Oct. 4 – Oct.7, 2021

Acadia National Park is mainly located near Bar Harbor, Maine, on Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine. We initially booked the trip for the fall of 2020; just like all the other planned trips in 2020, it got canceled due to Covid-19. We rebooked everything after both of us got fully vaccinated.

We flew to Boston on Oct. 2. The following day our daughter joined us coming from New York City. Together we did some sightseeing in the city. On Oct.4, we picked up the rental car in the morning and headed to Bar Harbor. We made a quick stop at Hampton Beach, a popular beach resort in New Hampshire, not too far away from Boston. It was very windy with dark clouds over; there was no one on the beach. Next, we visited Portsmouth, a New Hampshire port city founded in 1630. We tasted our first lobster roll of this trip at a small cafe at the Market Square. We went to see Strawbery Banke of 17-18th century-old houses. Our next stop was Portland, Maine. We toured the famous Portland Head Lighthouse and had our first clam chowder of the trip from a food truck, Cousins Maine Lobster, served on the lighthouse parking lot. Then we headed downtown and walked around before continuing our journey. Before arriving at Bar Harbor, we wanted to find a place to eat since it had already passed dinner time. As usual, we searched on Yelp. We decided to try out the Pho Hoa Grill in Banger, 45 miles away from Bar Harbor. The Pho Hoa is a tiny Vietnamese restaurant located in the residential neighborhood, with only two small dining-in tables mainly for take-out and delivery. Without Yelp, the tourists like us wouldn't find this place. However, the food is delicious. We arrived at our hotel quite late. Check-in was very smooth, and our room was spacious and clean.

On Oct. 5, the first full day in Bar Harbor, we planned to hike around Jordan Pond and sightseeing in other places. We left the hotel around 9:30 AM and headed to Acadia National Park. Finding a parking spot near popular hiking trails was almost impossible. We were driving around and looking for a parking space for a while until we decided to change our plan for the day. Instead, we went to a couple of less crowded scenic spots along the coast, Otter Cliff and Otter Point, before lunch. The weather was good, and we had a very lovely walk/hiking. We wanted to have lunch in downtown Bar Harbor. Once again, after driving around looking for a parking spot for more than 30 minutes without any luck, we ended up ordering to go and went back to the hotel.

We had a reserved ticket to drive up to Cadillac Summit Road for the afternoon. To control the vehicle traffic to the famous summit, the Acadia National Park has adopted a driving up ticket system. The park releases the tickets for a nominal fee 90 days before the day of the visit. We hiked down, and up a half portion of the North Range Trail from the summit, then we stayed until the sunset. The Cadillac Summit is beautiful, and it has gorgeous panoramic views of surrounding bays. The fall foliage in the mountain has just started to change color but is not near the peak. The summit is worth visiting, but honestly, it doesn't have a WOW effect on us for some reason. After the first day experience, Acadia National Park is no longer on our best national park list. We had a late dinner. After waiting for a table for 45 mins, we finally had our first steamed lobster of the trip. The lobster was good but pricy. $49 gets you a small lobster only. We also had the local famous blueberry soda, steamed clam, and clam chowder (again).

A ticket to see the sunrise at the Cadillac Summit is also required. We only got the ticket for daily use before the trip. There is another chance to snap the tickets at 10 AM two days before the day of the visit. Luckily, we were able to get the sunrise ticket at 10 AM sharp for Oct. 6; all tickets were gone in a couple of seconds after 10 AM. The Cadillac summit is the first place in the United States to see the sunrise. The view of the sunrise is breathtaking, one of the best we have experienced. After the sunrise, we went back to the town to have breakfast at a popular local place called Jeannie's Great Maine Breakfast. The food was good, very homey style, but the portion was huge, way too much for any of us. The owner told us that it's meant to be that way so that you won't be hungry for the rest of the day.

