Holiday to New England in Oct 2023: Day 4 – The Morning in Bar Harbor

We were looking forward to spending the day in the same place for a change. These road trips always involve, well the road, for a good proportion of them.

That’s something that takes a bit of getting used to and we certainly appreciate the times when we stay in the same hotel for more than one night!

Today was Acadia National Park day. Even though there is no R in Acadia, the Americans seem to think there is, the way they pronunciate the word. We are easy either way.

We were both up early and started planning our day as soon as the first light went on. We had tried to get a space to go up Cadillac Mountain Summit for sunrise, but had left it too late to try and book.

The next best thing to do was to watch the sunrise from Shore Path which starts from the pier in Bar Harbor, so that’s what we planned to do.

That was combined with a plan to start the day with breakfast at Jeannie’s Great Maine Breakfast on Cottage Street, since it offered a great selection of gluten-free pancakes.

We drove down and parked on Cottage Street, right outside Jeannie’s at 6am. On the way we startled two deer on the street just outside the hotel.

Bit bizarre and we were certainly not expecting that. But a nice chance meeting.

The sunrise was a beautiful sight. We started off at the pier and then followed the mass of people walking along Shore Drive. We weren’t sure whether they all knew something we didn’t, or were more concerned about missing out on something that everyone else knew was going to happen!

Breakfast was truly astounding.

I had pleaded with Vick for us not to have too much breakfast after my massive steak last night, but I lost all sense of reasonable behaviour and had the biggest breakfast on the menu, with a pancake on the side!

Vick had the blueberry gluten-free pancakes which she described as being “nice”.

Unfortunately, there were no fancy coffees available, so we had to go with two cups of Joe, which to be fair to it, wasn’t that bad.

On to the rest of the day! We left Jeannie’s at just 7:45 or so, before the time when the parking meters kicked into action (according to staff at Jeannie’s) and we headed back to the hotel to pick up all the other stuff we needed to go to Acadia National Park for “the day”.

Vick refers to these days out, which almost always ends up with us needing a snooze just after midday!

We spent the morning on the east side of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, which is the most popular and visited area of the park.

It features the historic 27-mile Park Loop Road, which we planned to drive around. It gave us a good feel for the park and some great photo opportunities.

We started off at Sieur de Monts which comprises some walks and Wild Gardens of Acadia.

There wasn’t a great deal going on and we were keen to see the rest of the Park Loop Road, so we didn’t stay here long.

Next stop was Sand Beach.

From here, we walked to Thunder Hole about a mile along the coastal path, which allowed us to take in some amazing views of the coast and the trees.

We didn’t reach Thunder Hole at the right time, so there was absolutely nothing going on! The tide was out, so minimal wash hitting the rocks.

Next up was Jordan Pond which was pleasant. There was a restaurant and gift shop here.

Vick had a cup of Joe, but I decided I had had enough of boring coffee for one day.

We booked to drive up Cadillac Mountain as early as we could on our final day (after sunrise), but we half-expected not to end up making use of that. It was going to be a long day tomorrow, so we may probably take the opportunity to get on the road early.

Then we headed back to the hotel for a snooze!

Follow the whole story here: Holiday to New England in Oct 2023