meal in Bar Harbor, hands down!, and luckily, we have some left over's to enjoy tomorrow.
We have spent the last two days at a motel called Robbins Motel. It is a very quaint, simple motel, with rates of $65 during peak season and $45 during off season. We were able to get our room for $55 per night off Trip Advisor. The rooms are small, as are the bathrooms, but very clean. When we had a little bit of spare time, we would sit in the two little chairs outside of our room and enjoy a beer or just talk. We really enjoyed the people that run it, they are so very nice. They leave their families behind in Jamaica from May to October to come work on Desert Island. We really enjoyed our stay at this "back in time" little motel. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures. We highly recommend this for a cheap place to stay.
As we have spent the last two day's on Mount Desert Island, we have reminisced about our time with Tony and Sarah (see August 23rd-25th posts for detailed information). It is amazing how much they taught us in the short time we spent with them. We talked a lot about the local people in coastal Maine, about how short the summers are, and how harsh the winters are. It has become very clear to us that it is very difficult to make a living in rural Maine. We truly admire the knowledge that Tony and Sarah shared with us through their stories, and the compassion that they have for others. They support their neighbors and community and bring laughter to the hearts of everyone around them. We have missed having them as our tour guides since we have been in Acadia, but mostly we've miss their laughter and friendship. Thank you guys so much for your amazing hospitality! We will never forget your kindness!
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