New England – Week: 12 (Bar Harbor, 45 Years Later!)

August 17th to 23rd, 2026

Day 76 – Monday, August 17th, 2026 – In: Camden, ME

The day started out rainy and foggy. We slept in a bit and finished up last week’s blog. At 9:00, it looked like the rain had passed, so we walked up into town for some brunch. It seems that everyone else had the same idea, as the breakfast places had long lines and waits. We put our name in, and were quoted 30 minutes. 45 minutes later, we finally got a seat. In between, we visited a couple of the shops that had been closed yesterday.

After brunch, it was drizzling, and we stopped into a couple more shops on the way back to the boat. For the rest of the afternoon, we just relaxed on the boat. I did a bit of work on my next Lakeland article, and Brenda caught up on her sheep videos. 🐑😉

At 3:30, the rain had stopped, and we walked back into town. Brenda has had a blanket made from T-shirts we’ve collected on our prior trips. There is a company called Project Repat that takes old T-shirts and sews them into quilts, bringing textile jobs back to the USA! They make great mementos of trips. We wear the T-shirts until they get stained while working on the boat or worn out, then we cut out the graphic, and they turn it into a patterned quilt. Now we watch for T-shirts on our trips. We walked around town, visited the souvenir shops, and found a suitable shirt. By this time, it was 5:00, and we walked to Cuzzy’s Restaurant, a local pizza bar for dinner. For dessert, the locally baked Maine Blueberry Pie with ice cream is offered! We “HAD” to try it!

When we left, it was raining again, so we quickly walked back to the boat for the evening. We chatted with a few of the other boaters on the dock. We’ve had a lot of interest in The Great Loop and the boat, chatting with several people on the dock! One of the other boats in the marina, Jamin, was a Looper we met at home in Palm Coast, just before we started our Triangle Loop last year.

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Day 77 – Tuesday, August 17th, 2026 – To: Castine, ME
Eaton’s Boat Yard

We had a short cruise today, just 22 miles. When we woke up, it was very foggy. You could not see the end of the harbor or Mount Battie above town. We were in no rush to leave, so we walked into town to a bagel shop for breakfast, then went back to the marina to get the boat ready. We stopped into the Harbormaster’s office and paid our bill with “Lady J,” the Harbormistress. We were docked right next to the pump-out machine, so I asked if it was self-serve. She said it was broken and waiting on parts, but that the Jr. Harbormaster would be in around 10:00, and she would send him over with the pumpout boat. We got our lines arranged, and electronics turned on.

Just before 10:00, the pump-out boat pulled up, and we got our black water tank emptied. We waited for one of the tour sailboats behind us to leave, then started our engines, backed out, and headed down around the docks and mooring field. The route that I had plotted took us out of the Northeast Passage. As we came out of the inner harbor area, there was a large sailboat anchored right in front of the passage. We were able to maneuver around the sailboat and exit the channel.

We had been told that there were a few whales that hang out in the upper Penobscot Bay, so we kept an eye peeled. The water was again like glass, and we were far enough inland from the open ocean that we didn’t even get swells. We kept the speed slow, averaging around 8 mph. This lets us keep an eye open for whales and the occasional lobster buoy. It also gave us our best daily fuel economy of 2.2 miles per gallon!

Our route took us up Upper Penobscot Bay, between the mainland and Islesboro Island (also called Long Island), a 14-mile-long island with a total area of about 69 square miles that has a year-round population of about 600 people. We altered our path to go close to the Grindle Point Lighthouse at the harbor on the island and to avoid the Margaret Chase Smith, the Isleboro ferry that was just heading back toward the mainland.

As we rounded the tip of Islesboro Island (also called Long Island), we saw a disturbance in the water ahead of us. It looks like a few larger fins just at the surface. There are few dolphins in Maine, so it could have been them, or it might have been a minke or finback whale. It was gone almost as quickly as we saw it, and it was too far to catch on our camera. We’ll keep watching!

Just after the tip of the island, we turned east toward Castine. I had seen a warning area on the charts for a “windmill,” and we could see a large yellow windmill just offshore near the harbor entrance. This is an experimental floating windmill being tested by the University of Maine. We also saw the Dyce Head Lighthouse up on the bluff above the harbor entrance.

