Today started with a casual and delicious breakfast in Bar Harbor before heading to Acadia. The weather was perfect the entire day and started chilly enough to warrant wearing my flannel shirt. Summer sticks around until the 22nd, but it already feels like autumn in Maine. Bar Harbor is a fairly cute town even if it occupies a "wealthy tourist" slot in my mental filing cabinet. Visiting the ocean shore always feels like home, and the gulls, sea air, and site of boats helped as well.
The highlight of the morning, however, was our visit to Acadia National Park (my second National park of 2021) and climbing around on the top of Cadillac Mountain. The views were beautiful and expansive if not always photogenic, but I felt so alive up there in the fresh, cool air. Robert knows his way around and we managed to explore quite a bit of the summit while avoiding the more crowded tourist walkways. After Cadillac we took in the sites around the loop road, stopping at various overlooks before parking near Thunder Hole to take a look around. Yeah, I smirked at the name, too, but at high tide the waves crash into a rock formation in such a way that it sounds like thunder. The rock formations were breathtaking and I can't wait to see some of the film shots I exposed around the park.
What comes after a busy morning of hiking around and taking in the sites? That’s right, taking in the lobster.
I had a hot lobster roll - only lobster and clarified butter - with chips while we relaxed after the park. It felt recklessly indulgent but, if you visit Maine without eating lobster, have you even visited (Yes, yes you have)? It was pretty tasty, and just the right amount to fill me up for a late lunch.
After lobster it was time for some breweries and hang out time at various locations from Belfast to Bangor. We hung out beside the Passagassawakeag River sipping brews from Marshall Wharf Brewing and watched birds and boats drift by.
On the way out I caught a short video of a mesmerizing kinetic sculpture:
The rest of the afternoon and evening were filled with too much delicious food and drink to recount, but we returned to Robert's house with the sort of contented exhaustion you only get after a full and enjoyable day. I think I'll sleep a bit better tonight than I did the night before. Tomorrow? Miscellaneous adventures all over the map from Freeport to the deep woods while the weather is unpredictable.