Maine Trip - 12 - Bangor

On Friday we slept in, then drove to Bangor where we were going to catch our flight that afternoon. Tourist spots in Bangor are pretty sparse, but they do have a giant Paul Bunyan statue.

Novelist Stephen King's house is also on all the lists of things to see, so we drove by since we had nothing better to do.

With that comprehensive tour of Bangor out of the way, we dropped off the rental car and waited in the (tiny) airport for a few hours for our flight. We had a layover in Charlotte, where I got a cheesesteak (which I found amusing since I didn't get one on our first layover in Philly). Carmen picked us up when we got back to Houston.

Maine Trip - 11 - Frenchman Bay boat tour

On Thursday we had a nature boat tour of Frenchman Bay in the morning.

It was a bit chilly on the water, but the views were nice. We got to see all the islands and hear about their history of being used by rich people, traders, and smugglers.

We got a close-up view of Egg Rock Lighthouse.

Around the lighthouse, we saw a lot of wildlife like bald eagles, seals, porpoises (maybe?), eider ducks, and later along the cliffs we saw peregrine falcons.

The tour guides also explained about lobster traps and we saw a lobster boat at work.

All through the trip we got to pass by islands with beautiful rock features.

We got a lobster roll for lunch, where we found out it happened to be National Lobster Day. It started to rain right as we got it. We'd seen everything we wanted to see anyway, so we drove back to the Airbnb, ate our lobster roll, relaxed, napped, and listened to the rain for the rest of the day.

Maine Trip - 10 - Acadia Mountain and Sauveur Mountain

After we returned our rental bikes, we drove all the way over to the west side of Acadia, the last area of the park we hadn't explored yet. We started at Acadia Mountian Trailhead, where there was plenty of parking for once, since it is farther from the touristy areas. We ate PB&Js and boiled eggs for lunch at the trailhead and rested before starting off again. This was a traditional trail, but it was still a beautiful hike.

We made it to the top of Acadia Mountain and followed the trail back down the other side.

We connected to the St. Sauveur Mountain trail and hiked up to that peak also.

By the time we got back to the car we were pretty worn out, so we headed back to the Airbnb at about 5pm, had leftovers for dinner, and watched Miles's school play via video call.

Maine Trip - 09 - Biking around the Schoodic Peninsula

On Wednesday, we drove to the other side of the park, the Schoodic Peninsula, where we rented some bikes and biked around the ring road.

We stopped at a few places along the road to enjoy the scenery.

The main attraction is Schoodic Point, the rocky tip of the peninsula where waves come crashing in and you can see seals bobbing in the water.

It was a very cool place and we spent a while exploring.

We continued around the peninsula until we got to the end of the park.

We could either take regular roads back to the rental place or take the park's gravel roads across the peninsula. I convinced Amber to take the gravel roads back and it turned out to be pretty fun.

Maine Trip - 08 - Bar Island

After Dorr Mountain, we drove back into Bar Harbor, found some more street parking, and walked to the Bar Trail. The namesake of Bar Harbor, this trail appears at low tide to connect Bar Harbor to Bar Island. When we got there, it was partially exposed, but not enough to cross yet.

We explored for a while, looking for cool rocks and shells while we waited.

As the tide got lower, we could watch as the trail appeared enough that we could cross.

Before long, it was exposed enough that even cars were crossing with us.

There was a short trail on the island. We saw some deer and visited the ruins of an old house, but the island itself was pretty underwhelming.

The bar was the attraction, and it was worth the wait to see it reveal itself. It started sprinkling a bit on our way back across to Bar Harbor.

We stopped by a grocery store on the way back to the Airbnb to restock and cooked dinner there.

Maine Trip - 07 - Bar Harbor, Dorr Mountain

After Precipice Trail we drove into Bar Harbor, the historic town that we would have stayed in if we were rich. We found some street parking and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. Amber took this picture to remember those sandwiches (and definitely not because Santa Claus was in the background).

We walked along the Shore Path Trail, which looks out on Frenchman Bay. We saw lots of fancy houses and Amber ate rose hips she found growing along the trail.

We explored Bar Harbor for a while. We browsed gift shops for souvenirs and got some ice cream.

We were planning on waiting for low tide to visit Bar Island, but overestimated how much there was to do in Bar Harbor. Since we had time to kill and no kids to dissuade us, we drove back into the park to a relatively close hike around a lake called The Tarn and up Dorr Mountain.

The hike around the lake was nice. We even saw some wildlife.

The hike up Dorr Mountain wasn't so nice. It was basically a never-ending set of stone steps.

It was tiring, but we made it and at least enjoyed a view of the Bar Harbor area from the top.

Maine Trip - 06 - Precipice Trail and Champlain Mountain

We slept in a little after a long day the day before, then drove to Precipice trailhead. The parking lot was full, of course, but this part of the park allowed street parking. This trail was probably my favorite of the trip. We were lucky to even get to hike it, as the trail is closed all summer because of peregrine falcon nesting and only opens again in September. 

It starts with a very short distance of normal trail, then immediately goes straight up a rock slide.

It involved lots of scrambling over, and under, rocks. Notice the blue blazes indicating the trail path.

The trail was aptly named, because a lot of it was along narrow ledges.

We stopped to rest a few times and enjoy the spectacular view.

There were more iron rungs precipices and iron rungs before we finally reached the top of Mount Champlain.

For safety reasons, you aren't allowed to go back down the same way.  Instead we took a more leisurely stroll down a different side of the mountain and found some connecting trails to take us back to the car.

Maine Trip - 05 - Lobster and lighthouse

After a long day of hiking (over 12 miles), we drove back to the Airbnb. Amber took a nap, then we went to Beal's Lobster Pier for dinner, where we ate right on the pier.

We shared a plate of lobster, mussels, clam chowder, fried pickles, cornbread, corn on the cob, and coleslaw. It was delicious.

Since we were nearby, we ended the night by going to see the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse. We got there right as it was closing, but still had to wait for parking. There's not much to see so people were cycling in and out and we were able to see it.

We started the day with sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, and ended it with sunset at the lighthouse.