Friday, the 24th, we started the day’s activities by going to the Visitor Center of Acadia National Park.
We watched a short film about the park and then a ranger spoke to the group about getting around the park. Leaving the Visitor Center we started out driving around the loop road within the park. We made several stops.
Sieur de Monts (a natural spring with a domed covering) is an area that once lawn parties were held.
Wild Gardens of Acadia were flower beds of the various native plants are grown. The parking areas near Sand Beach were full or nearly full causing us to park too far to go to the beach but we were able to see it from a distance. With water temperature of 51 degrees we had no desire to test out the water. Thunder Hole, an area that when the tide is incoming often makes a sound like thunder, was not thundering when we were there even with the incoming tide.
The drive was just beautiful as it was a bright sunny day with gorgeous blue skies. We interrupted our loop travels to search for some lunch. We had been recommended a place called “Chart Room” where we ate scallop dinners- it was okay but nothing to get excited about. After lunch we retreated back to the motorhome until later in the evening when we drove up Cadillac Mountain. Cadillac Mountain is the area that the sun first shines on in the U.S. at certain times of the year. The parking lot was filling up as people were wanting to see the sunset from that point. We were a little disappointed that with such a pretty day there was still a haze.
Today, Saturday, we returned this morning to Cadillac Mountain thinking the haze may be less for picture taking. Unfortunately, there was still some haziness but we did walk up and around the mountain top. The views from up there are just spectacular. There are numerous islands in the Atlantic waters that surround this area.
Coming down from the mountain we next stopped at the Jordan Pond House. This area has a restaurant that specializes in serving pop-overs and tea. There was quite a waiting line in place waiting to get served.
We passed on eating here. We did go into the gift shop which was one of the nicer shops in Acadia. This travel on the loop road this morning completed the loop for us. We then drove to the downtown area of Bar Harbor. Getting there about 11:30am we were able to get a parking spot with a 2 hour limit.
We went to the shops to look but didn’t buy anything. For lunch we ate at Stewman’s Lobster Pound on an open deck over looking the harbor area.
This lunch of lobster roll, cole slaw and fries (regular for Tom and sweet potato for me) was really good. Leaving downtown Bar Harbor we drove to the town of Ellsworth about 20 miles away. We stopped at a store called Reny’s that is supposed to be unique to Maine but we didn’t see anything to get excited about. But I did spy a beauty shop that had a sign about loving walk-ins and I was in need of a haircut so I was able to get that accomplished without much of a wait. L.L.Bean had an outlet in this town that we also checked out but didn’t find anything to buy. But we did find some Frosties to buy at a Wendy’s before returning to the motorhome.
