Travel: Bar Harbor, Maine

Bar Harbor is the largest town on Mount Desert Island, it's rather touristy but I knew we'd still enjoy a day there, to take a break from all the wonderful nature we'd be immersed in in Acadia.  Also, I do love a quaint, touristy town.

This was day 3 in Maine, after 2 days in Acadia and with one left.  We had been getting out of camp pretty early (8:30am, which is early for vacation!) to beat the crowds to Acadia so we all slept in a tiny bit for this day, getting to Bar Harbor (maybe 25 minutes from camp) around 10am.  We meter parked on the street (on West Street, very near the Bar Island Trail), put 9.5 hours on for $14 and set out for one of the best days of our year.

First we just strolled through town, stopping at many souvenir shops.  A lot of our souvenir shopping on this trip happened this day.  I also stopped at Sherman's for my main Maine souvenir, a book (I like visiting local bookstores to buy books when we travel). 

We did about 2 hours of browsing and checking out the views, it was truly lovely.  Then it was time for lunch.  We went to West Street Cafe, right down the street from our car.  We got 3 meals to share between the 4 of us which worked out perfectly, everyone had enough to eat but nobody was stuffed.  Luke & I shared some lobster mac n cheese which was truly fantastic.  (He also had some of Sam's regular mac n cheese.)  That lobster was probably very recently swimming nearby.  Matt had a crabby patty which he also said was very good.   And it was a good location because Matt could run down to the car while we waited for our food to get our jackets for our next excursion!

The week before our trip, when I was planning all the nitty gritty, Matt & I had a few conversations on if we should do something in Maine besides the park.  We discussed either renting bikes to ride on the carriage trails in the park or doing a boat ride out of Bar Harbor.  We figured we can bike at home so boat ride it was!  This was a very last minute addition to the trip but it turned out to be one of the highlights!

We did the Lobster & Seal Watching Tour through Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co.  It was both cheaper and shorter than the whale watching tours which is the main reason we picked it.  I'd say we had very low expectations going in and it exceeded it in every way. 

 

We got on a boat right in Bar Harbor.  We had a boat captain and an animal guide.  (There was also a bathroom on board which we all ended up using for our 1.75 hour trip, this was shortly after lunch where we had all drank a lot of water.)  First they took us around one of the little island in the harbor and we got to see a Bald Eagle flying near it's nest.  That was very cool.  Then we went to check the ship's lobster traps.  We learned A LOT about lobsters and lobstering, Maine catches the vast majority of the lobsters in the whole country and is a big industry in Maine.  It was VERY interesting.

However, the lobsters weren't cooperating and all the traps only had crabs in them.  They said it was a bit early in the season for reliable lobster catching that close to the harbor.  However, they did have some lobster in the tank on board so we could still see some.  AND...on the boat ride back we all had the opportunity to hold one.  Dear Readers, for the first time in nearly 30 years, I willingly touched a live animal that wasn't a lightning bug.  (I have unwillingly touched or been touched by dogs and I do have to touch (processed) meat for cooking purposes.)  It was a DELIGHT and I was really excited about it.  Matt & Sam also held it, Luke wasn't interested.  I never though holding a live lobster would be a highlight of my week but here we are.

After the lobster trap checking (and before the lobster holding), we cruised by Egg Rock to check out the seals.  Matt & I were a bit leery on how many seals we might see but it turns out quite a few!  So many seals!  And they got rather close to the boat.  It was very cool.  Then we held lobsters on our way back to shore.

Like I said, I booked these tickets just a few days before we left but this tour really was a highlight of the trip.  It worked perfectly with our day in Bar Harbor and I'd highly recommend if you are on Mount Desert Island.  We really really enjoyed it.  

Since we had a few hours on the boat, and a few hours since eating, we were ready for some ice cream and then we walked the Bar Harbor Shore Path.  We had one VERY grouchy kid while we were doing that (the boys may have moped over various parts of Maine, they definitely hit their limit at times) which made this a less than fun experience.  It was also getting close to low tide, it would have been more scenic in the morning.  But it was a flat, paved path along the ocean/bay/gulf so it was still worthwhile.

The path ended in a way that we had to walk through Bar Harbor again to get back to the start and this was about the hottest part of the day (maybe 75° and very sunny).  A bit of walking, dropped off some things at the car, and then we did the Bar Island Trail.  This is a trail to an island that appears at low tide.  Since we had parked just down from this we also stopped first thing to see it covered in water, and now, about 7 hours later, there was a clear path across.  

 

 

There is about a 3 hour window to do this walk twice a day (the other was around sunrise) and the boys LOVED checking out what had recently been under water.  It took us about 45 minutes to walk to the island and back, with lots of stops by the boys to check out treasures.  It was gorgeous out with a nice breeze across the water.  It was more fun than I expected it to be!

Now it was suppertime and we knew what we'd be eating in Bar Harbor.  Lobster.  The full lobster meal.  We had accidentally walked through Stewmans Lobster Pound earlier in the day and that seemed like a natural place to return to.  Quick googling showed good reviews and I really wanted to eat outside, right by the water.  This was exactly what we wanted!

I cannot describe the delight I had over this meal.  We were seated right next to the water, on a perfect evening.  Matt & I shared the full lobster meal and I was so excited getting the bibs and reading the lobster eating instructions on our place mats.  We had just learned all about lobsters too!  

We had had regular lobster (not in mac n cheese or anything) just once before, on one of our cruises.  It was rubbery.  I figured freshly caught in Maine had to taste better.  And it did.  Not rubbery at all!  The boys took our corn on the cob and Luke sucked out most of the legs.  There isn't a ton of meat in just one lobster so it wasn't super filling but I don't think either of us could have eaten the whole meal on our own (Matt's not a huge seafood person but he agreed we had to eat a lobster in Maine.).  Luke & I ate some of the mussels too, not too bad dipped in butter!

The meal finished with blueberry pie and then we, regretfully, had to leave.  It was one of my favorite dining experiences of my life, eating lobster on the coast of Maine with that view.  Truly a delight (and we got 10% off with our boat tour tickets which was nice too).

After eating it was time to head back to the car.  We put that 9.5 hours on the meter at 10am and got back with less than 5 minutes to spare at 7:30.  It was a VERY full day in Bar Harbor but everything about it, other than the occasionally grumpy kids, was a delight.  Nothing disappointed.  It was a wonderful day in Bar Harbor, would highly recommend.