We took another Maine vacation this year (August 13-20). We left 4:30am Saturday morning to avoid the absolute worst part of Maine vacations - the travel traffic. We arrived at our first stop for the day at 8am -- Freeport, ME. We ate breakfast at Isabella Sticky Buns Cafe and Bakery. We then browsed through the massive LL Bean store and stopped by a few of the other outlets in town. We got back in the car and headed to our second stop of the day, Fairfield, ME. Here we perused through one of the largest antique stores we had ever been in. Getting back in the car, we headed for our final destination - the rented Airbnb in Gouldsboro, ME for a 4pm arrival with a stop at Tracey's for a Captain's Dinner for two which could have feed double that. Stas and Lizzy arrived a little later that evening.
Sunday morning we headed to Bar Harbor for a 4 hour bus tour of Acadia National Park. It was a great way to see the park's highlights without having to worry about finding a parking spot at each stop. We had breakfast at Jordan's Restaurant and dinner at Geddy's Seafood Restaurant. The next day, Stas chauffeured us around Schoodic Point stopping at many of the pull-offs and main stopping areas. We did the little Sundew Trail after visiting the Schoodic Institute. Our day ended with a hot dog dinner and root beer float at Me and Ben's Dairy Creme. Tuesday we ventured to Southwest Harbor for our next scheduled activity of sea kayaking. We had lunch at Eat-a-Pita & Cafe, kayaked the Mount Desert Narrows where we saw some seals, then returned home for some homemade hamburgers with mac n cheese.
What's a vacation without some rain? We got some on Wednesday - a coastal Nor'easter that brought heavy rains and winds all day. What better way to enjoy the day though than with some reading of a 300 page book on the history of Winter Harbor, a surf and turf dinner-Maine lobster, hamburgers, and pasta salad, capped off with an Exit Escape Room game that took us an inordinate 2 hours to finish. Thursday, Tammy and I did a self-guided walking tour of "downtown" Winter Harbor venturing over to Grindstone Neck to check out some of the sights there. We ate at the Pickled Wrinkle in Birch Harbor for dinner followed by an ice cream cone dessert from Me and Ben's. For our final full day of vacation, Stas took us back to Bar Harbor. We arrived early enough to walk the Bar Island Land Bridge. Tammy and I then began a self guided audio tour of Bar Harbor. About half way through the tour, we stumbled upon a scheduled organ concert at the Episcopal church in town and enjoyed an hour of "cultured" music. Our day ended with dinner at Paddy's Irish Pub and Restaurant.
As an almost daily side adventure, Tammy and I hunted during the week for sea glass. Many an evening of low tide were spent at our rental scouring the rocks for this "prized" object. Time was also spent at Grindstone Neck and Bar Harbor searching.
Saturday 4:30am found us back in the car heading home to beat that vacation traffic of returning Maine vacationers.
Photos galore can be found by visiting the following link https://photos.app.goo.gl/viAnKk5xRSnfBT7b6