As we rounded Dyce Head and entered the harbor, we saw the “State of Maine”, a large training ship for the Maine Maritime Academy. This is a sister ship to the one we saw in the Cape Cod Canal at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Our dock at Eaton’s Boat Yard was just beyond the Maritime Academy Docks. It was a long facedock, so an easy in. We tried calling them on the radio but were told they don’t monitor VHF, so we tried calling by phone, but we couldn’t hear them. It seems our fancy new headsets synced via Bluetooth, and my phone connected to them, but they were on mute. We’ll have to figure that out for the future! They had seen us coming, so they were waiting on the dock when we pulled up, and we were tied up in a few minutes.

Eaton’s is an old boatyard that now primarily does mast stepping (lifting sailboat masts on and off) and stores them in the old boat shed. They offer dockage, nothing fancy, just a long facedock, with some side docks for dinghies for boats in the mooring field, and a few commercial lobster and fishing boats. They are the only overnight dock and fuel stop in town. Dockage is $5.00 per foot. Cash Only. Fuel, $6.30/gallon. Cash Only. The town runs the mooring field and has a day dock for boats coming in for lunch or to go to the local grocery store. This is really down-east Maine. The town pretty much exists to support the folks with summer homes on the nearby islands, the Maritime Academy, and a few commercial fishermen.

Europeans established a settlement here in 1613, 7 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock! The town changed hands several times among the French, English, and Dutch before becoming part of Massachusetts and later Maine. During the American Revolution and the War of 1812, Castine was an important military and maritime port. Its deep harbor made it a strategic location, and the town became a prosperous center for shipbuilding and coastal trade during the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, Castine is known for its beautifully preserved historic village and waterfront. It is also the home of the Maine Maritime Academy.

After checking in and paying for our dockage. We walked next door to the town wharf, where there is a snack bar and a couple of food trucks, then went to the Visitor Center to see what there is to see in town. Castine was not on our initial stop list, but we had to make our reservation for Bar Harbor over a month ago, and we built in three extra travel days for bad weather or other delays. We’ve been very fortunate and didn’t need them, so we picked a place between Camden and Bar Harbor, and Castine looked interesting.

There is a maritime museum, tours of the lighthouse, the old fort, a golf cart tour of town, and a harbor tour available, so we will keep busy. Plus, I plan to wash the boat before we go to Bar Harbor.

After a quick walk down the main street (all 1000 feet of it) and a stop at the grocery store, we went back to the boat. There were some locals buying gas and diesel for their boats, so I asked the dock lady, “Susan,” if I could fill up while she was there. She said Sure, turned on the pump, handed me the nozzle, and stood on the upper dock next to the pump, chain-smoking while I topped off our tank. Got to love rural marinas!

At 5:00, we walked to Danny Murphy’s Pub for dinner. In Castine, there are only a few restaurant choices. Danny Murphy’s, Dennet’s At The Wharf, a small hotel that offers dinner seating, two small grocery stores with food counters (we have been warned away from both), and the food truck and clam shack at the town dock. There is one more next to the marina, but it is currently being rebuilt and isn’t scheduled to open until next year.

Danny’s was our choice for tonight. Very much a local place. It was busy when we arrived, and our waitress/bartender recommended ordering quickly before it got even busier. Tuesday is taco Tuesday, so it fills up fast! The place has an interesting history and even more interesting decor. Check out the story and the photos below! We just had sandwiches, but they were tasty. Then we went to the ice cream truck on the wharf for dessert.

We went back to the boat and watched a couple of kids jumping off the town wharf into the water (65°) and the occasional seal poking their head out of the water. Right at dusk, the kayak rental company that shares the dock with us pulled out a bunch of kayaks onto the dock. They had a kayaking lesson scheduled. This one was an out-of-water class, so they all sat in the kayaks on the dock next to the boat and practiced “air paddling” until about 9:00.

