Acadia Mountain

In 2009 came to Acadia by myself, Dad was having his hips replaced so Mom & Dad didn't travel that summer. I rented a Phoenix Cruiser RV from a small RV rental in Rockport, ME (they no longer rent RVs) and spent two weeks in Maine, a whole week of which was here in Acadia. When I was here then I hiked Acadia Mountain, but Dad hadn't done it so we hiked up there today. It was a perfect short hike! Just under three miles, with minimal rock scrambling - most of the trails in Acadia involve varying degrees of rock scrambling.

We got an early start - the sun comes up at 4:45 and it's daylight by 5:00! This is what happens when you are right on the edge of the time zone line - we were out the door by 8 and hiking by 9. We had the trail to ourselves!

The neat thing about Acadia Mountain is that you get awesome views of Somes Sound which is the only fijord on the east coast! It was a bright sunny day, even though it was hazy, so the views were great!

 

 

After we got back to the car we checked out the spur trail that lead down to Echo Lake. It was the perfect place to access the lake to swim outside of the established beach area! Gotta remember for next time!

After the hike we went back to the campground for lunch and then we took Mom into Bar Harbor to get my parents mail (they have it forwarded to wherever they are). After getting the mail we headed out down the park scenic road to see the ocean, thunder hole and other sights. We stopped at Schooner Point Overlook and walked down to the rocks nd the headed done the scenic drive.

Just after Schooner Point the Jeep began making a funny noise in the front wheel. It would stop when Dad would brake, but when we were driving we heard it. We decided that there must be some problem with the brakes. So we aborted our loose plans, and headed to the Jeep dealer in Ellsworth.

Since we anticipated leaving the Jeep, I took Roxy (which meant I had to unplug, put stuff away, and leave something on the site so others knew it was taken) and we drove the 15 miles into Ellsworth.

About 3/4 of the way there the car started making an even worse sound. And then, as suddenly as it started, it ended. Gone. No more noise. The Jeep people couldn't look at until next Monday anyway. So, we basically took a joyride to Ellsworth.

While we were there went to Walmart (of course we did, we have only been to 4 different Walmarts in 4 different states this week!) and then headed back to Bar Harbor to visit the Lobster Pound.

There is a small lobster pound right across the street from our campground so we decided to try it. A long time ago I ordered a lobster in a restaurant and couldn't eat it because it was staring back at me from the plate. I had never eaten a whole lobster since. The lobster pound had lobster rolls, which I almost got, but then decided to go for the whole lobster.

 

The meat was tasty! The gross factor, however, was huge. I don't usually eat meat, I'm really a vegetarian, but mostly because of industrialized meat and how it's processed (although I don't particularly like meat so I never ate much even before I found out what happens to meat in the US.), however, a lobster that was caught in the wild this morning & was cooked this evening, fits with my current food ethics. In fact, the boiled lobster fits better than the lobster roll where the lobster is covered in mayo. So, I went for the experience and ordered the lobster dinner.

The first thing I encountered was the "tamale" - in some places tamale is a good thing, not here. It's code for "crap". I was eating a shit stuffed piece of fish. Yuck! But, shit is part of life so I wasn't too turned off by it. I did however wish I had a faucet to rinse it all off! Cracking and pulling the exoskeleton apart was a slow process for not much gain. Not only that but the dinner only included the lobster & a half an ear of corn. No green veggies, no starch. Not really my kind of meal. It was a good experience and now I can say I've done it and I know exactly why I don't like fresh lobster!

After dinner we headed over to Udder Heaven, the ice cream place right by the campground. This time we got a large ice cream for all of us to share (yesterday we'd each gotten a "small" and it was way too much ice cream!)

We got home in time for Jepoardy! And then early-ish to bed! The sun will be up early!

 

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