2002 Acadia

Gina's mom offered to watch the kids for a few days so we were all set. On Wednesday 9/25 we left for the airport right after the kids got on the bus. Traffic was bad and we were seriously worrying that we would not make the flight. We did though (but with no time to spare) and did not even have any difficulty with standby. *** A couple hours later we were on the ground in Bangor Maine and on our way to the park (about an hour drive from the airport).

Of course we had to make a KFC pitstop for lunch.

Our next stop was to check into our hotel, the Quimby House Inn. The folks who own/run this were incredibly nice. They were nearly full when I booked reservations so we were going to stay in a small room the first night and then an efficiency apartment the next night. At checkin they let us stay in the efficiency for both nights though (with the smaller room rate ;-). The room was very clean and decorated nicely. The inn is located about a 5 minute walk from the center of town and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in visiting Acadia. *** Since our time was limited, we headed right off to Bass Harbor to see a working lobster town and watch the sun set at the lighthouse.

We stopped on the way at the beach on Echo Lake. There were hardly any people there, certainly none that were swimming. The sky was crystal clear and the scenery was beautiful.

As we passed over a bridge I saw a great photo opportunity so I had to stop and walk back to get this shot. Fortunately Gina is use to my photo-stops and does not mind waiting while I take 15 minutes to get a single good picture. *** We drive through the very small town of Bass Harbor but never did find a decent place to park and walk around thus no pictures. Just imagine a bazzilion lobster cages stacked on numerous wood piers with a harbor full of fishing boats of all sizes and shapes.

Onwards to the light house, or "Head Light" according to the sign. Whatever- I'm going to call it a light house as head lights are what I replace on my car.

Neat, but I'm perhaps missing the appeal that makes this "one of the most photographed spots in Maine", according to the sign. It is actually a residence where the Commander of the Southwest Harbor Coast Guard Group lives. I wonder just how big the "Southwest Harbor Coast Guard Group" is... I suspect the entire group may live here ;-).

Ahh, a much better view of the light house can be found by walking down a short path to the water. We arrived about an hour before sunset so we found a nice spot and just enjoyed the cool sea air and watch dolphins swimming just off the coast.

A line of clouds moved in just as the sun was setting putting a bit of a damper on the sunset... but it was still nice and sitting there with Gina, at the base of a light house in Maine, made it very memorable (even if not very photographic). BTW, the small objects in the water are floats for lobster traps. *** We headed back to town in the twilight and decided to get something to eat. Unlike Washington DC where publicly available food seems to be banned, there was no shortage of restaurants in Bar Harbor. In my pre-trip research I had seen mention of a place called "Reel Pizza" that sounded neat so we call and find that a movie called "My Wife is an Actress" is showing. We walk to the theater and find out that the title should have been "My Wife is an Actress, in France". Ok, a subtitled french movie... I normally don't like subtitled movies but Gina does so we decide to give it a try. *** We order a whole-wheat crust cheese pizza and go into the theater. The back half is a set of wood benches with backs that serve as the table for the folks behind you. The front half is a hodge-podge collection of sofas that Goodwill probably rejected with TV trays scattered around - how cool! We opt for a wood bench in the middle. *** The movie starts and turns out to be quite good. Ironically part of it takes place in England and that part is in English. Weird- I wonder if the french version has subtitles for the English portions. The movie is obviously of foriegn origins as one scene shows enough male genitalia to last me for a lifetime (it was done in an artistic manner - it wasn't a porn theater!). *** After the movie we head back to the inn and set the alarm for 5:30 to get up and watch the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.

We get up bright (dark?) and early at 5:30, grab a quick bite to eat, and head off to Cadillac Mountain. On the way up the mountain the sky was already changing from darkness to a deep blue with a rosy glow building at the horizon. By the time we got to the top the colors were already incredible. Probably the best sunrise I've ever seen and photographed.

