Maine-ly For Fun, Part 4 - Acadia National Park

Once we were settled in the cottage, we headed to the coast to Bar Harbor (or Bah Hahbah, if you're a native speaker ;-)




We looked out in the harbor and saw an enormous cruise ship. We have been on both sides of the cruise ship crowd in town. We were the crowd a few years ago. When we were in Hawaii the last time, we could see the ships from our Bed and Breakfast - and would decide NOT to go to town that day - just too many people. The crowd was tremendous in Bar Harbor, so maneuvering around town was difficult.




We decided to escape the madness of all the souvenir hunters and headed out for some sight-seeing in Acadia National Park. It was a perfect weather day, and it was a beautiful place to be. The guys wanted to hike up Bee Hive Mountain. I headed the other direction, down a hill to a nice "facility", if you know what I mean. Imagine my surprise when I found a beautiful sand beach down those steps - a sandy beach surrounded by forest, something I'd never seen before.

These kids were having a great time - the water in this part of the ocean never gets any warmer than 50 degrees - I think this little guy could have used a few more clothes!

Here's proof positive that there is actually a lifeguard - chained up for the winter - so some people actually brave those 50 degree waters in the summertime.

I loved watching the crashing waves, and trying to catch them at just the right moment.

The rocks on this beach reminded me of the lava rocks on the beach on the Big Island - the rocks where I have slipped and hurt myself the first day of each of our trips. I was really really careful to not have a repeat of those mishaps on the seaweed-slippery rocks.

There were crowds from the ship everywhere we went, but we managed to find some spots that were not inhabited --

How'd you like to inhabit this house??




Or this one??




We thought this guy was pretty nuts in view of all the tourist buses that were on the rather narrow road. To each his own madness!

We visited Thunder Hole again - we were there last November when we went to see Kevin - it was a cold and foggy day, and the sound of the crashing water was proof of the name of this popular tourist site. Back in August, 2009, Hurricane Bill was wreaking havoc up the coast and this article tells of the horrific result: Three Swept Out to Sea at Thunder Hole. This day, the water wasn't quite as loud as last year, but still worth the stop.

It was so great to be spending this beautiful day in this beautiful place with Kevin.





This little guy was used to being fed, me thinks. We didn't have anything to give him, but he stuck around in hope.

It was a great photo op day --




Maybe this will be our Christmas card picture (if I get Christmas cards out this year - I'm doing the community choir again, plus the church one, so have to get busy around Thanksgiving Day, if I plan to do that this year).

Finally - a couple more shots of one of my two photo obsessions (cemeteries and crashing ocean waves) --

I'll close with this funny story. We went back to Bar Harbor and decided to have a light, early dinner. We went to a place called "Rupununi" - it was named for a river in Argentina. The owner had done a research project down there and fell in love with this river, or at least its name. How he ended up with a restaurant in Maine remains a mystery, even to him. The menu consisted of typical seaside food, plus a few interesting South American treats. We ordered empanadas with crab, cheese, and corn, as an appetizer. And I ordered a bowl of clam chowder for each of us. We had prefaced our order with the fact that we just wanted a light meal, and the waitress had a great sense of humor, telling us that wasn't okay and we needed to leave. She gave me the funniest look when I placed the order and I wondered why. Soon she appeared with the empanadas, 3 spoons, and one bowl of chowder. I thought maybe she hadn't been able to bring all 3, but she left and came back with coffee and no more soup. I said, "You did get that we wanted 3 bowls of chowder, right?" "No,", she said, "I thought you wanted one to share!" We had such a good laugh over that - she must have thought we were really really cheap!

It was good and a great day ended with a wonderful, restful evening and a good night's rest in the cottage.


Stay tune for Part 5 - The Rainy Season