Mount Desert Island / Bar Harbor Maine / Acadia NP

Day 1: NOLA to Portland, arrive @ 3pm. Grab rental car, hit Whole Foods for groceries, pass though Bissel Brothers for some beers & then swung though Eventide for dinner and drinks. Great oysters, hip place. Cashed in some points to get a night at the AC Hotel downtown. Nice place.

Day 2:
wake up early, free lobby coffee bar & leave at 8am to drive to bar harbor. Took the scenic route on 1. Went to reds eats in wiscssset(sp?) on a recommendation but it’s was closed. Stopped at sea dog brewery in Camden and got a beer on the harbor deck. Great views, OK beer. Forgot sunglasses so made a pass through Walgreens across the street. Cool town, 100% touristy. Stopped at Anglers in Searsport and got lunch. Diner style. I got baked macaroni, wife got a lobster soup of some sort. Arrived in bar harbor 3pm Sunday. Check in at Bnb. Walked around, grabbed drinks at beer werks and snack. Walked some more then tacos at a cantina place, forgot name.

Day 3:
Woke up 7am, hit the lobstah boat tour. Awesome. Catch and release. Super cool gal, lulu, and her captain, some young gal transitioning to malehood who and a broken finger. Caught crabs, lobster and saw a bunch of seals and eagles. Got schooled on lobster anatomy. back to dock. 2hr trip or so, Highly recommend it.

Back to room, packed a lunch and some beers and hit the Acadia National park ready to hike. Pretty packed but not bad. Started at Sandy beach with all the tourists and geriatrics. Took a couple photos and off to Beehive trail. Views were stunning. Climbed some ladder rungs expoxied into the stone and to the top. Not for everyone but god damn, beautiful sight. Incorporated the Goraham & bowl hikes and made it about a 2 mile hike.
Went to see the famous thunder hole and met back up with the hundred of out of shape folks with telephoto camera lenses. Pretty cool but ocean wasn’t quite loud as expected. Still a nice view. Hopped in the car and hit southeast harbor. 10 minutes away. Gorgeous fishing town. Got a espresso, no beer to find. Did another hike, beech cliff ladder trail? Fun and long one. Maybe another 2 miler. Didn’t see too many folks in this one. Gorgeous views from top cliffs. Went to Beals lobster pier for lunch in SW harbor. Killer dive seafood house. Lobster rolls and mussels. Good cocktails and beer, right on water. Highly recommend. Hit Bass head lighthouse after, about 15 min wait to find a spot but finally made it for hour before sunset. Maybe 75 people there, got some nice shots from walking out on the rocks. Gorgeous. Back to bar harbor after that. Dinner at side street cafe after. Margaritas and light dinner.

Day 4
Woke up, breakfast and BNB. Omelette and coffee. Went to get a couple E-bikes at 9am when they opened up but sold out. Went to spot #2 and had about a :15 min wait for bikes. Grabbed a couple, got a handlebar bag for our lunches we packed drinks then hit the carriage trails. Damn those things are fun to ride. Bike store gives you a map. 10 minutes and you were at first carriage trail. Won’t go into history of these trails but pretty cool. Almost too nice and manicured. limestone trails. We did about 35 miles of pedal assist trails and a cool hike on Giant Slide Trail. Returned bikes at about 3:30pm, hopped in car and made our way up mountain to check out kebo golf club. Grabbed a beer and a view from deck. Cool spot, 8th or 9th oldest club in USA. Back to car, and back up the mountain to a place we faintly saw the day before. Looked like a seafood shack in the woods, Hodgens(sp?) super cool. Pick a lobster from tank, dude boils them for you on the porch and wife rings you up. Chocolate cookies optional. Amazing, must do, great guy, great spot, it’s like driving down the bayou and having Alizina Toups cook you gumbo. Back to Bnb, Showered, grabbed a beer out of fridge and walked to get some ice cream. There about 3 places in town serving only ice cream. All about the same, grabbbed a scoop, sat on the street benches and watched a young rich-flashy Chinese couple fighting over god-knows-what. Walked back to Bnb, hit a souvenir shop on the way home and wife got a couple shirts.

Day 5
Wake up and hit the botanical gardens. Chill walk though some gardens with a lot of info. Drove back to Portland and hit the mast landing brewery. A+ on the beer selections, can’t say enough. The drive back was nice, passed though LL bean and saw a few leaves changing colors but just a week or so early according to the experts. We still had some daylight so we zoomed over to the fort Williams lighthouse. Amazing views, great pictures, highly recommend for sunset. Ate some leftovers and crashed.


Wake up at 4:30 and head to airport > NOLA via Maryland on SW.

Maine is large, beautiful and a must do. Lob-stahh for days.