Acadia National Park
Bar Harbor bus system
Lobster boat tour
Unexpected friends meetup
What an amazing week!
Bar Harbor Campground is 2+ miles from Acadia National Park Visitors Center, 5 miles from Bar Harbor, and a convenient stop on the (free) bus system. We couldn't have picked a better place to stay!
Bike rides - Downtown Bar Harbor - locked them up and explored the beautiful town on foot. Grabbed some groceries, and we even each got a haircut!
- Acadia Park Loop Road - 25+ miles, stopped at all the highlights - Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, all the lakes and ponds. Just amazing.
- Acadia Carriage Trail - 25+ miles around three lakes. Weather was cool and foggy - see the videos here
The free bus system is the best, and get you pretty much anywhere you want to go around here. The bus drivers are oh so friendly, and many with that Maine sense of humor. Other cities can definitely learn a thing or two from this gem of an asset.
Bar Island - accessible by foot only at low tide. We walked there and then to the top of the island. Tides are about 12 feet here, so you have to time it right or you get stuck!
We took a lobster boat tour, and wow - did we learn so much! We went out to Egg Rock Island and Lighthouse where the harbor seals and gray seals were in the water (it was high tide), sleeping with their heads bobbing up and down.
Some lobster fun facts:
Lobsters' brains are no bigger than the tip of a ball-point pen
If there is not enough food, lobsters become cannibals
Lobsters hear with their legs and taste with their feet
Lobsters chew with their stomachs (they have 2 of these)
One claw can give a pressure of 100 pounds per square inch - enough for a small lobster to break a human finger - so be careful when you remove the rubber bands!
Lobsters can regenerate a lost limb, leg, or antenna, but will never regenerate another eye if it loses one. We were told that instead of an eye, a random limb can grow out of the eye socket! It's a vision of nightmares.
Lobsters pee out of their faces because their kidneys are in their forehead. Peeing at each other is part of both combat and courtship.
Despite what Phoebe on Friends says, lobsters do not mate for life
Lobsters thrive in water temperatures of 54-64 degrees. In Bar Harbor, summer lobstering takes place close to shore in 40-80 feet of water. In the winter, lobstermen move their pots 5 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean and drop them in up to 1200 feet of water where the bottom temperature is more constant and warmer than the shallow shore waters.
Bar Harbor has cruise ships that come in nearly every day. Pam had a client - and dear friend - that was in Bar Harbor on a cruise ship the day before we arrived. We just missed her! A few days later, a random Facebook post prompted other friends of ours to tell us that they were also on a cruise and would arrive the next day - so fun! We met them for breakfast and again later for an early lobster dinner. Ashley and Pete - it was so lovely to see you!
Our week long stay was just was not enough time. But the nights are getting chilly and the leaves are beginning to change which means it's time to begin our travel south. We can't wait to come back here.
On to more adventures.....
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