Acadia National Park after 40 Years

We lived in Maine from 1972-77. We lived in New Hampshire from 1977-85. And we never got to Acadia. We traveled and camped all over New England, just not in that neck of the woods.

Acadia NP was not far from our last campground. We were probably setting up by noon. 

After setting up, we checked with the owners about visiting the park. We arrived in beautiful sunny weather. We were advised to travel the loop to acclimate ourselves to the area. We did as suggested and marveled at the beauty of the Atlantic seashore.  

Bar Harbor can be seen in the distance. We ate in the building in the center of the picture. 

The seashore was beautiful with islands and inlets all around the loop. 

We enjoyed a small surprise. As we traveled the loop, the traffic slowed to a crawl and stopped. Now the speed was only 20mph and the number of cars were few. So why the stop?

Apparently, this little critter knew he was in a protected habitat and did not need to hide. 

We looked forward to getting up the next morning and hiking the shore to Thunder Canyon. We awoke to a typical, cold, wet, damp, misty, rainy, windy, spring day in Maine. But we were not daunted, we went on the hike anyway. 

There are some mansions on the coast. 

Got a chance to see a lobster boat checking his traps. 

And watched Thunder Canyon explode. 

We even stopped in and purchased tourist stuff at the shop.

We also stopped to take pictures of ourselves. 

Doesn't she take a nice picture when she smiles?  Yes, she is smiling. 

The plan was to take the narrow ascent road to the top of Caddilac Mountain in the park. But the wind was so strong, I could not convince Connie to get out of the car. Instead, we decided to weave our way back to the trailer. 

The next day the weather was no different. We got up late and dressed warm. We were going to Bar Harbor. 

Bar Harbor and Acadia NP used to be the summer playground for the elite and affluent during the 20's and 30's. But in 1947, a series of wildfires destroyed much of Acadia and almost all of Bar Harbor. Only the downtown business district remained unscathed. 

We wanted to visit the old part of town and the harbor. There we found a nice quiet restaurant by the bay and ordered our Maine lobster rolls. Something we could not leave without.

 Beautiful setting for a great afternoon and a little frivolity. 

Topped the day off with shopping through the shops for knickknacks. 

The trip up Caddilac Mountain will have to wait.

So the Acadia trip came to an end and we needed to return to New Hampshire. The plan was to go fishing with Dick while Con went shopping with Bonnie. But we wanted to bring Maine lobster back with us to cook and eat at the Phaups.  And we just had to stop at L.L. Bean for old time sake. (We lived in Freeport during the mid 70's.)

So after parking the trailer, lunch-time called and we stopped at a local restaurant. Our waitress was brand-new. We were her first customers. To break the ice, I asked if she was from Freeport. She was and was back from college. I asked if her mom and dad wanted to buy lobster, where would they go? She simply stated they would ask their friends to bring some back from checking their traps. That won't work. "So where would they go if that failed?" "I guess the next best place, Is Bow Street market."

If you haven't been to Freeport Maine in the last forty years, there has been a few changes. The town is no longer a small village, but has grown into an outlet mall. The town is an outlet mall. Just to give you the idea we snapped a couple of pictures from the car. Bear with us. 

Those buildings used to be a small drugstore, a shoe store or a small restaurant. 

But the Bow Street market is still a village market, modern but not part of an outlet mall. The tourists don't visit there.

I pulled our rig into the small parking lot and let Connie out to get lobsters, while I parked the trailer.

Connie went in to the meat market and saw that the lobster tank was empty. "Do you have any lobsters? "

"Well..." He said in his natural down-east drawl. "We let them go home on Wednesdays. But they will be back tomorrow."  Then he laughed. 

It could not have been a more pleasant experience. He fixed up the styrofoam cooler with ice and salt water soaked newspaper, layering the lobster within. Then he made us promise to cook within a day. The price was almost 1/2 of what it would cost up in the center of town. 

What a great trip to Maine.