Acadia and Bar Harbor

After we left Bangor, we drove an hour or so to Ellsworth, where we were staying the light. When we got to our motel, Derek said, "this looks like the type of place people get killed." It was actually really nice and had tons of good reviews online. It was a random find and I'm so happy with it, I'd stay there again and again, which is more than I can say for the other places we stayed. It was super cheap, allowed the dog, was private, quiet, clean, and had breakfast.

Twilite Motel

After checking in we headed to Acadia National Park. It is apparently one of the most visited National Parks and it was gorgeous. Mountains and trees and oceans and just plain beauty. We paid 20 dollars (which is the 7 day admission and only offer they have) and did the park loop. It wasn't anything particularly thrilling but we were killing time before going up Cadillac Mt because we wanted to be there for sunset. It was a nice, quick, easy way to see the park though.

Someone was really enjoying the ride

 

Silver Beach (I think) It is unusually sandy for northeastern beaches and the water is typically in the 50s, though it was a whole 62 degrees when we were there and people were taking advantage of that for sure.

There were people climbing that thing!

 

Told you he was following us

They liked climbing all the rocks. Well, one of them did. The other one enjoyed being carried while climbing rocks.

The Thunderhole was another stop on the loop. It was suppose to be like a big blowhole, but it mostly just does what its doing in this picture. A local told us it has to be storming pretty bad to see any action.

A sailboat and lobster traps, which litter the shoreline no matter where you are in Maine

Ari was a little trooper and even hiked a whole mile with us. The trail we were on converts to a snow skiing trail in the winter. I saw the most incredible spider webs in the parking lot we were in before the hike. They stretched across the whole lot, from tree to tree. It was insane. I kind of forgot about some of the amazing things nature pulls off.

After the loop, we drove up to the top of Cadillac Mt, which is the highest mountain along the Eastern coastline. It was a gorgeous drive up, and the views from the top were awesome, but we just couldn't make it to sunset.

A wedding party was taking pictures up there

Someone needed to be carried. Poor trail dog got tired.

The little town down there is Bar Harbor, where we ate dinner. It was cute, but completely touristy. I mean packed from end to end with visitors and it was definitely geared totally to them. There was a ferry to Canada from the town, so I guess we were pretty close, though it doesn't look like it on a map. Jackets were definitely necessary on the mountain and once the sun went down. It was in the low 60's (62 in Rockland) at night. I pretty much loved it.

We found a restaurant that let us sit out on the porch and have Ari tied to the fence beside us, so we didn't have to take him back to the hotel and leave him alone. While we're eating our dinner a woman comes up to him and starts petting him, talking about how sad it is that he has to be out all by himself. I looked at her and said, "he's fine, this is better than a hotel room, and he has been with us all day" she got kind of huffy and walked away while her friend took a turn petting the dog. It was rather brave of her to approach a dog she thought had no owners around and start petting it. I'm glad Ari doesn't bite.

We had a decent, though over priced dinner, and finally got to try a slice of blueberry pie. They are serious about their blueberries in Maine and sell them everywhere. They even have blueberry honey and its far more prominent than just plain honey. After dinner we headed back to Ellsworth and passed out. The next day we got up and drove the whopping 8.5 hours home. I'd drive it all again just to go back though.

It was the best vacation we've taken as a married couple and its something I'll never forget. As you can tell by the 8 or so post about 4 measly days, we had a blast and I can't wait to do it again.