Baah Haaabaah! (How Mainelanders say Bar Harbor!)

Note to readers:  We have been “off the grid” for 3 days in Bar Harbor. We expected no internet, but our cell phones were useless too so the Mi Fi wouldn't even work)   I wrote this post twice on the way to Oxbow out of Portland (see below) but the bumpy road got the better of my computer and somehow it was deleted!!  (So now I am better at saving after each paragraph!!).. .There will be 2 posts, this one and Portland)

The Ocean at Bar Harbor

Our drive up to Bar Harbor took a good bit longer than “Myrtle”, in the Nuvi predicted but it was laced with good beer, good food, friends and fun.  A friend of Sam’s who is on the board of Allagash, told Keith that we should stop by Oxbow brewery on the way up to the National Park.  So Keith and Dave were on a mission!  Duly putting in the coordinates we set off on the scenic drive up the coast.  At some point Myrtle veered us inland on farm-to-market roads and Bessy bumped and “grinded” along.  We were “following” the Wassums but they got ahead of us and took a “wrong” turn and we both arrived at Oxbow at the same time but from different directions!  It was a clear that Bessy and Bert would not fit going up the winding dirt driveway and turning them around would never happen, so we went on down the road to find a place to disconnect.  A large drive by an electrical substation provided a spot about ½ mile away, but Bert’s “butt” was hanging out in the middle of the road, so Deb took off the Brake Buddy while Dave disconnected Bert in record time and Deb watched for cars.  If disconnecting had been a “sport” like NASCAR  pit-crew teams, we would have won it!

Dave at Oxbow

Oxbow did not disappoint.  Keith learned that both of the owners had gone to college with his new son in law, Sam.  Which is really amazing since we are in Nowhere, Maine and they went to a Lenoir Rhyne sized college in Colorado!  They had been featured in Beer Advocate magazine this month and their beer was unique and very flavorable.  Their Farm House Ale was low alcohol without being bland and their IPA was flavored with a new hop, Acacia.  They were using Czeck and Belgium brewing methods with an American twist.

Deb and Bert then followed David to an intersection where they could reconnect without endangering other motorists, and it was on to Belfast for Marshall Wharf Brewery which was on the wharf in a very quaint ship building town.  We got there right before closing, but when the brewery closed, the pub opened and after a seafood dinner in town, Dave and Keith later returned to taste the missing brews. Diane later commented that “they could sure use Emily up here,” The waitresses in Boston were surly and ours could not answer any of our questions.  She did go get her supervisor to tell us what the scallops and fish were stuffed with (we passed when she said Ritz crackers and crab, with little assurance that there was more crab than crackers!) The beers were very good.  They each bought a 4 pack of“Cain’t Dog Double IPA” and they had a barley wine that was worth the return to the pub.  Meanwhile Deb and Diane checked out a few of the galleries in town and deemed the town worthy of a return stop for D2 on the way home!

We arrived at the campground about 7:45 and barely got set up before dark.  Of course setting up with no hook ups is fairly simple, though the sloping but wooded site presented Dave with a few leveling challenges. (And later the girl next door had us and our friends as an audience as she rocked back and forth on her leveling blocks. We talked to her the next morning and found out she was on a solo trip to Maryland for her 50^th birthday to pick up her Mom, in her 80’s and take her back to Colorado for a bucket list road trip!)

We drove into town and met the Kuklentz, Browns, and Wassums at their B&B’s (literally across the street from each other) and realized that our group now numbered 8… perfect for 2 tables of bridge.  The men formed a group and had a rowdy game, while none of the women had exciting cards and we had a hard time staying awake until the guys finished their “never-ending” rubber.

