Acadia National Park and Mt. Desert Island

We woke sluggishly Tuesday morning. The bed and breakfast we are staying in here doesn’t put out the coffee until 7AM, so I had no choice but to sleep in a little. They’re a little more rigid here about when they offer you things. For instance, breakfast is only served from 8AM until 9AM. Amazingly, I’ve gotten to the point in my life where the 8AM part of that bothers me more than the 9AM.

By the time Teresa woke up the breakfast area was full, so we went back to the room to wait for a table to clear up. After sitting down, we were brought our fruit and muffin plate with lit candles sticking out of the top of each muffin. When I made reservations in Quebec, I was asked if we were celebrating a special occasion so I told them this trip was celebrating our anniversary. When T made the reservation here in Bar Harbor, she told them the same thing. So…we got lit candles in our muffins.

After breakfast we were still a little sluggish and didn’t end up leaving the inn until 11AM. That actually worked out just fine. Acadia National Park is our nation’s smallest and occupies a good bit of this island. We mapped out an itinerary that included the major sites that we wanted to see and placed us in a town on the far side of the island for a late lunch at Thurston’s Lobster Pound. Due to just how compact Mt. Desert (pronounced dessert) Island is this was possible.

We first entered the park and rode to the top of Mt. Cadillac, the highest point on the island at 1,530 feet. That may not seem that high, but when it rises to that from sea level within about 3 miles it affords some pretty nice views.

Next we left Cadillac and rode through the only fjords on the U.S. east coast. I didn’t realize that what defines a fjord is that glaciers carved out a valley below sea level that the sea then filled. Mountains rose around 700 feet straight out of the water, which was 150 feet deep in between them.

Our last stop before lunch was at Bass Harbor Light. The lighthouse was perched on a cliff about 50 feet above the water. It was very small. We started down the trail for the light thinking it was a good ways off since we couldn’t see it. Instead the light-keepers house was obscuring it from view. The view from the lighthouse was of the smaller islands off Mt. Desert’s southern point and it came with a soundtrack. There were numerous bouys in the water and their bells were ringing with the roll of the waves, sounding almost exactly like church bells ringing on a Sunday morning.

After making these stops we arrived at Thurston’s at 2PM. Getting lobster in Maine had been on my checklist for this trip, of course. All over the island there are lobster pounds that have huge steamers outside and a huge tank of live lobsters inside. The outside steamers remind me a little of the metal smokehouses outside barbecue joints in North Carolina. You walk up to the window on your way into the restaurant and order you food. If you’re having lobster you order one small, med, large, or extra large and pay by the pound. A traditional lobster dinner is accompanied by an ear of corn, slaw, a roll, and a blueberry spice cake. They pick out your lobster, put it in the scale in front of you, then you pay.

We were behind a couple of guys from Kentucky who asked for instructions as to eating a whole lobster so we listened in. These guys, who looked like a father and son were finishing up a bicycle trip across the U.S. They had started out on June 4th. I felt lazy.

T and I tried to make lobster once. We bought a live lobster, set up a make-shift steamer based on instructions from a friend of ours. The time it took to set up the steamer and get him cooking was long enough to make T uncomfortable with killing your own food. For some reason she thought this wouldn’t happen in Maine. She was wrong. The lobster that was brought out to her was just a steamed-red version of the wiggly one that was placed on the scales in front of her. I think it’s because it’s a whole lobster, rather than just a tail, or lobster that has already been cracked for you that makes her a little squeamish. So I got to eat both lobsters. For the second time in my life, I ate lobster until I couldn’t eat any more of it.

After lunch we headed back to the room to rest up a little bit and research our route for the next day. We might have something spontaneous and cool in store for today, we’ll see how timing works out. We left the room again around 5 to go and grab some food. Having just stuffed myself with lobster around 3PM, I wasn’t hungry, but T was. We had a light dinner, then strolled down the streets and window-shopped a little. A bakery advertised fresh blueberry treats so we had a slice of blueberry pie. Maine produces 25% of all the world’s Blueberries, so fresh blueberry treats are a tradition here. After our pie, which was delicious, we went by an old theater that had a 7PM showing of W.A.L.L.-e. We were kind of wanting a low-key and early night so we decided to see the movie.

The Criterion theater was unique. It was opened in 1932 and was more like a stage for live performances than a movie theater. There was a balcony that contained separate boxes where the seats had tables. Based on the signs in the upstairs lobby it appears that for live theatre productions and for more adult movies there is an open bar for the balcony dwellers. The bar was closed this night, which was all the same as we weren’t interested in a drink. We watched the movie, which we enjoyed, then were back in the room by 9PM.

We wanted to get another good night’s sleep and hit the road rather early today. We’re not packed up and ready to go. As soon as we have our breakfast we’ll be taking off down the coastal road in Maine. Most likely we’ll be staying somewhere in New Hampshire tonight. We’ll try to post pictures then.

T’s Terrific Thought of the Day: Fresh Maine blueberries are much better than fresh Maine lobster!