New England and Canada Trip - Part 3

Bar Harbor, Maine

 

Pronounced by the locals, "Bah Habuh", Bar Harbor is a town I could easily live in and be very happy there, I think.  Dave and I loved it!

 

We had to tender (take smaller boats to shore) from our cruise ship.  The short ride to shore was everything you would expect a New England coastal town to be.

 

 

There was a US Government shutdown still in effect.  But Dave and I were determined to see Acadia National Park, even though it was officially closed.  Since Phil used to work for the National Park Service he had a friend who told us that, although cars weren't allowed in the park, walkers and cyclists were unofficially allowed.  So we rented bicycles at the first place we found after coming ashore.  The lady at the counter said, "So you understand, the park is closed.  But here is a map showing the biking and hiking trails and here are directions to get the closed park,"

It was about a two mile bike ride to get to Acadia from downtown.  The ride along the way was beautiful.

Always afraid of being cold, I wore a down vest under my coat and brought an additional coat in my backpack "just to be safe".  Overkill. 

 

 "Sneaking" into the park, past the barricades.

 The lady at the bike shop told us that it would probably be too difficult for us to bike to the top of the highest mountain in the park - Cadillac Mountain-but  that people have done it.  We decided to take the challenge.

 As we began our ascent we could see our cruise ship in the bay. (Behind the hill in the middle)

 The ride to the top overlooks Frenchman's Bay.

The autumn leaves were beyond belief.  I loved the contrast of the blue ocean as a backdrop.

 

 

There's our ship again.

 And again.  It kind of became our point of reference as we continued our climb. By that time I had shed my coat.

 

 

 We had the park almost completely to ourselves.  We did come across people several times and were glad to have them take a shot of the two of us together.

 

 Eagle Lake.

 Frenchman's Bay, with it's lovely little islands. (And our ship again)

 

 Three hours later, we made it to the top of the mountain.  What a view!

We were told Cadillac Mountain is the tallest mountain on the Northeastern Seaboard. 

 My token "nature shot".

 View from the top.

 

The trees formed a canopy on some parts of the road.  It was so nice to not have to worry about being hit by a car.

 

 

 What took three hours to climb only took one hour to descend. Dave was loving the homes we passed as we came back into town.

 

 

 We figured we burned enough calories in four hours to justify some blueberry pie, which Maine is famous for.  So, Dave googled where the best blueberry pie in Bar Harbor was.  It was easy to find with our phone GPS and "oi la" we were there!  We were starving so we got a cup of clam chowder first, which turned out to be the creamiest we had ever had.

 The pie was unbelievably good.  Hot, with ice cream, made it even better.

 

 

 As we took the tender back to the ship we were very content with our day on shore.

 

Afternoons and evenings on the ship meant some fun family time.  We enjoyed the Name Game and Dominoes and just visiting.