Maine (Parts V and VI)

Part V:  Acadia National Park
We knew that one of the main attractions for us as a family would be Acadia National Park.  We try to visit as many National Parks as possible.  And this one...may have been one of the busiest we've ever seen.  They get over 2 million visitors each year, and it isn't hard to see why.

Our first stop was at the Visitor's Center, where the boys spotted this three-wheeled motorcycle and the nice owner let them sit on it!

Then we drove around some of the 27-mile park loop with stunning views everywhere we looked.

We went to the southwest harbor part of Mount Desert Isle (pronounced "dessert") to search out the Bass Harbor Lighthouse.

On our second trip to Acadia, we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain.

These are called the Porcupine Islands.  (Incidentally, we didn't realize there were so many porcupines in Maine!  We never saw a live one, since they are nocturnal, but we saw lots of them dead on the sides of roads!)

This was a beautiful lake we stopped by - it had two huge beaver dams.

This is "Thundering Hole".  We weren't there on a day when the tide was particularly high, but it still made a thundering sound each time the water rushed in. 

We stopped to have a picnic lunch amidst the beautiful greenery!  We've never seen such verdant plants - moss, ferns and all types of trees.  We even spotted a new bird here - the Northern Parula.  (We spotted four new ones to add to our life list while in Maine!)

On our third trip to Acadia, Josh, Jake and Jack climbed Cadillac Mountain. It took them a little over an hour and even Jack did a great job of keeping up.  Sarah, the little boys and I met them at the top of the mountain.  

After their hike, we went to the famous Jordan Pond Restaurant, known especially for their popovers served with butter and strawberry jam and for the fact that they still maintain a dedicated "tea time" between 2-5pm as the restaurant did in the late 1800s!  We went for lunch and got to taste the popovers, which were delicious!

 

Part VI: Exploring the Downeast Coast

Our favorite day of the trip was probably Sunday, July 6th, when we decided to explore more of Maine than just the Bar Harbor area.  We took our time driving up the coast and stopping to see interesting things along the way.  

One of our goals was to see wild Maine blueberries.  Maine produces 98% of the country's low bush blueberries and they grow completely wild.  The plants spread on their own in thousands of acres called "blueberry barrens", mostly in Washington County.  They grow in areas that have been burned or have wide open stretches of land without trees.  They are harvested on a two-year cycle- all by hand with hand rakes!  Harvesting isn't done until the second and third weeks of August, so we missed the real blueberry season.  But we did stop and see some berries up close...and then once we knew what we were looking for, we saw those thousands of acres of blueberries throughout the rest of our trip up the coast! 

 These are what the "barrens" look like.

 We stopped in one little town, Columbia Falls, to see the Historic Ruggles House, built in 1818.  It wasn't open for us to tour, but we did get a glimpse through the front door at the beautiful and well-known "flying staircase"!

 Then we stopped at Wild Blueberry Land - with every imaginable blueberry product and souvenir known to man!

 We drove past lots of other small fishing and lobstering villages and found ourselves at the end of a road that took us to Jasper Beach - named for the jasper stones that are numerous there.  Since we didn't really know what jasper looks like, we didn't know what to spot.  But we found it beautiful anyway!

 We saw lots of this flower growing wild and beautiful along the roadsides:  lupine.  It is the state flower of Maine and very beautiful!

 Our next stop was Fort O'Brien.  It is a series of earthen mounds that were used during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War as an ammunition magazine.  From here, the proud people of Maine went out in a tiny sloop to capture the British Man-o-War Margaretta in June 1775.  It is considered the first naval battle of the American Revolution!

 We decided it was the perfect place for a picnic lunch.  We sat under an old apple tree that was standing right in the dip of the mounds where a cannon might have been.  We speculated that maybe a Revolutionary soldier had been eating an apple and dropped it right in that place over 200 years ago! 

 We all tried the local New England soda - Moxie.  It was a hit, with a slightly spicy/clove taste to it.  Here are the boys, enjoying their Moxie and hamming it up!

 Joe was tuckered out on our long day of driving, but he did a great job.  He is already a traveling trooper!

 One of the small lobstering villages we passed through was the quaint town of Cutler. 

 Nearby, we decided to take a trip to Moose Cove, via a small dirt road.  We came across two fallen trees (thanks to Hurricane Arthur).  One tree was easily moved, but the other was impassable.  So we all got out and hiked the rest of the way to the cove, spotting another new bird along the way!

 Once at the cove, Josh, Jack and Jake hiked down to the beach.  But there was just a little too much mud and steep trails for the rest of us, so we hung back and enjoyed the view.

 

Can you spot the three menfolk out on the rock?  :-) 

 On the walk back, George got a little crazy in the heat and made us all laugh with a silly song and dance! 

 Our last stop was at the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse - the Easternmost point in the United States!  (Why, you ask, is it called "West Quoddy" when it is the Easternmost point?  Good question!  There is actually an East Quoddy point light house which is farther east, but it is in Canada - not too far away from where we were!)

 From here we could see Canada and the magnificent Atlantic!

 We thought it was interesting to see a portrait of one of the long term lighthouse keeper couples.

 What a cute lighthouse keeper! 

 We took another trail down to the beach and spotted this unusual tree!

I'd like to conclude our Maine posts with a beautiful quote from the Maine Beautiful book by Wallace Nutting. 

"Altogether, no similar extent of shore, here or abroad, can for a moment

compare with this Maine coast.  

In the number of miles of shore line, formed by its involutions, 

in the heights and beaches, the mountains and streams,

the wooded decorations, the safeness of its harbors,

and the consequent allurement always accompanying such a coast,

the approaches of Maine can never be forgotten by 

one who loves that mysterious and ever beautiful wonder,

the sea."

This family, who counts themselves among those who love the sea, completely agrees.  We will never forget Maine and all its beauty and history and culture.  We only saw a tiny piece of this great state, but it has captured our hearts and we dream about the next time we can return.