Sat 17th June
The drive from Jackson NH to Bar Harbor ME was through constant rain and was a rather depressing 4+ hr journey. I’d envisaged much of this whole New England trip to be filled with quaint villages, in a bit of a Murder She Wrote, Cabot Cove kind of way but, oh, how wrong I’ve been. However, our arrival into Bar Harbor revived images of Angela Lansbury as we found ourselves in a most beautiful little village. Our accommodation for this three night stay was at The Grand Hotel located right in the heart of Bar Harbor village. The king room was large and very comfortable for the three of us, Mark, me and the bike, but we simply dropped our bags after our arrival and headed straight back out. Despite being tired and cold after a long day of travel we thought we’d add some ‘wet’ to the landscape as well as we ventured out for a walk in the rain.
Our first impressions of Bar Harbor were very positive; it is a small village with narrow streets and lots of delightful cottages, cafes, shops and restaurants. There was a good mix of people of all ages bustling about and several craft breweries for Mark to choose from so what more could you want? We spent a while at the Tap and Barrel room before heading super early to our dinner booking at McKay’s Public House. Both of us were too tired to last to our 6.30 pm booking so we headed across just after their 5 pm opening. The food and ambience were fine but I feel we were slightly penalised for our early arrival as we were shoved into a tiny room on our own. On our departure though we found the main body of the restaurant bustling with people and energy which we had, sadly, missed out on. Oh well, as they say, a first world problem. After that it was home for an early night after a rather tiring and long day of travel.
Sun 18th June
It wasn’t supposed to be raining this morning but one look out the window suggested the forecasters had got it wrong. This put an end to our hopes for a walk along the Bar Harbor waterfront and Shore Path. We instead decided to take the Action Tour Guide 2 ~ 3 hr driving tour of the Acadia National Park. This proved a great way to explore the park as the commentary gave us lots of useful information and background about the area. We discovered that John D Rockerfeller was responsible for developing Acadia National Park as we know it today, donating his land and all the roads to the national park after 1941. My knowledge of American history is rather limited and I hadn’t realized the French had control of this part of North America until they were defeated by British troops in the mid 1770s; hence the many French names of sites in the area. The other interesting fact we learned on this tour was how there was a great fire in 1947 and most of the evergreen vegetation was burnt. The vegetation that has grown since then is made up more of deciduous oak, maple and beech and this is what gives this area the wonderful red and orange colored foliage during their Fall ( Autumn). We wouldn’t have had a clue what we were looking at had we just driven around on our own. I’d highly recommend this driving tour if you’re ever in the area and exploring the Acadia National Park.
Our driving tour finished up around midday so we headed back to Bar Harbor in search of a Lobster roll for lunch and settled on Side Street Cafe which had been recommended. The roll was ok but not as good as the one Mark had in Mystic. The rain had eased up by this stage so we decided to take the Action Tour Guide walking tour of Bar Harbor and this was another great activity as it got us walking along streets that we would not have otherwise found and it gave us more background about this area. Bar Harbor was another region that had been populated with Summer Cottages, ie mansions, during the Gilded Age but the great fire in 1947 burned all of the timber mansions to the ground. There was only one left standing, La Rochelle, and that was because it was made of brick and today this building houses a museum.
Our walking tour finished up passing by The Bar Harbor Inn which started as a venue to hosts tourists right after the great fire of 1947. It offers rooms with great views out over Bar Harbor and if I was ever to return to the area then this is the venue I would likely select for my accommodation as the water views and proximity to the Village make it a great choice.
We drifted towards home after the end of our walk but stopped off at The Ivy Manor Inn for Mark to have a beer. They have a lovely front garden with plenty of chairs, a couple of fire pits and some live entertainment as well which added to the appeal. Hannah Rissley was playing the guitar and singing and she was great; she had a real Country music (Yellowstone) sound, that I love, but sadly her music isn’t available on Spotify. We spent a good hour or so there listening to her beautiful melodies and and chatting with a lovely mother and daughter couple who were on holiday in Bar Harbor for a few nights. This was an annual catch up for them as the daughter lives in NYC but the mother lives nearby in Brunswick, Maine. The daughter said she was keen to come to Australia, but the mother, who has a fear of flying, has never been on a plane. However, by the end of our time chatting, the daughter and I feel we may have got somewhere to get the mother close to consider a trip to Hawaii for their next catch up. They explained to us that this is a long weekend in the USA for Juneteenth that commemorates the abolition of slavery for African Americans. That went someway to explaining why this resort area was so busy. It also dashed our hopes for having a slightly less busy Monday with fewer tourists.