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Day 78 – Wednesday, August 19th, 2026 – In: Castine, ME

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise with just a bit of fog at the end of the harbor. As the sun continued to rise, the fog moved in, obscuring the whole end of the bay. We bought tickets for the two tours of the area. We got tickets for “Lil Toot”, the harbor tour for 11:00, and at 3:00, for the golf cart tour of town.

We meet Lil Toot for our harbor tour at the town dock. The boat is a small, purpose-built tour boat. Our guide, Captain Zander, is a graduate of the Maritime Academy and a local history aficionado. We started with the standard safety briefing, then headed out. We passed our boat at the marina and continued north along the shore where the historic shipbuilding yards were located. Two years ago, a severe storm hit Castine, damaging or destroying many of the old docks, which have since been removed. Most of the area where the shipyards were is now private homes. At the north end of the bay, we saw a beach covered with broken bricks. There was a large brick manufacturing yard up the Bagaduce River, which can be shallow at low tide. They used to bring the bricks down the river to Castine Harbor on barges, then load them onto ships for shipment south. Zander explained that as they were loading, any broken bricks were just tossed over the side onto the beach.

He also pointed out an area with old pilings, where ships built in the shipyard were brought to be caulked. They would float them up the bay at high tide, run them aground, then pound the oakum into the gaps between the boards. When one side was done, they would wait for the next high tide, and as the tide went out, they would tip them over onto the other side.

He also pointed out how the land around the harbor was cleared for fish drying and farming from the 1600s through the Revolutionary War. The French, British, and Dutch controlled the area at various periods, building five forts along the harbor.

We went along the far side of the harbor past the sailing facility for the Maritime Academy, and on to Nautilus Island. The mouth of the bay was the site of the Penobscot Expedition during the Revolutionary War, known as the biggest American naval disaster prior to Pearl Harbor. Due to infighting by the American commanders, they didn’t take advantage of their superior numbers and gave the British navy time to sail up from New York. In the end, the American fleet was burned and sunk to keep the British from capturing it, and the American soldiers had to walk back to Boston. The commanders were court-martialed, and Paul Revere, who was one of them, barely escaped punishment. You can read more about it here!

During the mid-to-late 1800s, wealthy people from Boston, Philadelphia, and New York would come to the area for the summer to escape the heat and bad air in the cities. They were called the Rusticators because they sought a more Rustic lifestyle. A Rustic lifestyle meant building huge summer “cottages” and hotels. Bringing along servants, building golf courses, and creating carriage trails so they could go “riding”. Several, including one of the more influential residents, John Howard Wilson, purchased Nautilus Island across from Castine and built a large summer home there. He also established a museum in Castine to display his collection of artifacts gathered around the world.

We cruised around Nautilus Island and saw a bald eagle perched on a treetop. As we passed some rocks exposed at low tide, we saw a group of five seals sunning themselves, waiting for the tide to come back in and bring them dinner. We then looped around the harbor entrance past the lighthouse, and back past the large State of Maine training ship and back to the dock.

It was an enjoyable and educational 90-minute ride! Nice to have someone else at the controls!

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After our boat tour, we went back to the marina and relaxed until 3:00, when our land tour was scheduled. Our land tour was in a 6-seater electric car. Susie, our tour guide, met us and one other couple, and we headed out on our tour.

Like the water tour, we started north, past the old shipbuilding and fishing piers, and into the newer sections of town. Then went to the top of the hill, where the older affluent homes were built away from the smell and noise of the docks. There are many homes from the late 1700s and early 1800s still well preserved and in use! We stopped at the old town meeting house, built because it was one of the requirements for the town’s incorporation

We then made a quick stop at the Adams School, now the Castine Historical Society, to see the amazing quilt sewn for the town’s 200th anniversary. Along our route, we saw signs for historical sites. Our guide explained that many of these are “historical fiction,” loosely based on fact, and set in the 1930s. They have become landmarks in town, and even though some are of questionable accuracy, they are maintained as historical artifacts.

We continued our tour, passing the golf club and the old high school building built in 1897, then through the campus of the Maine Maritime Academy. From here, the tour entered the area where the Rusticators built their “summer cottages” and hotels. Beautiful, well-preserved structures from the 1920s and 1930s, built on the high ground overlooking the harbor. Most are still in excellent repair and have stunning views of the harbor and islands.

