Bar Harbor - a Harbour and a Park

Slept well after the long drive. Down to breakfast - oh, my goodness, what a breakfast! Sat on the porch overlooking the beautiful garden after getting a coffee. Sat down and first up, served cranberry juice - in a wine glass. Next, pear with yoghurt and fresh raspberries. Next, baked French toast with blueberries and cream and an apple cake and sausages. Soooo delicious. And the gentleman from the Midwest (cannot remember where) who I was sitting with appreciated that I don't eat sausages coz he got mine too.

I will take my camera down for tomorrow's breakfast, in case it's as good and needing to be recorded for prosperity.

There were two cruise boats coming In today so I thought I'd pop down into town before they arrived to have a proper look, in daylight. Too late, they had arrived and the streets were very crowded. Some people have no problems shouting their business in crowded streets, it seems. A couple of women were having a conversation with their husbands/partners...whoever Lou and Wally were... across the street. 

Bought a purse - have been scrounging through my bag looking for money and cards everywhere, every time. Discovered that if it's all encased in one little holder, it's a lot easier to find! Who knew??

There are some great shops here. Loved this one...

Bark Harbor - a shop for pets, all things canine and feline and every other-ine can be found here. I was tempted to be one of two plaques, one saying "I'll be an eccentric old woman with lots of cats" and the other showing ways people are ruled by their cats - all of them I said yes to - "do you do without a pillow if your cat is on it? Do you arrange your furniture around the scratch poles?" And so on.

There was a doggie treat window - all range of treats for dogs, it looked like a cake stand. One woman was asking about some particular treat - what was in it. And then asked if it was safe for her dog to eat - why would a doggie treat place sell a treat that was unsafe for a dog to eat?

There's also Clare de Loon (a reference to the many loon birds here), Carmen Verandah - cafe with outdoor seating, and - my favourite - a used book store, Secondhand Prose. There was a great shop called Suncatchers, which sold sort of sculptures with lots of pieces of cut glass so they would - catch the sun - and reflect and sparkle. Lovely, but expensive. Not allowed to take photos in that store.

Had a look out at the harbour, it is a very pretty town.

Back to the inn to check with Bob the best way to see the national park - Acadia. I had seen some tour buses in the town but wasn't sure if they were for the cruise ships. Bob gave me an audio tour CD and suggested I should drive. This sounded like a good idea coz the buses, they were for everyone, not just the cruises, but they were hop on, hop off and if I had the car, I could come and go as I wanted. So I decided to drive.

Went first to the visitor centre to watch the introductory film. This was captioned too - every video I've seen in tourist places has captions on it. Even the walk to the centre was lovely...

Then into the car to start the audio tour. This took the whole afternoon and was beauty overload so standby for a heap of pictures!

Beaver dam.

Bit of a dam in the middle there.

Sand Beach - another example of a name a lot of thought went onto.

Thunder Hole.

Further up the road...

Jordan's Pond.

Top of Cadillac Mountain with a 360 degree view. Very windy. Amazing view. 

It's a bit windy...

Drive back down again. There's a few spots where it's a bit scary - very high up and only a few stones to form a barrier between you and the edge of the precipice, like this...

..they don't look like they could hold back a scooter!

Last port of call was Northeast Harbor. Stopped here to get petrol. I had put the bowser and was waiting for the bowser to start up. Nothing happened. Looked up to see the guy gesturing to me - had to wind the thing up to get it started. Back to the '50s again! Lovely fishing harbor.

Back to the inn where they were having wine and cheese in the parlour some sat in there for a while and chatted to the other travellers. Nice wind down to the day.

Bob, who is the innkeeper, was a concert pianist in his day, also conducted and has done a heap of stuff. He plays at the Bar Harbor Inn so I wandered down there to listen. Sat in the lovely lounge with a  friendly waiter who I was actually glad to tip. Had a time trying to order a drink. Asked for a lemon, lime and bitters - not knowing that they don't have that here. So I got the blank stare. Asked for something lemony. "You mean soda?" "Yes, a lemon squash type thing?" "We got lemonade". "That will do". It wasn't what I was thinking, which was a Solo or something. It was like lemon cordial.

Bob was great - beautiful pianist and he played a Gershwin medley, lots of show tunes, What a Wonderful World, all that sort of thing. Sat with a couple I had chatted with at wine and cheese early. Walked back.

 Lovely evening after a magnificent day - not much to say, it was driving around, marvelling at the scenery, pretty much all day!