Tour Guide - Part 2

8:17 am - Friday - September 7th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 56º F, 84% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the north......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 67º F.

We began our first day (Thursday) with Glenn (brother-in-law) and Laureen (TLE's younger sister) by meeting them at 'Eat-A-Pita' for breakfast about 10 am.  It's been about 18 months since we have gotten together.  The last time was at our school reunion in Las Vegas in March of 2017.  We really had no plan for the day, and sometimes that is the best way to begin a day of touring.....just make it up as you go.  Well, the first part was deciding at the last minute to have breakfast at our favorite local breakfast place. From there we drove both cars up to Southwest Food Mart where we left the VW in their parking lot, and continued on with Glenn and Laureen in their rental car to spend the day exploring the highlights of Acadia National Park.  They are only here for parts of three days so there was not a lot of time!

Glenn suggested I play chauffeur, and I accepted the task.  We began our drive over towards Bar Harbor deciding to hit Cadillac Mountain first.  The other day (before Labor Day) when we were there with Charles and Bobbie we had a difficult time finding a parking spot, but this time (after Labor Day) we found a spot pretty quickly.  As always we talked continuously as we walked around the various paved trails at the summit.  The day had begun overcast, but by the time we finished breakfast the cloud cover had melted away.  Nevertheless, it was quite humid, which restricted the amazing view from the summit a tad, but it was still amazing as always.

Cadillac Mountain 'usie'

.....from there we headed over to Sand Beach.  TLE and I had yet to visit Sand Beach, so this would be the first time for all four of us.  The road to Sand Beach is a two lane, one way loop road.  This is the only place in the park that I am aware of where you must pass through a formal kiosk where you show a park pass, or your National Parks card to enter.  There are two attractions along this multi mile one way drive.....Sand Beach, and Thunder Hole.  Sand Beach was our first stop where we very easily found a parking place for our car.....

.....Sand Beach is a popular sun bathing and swimming beach.  The only other sand beach I am aware of is the small one I have written about previously.....Wonder Land......where one might sun bath, but it would be very difficult to swim due to all the rocks.  Sand Beach, as you can see from the pictures is quite large, and there were a lot of people there on Thursday.  We opted to skip Thunder Hole as the tide was all wrong, and the parking would have been impossible.....

.....TLE, of course, took her flip flops off immediately and was wading in the water.  Laureen was wear tennis shoes, and much to her dismay got hit by a small wave getting one of her shoes all wet.

From there we drove over to Jordan Pond to see if we could snag a parking spot, and were unsuccessful, so we headed over to the Asticou Inn for popovers and coffee.  As we drove it began to rain, and when we arrived at the Inn it was still raining, however, we were still able to sit outside at a table with an umbrella adequate enough to shield us from the drizzle.  We had a delightful time enjoying the cloud shrouded view of Northeast Harbor while we continued out non-stop conversation.  After our popovers we walked across the street to the Asticou Azalia Gardens to walk around before returning to Jordan Pond once again.  We were successful in snagging a parking spot on our second attempt....

Jordan Pond

Charles and Bobbie where still in the area, so we made arrangements to meet them at the Bar Harbor Inn Terrace Grill for dinner at 5:30 pm.  We arrived a little early, but went ahead and got a table knowing Charles and Bobbie would follow in about 45 minutes.  I'm glad we did as the rest of the tables were gone well before 5:30.  

Sharing a few cocktails and great conversation

at the Terrace Grill

To say the weather and ambiance were spectacular would be an understatement.....I'm not sure there are adequate words to adequately describe how truly special the evening was.  It was all for which I could have hoped and a lot more.....

Charles and Bobbie joined us shortly after 5:30 and we placed our wine and entree orders (we all ordered their grill salmon dinner!).  Just as we were finishing our dinners the sun began to set to the west of us......just beautiful!

As we paid our bills we took a few sunset pictures and then headed for our vehicles.  We said our 'until next times' to Charles and Bobbie before heading back to Southwest Harbor for the evening.  Glenn and Laureen dropped us off at the VW and we made plans to meet for breakfast again Friday morning.  Friday will be their final day here in their brief MDI visit so we will make the most of our time.

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On the bubble.....

6:38 am - Friday - August 24th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 56º F, 91% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the west......sunny with a forecast high today of 73º F.

It had been two days since we last took a hike, and we were anxious to get out and put some more miles on our odometers so we headed to Jordan Pond about 9:20 am to see if we could snag a parking spot and knock out two trails in one trip.....the Jordan Pond Loop, and the South Bubble/Bubble Rock trails.  There are three trails you can take to reach Bubble Rock.  The most popular, because it is the easiest, is the trail beginning in a parking lot off Route 6....it is very difficult to get a parking spot there unless you arrive before 8 am.  The second and third trails branch off the Jordan Pond Loop trail.  Little did we know at the beginning of the day we would be choosing the most difficult of the three.......

......we reached the Jordan Pond parking lot about 9:40 am and were able to snag one of about 10 remaining parking spots....within 20 minutes they would be all gone, and then the waiting game would begin for those arriving after 10 am.  Twice we have arrived before 10 am and gotten a spot easily.  After putting on our Camelbaks we walked a short distance down to what they call the 'boat ramp'.....it is just a place where people put in kayaks, and canoes.....

Explain to me how this is a 'pond'....

......the skies had been relatively cloudy when we left home, but they began to clear as started our trek.  By the end of our hike, 2.5 hours later, there would be virtually no clouds left......

