Acadia

After a few days in Brooklyn we headed to Acadia which is about a nine hour drive from Brooklyn. As always it surprises me how fast you leave the city behind and enter a beautiful green world. (Of course, with less options for dining and drinking).

We have spent the last 10 days in a cabin which feels remote as we look out over a beautiful meadow with distant views of the ocean, but just a 2 minute drive away is a bakery with my favorite New England Bagels (homemade small, yeasty), and lemon ginger scones. And a 5 minute drive to spectacular sunsets on the other side of the island.

Maris and Miranda were able to stay here with us for a few days. They did a great job of eating, hiking, five crown and scrabble in between telecommunication work.

Hiking and weather has been very variable here. Trails can be a flat road–or straight up the side of a cliff via stairs or ladders built into the rock. The names of the trails should be taken seriously, for example, “Precipice” or “Perpendicular”. We made the mistake of thinking perpendicular meant perpendicular to the shore of the lake. About one thousand feet straight up stairs built into the cliffs, it was clear this is not what the name meant. Very sorry I did not have hiking shoes on that day!

Our favorite trail was Acadia Mountain, about half the number of stairs up to spectacular views, then you scramble down cliffs. Was fun to use some minor rock climbing skills and get a little bit of an upper body workout .

Food is good but pricey. Bar Harbor has changed since we last visited close to 40 years ago. It is a very busy tourist town that we opted to avoid for the most part and stay over on the Quietside of the Island. We did take a 4 mast schooner out at sunset from Bar Harbor (named for a sand bar not the margarita kind. Brant got to help raise the sails:

In summary, Acadia is about the sunsets, the beautiful combo of ocean and mountains, and most importantly, lobster rolls. Now onto Moosehead Lake.