At the end of the point, we stopped at the lighthouse. The town owns the former lightkeeper’s cottage and rents it out. When Susie, our tour guide, first moved to Castine, her family lived in the cottage. From there, our tour went downhill, literally! Castine is built on the side of Witherle Hill that rises from the shoreline, 220 feet in under a half mile. A walk up “Main Street” from the town dock to Fort George at the top is good exercise!

We went down to the shoreline, visited a couple of the old fort sites, and passed the Wilson Museum and the Catholic Chapel. The majority of the Rusticators were Protestant, so there are several Protestant churches. The Rusticators brought their mostly Irish servants with them, but the servants were reluctant to come because there was no Catholic church. So, they acquired one of the old fort sites, built a Catholic chapel there, and hired a priest to hold services.

Our final stop was at the former Steamboat ticket and luggage office right near the town docks, where visitors would disembark. Guess what, the ticket office and luggage depot are both now private summer homes.

When we finished our tour back at the Town Dock, it was almost 5:00, so we went to Danny Murphy’s again for dinner. It wasn’t as busy as last night, and Brenda noticed a sign in the pass-through to the kitchen. (See photo below) We asked our waitress about it, and she said that in the winter, they sometimes get no customers until after 7:00. As we headed back to the boat, we saw that a large schooner had docked at the Town Dock for the night. The crew is putting up canvas awnings and stringing hammocks to sleep on deck. Very authentic!

Just as it started getting dark, we heard voices outside the boat and saw that there was another nighttime phantom paddle class underway.

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Day 79 – Thursday, August 20th, 2026 – In: Castine, ME

I had originally planned to wash the boat today, but after yesterday’s tours, we wanted to explore the town a bit more. So instead, we pulled the bikes down and went for a ride.

We use the davit to lift the bikes on and off the boat’s upper deck. The davit can only be used on the Starboard side, and we were docked Port side to the dock. That meant that we had to swing the bikes out over the water to bring them up and down. It took us about 20 minutes, but it went smoothly, and we now have a system.

Our first stop was the Historical Society. We climbed the hill up Main Street to Fort George. We were glad about our “pedal assist” e-bikes! When we got to the fort, I realized that we were supposed to turn halfway up the hill, so we took a loop around past the golf course and down to the town common.

We only had a few minutes at the Historical Society yesterday on our tour, and Brenda wanted a closer look at the quilt. We walked around looking at the displays, some of which were about local history, and others were artworks by Francis Hamabe, who lived and painted in the area from 1940 until his death in 2002. They asked us not to photograph his artwork, but here is a public image of one of the pieces.

From there, we rode down to the Wilson Museum. The Wilsons were one of the primary Rusticators. They arrived in Castine in 1891 and built a large home on Nautilus Island across the harbor entrance from town, and also had a home in town. John was a geologist and archaeologist with a Ph.D. from Columbia University and traveled around the world on expeditions. In 1921, he built the Wilson Museum to display his extensive collection. His wife, an avid promoter of education, founded the Castine Public Library, the first in Maine.

We browsed through the collection with artifacts from South America, Africa, the Caribbean Islands, and Europe. There was also a display of native american items, which are currently covered due to the ongoing repatriation of sacred items. There was also a large collection of shells, fossils, and rocks donated to the museum by other Rusticators. One of their prized displays is a model of the Defense, a ship that was scuttled at the end of the Penobscot Expedition. The original ship remains were discovered just north of Castine and excavated. A group of local Castine residents then built a model of the ship. One side is complete; the other is open, so you can look inside the ship and see the various rooms. It was very well done.

After our museum visit, we were looking on Google for anything that we had missed, and saw a General Store and gift shop just past Fort George. We rode back up the hill, stopping at the fort to take a closer look at the remains. The original fort was 200 feet by 200 feet with dirt earthworks 10 feet high. The eastern bastion was stone and 20 feet high. The earthworks still remain (the middle is a baseball field), and there is a portion of the stone bastion still remaining. We were told that many of the stones from the fort are incorporated into the foundations of buildings in town.