.....the trail circumnavigating Jordan Pond is reputed be 3.1 miles in length and is pretty much a flat walk all around the lake......I really cannot bring myself to call it a pond.  The word 'pond' just conjures up a completely different image in my mind.  Our plan was to pick up the trail to South Bubble, and the famous 'Bubble Rock', about a mile, or so into the Jordan Pond Loop trail.....'Bubble Rock' is technically a 'peculiarly placed glacial erratic', or in layman's terms, just a big rock which appears to be on the verge of falling over the cliff....more on that later......

.....after about 1.3 miles of very easy hiking we came to the fork in the trail where we picked up the .4 mile trail up to Bubble Summit and Bubble Rock.  It began as a very steep, rocky ascent.....nothing new here, right?  Eventually we came to a point where we could see Jordan Pond, and then the fun really began......

......I wish I had taken pictures of the 25 yard section we had to literally climb, hand over hand, to reach the summit, but I was scared spitless....the last thing on my mind was freeing up either of my hands to take a picture.  It took us literally 25 minutes to go that last 25 yards.  Several times we were stymied about how to get to the next level, but finally figured it out.  There was one point where I thought we might have to turn back, but the thought of having to descend what we just had climbed scared me more than continuing the ascent.  Eventually TLE and I safely made it to the top of the precipice where we sat down to regain our composure....it was then I took the picture just below......

......that granite ledge you see in the foreground hides a 75-100 foot wall which you must scale quite carefully to avoid becoming a statistic.....I could not bring myself to walk back to the edge and take a picture of what it looked like......

....within 5 minutes we were smiling again, and so very grateful we did not have to descend the same trail to get back to the Jordan Pond trail.......

......in the picture above you ca see people 'trying' to push the famous Bubble Rock over the edge.....of course it cannot be done, but everyone, but us, seemed compelled to give it a try......

......eventually we reached the South Bubble summit which sits at 763' above sea level at which time we began the much gentler descent  back to the Jordan Pond trail....

......once we hit the Jordan Pond trail it was easy walking again, and we quickly finished the circumnavigation of the lake.......

  Looking south toward Jordan Pond House

.....the last half mile of the trail was upon this boardwalk which kept us off the ground to protect the native flora and fauna.......

......we arrived back at the car around 12:30 pm having covered just 4 miles.......

......in spite of the slow, hair raising climb to South Bubble, we averaged over 2 mph covering the aforementioned 4 miles in one hour and forty-two minutes of 'moving' time, gained 546' in elevation, and burned 725 caloric units in the process.

Well, after that exhilarating hike what more perfect way to celebrate our still being alive than to stop off at the Asticou Inn for some popovers and coffee......

.....by the way, their coffee is amazing, and I'm sure, magical.  We talked like two magpies for about an hour before paying our check and heading for home.  On the way we stopped at the Food Mart to pick up some fixin's for some of TLE's famous salsa, as well as more fixin's for some good old fashioned Cadillac Margaritas......and that my friends was our dinner....chips, salsa and Cadillac Margaritas.....isn't it great being an adult?

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The Asticou.........

6:07 am - Thursday - July 19th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 57º F, 80% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south.......sunny, blue skies with a forecast high for today of 74º F.

Wednesday, while cool initially, was quite humid with a forecast high of 77º F.  We decided to take a week off from hiking and just do a little site seeing later in the day.  I began my day watching stage 11 of the Tour de France.  There is something pleasant about watching bicycle riders suffer for hours climbing 12% grades in the Alps from the comfort of your leather recliner.  I've done enough of that in my life spending hours climbing in hot weather over mountain passes day after day on a 500 mile bike rides not that many years ago.....I know what it feels like.  Certainly, I do not ride as fast as these guys do, or as many miles in a single day as they do, and I was never riding for the 'yellow jersey', but I do understand the suffering.  It is suffering to which you willingly submit yourself.......it is for the sense of accomplishment, and for the reward.......the equally long downhill.  You stand on the pedals for mile after mile with the wind in your face........all the pain of a few moments prior is forgotten.  

Stage 11 was completed around noontime, and we were in the VW shortly thereafter driving over to Northeast Harbor to have lunch at the Asticou Inn and Restaurant.........Yelp gives them a solid 4 stars on 34 reviews.  We arrived just after 12:30 pm, and were shown immediately to a table on the outside deck......perfect!

The restaurant was quite busy and we both felt we were lucky to get a table so quickly.  The view of Northeast Harbor was perfect and exceeded our expectations........

......we quickly ordered some adult beverages......white wine for TLE, and a local stout for moi......

.....like Jordon Pond, the Asticou Restaurant offers popovers and tea.......TLE ordered the popovers (no tea), and I their Lobster Quiche.  The service was excellent, and within minutes of receiving our drinks we had our food......

......according to my sister-in-law, Kay Houghtaling, we have become excellent 'Rusticators' (The term “rusticators” is used to describe families who came to spend long summers on the coast of Maine. Rusticators started arriving in the late 1800’s. The word rusticator is derived from the word rustic, which relates to country living).....I guess I would have to agree with her.

 

We lingered over our food and drinks until almost 2 pm when we finally asked for our check.  Right across the street from the Inn are the Asticou Azalea Gardens, so we decided to walk over and check them out.......

......unfortunately, the azaleas went through their blooming cycle a number of weeks ago.  I can only imagine how beautiful the garden would have looked with them in full bloom.  As it was the gardens were quite lovely........

......and it was a very nice way to walk off our lunch!  We were home about 2:45 pm.....time for a nap for moi.

We watched some more 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee', and some recorded shows.  I was in bed a little after 9 pm as it is back to work on Thursday!

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