Causeway on Deer Isle
So, tonight we're in Bar Harbor, the gateway to Acadia National Park. That's Baaa HaaaBaaaaa, Maine -You can buy t-shirts here with that spelling. As has been the case all along with this trip (so far, anyway,) we are just ahead of the wave - not quite everything is open yet, including most of the roads in the park. Some of that is seasonal, but the dreaded sequestration is in play here, too. We have a yellow insert with our park map explaining what's open, and when. Next weekend, in most cases. Ah well, I'd still rather be here when there aren't a whole lot of people, and we'll still be able to see some of the park, both by car, and on foot.
We're here for two nights, a first on this trip. Looking forward to sleeping in a bit, spreading out a bit, and taking a bit of time both in town and in the park. We had no problems walking up to the Bar Harbor Inn and getting a oceanside room, which is lovely. There's a nice path that runs along the waterfront, and we've strolled parts of it already.
But, back to the start of the day. Our digs in Camden really were cozy and friendly. We ate our homemade continental breakfast in the owners' house, which was built in the 1600s. Charming. It was rainy and foggy as we set off, first to look for the Camden Snow Bowl - that's right, a ski hill very near the ocean. Camden's town motto is "where the mountains meet the sea", in fact. It's about 5 miles out of town, next to Hosmer Pond. It's a small hill, one chairlift, a couple of T-bars. But! It has a toboggan chute! Although I grew up sledding and riding toboggans, I had yet to see one of these. We tramped up the path to the top of the chute, seeing how it ran down the hill and ended right at the pond. Presumably, the pond is frozen in winter :-) The 2013 US National Toboggan Championship took place here, too. We met a local guy who was walking his hound dog through the woods - doggie didn't care that it was rainy and drippy!
After getting our fill of off-season ski areas, we headed back out through Camden, and started north-northeast again. Nancy drew up an itinerary today that highlighted lots of side trips down various peninsulas and onto islands. They're everywhere along this coast! Even though it was rainy and, at times, foggy, it was still pretty (besides, we're from Washington state, where we're used to viewing things through rain and fog!) It's fun to be driving along the road and thinking "wonder what's up around the bend?" And, where we were today, we often found water of all kinds - ocean, lake, river. And, bridges to cross the water. Lots of pastures, houses large and small. And, Subarus. Obviously, a car that's suited to this part of the country!
We took a moment to check out the Fort Point lighthouse, another of the many pretty lighthouses along the coast. It, too, wasn't quite open for business yet, but we got to take a quick look anyway.
We crossed onto Deer Isle via the impressive Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge, - yes, we're bridge geeks. We wound our way down to Stonington at the south end crossing over a cool causeway in the process. Stonington's a pretty village, where one can catch a passenger ferry to Isle au Haut. We didn't do that - but we did have lunch in a local cafe, where we got a serving of local accents :-)
Back on the road, and a meander over toward Mt Desert Island & Bar Harbor. The rain lightened up a bit, and I even had to break out the sunglasses. Saw lots of houses that are combos of house-garage-barn, or something like that. A long extended building, with two stories on either end, and a single story in between. Lots of lobster traps along the way (and we're noticing lobster trap floats used as decorations in town here, and elsewhere.) Lobster!
We did a quick looky-loo at the Bar Harbor Airport (!) and stopped off at the Acadia National Park Information Center along the highway. They'd just opened for the season today! And, that's how we found out about the roads, etc.
So, here we are in Bar Harbor. The town itself is definitely set up for tourists (no surprise there) but, as we're tourists ourselves, well.... We wandered around town for a bit before dinner, making notes of places to visit tomorrow.
View from our hotel. Not too shabby...
An amusing observation - because Maine also passsed a gay marriage law last November, there are lots of same-sex couples planning weddings in this state, too. While I got us checked into the hotel, Nancy overhead a couple discussing their plans with a hotel representative "well, we have to include vegan options in our tasting menu...."
I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff as usual, but anyway.. Can't wait to see more of this wonderful coastline tomorrow. Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there, especially our own! :-)
cheers,
--Nancy and Kit
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