Thursday the Browns and Kuklentz were our guides as they had been in Bar Harbor a day.  They came to the campground and we went up to Cadillac Mt.  Keith and Diane were up for a more challenging hike and decided to take the 4 mile hike down.  It turned into much more than that when they began blazing a new trail down the mountain.  Meanwhile we walked a more level path to Sand Beach and we only got ½ way up to Thunder Hole before it was time to go meet the mountain hikers.  Between our wrong turns and their blazing trails we were able to meet them within ¼ mile of the trailhead.  The Browns and Kuklentz went on to Thunder Hole and pronounced it more booming than the day before.

View from top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park

Dan and Betsy Brown

You want to do what?

It was windy

We took couple's pictures and of course Keith was missing... we think that's him on the rock!

But they found each other!

Everywhere you look there's another post card scene

Then it was a trek (by caravan!) across the peninsula to Bass Harbor and Thurstons, the Kuklentz and Brown new favorite restaurant, where Dave, Keith and Diane ate 2 pound lobsters.  We also enjoyed watching the lobster boats come in with their catch and talking to the locals.  We found out that one could figure the lobster’s age at about 7 years per pound.  So Dave, Keith and Diane were eating teenagers!!  You know there were times when the kids were teens I was tempted to boil them and eat them!! LOL

Bass Harbor at Thurstons

We;re eating up here!

Lobster bouys at Thurstons

We all gathered back at our campsite for hamburgers and a store bought carrot birthday cake for Dan along with Maine’s “famous” whoopee pies.  Pat has nothing to fear from Hannaford’s recipe for carrot cake, however because Pat has never US whoopee pies, we can’t judge the “famous” whoopee pies.  Of course our judgement was a little clouded from the numerous bottles of wine and beer consumed around Dave’s glorious campfire.  We said goodbye to the Browns and Kuklentz as they were leaving early the next morning.  It sure has been great camping with friends, even if they are in B&B’s.

Friday dawned a little cloudy and chilly.  Dave and I found our way to the ocean from our campsite so we can now claim this as one more site “on” the water! Keith and Diane arrived about 10 and we finished our excursion to Thunder Hole and walked from there to Otter Cliff.  Returning to our campsite, we dove into Keith’s requested watermelon from last night. (between the whoopee pies and cake there was no room for watermelon!)  We said good bye to them about 1 pm so that they  could potentially get to Boston in Allie’s car before dark.  Now we were alone for our trek South.  We had hoped to segway on the carriage trails, but the weather while not rainy, was damp and windy.  We are completely off the grid here with no cell or internet service, so we went into town for a “fix” and to give Emily some editing advice.

Thunder Hole - the tide come into this crevice and pops a sound as it rushes out.

Later we had another of Dave’s glorious campfires and enjoyed the company of our “neighbors” from Wisconsin.  After it became completely dark, we returned to the path down to the ocean and marveled at the bright stars.

Saturday morning we packed Bessy for her south-bound journey and left her in a lot in Bar Harbor while we took one more tour of the National Park.  We got out our segways and took a carriage path around one of the lakes.  Before the park and Depression the Vanderbilts had a summer home in Bar Harbor and had made carriage paths for their guests to enjoy the countryside.  These have been maintained as bike trails in the National Park.  The 1 ½ hour ride was a lot of fun and several bikers stopped and asked us about the segways and we stopped when we met 2 groups of horses to make sure our odd machines didn’t spook them.

Arriving back  in Belfast, Deb shopped the art galleries while Dave sampled a few more beers at Marshall Wharf Brewing.  When Deb joined him we decided that their Barley Wine and oak aged Belgium were the best.  Then we had what MAY be our last lobster dinner at a Lobster Pound called Youngs.  Their Bucket List meal had EVERYTHING on it,,, 2 lobsters, a dozen clams, more than a dozen mussels, oysters and shrimp for $50 (TOTAL for both of us!!)  It was the best yet! 

Harbor at Belfast

This is the tool they use to put the rubber bands on the lobsters!

Only a fraction of the catch of the day!

Too much food!.... but we ate it ALL!!

Yes we did!!

Now to plot our route South.... we're both a little bummed that we are starting the Homeward Bound phase and there's a hole without our friends.