Dinner tonight was at The Chart Room, a 6 min drive from our hotel. It was a lovely evening as we had a great table by the window overlooking the bay and had a very nice meal as well with both of us opting for fish. This was the first meal I had finished in the whole time we’d been away so that was some achievement! Our fingers were crossed that the forecast clear weather for tomorrow eventuates as we hope to have an early walk at low tide out to Bar Island.
Mon 19th June
It was an overcast morning, which meant we were able to get out for a morning walk. Low tide was at 6:30 am this morning and this meant we were able to take a walk along the Bar Island Trail out along the exposed land spit to Bar Island. The walk out and back to the island, and then back along the waterfront Shore Path, took about an hour and was a nice way to start the day. I’d been a bit stir crazy without having my morning walks for the last three days. I spied some other nice looking options for accommodation for anyone who may be interested in visiting Bar Harbor and the links are here: The Harborside Hotel and the West Street Hotel.
Our plan for the day was to go back to Acadia National Park and visit Jordan Pond House & Restaurant. It was so crowded yesterday that we couldn’t get a parking spot but we didn’t think much more about it until the mother daughter couple we had met mentioned it was a great place to visit and definitely worth returning. Apparently it’s the go-to place for popovers, whatever they are, and that went someway to explaining the large crowd at the venue. We decided to arrive early, grab a park well before the 11.30 am restaurant opening time, and to take a walk around the pond before attempting a popover.
There was much more traffic in Acadia National Park on our arrival today and we’d worried we’d left our run for getting a parking spot at Jordan lake too late. Fate was on our side today though as we got the last space available in the main parking lot. It was only 10.15 am but there were already people queuing for the restaurant! We headed down to the pond and had a lovely walk that took us about 1 hr 45 minutes, a bit less than the 2.5 hrs that had been the forecast. The path for one long length of the pond was dirt / gravel, the other long length was raised narrow gangplanks and one shorter side, between these two lengths, involved a rock scramble but it was well worth the effort. However, when we got back up to the restaurant we found the wait time was over an hour and so we gave up; it seemed we were not meant to try the famed popovers.
It was almost lunchtime so, with no popover, we decided to head to Beals Pier for some lobster as this had been another recommendation. This pier was down in an area know as South West and was about a 20 minute drive away. We were pleased to find the area wasn’t too busy, which wasn’t too surprising given the lobster outlet was the only commercial business located on the pier. There was basically only lobster to choose from so we shared a lobster chowder and lobster roll and this roll was much better than the one we had yesterday! The staff kindly plucked out a few lobsters to show us as we were leaving and they were huge! Much bigger than what I’ve seen back home. The journey down to Beals Pier took us past the Somesville Bridge which I’d read was one of the most photographed bridges in Maine. I took the obligatory photo but do wonder about the veracity of this claim! You have a look and see what you think.
We were back in Bar Harbor by 2 pm and Mark decided to go for a bike ride. This pleased me to no end as I could get out to the shops on my own! Mark returned by about 4 pm and we headed back out for mark to have his aperitivo before our dinner.These sessions usually have little appeal for me but tonight was quite different. There was a large family group beside and I could swear it was the McCallister’s from Home Alone. I had Buzz and Fuller right beside me, doing their thing, and it was hilarious. I almost didn’t want to leave. However, dinner beckoned.
We decided to try Geddy’s for dinner because they served fish dishes with vegetables and that was our new favorite option. There were no cloth napkins here and the vibe was similar to The Quarter Deck at Narooma but without the view. The food was fine but we in and out in about 30 minutes; I’d rate this just a notch above McDonalds for dining experience quite frankly.
It was our last night in Bar Harbor as we head to Portland tomorrow. We have greatly enjoyed our time in Bar Harbor, despite the gloomy weather, and I wish we could have had another day or two. It is not somewhere that I would hanker to come back to, purely because it is so remote being a 4 hr 40 min drive from Boston, but I’m very glad we have visited. However, I would encourage anyone who was planning to visit Boston to add Bar Harbor to their itinerary if time permitted. If so, we found that three nights was not enough time to do the area justice. I would definitely try to allocate five nights to Bar Harbor and be careful with your timing as well. Maybe try to avoid the Juneteenth long weekend and definitely fourth of July, but don’t come during their winter as most restaurants shut down and they do get a lot of snow here, up to 11 feet in some areas we’ve heard, despite being so close to the water.
