July 23 - Northeast Harbor, ME

Mount Desert Island

Northeast Harbor Marina

We woke up to our first foggy day in Maine. Along with the fog we also had rain...oh well every day can't be beautiful. We gave some thought to staying on the mooring ball in Little Cranberry Island another day, but we had reservations at the marina in Northeast Harbor. This is a resort area and we were told we'd have to pay for the slip whether we were there or not...so we decided to move the three mile across the bay to our slip. We put on our foul weather gear and dropped the mooring and headed out. Luckily there were only a few other boats out and we did well dodging the lobster traps. What little we could see of the harbor coming in was very pretty. 

Mount Desert runs a free bus service throughout the island and Acadia National Park. There is little Internet service and no TV around here, so we spent the rainy day wandering around the shops in Bar Harbor...with thousands of other people who had nothing better to do on a rainy day. It really was a good way to spend the day and we had a nice lunch at the Thirsty Whale. It was so crowded we shared a table with another couple. We had fun visiting with them and they shared some of their knowledge of Acadia Park with us. 

Acadia National Park is the oldest national park east of the Mississippi. It was established in 1919. From 1915 to 1933, the wealthy philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. financed, designed, and directed the construction of a network of carriage trails throughout the park. These carriage roads provide a great way to hike, bike and ride horses through the park. Hopefully we will have a chance to hike a few of these carriage roads tomorrow. 

This was about all we could see of the waterfront in Bar Harbor this afternoon.