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July 4, 2003
Let me just start by saying that Maine, Mount Desert Island in particular, is very far away from Philadelphia.
We knew that it was a twelve hour drive when we booked the trip but somehow you can't really imagine twelve hours in the car until you're actually doing it. It's a looooooong way.
We had packed the car before we went to bed so all we had to do in the morning was eat breakfast, get gas and hit the road. We were officially on our way by 8:30. The first several hours of the trip were fine. It was a beautiful day, the traffic wasn't too hectic and things were pretty good when we finally stopped for lunch in Connecticut at around 1:00. Our only problem was that we were stuck at a kind of icky rest-stop Burger King and I was worried that I was getting sunburn through the car window. So far so good.
The next leg of the trip was when things started to get rough. Brian had been driving the whole time and he was getting kind of antsy and uncomfortable so we decided to stop for a rest once we finally made it to Maine. So we stopped at a little park in Portland (Maine's largest city but still teeny tiny by our standards) and watched some guys play baseball and we kind of took stock of things. It was probably around 3 or 4 by now and they were starting to close down some of the roads to set up for the 4th of July festivities. Time to move on up the coast to Freeport and the L.L. Bean store. I drove during this stretch but it shouldn't really count since it's about a half hour away from Portland. Maybe less.
Freeport is a giant outlet town. We went to the big L.L. Bean store and got really cute lobster lollipops to bring home as souveniers. Brian tried on boots and we both picked up some good hiking socks. He got some cool sunglasses too. After about an hour and a half of browsing we hit the road again.
We stopped for dinner and gas in some tiny off the highway town around 7 and our only real option was McDonald's. Did you know they sell lobster rolls at McDonald's in Maine? We learned all about the special "Maine blend" of meat from this very nice McDonald's manager guy but we were both still too chicken to order one. Back in the car and on to Ellsworth, a town 18 miles from Bar Harbor, where we were staying for the night.
On the highway on the way to Ellsworth we saw a couple neat things: eagles nests and one eagle (or at least a big giant bird in the nest) and giant bugs that were nearly as big as actual eagles. We got to the hotel around 10:30, completely exhaused but glad to have all the horrible driving behind us.
July 5, 2003
We got up early, to beat the traffic onto Mount Desert Island (MDI), and had breakfast of homemade muffins at the motel. (The Twilite Motel in Ellsworth is really quaint and the muffins were totally yummy.)
There was some traffic getting onto MDI but nothing too bad and before you knew it we were at the Visitor's Center. Whew! Was that crowded! It's really tiny, which I found kind of surprising since it's such a busy park and it was really bustling. We watched the movie there, grabbed a map and hit the Park Loop Road to get our first glimpe of everything Acadia had to offer.
First stop: the summit of Cadillac Mountain, highest point on the eastern seaboard and they say the first place the sun touches the earth in the United States each morning.
| Me & Brian at the top of Cadillac Mountain |
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| That's Frenchman's Bay behind us |
As you can see it was a little bit hazy that morning so the views were cool but not the best we'd see that week. It was HOT up there -- the summit is exposed granite and there is no shade so it was pretty brutal. We walked around some but didn't stay too long since it was crowded and we thought that we'd come back another day on foot.
By now, our muffins had worn off so we set off looking for somewhere to have lunch. We heard that Jordan Pond House in the park was a great place to stop "popovers at Jordan Pond House are a must" according to the guidebooks. Well, it was mobbed and there wasn't even a hint of a parking space so we kept going and somehow took a wrong turn (I was driving of course) and wound up outside the park. This turned out to be a good thing because we found a small roadside take-out place where we had a really good lunch. I had my first lobster roll (fresh lobster meat, lettuce and a tiny bit of mayo on a toasted hot dog roll) and followed it up with homemade blueberry pie ala mode. Yum! A perfect Maine lunch! Brian had chili and peanut butter pie. We felt tons better with better fuel and headed back to the park to check out the place called Thunder Hole
| Thunder Hole Area |
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Thunder Hole is just gorgeous. The area surrounding it is exactly what you picture when you think of Maine's rocky shoreline. Giant pink granite boulders that you can climb all over, crashing surf, blue sky and pine trees. It's just spectacular. We spent several hours just watching the tide roll in and laying on the rocks. Considering that this is one of the more popular areas of the park it was really peaceful and the crowds weren't too pesky. I think the fact that you are limited only by your common sense and bravery as to which rocks you want to lay on really gives you a chance to get away from the throngs of people and feel like you're all alone. Most unusual sighting of the day: an Asian man wearing dress pants, thin socks, no shoes, a shirt and tie, climbing on rocks and talking on his cell phone. Totally bizarre!
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the rocks and made our way into Bar Harbor to pick up the key to the house and got settled. We rented a townhouse that was about a three minute walk to the center of town and was really the perfect spot. A little noisy falling asleep but we got used to that rather quickly. We had dinner on Main Street at a place called Rupununi's Restaurant. It sounds far more exotic than it was. I had some delicious lobster in garlic butter and Brian had some giant fish and chips plate. Overall a good dinner but not great.
| Frenchman's Bay from Bar Island |
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July 6, 2003
Bar Island, Sand Beach, Great Head Hike
We slept in, had breakfast, and set out for Bar Island which is an island that you can see from town but is only accessible via a giant exposed strip of sand that is revealed at low tide. We crossed as soon as we could, around 10:30 and went for a nice hike around the small island checking out some fabulous views of Frenchman's Bay. You can see some of the giant richy-rich houses from here too. On the way back to the main island we saw some people setting off on kayak trips and we watched a sea gull capture and devour a pretty big starfish. It was like the real live Discovery Channel!
