Three weeks in Maine

After leaving Canada, we spent 3 weeks in 3 places on the Maine coast: Harrington, Bar Harbor, and Old Orchard Beach, where we sat out Tropical Storm Irene.

We had no problems re-entering the US at Calais, ME - we'd heard some horror stories from other RVers, but the inspector who cleared us barely looked at the motorhome; he didn't open any cupboards, or ask us to open any slides - just made us discard the one lime we had in the refrigerator.

Sunset Point Campground on Harrington Bay had a nice mown path along the water, from which Tom took this photo at high tide the day we arrived. We splurged and ordered the lobster dinner - for $9 per pound, the campground owner cooked and delivered lobsters to our door at the time requested, complete with bibs and shell crackers. We figured it would be the last lobster we would have during this trip.





A few days later, here is the same scene at low tide. The rocks are covered with seaweed, and the aroma is quite different!

While we were at Sunset Point, we drove around Schoodic Point, the quieter side of Acadia National Park. We wished we had brought our folding chairs and lunch, as we could have spent a long time looking out over the rocky shore as the waves came crashing in.

Here is another view from Schoodic Point, looking south toward Cadillac Mountain on Mt. Desert Island, the highest point of Acadia National Park and home to the most visited features of the park.
On another day while we were in Harrington, we toured the Sardine Museum in Jonesport and learned more than we ever imagined about the sardine fishery and canning operations that were the basis of the area's economy for many years. We also visited the Bartlett Maine Estate Winery and Distillery, where we found a lovely dry Pear Wine that rivals a dry riesling for serving with spicy food, and a pear brandy that captured the essense of ripe pear. The winery has lovely grounds that are landscaped with native species - we'd seen flowering bunchberries at the Anne of Green Gables museum in Prince Edward Island, and here we saw them with the ripe red berries.

After we moved down to Narrows Too RV Park outside Bar Harbor, we took the shuttle bus around Mt. Desert Island, and stopped for lunch at Jordan Pond House atop Cadillac Mountain. The traffic was awful - the bus inched along in a solid line of cars around the north side of the island - if we go back to Acadia National Park, it will not be in August! It was a lovely warm sunny day after several days of rain, and everyone was out touring. After lunch we walked down to Jordan Pond, with the Bubbles ( the rounded hills in the background) in the distance.

On another nice day, we drove around the southeastern part of Acardia National Park, and visited Bass Harbor lighthouse - click on this photo to enlarge it to see the parade of boats progressing through the sound toward harbors farther down the Maine coast.

This four-masted schooner takes tourists on short sails out of Bar Harbor. As we walked the Shoreline Path out from the Bar Habor marina, we watched the boat take off the from the dock and raise its sails, before it sailed off into the fog bank and disappeared from view.



Our days in Maine ended in Old Orchard Beach, where we just kicked back to relax for a few days after all our sightseeing in the Bar Harbor area. We did make a trip down to Kittery Point for lunch at the Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier, which was recommended by Richard Grassy, a former coworker of Barbara's. The sun was shining, they let Shelby sit under the table on the deck, and we had the final lobster rolls of our Northeastern trek. Life is good.