Wednesday 7/24

Woke up to sunny skies. Did a little school work since we had good internet and then met with Deb, the director of sales for West Street, Harborside, the Bar Harbor Club and a few other places. She showed us the area that would work to have drinks and catered dinner for 35. 

Then we went back to West Street quick to check out the view from the rooftop infinity pool which was awesome. We were kind of sad we hadn’t planned to sit around the pool but I was all ready to go and technically our time was up at the hotel. So we headed out of Bar Harbor. We first made sure our tent was still standing and not water logged. It was fine. We just propped up the air mattress so it could get some air under it since some moisture had collected. Then we headed to Acadia.

Acadia National Park 

Acadia is the big deal around here, being a National Park. We stopped at the visitor center to get a pass and learn what there was to learn (nothing really, it just has a big map and some books to buy). Then we were going to eat at the restaurant in it, Jordan Pond but my weather app said it was going to rain so we decided to drive up to Cadillac Mountain and get a look. The roads are tiny and there are bicyclists all over. Since it is a mountain, it is difficult to bike up and they go slow. Plus it is very curvy. So what I’m trying to say is that we spent a lot of energy making sure not to hit bikers, rear end random cars that decided to stop wherever they wanted, or just fall off the road. I really can’t understand how road biking there is fun. I would just be worrying I was going to die at the hands of a gawking tourist. We made it to the top and parking was a mess. We should have parked back on the road when we
first got there but instead we went through the tiny parking lot a few times and I sort of wanted to kill
people that were completely oblivious to the world around them. Finally, we parked way back on the road where we came in. We walked around and it was beautiful, especially because it was foggy. You could see fog enveloping small islands. There were just so many people! A little girl was singing a funny song she made up about how many people there were – apparently she hasn’t been to Yellowstone! So we walked around a bit and got some pics but we were hungry to so we headed to the restaurant. It was also a somewhat horrendous drive and then we got there parking again was out of control. We couldn’t find a place to park after one long drive through the lot (waiting for people who are blocking traffic, waiting for someone to leave a spot, kills me) so we saw a sign for additional parking and determined that was also overflowing so we just left. The only reason we were going to eat here is that the reviews are actually really good, but I’m going to have to leave one saying “good luck getting there.” It was a Wednesday, so we didn’t think it would be crazy busy but I guess everyone here is a tourist so it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is.

Wild blueberries on the side of the road. I determined I liked blueberries on this trip.
This picture is randomly in the middle of this page because
Google Blogger kind of sucks sometimes.

We went back to Bar Harbor to eat and also had a parking situation. Seriously. It was so annoying. We determined that next year when we come here we are parking once and then walking or taking the island shuttle if we go to Acadia. We talked about how beautiful things can get too accessible which ruins them and is apparently the point of the book Desert Solitude by Edward Abbey, which is one of the few books that got Andy excited but I don’t think I ever read. I believe that things should be made accessible to people with disabilities as much as possible, but it gets to the point Acadia is at now where it is just a glut of people and traffic ruining the experience. The solution Andy and I came up with is that the road to Cadillac Mountain should be open to bikes, buses, and authorized customized vehicles for people with disabilities (vans with lifts). There should be a decent parking area somewhere at the bottom, the visitor center I suppose, for all the people who ride the bus.

Recommendation in Bar Harbor: Side Street Cafe

The good news is that we ate at the Side Street Café which was recommended by our new friend Brian at the West Street Hotel and it was amahzing. They have lobster stew instead of lobster bisque which has a similar creamy broth but big chunks of lobster in it. We also had mac and cheese with lobster and bacon. Then we shared a caprese salad too. I had an awesome watermelon mint cucumber margarita and Andy had a beer he liked. Ahhh.

The "Left Side" of Mount Desert Island

It looks like this too.

Then we decided to drive around the island more to see what there is to see. We went over on what I’m calling the left side. It was more traveled than the area we went to yesterday but still nothing like Acadia so I was happy. It was interesting how different it is throughout the island. Down by the Seawall campground, which is actually part of Acadia, it’s very oceany with big waves and beautiful rocks everywhere. I like how it’s a rocky beach here with shells. We saw an awesome big lake (I think it’s called the great long lake) that looked like awesome swimming and kayaking. It felt like a combination of Superior and Door County but with awesome foggy mountains in the distance. I kept thinking of New Zealand. It was a long time ago but I remember it being like this with the water, mountains, fog, and thick, green vegetation. It’s just gorgeous.

Fathom: Cool if you have a lot of money

We came back to Bar Harbor for 6:00 reservations at a place called Fathom which did not matter since there were still like 20 tables open. We weren’t super hungry because we ate lunch kind of late but, being good people, we kept our reservation. We’ve determined that places just need to make sure they seem busy. Deb also said that this is the busy season but I know that West Street did not fill up because I’ve been monitoring the prices almost daily for a while. Anyway, this place was pretty nice. We shared lobster bisque (good but I actually preferred the lobster stew from Side Street Café), crabcakes (made the West Street Café ones seem shameful), and New York Strip which had an awesome sweet chili rub on it, but was just a “very good” piece of meat rather than a “this has ruined me for steak” piece of meat. The accompaniments at places like this are always small, which sort of bothers me. It came with about half a small potato sliced, 4 green beans, and maybe ¼ of an onion. Then we got dessert – pineapple and coconut ice cream. It was actually non-dairy, made with coconut milk. It was really awesome. I also had a gin blossom drink which was really boozy and took me the whole meal to drink. Andy had some good beer. I am lacking with the details of his drinks though :)

It was like 7:30 then so we decided to walk around Bar Harbor a bit. It was lovely.

Kids are loud, and there are lots of kids camping

Then we headed to the campsite. That was not as cool. There were like 47 people in the site next to us and a crabby toddler on the other side of the woods. 4 of those 47 people next to us were kids who played very imaginative games that involved siren sounds at 7:30 am. Camping is not what I want to be doing but unfortunately it is what our budget wants us to be doing and the weather is good so I don’t have an excuse not to. It was still better than the smoky hotel in Auburn, MA. The kids are pretty entertaining; at one point someone determined she was the boss and the rest fought over being a boss and then all decided to be assistants but there can only be one assistant too so it all fell apart. Then they headed off to save a baby from being robbed (the aforementioned toddler was crying). Of course sirens were involved.