After a couple of days in the far reaches of Lubec Maine we started to make our way south. The first stop was Bar Harbor. We hadn't been to up this was since 2005 so we thought it would make a good stop as part of our trip. It took a little over 2 hours to get to Bar Harbor and we arrived around noon. It was a cloudy day but warm. Since we couldn't get in our hotel yet we decided to take a drive around Acadia. We stopped at the Hull Cove Visitor's Center to check in and get our pass. To get to the visitor center you have to climb 52 steps to get to it. Not sure why they didn't put it level with the parking lot.
Once we got our pass we drove around the park stopping at different scenic vistas and other points of interest. There was Sand Beach, and Thunder Hole
as well as some good views of the rocky coastline
We spent a little over 3 hours driving around the park. The only part of the park we didn't see was Cadillac mountain. The cloud ceiling was only a few hundred feet so there was no point.
Our hotel was on Mount Desert Island in the Northeast Harbor. It was a decent hotel with a view of the harbor.
The plan for our second day in Bar Harbor was to do a whale watch but it was going to be foggy and rainy all day so we bailed on the whale watch and instead checked out some of the stops of Bar Harbor and the Northeast Harbor. Although it was Sunday we managed to get a parking spot on the street in the middle of Bar Harbor. We walked around town for a couple of hours. We spent half of our time in the Atlantic Brewing Company sampling some of their beers. The last two times we were in Bar Harbor we have eaten at their restaurant and enjoyed their blueberry beer. It doesn't really have a strong blueberry taste but it is a very smooth beer. I had a flight of beer so I could try some of their other beers but the blueberry one was still the best and as good as I remembered. We didn't eat there this time but had one of the best large pretzels I have even had.
The next day we left for the last stop on our trip which was Cape Cod. We took a scenic side trip on the way to the town of Rockport. Why Rockport? To see the Andre the seal statue of course. If you don't know the story of Andre the seal you can check out the this article or watch this video.
The short version is that Andre was a seal who was and an abandon pup rescued by the harbor master (Harry) of Rockport. Even though he set him free when he grew up Andre always came back in the spring. Eventually Harry taught him some tricks when he fed him each night and people watched. This became a nightly event that drew crowds in the summer. One of those people in those crowd was me back in the early 70s. So the trip to Rockport was trip down memory lane. While we checked out the statue of Andre we actually met a few other people from NJ who also saw Andre so it was fun to talk to the and exchange memories. There was also a local teacher there who tells the story to her class each year. She actually recorded a video of me telling my story of when I saw Andre. It was fun to visit a place of one of my early childhood memories. I took a few pictures and then we headed on to Cape Cod.
Cape Cod is one of our favorite places to go and relax. We have been there enough to know our way around and have some favorite places to go. The first stop is always at Capt Parker's or the Lobster Boat for a bowel of claim chowder. We got some claim chowder in Maine but it doesn't come close to anything in Cape Cod. We don't have a favorite hotel but we usually stay in or around South Yarmouth. This time we stayed a little further to the east in Dennis Port in a hotel with a view of the ocean. The room was nice, large and comfortable. The day after we got to Cape Cod we had good weather so we spent most of the day relaxing at Corporation Beach.
It's a quiet beach used mostly by the locals and is never crowded. Then it was on to another good dinner and ice cream of course. The next day wasn't as warm so we check out some of our favorite craft and artistic shops then spent a couple of hours by the pool and beach of our hotel.
It was then time to come home. I have been extremely busy at home and work for the past month so if felt good to get away for a week and relax and do some sight seeing.
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