We learned from yesterday's parking trouble and decided to take advantage of the park's free shuttle service. After breakfast, we took the Island Explorer bus, a free park shuttle for a park loop ride that stops at the Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, and Jordan Pond. We hopped on and off at each stop. Jordon Pond area is always crowded. Besides hiking trails, Jordan Pond House Restaurant is a historic spot for popovers and jam with a terrific view of the pond and surrounding mountains. The line to put a name down on the waiting list for the table was long. The wait to get the table was even longer. During our one and a half hour waiting for our lunch seating, we hiked a portion of Jordan Pond. The fall color around the pond was fantastic. Once seated, we tried out their famous popovers and seafood chowders. The popovers were interesting and tasted pretty good.  After recharging, we popped on the shuttle again to go to the Bubble Pond. We walked around the mirror-like pond, and it was beautiful and very peaceful. We then took the shuttle back to Bar Harbor downtown. It's low tide time of the day at the Bar Island Trail. As the ocean water is wading away, the path to Bar Island emerges above the water. Hundreds of people were walking on the path to the island. We spot many live starfishes, sea snails, and other small ocean creatures on the floor along the trail. The gravel sand bar connecting to the island is exposed only one and a half hours before and after the low tide every day. It was a fun experience. After the hike, tired of a long wait at the restaurant, we decided to have dinner at a less crowded India Restaurant.

Oct. 7 is our last day in the park. We decided to get out of the tourist crowded places in the park. We first stopped by at the most photographed bridge in Acadia National Park, the Somesville Bridge. The first time we learned about the bridge was at the Acadia Inn we stayed. Many copies of the framed pictures of this white-painted footbridge in front of a small house reflected on a motionless pond were on the wall through the inn. The beautiful picture got our attention and inspired us to see it. Left the bridge, we went to see Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. The lighthouse is a popular spot, but the parking lot is small. We had to wait for a while to get a parking space. The lighthouse is picturesque, viewing from the granite boulders below the lighthouse. After the lighthouse, we headed out of Mount Desert Island, hoping to have some good lobster meals. Our first stop was the Gateway Lunts Lobster Pound. Unfortunately, they only opened for take-out, and no lobster was served due to the staff shortage. We decided to have a bowl of Clam Chowder. It was a different style compared to the clam chowder we had the other days, but it tasted terrific. Continuing on the road, a sign of a $9 lobster in front of a store caught our eye. We decided to make a U-turn to check it out. The deli and grocery store sells live lobsters for $9 per pound. However, since the store doesn't have a steamer, that is not an option for us to buy the lobster there. Instead, we ordered a lobster roll for $16, and it was good. We were on the road again, heading to Winter Harbor. We found a store called Winter Harbor Lobster Co-op that sells live lobsters for $10 per pound and a small fee for steaming. The store has many tables and benches up the hill for customers to enjoy fresh steamed lobsters there. We were so excited and ordered one lobster first. The lobster was so fresh, and the meat had a little bit of sweet taste. It was the best lobster we have ever had, so we immediately ordered another one.

With two lobsters in the stomach and feeling satisfied, we got on the road again and headed down to the Schoodic Point, across the Freshmen Bay from Bar Harbor. The Schoodic Point is part of Acadia National Park, less popular with the tourists but has the best view of large veins of dark basalt between more giant granite boulders and sea surfing pounding the shore. Once there, we realized that it should be an excellent spot to see the sunset, so we decided to stay for a couple more hours. We were not disappointed. The sunset we saw from the Cadillac Summit was good. But this one was a lot better. It was one of the best sunset views we have experienced. On the way back to the hotel, we had another lobster dinner. $18 for a steamed lobster and an ear of corn is a pretty good deal compared to the first lobster at Bar Harbor's downtown restaurant. A lesson learned: wanting to have good lobster for cheap? Avoid downtown Bar Harbor. Going outside Bar Harbor, just 20 minutes drive, can save you a lot of money on the lobster meal. Two of us had three lobsters, two clam chowder soups, and one lobster roll for the day; what a good day is to end the trip to Acadia.