Bar Harbor ME

        

WHAT WE DID
We stayed at the Bar Harbor Inn in the oceanfront lodge.  Bliss!  A stunning view.  An expanse of lawn, the ocean front walk … and then fishing boats, lobster floats, islands, sunsets, cruise liners … and a very close visit by a bald eagle.  The complimentary breakfast was very good.

During our stay we ate at (will do full reviews on TA)

Jordan Pond House : I didn’t come away a fan of the famous popovers … erk!

Side Street Café : haphazard service, ho hum food

The Thirsty Whale : good fun, good value, good service, good food – especially those fried pickles!!!

The Reading Room :good service, but generally not impressed, food was ordinary

Morning Glory Bakery : If only we had found it sooner!!  Excellent coffee and food

Havanas : If only we could do it all over again … and again … and again.  Our waiter had to be the best I have ever had … he was so passionate about the food he was serving.  The mojito was the best ever … quality ingredients and superbly made.  The food was excellent, outstanding, delicious.  The owner was interested in customer satisfaction.  Oh??!!  Did I mention that we loved our meal here!!  A perfect night out (an added extra was the horse drawn wagon that kept passing by with loads of kids in Halloween costume)

Grindstone Neck : a wonderful selection of take away gourmet foods

Arcadia National Park still had plenty of colour and not many tourists so we almost had it to ourselves (there has to be some small advantage to missing out on things like the carriage rides …. Sighhhh).  We went through the park multiple times on just about every day that we were there, stopping in different sections for short walks.  We have some good before & After photos of the storm surge created by “Sandy”. We also went to the part of the park on the Schoodic Peninsular as well as driving all around Mt Desert Island.

www.barharborinn.com

http://www.thejordanpondhouse.com

http://www.sidestreetbarharbor.com/

http://www.thirstywhaletavern.com

http://www.barharborinn.com/dining.html

http://www.morningglorybakery.com/

http://www.havanamaine.com

http://www.grindstoneneck.com

http://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE

I think I set aside too much time for Bar Harbor, given the time of year and with so much “closed for the season”.  And then we added an extra night to our stay so that we could keep an eye on where “Sandy” was going to make landfall, how much flooding might come with it, if roads would be closed because of debris, etc. 

I had planned Campobello as a day trip (FDR is one of DH’s political and polio heroes!), but once at Bar Harbor, and with only one designated driver, we realised that this would be too much of a rushed there-and-back-again drive.  In hindsight, maybe we would have spent a night up that way before doubling back to the White Mountains.

We should (and we are still kicking ourselves!) have found out about bike hire when we arrived.  So many things were already closed and the courtesy bus had stopped running … we made an assumption, without checking, that bike hire would be out of the question.  For all we know it was … but after it was too late, when the weather had changed for the worse, we noticed the bike shop was open!  We should have checked - those carriage trails looked so beautiful! And we had fairly good weather for our first few days.

And we should have eaten at Havana’s much, much earlier in our visit … so that we could eat there again and again!  And we shouldn’t have assumed that The Reading Room would be the “special” place for our last night (it was also my birthday!!) … when we could have been at Havana’s.

Portland ME to Bar Harbor ME

WHAT WE DID

Our route was to Freeport via I-295, then US-1 to Bar Harbor.  Just plain beautiful.  I thought Day 1 coast was great, and things just kept getting better!! Everything you could expect … but more than you expected!

Of course, we stopped at L. L. Bean!  (My Maine ship’s bell windchime is sounding as I type this!) And then it was a slow scenic coastal & small town drive.  We stopped at Damariscotta for an outstanding coffee in an excellent bookshop (Maine Coast Bookshop & Café). We had perfect weather and clear views for our detour on the Mt Battie Auto Road.  Lunch was possibly my favourite of the trip!  Ahhhhh! Young’s Lobster Pound at Belfast!!! (I shall do a TA review later … but right now I will just sit and think about that lobster for a while .   .  .  .   .   .  mmmmmm, yum)  And I should mention DH’s scallops were also amazing!

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/1000001704

http://www.mainecoastbookshop.com/

http://www.stateparks.com/camden_hills.html

http://youngslobsterpound.webs.com/

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE

Hard to say … Maybe an extra night on the coast getting from Portland to Bar Harbor as we loved all those coastal town.  And maybe it would work taking this extra night coming south from Bar Harbor before heading inland to the White Mountains.  One thing we did miss was going up to the Observatory on the Penobscot Narrows Bridge as we were getting tired of the drive, so an extra night and extra travelling time would allow this to be fitted in.

http://www.maine.gov/mdot/pnbo/

Portsmouth NH to Portland ME

WHAT WE DID:

Our route was via ME9 & US1.  What a glorious drive!  Coastal Maine at its best!!

We loved our stop at the Rachel Carson Nature Reserve (a hero of our times!) .  We loved the lighthouses, the deluxe holiday houses, the small ports, the charm of the towns… all movie set gorgeous!  But we were very disappointed with our lunch stop at Mabel’s Lobster Claw (overpriced, under-endowed lobster roll … and serving a fork for eating the melted icecream pie??? But DH was happy with his Lobster Mac & Cheese).

We stayed at the Inn At St John.  As fans of John Connolly crime fiction, we came by this from his website … and I checked it our on TA as well. It was a great choice. Staff were very helpful ensuring we had an accessible room, the accommodation stylish and cosy and the complimentary continental breakfast was the best!  We ate that night at The Great Lost Bear, another suggestion from John Connolly as his fictitious private eye “works” there.  Thanks, Mr Connolly … two excellent recommendations!

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/rachelcarson/

www.innatstjohn.com

http://www.greatlostbear.com

http://www.mabelslobster.com

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE

Not much!  Beautiful scenery and plenty of time to sight see. 

Would choose somewhere else for lunch.  This was one of the shortcomings of the timing of our trip – so many places were “Closed For The Season” (and in fact Mabel’s was closing up a few days later) so we didn’t always have a wide selection to choose from.