We had lunch in a restaurant on the water (crabcake sandwich for me, salmon sandwhich for B) and relaxed while we listened to a guy with a guitar play songs by request. I was trying to get Brian to ask him to play "Where is Thumbkin" which was on his playlist but he wouldn't do it.
After lunch we headed to the Village Green and caught the Island Explorer bus to Sand Beach. Island Explorer is this awesome free bus service that will take you (and your bike!) all over Mount Desert Island and to most of the best spots in Acadia.
Sand Beach is the only sandy beach in the park where you can swim in the ocean. Of course, the ocean only gets to 55 degrees on it's warmest day in August so how much swimming you can do depends on how crazy you are. It's very pretty there though, with the ocean and the soft sand with the mountains jutting up in the background.
As soon as we got to the Beach we headed straight across it to the trailhead for the Great Head trail. This takes you up a rocky climb and gives you awesome views of Sand Beach, the ocean and Champlain mountain & the Beehive trail (a crazy vertical climb I'll tell you about later.) We spent hours here climbing on rocks, checking out the tidepools and just being amazed at how pretty it is.
It was a pretty hot day and after a couple hours of climbing I was starting to get a little worn out. Actually it was my pesky left knee that was getting worn out. I tightened up my shoe laces and that seemed to stablize the knee and make it feel better, but we decided to call it a day rather than press on and risk me being out of commission for the rest of the trip. We climbed down and hung out on the beach for a little while and psycho Brian actually decided to go swimming!
I must explain that he takes great pride in swimming for extended periods of time in ocean water that normal people barely want to even dip their feet into. But even he was daunted by this icy stuff. He put his feet in and ran right back out saying that he didn't think he could do it. But eventually he psyched himself up and got wet -- he even floated around for about 30 seconds or so before dashing out to warm up. That water is COLD. I'll post some pictures of that momentous event (I can't today I forgot to bring the CD to the office!)
We had dinner at the townhouse this night because we were starving and too lazy to head into town. Early to bed and early to rise for a day of cycling on Monday.
| Ocean Temp |
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| "around 50 degrees" |
| Crazy swimming Brian |
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July 7, 2003
Bikes are Fun
We decided to rent bikes for a day and I have to admit I was a little nervous about this because I haven't done a lot of cycling in my life. The guy at the rental place (Acadia Bike) was really nice and he gave us a handy map and showed us a great route that would take us right from the shop, into the park, around Eagle Lake and Jordan Pond and then back to the bike shop. He warned us that it wasn't completely flat but that it wasn't horrible either. Total miles: about 25. I was still nervous, but thanks to the Island Explorer busses a ride home is never that far away!
| Me by the shore of Eagle Lake |
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I don't know why I was worried! The bike ride was awesome! It may have even been the best part of the trip for me. Getting out of Bar Harbor and into the park was easy, although there's a bit of a hill to get into the park. The bike guy had warned us that most people walked their bikes up this hill and that made me determined not to be one of those wimpy people. It didn't even look like a big hill but it sure felt like one. It was good practice with gear shifting too, so it prepared me for later in the day when we tackled the ride up to the summit of Day Mountain.
We had a pretty easy ride along Eagle Lake, which is big and quite pretty, and we were surprised how few people we saw along the way. I mean considering how packed the bike trails are at home this was amazing! We saw a couple of families but hardly anybody. Eventually we came upon a giant pile of spider-infested boulders lining road and stopped to admire the view and have some snacks before we continued down to Jordan Pond where we were going to have the required popovers at the Jordan Pond House.
Let me tell you, Jordan Pond House may be the most overrated thing in all of Maine. The popovers tasted good, sure, but as Brian put it "What's the big deal? It's a hollow muffin." And I think he's right! The scenery is quite beautiful though and having lunch on the lawn would be nice. (We ate inside because we were really hot!)
I will say that there is a great store hidden here though.They had cool touristy souveniers but also nice camelbacks and sunglasses and other nifty hiker gadgets.
We also spent some time watching cool ducks in the pond. I can't explain it exactly but they'd swim along normally for a few minutes and then suddenly take off and ZOOOOM face first across the pond chasing some food. It was awesome!
After lunch, and a highly amusing bit of entertainment when I watched about 50 angry women throw fits because the ladies room was being cleaned, we set off on our bikes again. Oh yeah, Brian had a run in here too, where he waited patiently for a dude to fill up a 2 liter bottle at the water fountain. Then Brian starts to fill up our two teeny little bike bottles and the 2-liter guy comes over and barges in front of him in between bottles insisting that he be allowed to take a drink and not have to wait while Brian fills his bottle. The nerve! Drink from your 2 liter bottle or wait your turn! Sheesh! Anyway, after all that we were rested, fueled and had plenty of water for our trip to Day Mountain, the only summit reachable from the carriage trails.
UGH! It's was totally uphill both ways I swear. On the way up we kept getting stuck behind big wagons full of people being carted up by horses. (I have to admit this was good because it gave me an excuse to go so slowly!) I was very proud of myself that I never copped out and pushed the bike. We made it up there and had some good views and relaxed before heading back down to catch the next bus home.
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