We checked out the store, which is on the main road into town, and a mile away from downtown. I don’t think they get much visitor traffic, as the owner talked our ear off! We picked up a T-shirt, and I found a couple of local IPAs. From there, we rode back to the boat and reloaded the bikes. Once we had the bikes back aboard, we spent the rest of the afternoon working on the blog, catching up on email, and doing a few boat projects.

At 5:00, we woke up for our dinner reservation at the Pentagoet Inn & Pub. The Inn was built in 1894 as the first summer hotel for the Rusticators arriving by steamship from Boston. It has served as a dormitory for the Maritime Academy. In 2022, it was purchased by a couple who restored its classic spaces, piano room, and on-site pub. It has a locally renowned restaurant open to the public on certain days. We were fortunate to get a reservation for dinner!

Dinner was excellent. Brenda had lamb lollipops, and I had the crispy cod. After dinner, we walked across the street and through one of the open gardens in town. The townspeople take great pride in their gardens, and the garden club posts green flags on the street for those whose owners allow the public to walk in and look at their gardens. We then walked back to the boat and got it ready for tomorrow’s trip to Bar Harbor.

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Day 80 – Friday, August 21st, 2026 – To: Bar Harbor, ME
Bar Harbor Town Dock

Friday was the end of our trip North! We were headed to Bar Harbor. When Brenda and I were married 45 years ago this year, we honeymooned in Bar Harbor, so this is sort of a second honeymoon! The day dawned bright and sunny, with no fog like the day before. There was a slight wind, but nothing to be worried about. Originally, we had plotted a course that took us back out into open water around all of the islands that was close to 75 miles. After our boat tour and seeing how the water drops off so quickly from shore, I replotted, taking a route that wove between the islands, which cut out close to 30 miles of travel. Also, it kept us in waters protected from the wind and swells for most of the way. The only downside was that we would probably have to deal with more lobster buoys, and buoy (pardon the pun) was that accurate!

The ride was beautiful! Lots of islands, a number of lighthouses, and we went under the famous Deer Isle Bridge. This suspension bridge was built in 1939. It had early issues with swaying in high winds. In 1942, 70 mph winds snapped cables and cracked steel support beams. This is the same design as the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge that collapsed in high winds. A retrofit was done, but it only partially solved the problem, and the bridge was closed during high winds due to swaying, stranding people on the islands. In 1978, the bridge underwent a major retrofit, with “wind-dampening wings” added to the sides of the roadway and the solid concrete deck replaced with open steel decking.

The bridge crosses Eggemoggin Reach, and as we cruised down the reach, we met 10 or 12 sailboats headed in either direction. Quite a bit of traffic. We were constantly weaving to dodge the lobster buoys. In this area, some of the buoys have what are called “toggles”. This is a second buoy attached to the main buoy by 6 to 40 feet of rope. This rope floats just below the surface, so you have to be ultra careful not to go between a buoy and its toggle, or the rope will get fouled in your propellers. It is very stressful. There were several narrows where the channel was only 100 feet wide, and it seems that this must be prime lobstering territory, because where you have the least maneuverability, there are the most lobster buoys!

As we got closer to Mount Desert Island, home to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, we could see the famous Cadillac Mountain. We found an app for our phone called PeakVisor that lets you point your phone’s camera at a mountain or range, and it identifies the mountains on the screen! Similar to the apps that identify stars and planets. It was handy to figure out which hill was which. We took the back channel past South West and North East harbors (where we will go after Bar Harbor), and past Seal Cove, home to Martha Stewart’s “Cottage”, then we followed the shoreline around Acadia National Park. We could see the cars on the Park Loop Road that runs along the top of the rocks.

As we approached the entrance to Frenchman’s Bay and the Porcupine Islands, we passed even bigger mansions. One, perched atop a rocky cliff, was spectacular, with many windows and a tower. It looked fairly modern, and we wondered who owned it. We looked it up, and it’s owned by an international tax attorney from Washington, DC, and is used as a summer cottage. It is on a point called Schooner Head, which once had Joseph Pulitzer’s mansion. He died there in 1911, and it was eventually torn down in 1946.

