Hello again! It’s a wet day outside. I’m at home chillin during this horrible pandemic. I hope whoever is reading this is doing alright.
During the first week of September 2019 my Mom and I went to see the National Parks in Maine. There weren’t that many and I convinced her that it was possible to see them all in a short trip. My usual trip plan was thwarted because she likes to space things out. It ended up being a fabulous trip anyways and I had a lot of fun.
Luckily I wrote all the facts down so I wouldn’t forget the story. Usually I just have the pictures to go off of. We left the house at 4:45am because that was the earliest I could get her out of bed. The drive up was pretty boring. Even though we were driving up the coast there were just lots and lots of trees to see for the whole 326 mile drive.
Day 1
The first stop was the St. Croix International Historic Site. I was expecting a lighthouse, but unfortunately it was across the river in Canada so we weren’t able to see it. At the time, hurricane Dorian was incoming so there was supposedly 21ft tides.
Unfortunately you can’t see the cool high tides in this sunny shot because they were going out. There wasn’t a whole lot to do there so I got my stamp and patch and we went on our way. In my fabulous plan I decided to get an early lunch. It’s right on the ocean and the fish served were fresh.
They were out of lobster, crab, and clams. Not a problem for me because I don’t like any of those. Mom was bummed because I had promised her an authentic lobster roll. I had fish + chips and a Mountain Dew. It was in a super small town and turned out to be pretty good. I’d recommend.
The next stop was the West Quoddy Head lighthouse. This is the most eastern point in the United States. The lower 48 that is.
I’ve already been to the most central point in the middle of nowhere Kansas. The eastern point is definitely more exciting. We also went for a short hike along the tall ocean bluffs. Essentially they are really tall cliffs along the ocean. It was only about a 1 mile hike, but it was good to walk around outside of the car for once. I love walking next to the ocean.
A bit later we headed to the border of Canada to see the next thing on the agenda. It was a tight schedule after all, but a bit looser than normal because I wasn’t traveling solo. We went to the Roosevelt Campobello International Historic Site next. My godfather Andrew has spoken highly of it and that meant I had high expectations. The first activity was going to tea with Elenor.
I’ve got to say I’m a rookie when it comes to tea. Milk/cream in tea is a definite no, but lemon is ok. The stories of Elenor Roosevelt were really nice. We got to sit in her house and listen to the stories while drinking limitless tea. I actually got to keep a little recipe book that has the same legendary gingersnap cookies. I have yet to make them.
After tea time we went to tour the big read house.
This was like any typical National Park house tour except the stories. The family vacation stories were nice. The best part in fact. It was also a big house and the gardens were quite great. I’m not much into flowers myself, but the presentation was nicely done.
After a few hours in Canada we headed back to the United States. The border agent on the way back stamped my national park passport as well as my real one. I got a pretty cool souvenir! Thank you! To conclude the first day we headed down to Acadia National Park to spend the night. Dinner was in Bar Harbor at a burger restaurant called the Side Street Cafe. Mom finally got to have the real New England lobster she wanted and I had an awesome juicy burger. Then it was off to bed. It had been a long day although we didn’t break any of my summer records!
Day 2
On day 2 we toured most of Acadia National Park. The last time I went I was very young and I don’t really remember what I saw. I definitely didn’t get the stamp or patch. First things first though: the crappy hotel breakfast. Bacon, eggs, hash browns, and 3 cups of orange juice because the portion sizes are designed for kids it seems.
After freshening up we headed into the heart of the park. I had wanted to do the Precipice Trail, but that got vetoed by mom because it was ‘too risky’ so we instead opted for the Bee Hive Trail. This trail was also scaling a cliff so Mom went up the long way on a less difficult trail.
This trail is now one of my all time favorites. It’s much steeper in person than in the picture above. The trail had me walking along cliff edges, shimmying up rock faces, and climbing ladders. There were surprisingly few hikers, which was good because it helped preserve the peace and tranquillity of the climb. It took probably 30-45 minutes I think, but eventually I made it to the top of the trail and after some searching I met up with Mom at the summit of Gorham Mountain.
After a quick water break we started heading back down on a rather steep trail to Thunder Hole. It’s a place where the water hits a rocky cove in such a way that it makes a thunder sound. It was unimpressive in my opinion because of all the people flocking to get a great picture. The ramp down to it is made in such a way that it would be really stupid and dangerous to try to climb down to it. After this quick stop we went back up to a scenic point on a different mountain via the Costal Trail.
The view from the top of this peak was awesome! You can see for miles on a good day like we had. Apparently cruise ships dock in the ocean near Bar Harbor to drop off tourists. That was a little surprising. It looks so small from way up there.
After the mountain hike we decided to try a wike (walk + hike) around Jordon Pond. Unfortunately it turned out to be damn near impossible to find parking. We had to park on the shoulder of the main road.
The hike around it was good. There were lots of people so the only real problem was making sure we didn’t bump into anyone on the narrow trail. We went across some boardwalks right next to the water, which was the best part. After finishing the hike we ate lunch at the Jordon Pond House. The food was too wholesome to give it the Henry seal of approval and there were lots of BEES. Wholesome food is food that had been ruined. Who takes a good piece of plain white bread and put seeds in it?! Bleh! 🙁 #nowasps
The last stop of the day was on the other side of Acadia NP at a place called the Pretty Marsh. In order for me to truly ‘earn’ the stamp in my passport book I must see everything! There wasn’t much at pretty marsh though…just a few picnic tables so we drove over to Seawall to see other attractions.
Above is my meager attempt to score a fantastic picture of the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse. It seems I still have lots of studying to become a great cameraman. There were about a billion wooden steps down to the rocky shore to view the lighthouse, but I’d say it was worth it. The last thing we did on the second day was have dinner at a place called the Side Street Cafe. I had an awesome burger / french fries and Mom had some fresh lobster.
Day 3
This was the final “fun day” before the long drive home. Choosing to sleep in to 10am we left the hotel at 11am and drove to Northwest Harbor in the rain. On this day the remnants of hurricane Dorian were supposed to hit, but luckily for us that just meant a small drizzle as the bulk of the storm had made its way north offshore. The first thing to do was get ice cream! I also did some shopping in the city center. Post cards and such for my penpals. There wasn’t much to actually do in Northwest Harbor so after shopping we drove to Southwest Harbor.
We took this trail to the beach and climbed all over the rocks. The tide was coming in so that made for really cool ocean waves. It’s nice to just take a moment or two to just stand and look off into the ocean horizon. Just like looking off across the fields of crops in Kansas it gives you an inner peace. Ok so enough of the mindfulness haha we are on another tight schedule!
That night we were lined up to see a show at Improv Acadia, but before that we went to dinner at a nice restaurant in downtown Bar Harbor called Galyn’s. I had a steak and mashed potatoes plate with asparagus. For desert I had quite possibly one of the best chocolate mousses I’ve had ever. Improv Acadia was really cool, however since I’m sort of young I didn’t find all the jokes funny. After that it was late so we went to bed to gear up for the drive home.
The drive back was sort of uneventful so this part of the blog will be quick. Sadly I wasn’t able to see everything I planned out and I recently went to see the stuff I missed this trip. I’ll be posting that soon. I hope that you have a good week and remember to socially distance! 😀
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