Rather typical lobster boat getting ready to go back out
Bar Harbor. Note the docks out in the water that floats on the 12' tides in the area.7/24 Tuesday We drove to Bar Harbor and through a significant portion of Acadia National Park that includes Cadillac Mountain. It is reported this mountain is 1500 feet, however, it appears to be more. Bar Harbor is a small town with little shops, places to eat, an interesting harbor area and no parking meters. They have 2-hour limits on some areas, but we did not see any meter maids waiting to catch folks that overstayed their limit. We found a restaurant advertising Tex-Mex food, but it was really New Mexico Mexican food. This is where the owner had studied, so it was a bit different to our normal ideas, but it was good and the waitress as very attentive. It was interesting she had lived in the area all her life (likely about 23 years) and spoke without a Maine accent. We commented on this observation and she assured us when she was around her father, a lobsterman, she sounded as good or as bad as he does. She said her mother also had no Maine accent. It appears the accent depends upon where you are living and maybe what the person did earlier in life. As you get away from the water, the accent tones down dramatically.
We had been told there was an admission charge in Acadia National Park, but we never found a gate. Most of the roads are freshly paved and really nice to drive on. The views are very good of Eagle Lake on one side of Cadillac Mountain and Frenchman Bay and the Atlantic on the other. We think we are correct that this area of the Atlantic is recognized as the Bay of Maine. We were on the mountain at 2:30 and the Winter Harbor area on the north side of Frenchman Bay had large areas already covered with heavy fog.
The mountain is made up of pink granite stone. It is easy to walk on and doing so is allowed by the park service. There are large areas at the top of the mountain for visitors to walk around on, sit, picnic and sun on. It appeared some had come to sun in an attempt to get a quicker tan than they would at a lower elevation. There was one fellow running down the mountain road who looked almost as red as one of the lobsters they were selling in town. We know he will be hurting for several days due to his quick ‘tan’.
It is interesting the difference in the people who live here vs. other parts of the country. There are more bikes on Main Street than you would find on one location other than the bike area at a Super Wal-Mart. We have seen many bike racks that hold four bikes on the back of cars. There are also many runners everywhere you go. In general, the locals do not have any weight issues. We saw many people who had biked up Cadillac Mountain and a few who were running up. Seeing this, it is not really hard to understand how they are so in shape.
Some other observations have to do with their love of wind vanes for the roof. Most are mounted on structures that mount on the ridge of the house and are topped with copper. Of course the copper looks great now, but it will turn a rather dark brown in time. Every town, and sometimes just where a walk path crosses a road in the middle of no-where, you will see a sign in the middle of the road reminding you that the state law requires you stop your vehicle for anyone in the crosswalk. Another thing is the lack of signage on the roads. If you miss the sign that says the name of the road you are traveling on, you are just in tough luck. The majority of the cross streets are marked, but no guarantees on that. Many cross roads will be marked with a name, but they are also marked as private and they are the ‘road’, really the driveway to a home.
