Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park

When we left our campground in Biddeford, Maine we had planned a stop at Planet Fitness gym in Bangor, Maine.  Lucky for us the parking lot was big enough to accommodate our ginormous truck and trailer combo :-)  Having a gym with nationwide locations allows us to workout and keep fit.  Sometimes it just feels good to get on a cardio machine and lift weights for an hour or two.   

We arrived at Timberland RV Park after the office had closed for the day.  No worries, they left our site number on their front door.  What I found weird was that even though I had made a four day reservation, they had us leaving in two.  I wonder why??  The site was very nice.  Long pull through with good spacing between neighbors, 50 amps and full hook ups.  Forgot to get a picture though.

After a good nights rest I went to the office to see why we had a shortened stay.  I left in a bad mood after speaking with the office people.  They had us moving to a different site in two days (tomorrow actually).  REALLY!!  That kind of stinks because we could be spending our day having fun and instead we're forced to pack up and move.  Maybe it's different for motor home moves but for us it takes a lot of work to hitch up, more so because of the Equalizer WD hitch.  So we called around and all of the local campgrounds were booked.  It was July 4th week after all...  Guess we'll make the best of it and see what's in town.

Bar Harbor is a cute little town full of retail stores, bars, restaurants and plenty to see as well.  We lucked out and got a street parking spot at the north end of town.  We put our quarters in the machine and off we went.  Rufus was more interested in all of the smells but we had an agenda.  We wanted to get each of the boys something to wear that said Maine on it.  We looked in all of the shops and remembered where we spotted the best deals.  Then we went back and made our purchases.  Again, no photos.  I really need to get better at that sometimes.

the one on the far left is named "Beth Said Yes!"

 

Now this is the place for Rufus.  The smells on the grassy area by the pier at the end of town were perfect for his nose.  We put our packages into the truck and headed to get something sweet to eat.

Rufus enjoys his vanilla ice cream :-)

On our way to Bar Harbor (for the second time as we found out the t-shirts we bought were too small for the grand-babies) we stopped in a small store across from the campground.  It's called Maine's Own Treats.  We bought a couple of jellies, some chocolate covered blueberries, honey and maple syrup.  Oh. My. Goodness.  It was all so tasty.  We had to visit a second time so we could buy a larger jar of their strawberry/rhubarb jam.  The 30 ounce jar we bought in early July is already half empty so I may just have to place an online order myself. 

it doesn't look fancy on the outside

but the inside is full of delicious goodies

shelf after shelf of goodies

You can find a limited selection of these same treats in some of the Bar Harbor gift shops.  I even saw a few of their jellies at the gift shop at the top of Cadillac Mountain inside Acadia National Park.  Trust me though, stop by the store for a huge selection and lower prices.  Win Win!  Their inventory isn't limited to food either.  They also sell knick-knacks, magnets, house hold items and handmade gift ideas. Plus, the store personnel are super friendly :-)

Had I known that the Acadia National Park pass was good for seven days I would have bought it sooner.  We could've had more days in the park.  Their website says to plan on 3 or 4 days inside the park.  Oh well, that just means we'll have to visit again :-)  We went there on our last full day in the area.  We started at Cadillac Mountain.  On our way to the top we kept spotting what looked like a cruise ship in the harbor.  There was never a big enough spot to pull over and double check.

view from the top shows what appears to be a cruise ship in the harbor

yep, definitely a cruise ship (zoomed in extra far)

We visited the Park on July 3rd.  We expected it to be super busy.  It really wasn't that bad :-)  We found a parking spot at the top of the mountain quite easily and explored the area for about an hour or so.   The views were incredible and hard to put into words.  You simply have to be there in person!

the fog rolling across the tops of the smaller islands is almost angelic

After we were done exploring the mountain top and visiting the gift shop we headed down the mountain to continue driving the Loop Road.

We stopped at Thunder Hole.  Unfortunately it was low tide so it wasn't really thundering :-(  We watched the tide coming and going and imagined just how loud it could be at high tide.  Oh well, maybe it'll be thundering next time we visit.

We continued driving and came upon a parking lot with a trail leading down to a rocky shore.  There was a large cave that we wanted to get a closer look at.  We both enjoy scrambling along the rocks.  Ron was a bit braver though and got a photo of the cave entrance.

Without a good way to go inside the cave, we had to settle for a photo.  Even Rufus likes to scramble on the rocks.

This same parking area is also a good viewing point for Egg Rock.

I'm sure the rookeries thrive because it's inaccessible to humans.

Our day was coming to a close.  It's time to say see-ya-later to Maine, for now.  We all enjoyed our stay in the area and we're definitely looking forward to returning.  Next time, we'll be sure to visit more of the beautiful Acadia National Park and it's neighboring cities and harbors.