Advertisement
Published: June 13th 2017
Geo: 44.3875, -68.2044
"I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads, I did ride." – Willie Nelson
I love country music; and my favorite singer in the world is Willie Nelson. So you can imagine my delight when I found out the two draft horses who would be pulling our carriage through Acadia National Park this morning were named Willie and Waylon, as in Nelson and Jennings. Willie and Waylon were two of the four singers in the country classic "Highwayman". It turned out that Waylon pulled his weight; and Willie was kind of a stoner who needed a shove now and then to keep up.
We began the day with breakfast in Bar Harbor at Café This Way, which had been written up in magazines. Cute place. Tasty food.
Then we drove to Acadia National Park. I believe there are 59 national parks in the NPS system and this is the 36th one we have visited. Drum roll for understatement: we like the parks.
We opted for a horse-drawn carriage tour of the park – a guided tour on carriage roads built by John D. Rockefeller and family before they turned the property over to the US government. Some of the roads we traversed
today were property still owned by the Rockefellers.
Regarding Acadia history:
1. The first inhabitants were the Wabanaki people.
2. Frenchman Samuel Champlain led an expedition that landed here in 1604, 16 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
3. It was outsiders—artists and journalists — who popularized the island in the mid-1800s.
4. In the 1880s, the Rockefellers, Fords, Vanderbilts, Carnegies and Astors began to spend their summers here. Bar Harbor became a party town, not unlike that depicted in "The Great Gatsby". The Great Depression, World War II and a devastating fire marked the end of the elegant era.
5. Among the vacationers was Charles Eliot, a landscape architect who drew up an ambitious plan for Mount Desert, the island on which the park sits. George Bucknam Dorr was another "cottager" on the island, who assisted the trustees for Eliot's plan acquire land for the park.
6. John D. Rockefeller Jr., who owned an estate on Mount Desert, became the principal patron. Rockefeller began buying up land and launched an ambitious network of carriage roads, which he paid for himself. In the end, Rockefeller spent a total of $3.5 million and donated 10,000 additional acres. David Rockefeller (and also Martha
Stewart) can be seen with their horses on these roads each summer.
7. On February 26, 1919, Mount Desert Island became a national park – the first east of the Mississippi. In 1929, it was named Acadia, the French word for "heaven on earth." George Dorr became the first superintendent.
The carriage ride was a fun way to see the park and to learn its history. The two-hour ride was a tad tedious – fun at first but too much of the same by the end. Ours was the two-hour bridge tour; perhaps the one-hour tour might have been a better choice. It wasn't available when I tried to book it two months out. So make your plans early.
A word about Maine and its wilderness … from a practical standpoint. There are many places where the wilderness caused me to have no Wi-Fi and no cell service. I couldn't count on GPS getting us to our destinations because of intermittent service. So I resorted to 1950's technology: paper.
And on a similar note, several places here have no interest in social media. When we went to meet the wooden schooner in Camden last evening, there was no address on the internet. Nothing
to enter in GPS. When I called, there was no answer. Eventually when I got through, they gave me the address for a nearby hotel. Odd.
And the Carriages of Acadia, which run the stables in Acadia as an outside supplier, haven't updated their website since 2013, don't take reservations except by phone and sent no confirmation.
Following our carriage ride, we stopped at Jordan Pond House, the only restaurant in the park. No reservations; just walk up and wait. Luckily, since we are between summer and leaf peeping season, we only had a 15-minute wait. We sat on the back lawn under umbrellas, with a lovely view of Jordan Pond (which is really a lake). I had the lobster stew and the famous popover. Patrick had the BLT. We were both quite pleased. Definitely put this spot on your TO DO list if your plans include Acadia.
At 3:30, we boarded the LuLu Lobster Boat Ride on a traditional Downeast-style lobster boat. Captain John is an entertaining and knowledgeable lobster fisherman.
1. Lobster fishing -- Learn about lobsters and lobster fishing. Details about lobstering are available at www.lobsterinstitute.org.
2. Seal watching – visit the rock ledges where the seals rest
3. Sightseeing – tour
Frenchman Bay, view summer cottages along the shores, enjoy Egg Rock Lighthouse close up while learning Maine's lighthouse history
I had read reviews on Trip Advisor that gave this tour high marks. I will be giving it high marks too.
Captain John spent some time talking about one of the major businesses in the area: Jackson Labs, whose scientists have produced 16 Nobel Prizes, including one related to human limb regeneration. He told us there are private FREE tours of Jackson Labs that are available on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce for advance reservations. www.jax.org.
We shared the bay with two cruise ships: Holland America's Veendam and Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas. We also saw the four red sails of Margaret Todd, another sightseeing boat.
We walked up the hill on Main Street and wandered in and out of some cute shops. We decided on Mache Bistro for dinner, which
Maine Magazine listed in its top 50 restaurants in Maine. It's away from the beaten path with no views and little atmosphere. Despite that, we enjoyed our meal and dining al fresco under strings of old-fashioned lights.
On the way back, I decided to do a lobster ice cream taste test. We stopped in Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium, the store famous for its lobster ice cream. It shouldn't be. There is NO COMPARISON to the ice cream I had at Qt's in Wiscasset. This had chunks of lobster in it, but they were frozen and sort of crusty with ice. It had hints of pink, since you could actually see the lobster bits in it, so it was prettier. But there were bites with no lobster or lobster flavoring at all. It was a disappointment. I didn't even finish it.
Two suggestions for next time:
1. Tour Jackson Labs as Captain John recommended (see above)
2. Visit the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Bar Harbor. You can make reservations on line. Allow a lot of advanced time. Reservations for each season open online in May. Tuesdays and Thursdays only. Free. https://rockgardenmaine.wordpress.com/
Advertisement
Tot: 0.127s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 8; qc: 34; dbt: 0.0735s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Nicole
non-member comment
I Loooove your blog. I am learning so much!