Day 13: Acadia National Park (Eric)

Day 13 (June 11, 2021): Today was one of the busier days of our trip, but also one of the coolest. Although the whole day was not spent exploring the park, we did spend a fair bit of time on some hikes through some beautiful scenery and along the coastline on the east side of the park. 

But our day actually started with exploring Northeast Harbor, another small town on the quiet side of the island. There’s not really much to see in the town, but it was still interesting to see and explore the marina as well as a stone beach near the town where I had fun skipping rocks. 

Across the street from the beach was part of the park that includes a section of the Carriage Roads created by Rockefeller which run all over the island and park system. This particular section on the southwest side of the park was peaceful as it does not allow bikes. If you hike along most of the other Carriage Roads in the park, you will have to share them with a fair amount of bicycle traffic as this is a popular thing to do in the park. In fact, we ended up renting bikes to explore a different section of the roads (more about that in another post). Anyway, this hike around one of the many lakes on the island was one of the highlights of the trip as it was completely spontaneous and ended up being thoroughly enjoyable as it was beautiful and not too crowded compared to other trails in the park. 

After this, we hopped onto the Park Loop Road which as it sounds takes you on a loop around the park. It is a scenic drive even if you don’t stop, but it is definitely worth stopping along the way. Part of the road that runs along the coast is one way, and it is definitely one of the most popular and beautiful parts of the park. While you may have to battle the crowds a little, this section is definitely worth seeing. 

Along the road we stopped at the appropriately named Sandy Beach as a jumping off point to hike along the coastline to Otter Point. The beach is very nice and probably would’ve been even nicer had the weather been a little warmer. June in Maine can still be in the 50’s and windy as it was on this day. 

Hiking along the coastline from the beach to Otter Point has some of the more breathtaking views you can find in the park. We found ourselves stopping frequently to take pictures and just enjoy the scenery.

I was tempted to try to capture the views with a few panoramic pictures, but I still don’t feel that they quite capture the beauty and serenity of this amazing place. 

We also took a number of other pictures along the trail…

After an exhilarating day of hiking and being  out in nature, we had built up quite an appetite, so we decided to return to Southwest Harbor to eat at a place called Beal’s Lobster Pier. This place is exactly what it sounds like which is a working lobster pier where they bring in and process freshly caught lobster. You can buy live ones or a variety of different preparations of lobster. We decided on lobster rolls, with Jenny getting hers chilled with mayo, and I got a warm one with melted butter. Both were amazing. It’s a fun place to eat. 

Our day ended with a trip to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse to watch the sunset. If you Google Acadia National Park, pictures of this lighthouse will show up even though it is technically not in the park. It is one of the most photographed lighthouses/places in the United States. Part of the fun was seeing how many photographers and tourists were gathered to await the sunset. The photographers were all talking shop, and the rest of the tourists were just talking about their experiences in the park and beyond. One of the joys of travel is meeting new people and learning about new places. 

Anyway, on to the pictures which again will not capture the beauty of this moment…

I took a couple of panoramic photos as well…

This one was to capture the number of people…

And one to capture the view…

And a final sunset view that I captured on the way back to the cottage…

Overall, this was a magical day, and I was happy to share it with my best friend and wife, Jenny. It was this day that had us both realize we would have liked to spend more than a week in the park. This is definitely a place that both of us would be happy to visit again. 

Day 12: Bar Harbor (Eric)

Day 12 (June 10, 2021): On our next full day in this beautiful place, we booked an excursion out of Bar Harbor with the Bar Harbor Whale Watching company which involved a tour of some historic lighthouses of Maine and a visit to an island where you can see puffins. Maine is the only place in the United States where you can still find puffins, so it was definitely worthwhile to see them and learn a little about the birds as well as of the area in general. Ironically enough, I recommend this tour over the whale watching tour which we did later in the week. I’ll write more about that later. 

I’ll start with some general information about the coastline of Maine. We learned that Maine has over 4,600 islands, and many of them are privately owned. There are 66 historic lighthouses scattered along the coastal area, but not all of them are on islands. There’s a famous lighthouse near Bass Harbor where people take pictures during sunset that is one such example. I’ll talk more about that particular lighthouse in a later post as we joined the throng of photographers and tourists to take a picture. Anyway, back to the boat tour, we visited three different lighthouses during our tour. Lighthouses are no longer used for the original purpose of keeping ships from crashing into rocks. Modern navigation and bells on a buoys can solve that problem. However, private owners and historical societies have been keeping these lighthouses around as sort of history museums and also for use as research stations. The lighthouse on the puffin island is home to researchers who continue to monitor the birds’ progress. 

I won’t remember the names of each of the lighthouses we visited, but the first was Egg Rock. In addition to the lighthouse, the island also served as a harbor seal sanctuary and research center. It was neat to see the harbor seals splashing about in the water and on the rocks of this small island. 

