Day 15: Bar Harbor (Eric)

Day 15 (June 13, 2021): We spent today back in Bar Harbor as we had booked a whale watching excursion with Bar Harbor Whale Watch. As alluded to in another post, this excursion did not rock our world. More on that in a minute, but we spent the time before the excursion exploring the town a little more. It is a quaint town with some interesting shops and restaurants. After exploring for a bit, we got some iced teas at a coffee shop, and enjoyed the view from a park near the water. After relaxing for a bit, we enjoyed  a walk along the shore path that has some wonderful views of the nearby islands. 

Now on to the aforementioned whale watching excursion. First of all, the swells on the ocean were a little rougher than our last excursion, so being surrounded by sea sick people was not exactly a highlight of our trip. Secondly, the excursion was almost six hours long. Jenny and I both felt it was a little too much time to be on the water. We understand that in order to find whales, the best chance would be out in the deeper waters, but in hindsight, we would have rather have spent that time continuing to explore Acadia National Park. We would’ve been happy to overlook both of these things had we seen more of the animals we went out to see. We completely understand that whales are wild animals and therefore elusive at times, but we had been spoiled by our whale watching experiences in Hawaii and the Monterey Bay. Having said all of this, we did see a minke whale which was a treat as neither of us had seen one before, and another boat ride was fun for a while. It just got to be a little long after a few hours. Unfortunately, it was too hard to get a decent picture of the whale, but we did get some good pictures of the coastline and surrounding islands. 

On our way back, the boat also stopped by one of the lighthouses we had visited on our previous excursion, and we were able to get some cool pictures of the lighthouse and the seals hanging out on the rocks. 

Once we had returned to Bar Harbor, we ate a wonderful meal at The Terrace Grille which is part of the historic Bar Harbor Inn. It was a nice consolation for not seeing many whales. 

The Margaret Todd which is a schooner that does sunset cruises was a cool sight to see. 


On to the highlight of our day, the walk across the sand bar to Bar Island. If you’re not aware, Bar Harbor gets its name from a sand bar that is only walkable during low tides. In fact, if you’re not careful, you could find yourself stranded on the island. We had no intention of being stranded, so we went for a quick walk out and back. It was a cool experience that a lot of people were enjoying. It was near sunset, so that also made the lighting in the sky beautiful. 

And now pictures…

The warning sign about being stranded…

And one final sunset picture as we left Bar Harbor…


Despite being a little disappointed about the whale watching, it was still a good day. Given the stress of this school year, these moments have been a great way to decompress.