Sunday dawned clear and cool, and by the way, dawn is now 5:58 am here in northeast Maine. Quite a change from back in May when it was dawning at 4 am! Sunset is now at 7:06 pm.....the days are getting shorter and the summer season is just about gone.
In spite of it being Labor Day weekend downtown Southwest Harbor was not quite as busy as it has been. Most children are back in school now. There is a saying here in Southwest Harbor that after Labor Day the tourists consist of the 'near dead' and the 'newly wed'.....very few families can be seen walking the streets of Southwest Harbor. Some local businesses have already begun to 'shutter their windows' and will be closed until next summer. Things seem to wind down pretty quickly here in northeast Maine.
Now, for the rest of MDI (Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor), things are still going full tilt and you have to get out pretty early to find a parking spot at the major attractions, which is pretty much everything in ANP (Acadia National Park). We had agreed to meet Charles and Bobbie at the intersection of Highways 102, 3 and 198 (198 takes you to 3 and then into Bar Harbor) where we would park our car and join them in their large Ford crew cab to hit some of the highlights in Acadia National Park. We met them about 10:30 am and headed for our first destination of the day....Cadillac Mountain. What better place in ANP to get a great overview of the entire area......
Bobbie and TLE
Charles and moi
.......we reached the summit parking lot to find a long line of cars all looking for the same thing.....a parking spot. Charles let the three of us off near the summit sidewalk and then set off to find such a spot. While Bobbie, TLE and I walked around he circumnavigated the parking lot 5 times before finding a spot, but he was successful and eventually joined us.
After spending about 30 minutes taking in the almost always beautiful view (very few clouds this day) we headed down the hill and into Bar Harbor. We knew we would have no chance on earth of finding a parking spot there within 1/2 a mile of the town center, so we just made a circle through the town to orient Charles and Bobbie to what was there, and some of our favorite eateries, and then headed out of town and down highway 3 towards Otter Creek, through Northeast Harbor, and ultimately back to Somesville where we had parked the VW. Once we had retrieved the VW we headed through Southwest Harbor to Bernard and one of our favorite lobster pounds....Thurston's. We arrived to find their parking almost completely full except for two spots at the furthest point from the restaurant so we dropped off the girls and went to snag those last two spots. The great thing about Thurston's is no matter how full their parking lot is you will never have a hard time finding a table, or two. They have quite a large dinning area with great views of Bass Harbor......
Bass Harbor view from Thurston's on Sunday
......Bobbie, Charles and I ordered their Lobster BLT, and TLE their Lobster Stew, which she adores. In addition TLE and Bobbie ordered a bottle of some white wine, and Charles and I a bottle of an Argentinian Malbec. If it is possible I loved the the Lobster BLT was even better than the last time I had it, and I loved it then! The conversation flowed as we covered everything from 'A to Z' in the 90+ minutes we were there. What a perfect way to end the afternoon! By 3 pm we had made plans to meet up again Monday afternoon, and were both on our way back to our respective abodes.
As soon as we got home I turned on the golf tournament, then sat down and took a hour nap! The great thing about watching golf on TV is that you don't miss too much in an hour....😀 We finished the evening watching the 7th episode of 'Pacific', and then retired to bed about midnight.....yeah, midnight.....haven't done that in a long time!
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So sad to see the summer season leaving us. Not as sad as it used to be since now we have a place to scoot to before winter approaches! :)
ReplyDeleteNice day with your friends!
Looking forward to the post Labor Day time we have left here. Should calm down considerably!
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