We also caught sight of a young bald eagle perched on the rocks (not the best picture as he was far away)…

By the way, binoculars are a good idea thing to bring on this excursion as it definitely allows you to see the wildlife better. Which brings me to the next lighthouse and island we visited, Petit Manan (I looked up the name). Which not only contains an amazing lighthouse but one of the few colonies of puffins found in the U.S. The aforementioned binoculars were very helpful here as neither Jenny nor I realized that puffins are about the size of a well-fed pigeon. The pictures I took won’t really capture the birds well, but they are definitely cute when viewed through binoculars or if you have a better zoom on your camera. Interesting story, puffins had gone extinct in the U.S. due to over hunting, and in the 1970’s naturalists traveled to Canada to bring back puffins to Maine in specially designed suitcases. It took several years, but eventually, they were successful in getting an established puffin colony. They are still trying to grow the puffin population, but there’s a number of factors that still keep the numbers low - predators, competition from other seabirds, environmental issues, etc.

Enjoy some pictures of the lighthouse, but unfortunately, it was too hard to capture a decent photo of the puffins…

Finally, we stopped by Ned Island (I looked this one up too) to see another historic lighthouse. This one has changed owners a number of times, and it is currently owned by a writer. On a side note, these lighthouses don’t have running water, so the owners have to use an outhouse. I think you really would have to enjoy the isolation to commit to living in one of these structures. 

Two bald eagles are in this picture…

Overall, this was a wonderful experience, and I recommend it to anyone who happens to be visiting Bar Harbor. 

We spent a little while after the excursion exploring the town of Bar Harbor. It is a quaint little town with some interesting shops and good places to eat. The town has more people and traffic than the quiet side of the island, but it also has more services. 

On a side note, we spent the rest of the evening  taking Bitey to an animal hospital as he was acting more strangely than normal regarding his litter box. This hospital was about an hour away as there are no vet offices open late on the island. Keep this in mind if you’re planning on bringing your pets on a visit to Acadia. Anyway, long story short, he ended up being fine and just seemed to be stressed. 

Day 10-11: Mount Desert Island (Eric)

Day 10-11 (June 8-9, 2021): Day 10 as mentioned in the previous post was a 12 hour driving day to get to our next destination Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park. I will be breaking the week we spent here into multiple posts as there’s a lot to cover. 

Jenny found an awesome cottage nestled in the woods in Southwest Harbor which is on what is known as the quiet side of the island. If you’re looking for a little less touristy and peaceful, I recommend looking for something here or one of the other quiet towns on the southern side of the island. If you want to be in the center of things, stay near Bar Harbor. I happen to be typing this in Bar Harbor right now as we are waiting to head out on our whale watching excursion, and this is the view…

Once the 12 hour travel day was over, we arrived at this quaint two bedroom cottage…

The interior…

Our deck…



These irises are in the garden area around our cottage…


Bitey has been enjoying his new surroundings for the most part, but has been exhibiting some signs of stress, poor kitty. He is fine now and still enjoys his favorite pastimes of attacking our ankles and other things he shouldn’t be attacking…

Bitey wishing he could go on the deck…

Bitey’s owners letting him enjoy the deck…

Bitey enjoying his morning coffee…

Bitey enjoying the view from the loft…

Bitey relaxing after a long day of relaxing…


We also have been seeing deer around the property. We’ve seen this young male a few times now…

After enjoying the cottage for a while, we walked down to the town of Southwest Harbor to eat dinner at a place called the Eat-a-Pita Cafe which ironically had very few dishes on the menu that had pitas or what I would consider Mediterranean, but the food was good, and we enjoyed the outdoor seating area. As it was a five minute walk from our cottage, we also appreciated the convenience. By the way, if you haven’t traveled anywhere during this time period, restaurants and the tourist industry in general are experiencing major staffing shortages. Places are either not able to open to capacity or they are closed during hours that they would normally be open. Finding a place to eat out on the island can be a challenge. I know, poor us…

Day 11 consisted of us going on a kayaking excursion with the Maine State Sea Kayaking company to explore some of the local bays on the southwest side of the island. The guides were super helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable, and I highly recommend doing an excursion with them if you’re in the area. 

It was nice just to be out on the water after a long travel day in a car, but the highlight of the trip was entering a harbor seal rookery where the young pups were hanging out in the water with the seal mothers. Whenever the pups needed their mothers, they would bark which sounded a lot like they were yelling “help”. We stopped paddling for at least twenty minutes to watch and listen. While it was hard to capture a decent picture as they were moving around a great deal, it was definitely a surreal experience. Some of the seals would pop up very close to the kayaks. 

There’s a seal head in this picture if you look carefully…

One of our guides is in the center…

Our other guide and a seal on the left side of the frame…

Enjoying the ride…

Near one of the smaller islands…

A bald eagle nest (left side of the frame)…

Taking a break on one of the smaller islands…

Having a great day…


We finished the day with buying some groceries for the cottage and getting some much needed laundry done. It’s nice to be in one place for a whole week. More about Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island to come when I get a chance…