Week 3 - Camping in America

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Week 3, Camping in America

During the previous week Simon and I have been trying to sort out renting a car, much to our misfortune we were unable as the car rentals decide that the person driving the car must also be the person paying for the car and therefore hold a credit card, which Simon does not, well, did not own at this point in time. Luckily enough Claire and Ian have some great neighbours who are also close friends of theirs, Mary Ellen and Paul lent Claire one of their cars so Claire was able to lend us her very nice Subaru Forester, perfect!
We loaded the car up and headed out early Monday morning, destination - Bar Harbour in Acadia National Park, our American Road Trip was under way 😊 We had decided to take Route 1 to Acadia as that way we could stop off in some of the towns along the way, first stop over was 'Bath', sweet little town with a cool church called 'The Chocolate Church' presumably named that because of its colour. Second stop was 'Waldoboro', if anyone is ever driving this way we highly recommend that you stop off at 'Borealis

Breads'...one of the best sandwich's we have ever had, you get to choose everything, filling, sauce, salad and even the type of bread used, which is made on site, extremely tasty and filling. Last stop on the way there was 'Rockland', much more touristy compared to the previous, had some cool statues, nice harbour and the coolest toy store I have ever been in.
We didn't arrive at Acadia till 5pm, so we drove straight to 'Blackwoods National Park Camp Grounds' and set up for the night. First time staying in a National camp ground for myself, its very different, I like the room your giving per camp, the fact that your camp is enclosed by forest, blocking you off from neighbours, only bad point is no hot water, I must say that I do quite like having access to hot showers and hot water for cleaning dishes, makes life so much easier. National parks are quite in demand so we were only able to stay for one night anyway. Next day we packed up and moved on, finally settling for 'KOA Bar Harbour Woodlands camp ground'. We chose a lovely little spot at the back, enclosed by forest and bushes, totally secluded that also had means for camp fire's, plus the grounds had hot showers and dish washing facilities, we were in our element 😊 especially at night time when the fire was going and the smores were being made......mmmmmm smores!
Each day we were blessed with 30oc heat, blue sky and sunshine, which was heavenly but also hard going sometimes as the majority of the time we were doing 3/ 4 hour hikes each day. Certainly made for some lovely photos though. The best trail over all was the Precipice trail it is an exposed and almost vertical 1,000 foot climb up the east face of Champlain Mountain, full of sheer cliff drops, Iron rungs & ladders, extremely exhilarating and fun to do if you don't have a fear of heights, If we ever go back to Acadia we shall definitely do this trail again. It really was so awesome!
Thanks to my Uncle Fraser and family we were also given the opportunity to go on a Sun Set Whale watching cruise, which turned out to be very successful, we got to see quite a few Humpback Whales, some porpoises and seals and one of the most vibrant sunsets we have ever seen, even though Simon has seen quite a few whales before this we both had a very enjoyable experience.
Exploring Bar Harbour town was fun, its a beautiful wee town that slopes down to the harbour and has a couple of huge grassy areas for lounging around on. The town is made for tourism though, every store is either a souvenir store or a restaurant, we did have a couple of scrumptious meals there, I think it would be hard to not have a good meal in America though, American's really do know how to make extremely tasty food! We also bought some souvenir presents for people as well as a thank you present for Mary Ellen and Paul for making the whole road trip possible.
Before we left Acadia National Park we headed up Mt. Cadillac at 4.30am so we could catch the Sun rise, this is the first place in the whole of America that the Sunrises, its cool,... was awfully early, cold and quite misty on top, we did manage to get 2 photos of the sunrise though.
On the road back we stopped off at Banger, explored a little as well as checking out Steven King's House (you have to really, you cant not!). Belfast - which I loved, I could see myself living there if I was in America and wishing to settle down, looks like a perfect place for family's, it was colourful, beautiful town with everything you needed there, full of local shops selling local produce, the houses were lovely with big green spaces both in town and on the out skirts.
The last stop before home going via 'Waldoboro' for the Borealis sandwiches was Camden, another funky, colourful town, though extremely touristy again, Camden does have a National Sate Park as well, which we stopped off at quickly so we could trek up Mt. Battie for the panoramic view of Camden town, again, a must if your ever in the area, especially if it is as a beautiful day as we had.
It was super awesome that we got to do the road trip that we wanted as well as camping, I had been bugging Si for a while about getting to do our yearly camping trip so it really couldn't have been any better. Unfortunately it also meant that are time in Main was at its end, last weekend back in Harpswell before off to New York. Maine totally Rocks!, the people we met are so nice, the state is beautifully green which Si and I love and it was wicked getting to see my Dad and Claire again, already looking forward to re-visiting soon 😊 Thanks all for thee best time xx

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