As we rounded Bald Porcupine Island and entered Bar Harbor, we called the Harbormaster. There was no answer on the phone, so we decided to wait until we got closer and call on the radio. We were just about to radio when my phone rang. The Harbormaster had seen that we had called and had been tracking us on AIS since we left this morning. He said you are on a mooring ball, and I asked whether there was dock space available. We had requested dock space, but have been on the waiting list for a couple of weeks. He asked how wide we were and said “Hold on”, then came back with a “YES!” He said that the last two days were chaos, with boats showing up unannounced and others canceling. They had had a cancellation that morning, and we could have the slip for 3 days! He gave us directions on how to approach and said he would meet us at the dock. It was an easy backup into the slip with plenty of space. We were back in Bar Harbor!

After settling in and rinsing down the boat, we walked into town to see what had changed in 45 years. Our first stop was at the Bar Harbor sign for a selfie! On first impressions, the waterfront area was much the same. A few updated buildings and the Bar Harbor Inn had expanded, but the main building was pretty much the same. The dock offices were about the same. A few of the old hotels had either been rebuilt or undergone significant renovations. Agamont Park was still there next to the pier. It all looked familiar!

We went to Paddy’s, an Irish Pub on the corner near the dock, for our celebratory docking beer. Then we walked around town, checking out the shops and restaurant menus. Like most tourist towns, the shops all sell pretty much the same T-shirts and Chinese-made souvenirs. There were a few interesting locally made item shops, but after a stroll up and down part of Main Street, we’d already had enough. It was just past 5:00, so we checked out a few dinner options.

When we were at Paddy’s, we noticed their open-flame rotisserie, with Rib Eye Steaks, Pork Roast, and Chicken. It had looked and smelled good, so we went back there for dinner. We both had the Rib Eye, and it was excellent! Crispy on the outside, and tender and juicy on the inside!

After dinner, we went back to the boat and sat outside watching all the people in the park watching the sunset.

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Day 81 – Saturday, August 22nd, 2026 – In: Bar Harbor, ME

Because we don’t have a car and we wanted to visit Acadia National Park again, we booked a 4-hour trolley tour. The tour started at 11:00 just down the street from the boat. It was a nice day, a bit chilly, with some clouds, but predicted to be better than Sunday and Monday, when we are supposed to get rain all day.

We walked up to the ticket office, had breakfast, and then picked up our passes. The Trolley arrived at the pickup spot at 10:30, and we left for our tour promptly at 11:00. The tour drove through the park, along the 27-mile Park Loop Road. We stopped at the major attractions, Sieur de Monts Spring and Garden, Thunder Hole on Ocean Drive, Jordan Pond, and the summit of Cadillac Mountain. Along the way, our tour guide gave us a running narrative of the park, the mansions along the shore, and some of Bar Harbor’s history. It was very interesting and entertaining. At each stop, we had 30-40 minutes to get out and explore.

On the trolley, we met two sets of boaters from Florida. Both were Loopers! Talk about a small world. One of them on Barlanvento keeps his boat just across the ICW from us at the Hammock Marina! We had a great time chatting with them as they were just completing the “Down East Loop,” which goes down the St. Lawrence Seaway, around New Brunswick, Cape Breton Island, and down the coast of Maine.

By the time we reached our last stop on the summit of Cadillac Mountain, the wind had picked up, and the clouds had moved in. We had to put on our jackets as we walked around. When we got back to Bar Harbor, we thanked our guide and headed back toward the boat. As we were walking, we felt the first drops of rain.

At 5:00, we “dressed up” (collared shirt, long pants, sneakers WITH socks!) and went to the Bar Harbor Inn dining room for dinner. They require “Smart Casual” dress, and that’s about as smart as we have with us. We weren’t the best dressed in the dining room, but certainly not the worst. We had another excellent meal. Brenda had lobster bisque as a starter, followed by Seared Sea Scallops with fava bean purée, grilled corn salad, and braised pork belly in a roasted red pepper crema. I had the clam chowder, and then the Braised Beef Short Rib Pappardelle. Dessert was Blueberry Carrot Cake. It was all Yummy! It was sort of a late 45th Anniversary Dinner.