Our plans for the day include taking a ranger led tide pool hike at 8:30 at Ship Harbor. We have an hour or so to kill though so we take our time on the drive and Gina sleeps while I take advantage of the great early morning light for some pictures like these looking out at Eagle Lake.

The tide in Acadia is pretty amazing at 9-12 feet. Ship Harbor is neat because it has a narrow channel where you can actually see the water draining out or coming in. It was nearly low tide when we started the short hike to the tide pools. You can see the dark line across the harbor where the water was just a few hours earlier.

Now to look at this picture it is not real obvious how neat tide pools are. As the water recedes, it leaves pools that are swimming (no pun intended) with life. All I know is that without someone who knew what they were doing, like Amber the ranger, we would not have had a clue. She explained the different water levels and the life that lives at each level. She then showed us where "the neat stuff" winds up - usually in the lower kelp covered pools. We go down to the lower rocks in this picture and with specimen containers in hand, everyone goes off to see what they can find. Amber immediately is laying down on some pretty wet and cold looking kelp covered rocks with her arms submerged in the kelp almost up to her shoulders. *** I'm game- I roll up my sleeves and start probing around. Amazingly by just brushing the thick rubbery kelp leaves aside I see a crystal clear pool with white barnacles covering everything. I reach into the absolutely frigid water and start trying to find something. Eventually I find a small sea urchin and a Y fish (a starfish with two missing legs). I thought I was doing pretty good until Amber showed us her specimens - a perfect starfish (with all 5 legs) and some other interesting animals you would never have guessed would be in the pools.

After freezing my arms for about 30 minutes we are packing up to head back to the car when I spy a delicate feather nestled between two rocks.

By 10:30 the early morning is starting to catch up to us. We head back to the inn for a mid-day nap. Our room (actually more of an apartment) was the top right quarter of this annex building to the main inn.

The agenda for the afternoon is to drive the loop road through the park- a 27 mile, one way road that loops around the park and provides access to most of the park attractions. Since we had such limited time, we decided to not do any hiking but rather focus on the sites easily accessible from the road. This was one of the first overlooks.

Not sure if this is a house or a hotel but whatever is you can bet it costs a lot!

Our next stop was Thunder Hole. A recess in the rocky shoreline combined with an undercut area in the rocks makes for a narrow channel that waves slam into and compress air in a pocket under the rocks. As the waves recede, the compressed air explodes out making a thunderous boom. Or so the sign says.

Our first experience at Thunder Hole made us think it should be called Gurgle Hole.

Gina modeling our rental car.

One of the more interesting features of Acadia are the 57 miles of "Carriage Roads" that wind through the park. The visitors center had an interesting movie that described how John Rockefeller financed the construction of these "motor vehicle free" roads between 1913 and 1940.

A horse stable offers carriage rides for visitors to see the park from a different perspective along the carriage roads.

A neat private residence (I think) located in the park opposite the Jordan Pond house.

The Jordan Pond House- a neat restaurant located on Jordan Pond. We did not eat there but it looked like a neat place. I was more interested in the scenic views of Jordan Pond.

While waiting for the sunset, a group of people arrived and we soon realized it was a wedding. I wish we would have done something like this!

Our last stop of the day was to try and catch sunset at Cadillac Mountain. The clouds were not going to cooperate though and the sunset was nowhere near as spectacular as the sunrise earlier in the day.

After sunset we headed back to Bar Harbor. Upon recommendation of the inn keeper, we ate at the West Street Cafe, a quaint family run Cafe opposite the waterfront. It was a great 15th anniversary meal. Note this picture is from their website, it was dark when we arrived.

We had been watching the forecast and fearing that it would rain on our last day. It did. We had planned to walk around Bar Harbor and then spend a bit more time in the park before heading to the airport. It was not raining so we drove to the waterfront to take a walk along the Shore Path. There are some really nice hotels/inns along the waterfront like this one. Alas, the rain started as expected before we got far. I did manage to get a few pictures before we were chased back to the car.