Bar Harbor, ME Tuesday and Wednesday

We are now in Bar Harbor (pronounced BAH-HA-BA, if you live here!).  Arrived on Monday afternoon after a great ride on Route 1 (I think most states have a Route 1 – it is the scenic route).  We went thru a number of small towns along the shore.

This bridge was different in that you could go up in the tower on the left for and scenic view of the area (we did not do it).  Also, the supports for this bridge are in the middle, not on the outer edges.  So there is only one lane going each way.

There was a battle here in 1779 in which the colonials failed to hold.

The British came up this river from the Atlantic.

We found our CG and got set up.  Some CG’s (including this one) have some sites that are backwards.  Usually the CG electric, water and sewer hookups are on the same side of the trailer as our hookups.  Unfortunately, that is not the case here, as this picture shows.  But we do have a nice area on the other side.

After getting setup here, we decided to drive into the town of Bar Harbor and have some pizza (had seafood the last two days so needed something different).  As in most Eastern towns, the streets are narrow and tight.  We were able to get around and found the pizza place, but no parking for a BIG F350 long bed truck!!  So we had to park about 6 blocks away.  Good exercise, I guess because the pizza was great.  Might have to go back there again before we leave.

On  Tuesday we started looking at all the information the CG had given us when we checked in.  They had said that we had homework!  And they were right!  The first thing we realized was that there are free (yes, I said FREE) buses running throughout the island.  And they stop here at our CG.

Here is a map of the island.

There are 7 different bus routes with connections at various stops so it is easy to get around.

So, on Tuesday afternoon, we took the bus into town and walked the streets (along with about 5,000 other people!).

Walked down to the waterfront.

There are many islands in this bay, some of which you can get to by ferry or by mail boat.

Had soft serve blueberry ice cream – blueberries are THE fruit here in Maine.  Judy had a cup of black raspberry ice cream with fudge swirl and little pieces of chocolate with raspberry flavoring inside.  Yummy!

On Wednesday we again took the bus – our destination was Jordan Pond.  But we stopped numerous times along the way.  Our driver was very informative – said that about 3 million people visit the island from June thru Oct.  And he was right – we went by the beach and cars were lined up everywhere.  

This was another shot of the Atlantic along the way.

There is also a riding stable on the island.  You can bring your own horse or ride one of theirs.  Or you can get a carriage ride here as well.

The ride to Jordan Pond should have taken about 45 minutes but it was well over an hour by the time we got there.  Jordan Pond is famous for two reasons – 1) the pond/lake is where all the water comes from for the  island, 

and 2) (and the main reason) they have a restaurant there that makes popovers.  They are great.  In the middle of the afternoon we had to wait about 20 minutes to get a table.  We each ordered a sandwich and drinks, and, with our meal, we each got a fresh/hot popover with butter and strawberry jam.


This was an interesting tree just outside the restaurant.

The only downside to riding the buses (for us anyway) is the number of people out there with their dogs!  And they are welcome in most places.  We saw a couple of people with BIG dogs wanting to get on our bus. Our bus driver was somewhat hesitant to let them on because we already had a big dog in the back.  Fortunately the people decided to wait for the next bus.

All in all, this is a very pleasant area to travel around.

PS - Don't know why I am getting a white background?  I am copying from WORD and sometimes it's OK and other time it is not.