October 11-12

Bar Harbor was our first experience with the Maine coast. When we found out that the entire town had burned to the ground early in the last century, we understood why it seems to be block after block of architecturally ordinary buildings with wall-to-wall tourist shops and restaurants. Apart from the menus at the restaurants, there is virtually no sense of a working fishing town.

We arrived in time for lunch, so it was time to dig into lobster rolls. After that we had time to check into our nondescript hotel, and notice that there was no vacancy anywhere -- we had not realized that it was the 3 day Columbus Day weekend, and the last weekend of the tourist season. After settling in, we walked downtown again and checked out the shops filled with things on sale that we didn't need, and plan our dinner destination.


We had limited goals in Bar Harbor -- get a sense of the town (didn't take long), get a sense of the island and Acadia National Park. So the next morning we headed out to see the other side of Mount Desert Island, Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor. We found a nice lunch in Southeast Harbor, and followed the road to Bass Harbor Head Light, the iconic Maine lighthouse. Tom noticed that in the tourist literature that several photos of the lighthouse for different products and companies, were actually the identical photograph, with the exact same twigs and leaves in the trees. Turns out that most photos of the lighthouse are taken from a spot far down the rocks next to the cliffs; I decided not to go that far.
Southeast Harbor
Bass Harbor Light Head


There was a constant flow of tourists from the parkinglot to the lighthouse itself. Pity the poor family who lives in the house adjoining it.

We had hoped to stop at the Jordan Pond House for tea and popovers on the way back to Bar Harbor, and our drive got us there just in time. They have it down to a science, delivering the tea and coffee, then the first popover, then the second, with plenty of butter and strawberry jam. The coffee was good, the tea bitter, but the popovers were fun and delicious. After taking a few photos of the view, we headed back to Bar Harbor.

However, reading the guidebook along the way, we learned that Cadillac Mountain was the place to be at dawn -- or, in our case, sunset, for a 360 degree view of the island. Since it was on our way, we took the turnoff, and were glad we did. While the summit was a zoo of tour buses, flocks of tourists and photographers, it did provide a breath taking view of the island the the surrounding area.

Dinner was exceptional -- at the West Street Cafe. Tom had another lobster, and I had fried clams, with liberal sharing on both sides.