September 24, 2009 – The Bar, The Cadillac and The Loop

It looked to be a wonderful day to do the touristy things we wanted to do. After all it was Thursday, so there shouldn’t be any weekend crowd. We already secured our park pass and it was early, so let’s go.

Bar Harbor is named for spit of land that runs to Bar Island from Desert Island when the tide is out. When the tide returns, the spit disappears and the only way between the two islands is via boat. Karen had suggested we check the tide tables and make the walk across to Bar Island. Well, we didn’t check the tide table, but it was obviously low tide, so we took the walk. There were several people out early; I guess they read the tide tables.

We drove on down towards the waterfront, where the cruise ship tenders bring passengers to shore. We arrived just in time to watch hordes of passengers crossing the intersection from two separate directions, essentially stopping all vehicular traffic. So the cruise ships are in town, at least it is not a weekend also. Proceeding to bob and weave through the pedestrian traffic, we made our way across town and were off to Acadia for the day.

Our first stop was to be Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak in the park. As we drove up the road, five tour buses were on their way down from the summit. It didn’t really matter how many descended; there were still several remaining in the parking lot, along with a ton of cars. More buses arrived after we had parked. Needless to say, it was virtually impossible to get any decent pictures without tourists in them. Regardless, the views were well worth the aggravation. The leaves have yet to make a significant transformation, but color variations are in evidence. As we wound our way down there were several overlooks which presented great views of the island, generally without the crowd.

Acadia is laid out with a loop road encompassing the interior carriage roads and trails. The loop is a one-way, two lane road which enables you to see much of the grandeur of the park. For the hikers, bikers and walkers, it also gets you to the various trail heads. The loop follows the coastline for a while before moving inland along many of the numerous ponds and small lakes. One of them is Jordan Pond. There is a history with Jordan Pond and its associated farmhouse. The old house has been renovated and serves as a gift shop, rest stop and restaurant. The original owners specialized in serving “Popovers” and the new restaurant continues the tradition of serving tea and popovers on the lawn. In today’s lingo, it is commonly referred to as the “popover stopover”. Well, we had to stop. For one thing, it was close to two o’clock and we were both hungry. Judging by the number of cars, I assumed it would be a zoo. I was pleasantly surprised. While there is a posting which implies reservations are required, when Carol asked about it, we were told to expect an approximate 20 minute wait; certainly acceptable. Five minutes later, we were on our way to a table. After a wonderful lunch of salads, popovers, lemonade and blueberry crisp, we were off to visit the gift shop (where else). Carol found a nice fleece for a decent price. So with that purchase we were on our way out of the park and back to campground.

Karen treated us to a wonderful dinner at her house. She fixed pasta with pesto and fresh veggies from her garden. Good food, good wine, good conversation and reminiscing capped off a wonderful day.