A day in Bar Harbor, ME

Thursday, 8/18/11 - We decided to take a drive over and explore Bar Harbor or as the locals pronounce it...Baaaaaa Haaaaaber. actually it's pretty hard to understand some of the locals as they have a very heavy accent and pronounce words in a way that you don't understand. Of course what works best is just smile and nod your head. The drive from our campground to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park http://www.ohranger.com/ is about a 1 hour drive one way and going through the small coastal towns....that would be Main Street USA is slow going. It's one lane all the way except for an occasional passing lane once in a while but a beautiful, scenic drive and with not having anywhere to be we just took our time.

Bar Harbor is an incredibly, beautiful coastal city with a ton of shops for shopping & restaurants for eating but parking......not so much. We got there about 10 am and every place on the street seemed to be completely full with other cars just driving around looking for a spot. We foolishly tried down by the pier and at that exact moment as we turned the corner a car pulled out and we drove right in, high fiving each other on our good fortune. My God we are right in town at the pier, the bad part....it is only 3 hour free parking and then you have to move. We don't care, we will worry about it latter.

We head into the Oli's Trolley http://www.olistrolley.com/ to take a 1 hour narrated tour of the city and a trip up Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the U.S. Atlantic seaboard.....1,530 ft. Now you could spend a week in just Acadia National Park and not see it all, beautiful roads along the rugged Maine coast line, more than 125 miles of hiking trails and over 500 types of wildflowers. But we were only going to spend the day so the trolley tour was it for us. Cadillac Mountain has beautiful views and lots of granite which runs through out this entire state. We had a 15 minute stop on top of the mountain, just enough time for a couple of pictures.

The tour through the town we saw many beautiful big old homes some belonging many years ago to famous people. I still love every time we go by these old buildings and they have dates from the 1700's and 1800's ...it's so hard to believe how old most things are around here. I still remember that horrible day in Fresno, so long ago, when they tore down the beautiful Fresno Courthouse. Not back here, they don't do things like that! The tour was short but very fun and informative and we had a fun and very knowledgeable driver. We also found out that if we left our car in the 3 hr parking lot we would get a $15 ticket but they would NOT tow the car and the only pay parking lot was $4 per hour.......so we opted for the ticket, which we got, but had a great parking spot all day.

We then set up our picnic lunch with our 2 lawn chairs and Mimi's TV tray right on the sidewalk/pier with a perfect view of the ocean with the sailboats, fishing boats and all the people walking by. You can't believe how many people walk by and talk with us and comment on our very fine restaurant we have. We were there to see a fishing boat go out with tourist on it, plus the Margaret Todd, a 151 ft sailing schooner that sailedpulled out at 2 pm. I originally wanted to go on this schooner but chickened out because I was afraid of seasickness. Of course I now regret it but oh well.

After lunch we walked up and down the darling streets of Bar Harbor town and in and out of shops...that would be ME, in and out of shops. Will is always looking for a bench to sit down and wait. I did manage to make one small purchase....a pink, NEON and I mean neon Maine zippered sweat shirt. I find myself having to walk on these narrow roads in the morning and because I'm always in black I needed something really bright to wear and this is perfect. Everyone can see me coming now! Well we managed to have a fabulous Maine ice cream and loved every lick! We spent the rest of the day walking around in absolutely perfect weather and had a lovely day. Of course there was so much more to see and do in Bar Harbor but as Will says, we see what we can see. Unfortunately, this Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be jammed in Bar Harbour as they are having a blues festival here so we won't be coming back. A fun day, and I will drop the payment for the parking ticket in the mail tomorrow and we can call it a day.

Friday, 8/19/11 - We are in desperate need of a WalMart run for a pedicure so we head into Ellsworth, Maine which is about 20 miles east of us. Pedicure for Will and pedicure/manicure for me...boy is this a treat. After, we go into the historic downtown area and Will says he will spring for lunch and we are going to have a lobster roll....that's fresh lobster in a grilled hot dog bun. I opt for the lobster salad and he has the lobster roll. As I suspected, Will doesn't like it very much, he says it has no taste, kind of like tofu. I on the other hand loved it.....very moist and sweet and a great salad. Enough about lobster, I think we have decided we would rather eat good old salmon any day, but lunch is very nice and in a very cute place. We then walk up and down the Main Street and me in and out of shops another beautiful, sunny day. After we take the leisurely drive home for a nap. Gosh, is this just the best being retired......we LOVE IT!!

Will unfortunately dropped his phone today and it no longer works so he is forced to start using the new "free" one he got before we left on the trip. Of course, the bad news is... Kim isn't here to set it up for him so he's on his own and guess what....with great patience he did it. He now has a new phone that works but unfortunately it isn't a "normal" ring tone and he doesn't like that, oh the struggles of life. Much love to all our family and friends.