Acadia

We were up early this morning, showered, breakfasted, and gone before most of our motel neighbors had stirred. That got us into Acadia National Park before the crowds. First stop was a place called, "Sieur de Monts." It was a location we had missed the day before, and has a nature center, a museum, and a botanical garden. None of those were open before 9 a.m., but there were also a good many trails, open dawn to dusk, and we got in a good walk without having to deal with other tourists. The garden opened about the time we finished our hike, so took that in, as well.

Next, we continued along the loop drive to Thunder Hole -- a slit in the basalt rock shoreline that, when wind and tides are right, makes a thunderous sound as the waves come in. Neither wind nor tide seemed right yesterday, nor were they this morning. But this morning there weren't crowds of other tourists in the way. 

The walk along the seashore to Otter Point was beautiful, and took us well beyond the place along this trail that we had gone the day before. The sun broke through the clouds for us, and the few other people we met were happy to wish us a good morning.

We completed the loop drive much more quickly this morning, partly due to the lack of traffic, and partly because we didn't stop as many times as the day before. But at the end of the loop, instead of going back into Bar Harbor, we cut west along Route 233 to Eagle Lake. After some confusion due to Eagle Lake Trail construction, we got onto the gravel "carriage road" that runs along the west shore of the lake. 

Pedestrians share this road with many, many bicycles. We wish we had ours! But the walk was nice. The full loop would have taken much of a day of walking, so we walked until we decided to turn around and retrace our steps back to the car.

It was only a bit past noon and we had completed our planned hikes for the day. So, we aimed the car west toward Augusta, the state capital. We drove in intermittent showers, sometimes a sudden deluge, and just as quickly sunshine. Still, we made good time. But try as we might, it was impossible to find a picnic table to stop for lunch. We ate in a post office parking lot! Of course, we found a nice park with picnic tables about a mile beyond our stopping place. 

We were able to check into our motel early, and we hung out there for awhile, waiting for rain to stop. When it did, we drove to the local arboretum. It was a nice place, and we would have walked farther, but the trails were mostly mowed grass that was very wet.

Mary had scoped out a brew pub with good pizza. It was right along the river, so we had a great view from our table. Both the beer and the pizza were good, and a bit unique. We also discovered that the couple at the next table were also from the Twin Cities, only a few miles from us. We compared notes on our trips, then parted. We returned to the motel for the night.