Schoodic Peninsula

We woke up to bright blue skies and clear air--perfect weather for day two of our Acadia trip.  I don't know what water this is but it was beautiful.

My impression of Maine was game filled forests and rocky coastlines.  It still surprises me with its mountains.  Truth is Maine is very mountainous from lots of volcanic and glacial  activity.

View of Frenchman Bay.  Bar Harbor is located directly behind the middle of the island.

Low tide--you can see the bottom of this cove in the crystal clear water.

View directly across the road--a salt marsh

View from Schoodic Point.  The 'other Acadia" is located across Frenchman Bay east of Mount Desert Island which holds the majority of the Park.  There are only four hikes in this part of the park.  All four lead to Schoodic Head 440 ft up.  We opted for clambering over the rocks at various points along the 6 mile perimeter road.

A tidal pool looks just like a little snail village in a valley.  The whole thing is completely under this beautifully clear water.

Evidence of volcanic activity

I think this may be a rainwater pool.  The water is cloudy and this little fellow likes it.

beauty and beasts

incoming tide

Basaltic rock from lava flow

Short channel

Jellie fish in the channel

Red jellyfish

Views of Schoodic Harbor on the Gulf of Maine (west side of the Schoodic Peninsula.)

View of the entrance of Wonsqueak Harbor on the left.  The building isn't leaning, I took this on the fly from the back of the bike.

A restaurant called the Pickled Wrinkle.  It took me a couple of tries but I finally got it.

Wonsqueak Harbor

We stopped for lobster rolls here.  Duane thought his was good.  I decided that I had found that "wicked good" lobster roll.  Surprisingly Duane passed on the ice cream!!!!

Tidal flat at low tide

Maine, especially coastal Maine is all about lobster.

We saw this place and decided to stop for pix.

Ray Murphy is a true chain saw artist, using no other tool but a chain saw for his carvings.

Tiny ladybugs.  His daughter does the painting.

Ray is a gregarious fellow who loves an audience.  He has shows daily at 7 pm.

When I think of Maine coastal houses this comes to mind.  Notice the widow's walk above the front door.

Schoodic point was the highlight of our Acadia tour.  This part of the park is smaller, more remote and less crowded--the perfect way to experience Acadia National Park and the Maine sea coast.

Next stop is further down the coast.  Stay tuned.

Louise and Duane

Cole Transportation Museum

With rain in the forcast we postponed our return visit to Acadia National Park.  We opted to visit the Land Trasport Museum in Bangor (pronounced Ban gor by the locals).

The Museum was established to collect, preserve and display a cross section of Maine's land transportation equipment from which this and future generations will gain knowledge of the past.

There were about a dozen fire trucks

This blacksmith shop was part of the Maine Central RR building.

Next on Duane's wish list

Anything that had wheels or tracks and could transport anything on land was represented, from small toys, rideable toys, and serious transport.

Caboose of a four car train

Enfield RR station

While we were in the museum the rain caught up to us and moved on.  We completed our afternoon ride with a visit to the local H-D boutique.  Duane was just saying that he found it hard to believe that he hadn't found a T-shirt with a lobster riding a Harley.  We walked in this store and there it was!  

Our rainy day touring complete, we headed home.  Next--part two of Acadia.

Louise and Duane

Acadia National Park

Today was "day one" in Acadia National Park. We left the rv about 9 AM and returned at 5 PM. It's about 35 miles from the camp ground to the entrance of the park.  We drove into the park and headed up the road to Cadillac Mountain. When we got to the top all we saw was fog. The fog was so thick that we couldn't see more than 100 yards around. 

Off the mountain the fog was not as bad as continued down the road. We were planning on doing a complete circle of the park but came to realize that we were heading out of the park. We had missed a turn that would have taken on a one-way road that went down the  east side of the park.

This is the beach that we came out of the park to.

We checked the map, found where we had gone wrong and decide since we were already out of the park we would get a bite to eat before heading back in. A left turn at the beach took us to Bar Harbor. When we were planning our trip up everybody said you have to go to Bar Harbor. When we got into town it was SO BUSY and crowded that I couldn't find a place to park the bike. We decided this place was not for us so we headed on down the road.

We stopped at this small restaurant in Hulls Cove for lunch. As expected the prices were a little high but the food was good. Louise had a lobster roll and clam chowder. I had a prime rib sandwich. Louise said the lobster roll great. She shared the clam chowder with me and both said it was really good. My sandwich was good but not great. 

Our view while we ate. It was low tide.

After eating and filling the gas tank on the bike we headed back in the park. This time we found the right road. There are a number of these stone under passes. They are on the carriage road that runs through the park. 

The first road we had taken was all wooded and frankly a little disappointing to me. Not at all what I had expected.

A short way down the road and the views started to pop. This road runs right along the shore. This is what I thought Acadia was suppose to look like. 

We stopped at a lot of the overlooks and walked down to drop offs for a better look. 

All of these people are down the Thunder Hole.

The tide races into this narrow canyon, hit the back of the hole and crashes back out making a noise like a clap of thunder 

Really cool.

Love these views 

All and all we loved the park. Our plan is to visit a different part of the park tomorrow and return to this part to take some of the trails for a hike the next day.

Till next time

Duane and Louise