It had been drizzling when we walked over, and during dinner, we were hit by a heavy downpour. By the time we finished, the rain had stopped, so we took a short walk along the Shore Path that runs along the front of the hotel and along the cliffs to check out the beautiful flowers. We had just reached the far end of the hotel grounds when it started raining again. We had our umbrellas, so we opened them up and went back to the boat for the evening. With the rain, there was no sunset, and only a few hardy souls on the hill in the park looking at the boats.

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Day 82 – Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 – In: Bar Harbor, ME

Sunday morning it was foggy, proper Maine fog! We couldn’t see more than 1,000 feet ahead of the boat. Fortunately, we did not need to leave today. However, the forecast is the same for tomorrow, when we are scheduled to go to Southwest Harbor. The good news is we don’t have to leave until noon, so there is time for it to burn off. We only have 15 miles to our next marina, just on the other side of Mount Desert Island, so we should be fine. Also, we went right past the marina on our way here, so we have a path on our chartplotter to follow back.

When we booked our Acadia Trolley Tour for yesterday, there was an option to add on a 30-minute downtown Bar Harbor tour for just $10. We opted for the add-on and chose 10:30 this morning for our tour. We hoped that the fog would lift a bit, but if anything, it got thicker on the water. Fortunately, on land, it wasn’t bad. We met the Trolley at the same location as yesterday and took the tour. Much of the history portion was a repeat, but we got some great suggestions for shopping and restaurants as we cruised around town. It was interesting how the two guides told SLIGHTLY different stories about the same subjects. I think it’s a bit like the “semi-historic signs” in Castine.

After our Trolley ride, we walked up Main Street and along the side streets, visiting the tourist trap shops along the way. Brenda had picked out a few shirts that she wanted for one of her trip quilts when we walked up the street on our first day. The problem is that after a while, one shop looks pretty much like the next, and we had a hard time finding shops that had the specific shirts she wanted. As we were walking around, we noticed an Inn, and we both remembered that the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at during our honeymoon was just down the street. See, we are not so old that our memories are gone yet!

By 1:00, we’d found everything we were looking for, and as it happened, we were right next to Paddy’s Pub! As I’ve mentioned before, when we are in a place for more than a day, we tend to find one restaurant we gravitate toward, and in Bar Harbor, it is Paddy’s!

After Paddy’s, we went back to the boat and worked on the blog for a while. Then I walked up to The Stadium Bakery for some of the famous Acadia Park Popovers. These are light egg pastry similar to Yorkshire Puddings that are served with ample amounts of butter and blueberry or strawberry preserves. When we were at the Jordan Pond House yesterday, the line to get a popover was over 30 minutes long, and we only had a short stop there, so we skipped it. Before we left, I wanted to try some. Our trolley drivers, both yesterday and today, said that The Stadium restaurant on Main Street in Bar Harbor had the best popovers (better than the original Jordan Pond). I walked up to the Stadium in the rain, and was lucky to get the last 4 popovers that they had.

For dinner, we went to the Route 66 restaurant. We had seen it on our walk around, and it looked good. We had to break out the umbrellas on our way up as it was raining pretty heavily. We had a good dinner, burgers and seafood newburg. Both were very good. By the time we had finished dinner, it had stopped raining. On the way back to the boat, we stopped for an ice cream for Brenda (my burger had been enough). When we got back to the boat, we noticed that the fog had lifted enough for us to see the islands and the American Cruise ship. 45 minutes later, the fog had rolled back in, and the ship was just a shadow in the mist. We will see what the morning brings for our next leg!

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Weekly Recap

We made it to Bar Harbor! This week has been great, traveling 128 miles. We found a new town to add to our “Top 10”. Castine, Maine, is a great little town with lots of history, and everyone we met was friendly and outgoing. The scenery was beautiful. Bar Harbor is much like we remember it from 45 years ago, when we honeymooned here. Lots of tourists, tourist traps, and great food. The views from the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park were still stunning. We’ve had great weather all the way to Bar Harbor. This is the farthest north we will travel this trip, now we turn around and try to beat the snow home.

Next week, start by moving 15 miles south to the other side of Mount Desert Island for a few days, then head to Rockland and Portland, Maine.