Bar Harbor, Maine

“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether is is to sail or to watch, we are going back from whence we came.”

John F. Kennedy

Our cruise on the Royal Caribbean ship, Adventure of the Seas had taken us to the magical, amazingly beautiful town of Bar Harbor, Maine. This is the largest town on Mount Desert Island and sits on the banks of Frenchman Bay with Cadillac Mountain towering over the town. This town is blessed by having Acadia National Park bordering it on three sides. Acadia National Park is the first national park east of the Mississippi and is one of the ten most visited national parks. Acadia National Park has 60% of the land mass on Mount Desert Island.

Our ship is moored in the bay so today we have to take a tender to town. That worked out very well as they brought two large tender boats to shuttle us back and forth quickly with no wait. We are anxious to get off the ship to see Bar Harbor which is rated among the top ten most popular destinations in the US and has more than 3.3 million visitors a year. We have heard from friends that this is their favorite vacation destination.

We got off the tender and decided to strolled down the Shore Path which runs alongside the ocean and past some of the beautiful homes facing the water. Many of the homes are huge and have become hotels or bed and breakfast places. The residents have pride in their land and have beautiful gardens and the whole town is well kept. This path goes about a mile from the town pier and after walking that we walked up a side street to see the town.

The town itself has some great shops to explore along with ice cream parlors and wonderful restaurants from very casual to extremely fancy. Flowers adorned the streets and there was a wonderful vibe in this town.

Walking around town, we built up a hunger so we asked a local where they go to eat and they recommended The Side Street Cafe on Rodick Street. It looked very inviting from the outside with lots of outside seating. When we walked in we saw there was plenty of seating inside but was mostly full. Even with the crowds we managed to get in right away. Their menu includes pub fair, light food, and drinks to a full menu. Both Joe and I wanted lobster since after all we were in Maine.

Joe wanted the lobster roll but I was disappointed when I saw they only had the lobster roll with mayonnaise. The waitress recommended Serena’s Lobster or the Lazy mans lobster which is lobster in a dish of butter with corn on the cob and a bowl of seafood chowder. Done deal and it was just what I wanted. Joe ended up ordering it as well. The food was fantastic and the lobster was cooked perfectly. We had a lovely meal there and would definitely recommend this restaurant. We were glad to hear it was a family run business. All the staff was very friendly and helpful. It is open Sunday – Thursday 11-9:30 and Friday and Saturday 11 – 9:30 at least that is their summer hours. This restaurant is one of the few that is open all year but I am unsure of the hours during the winter month.

Bar Harbor is known for their lobster. You can get lobster anything here from their whole lobster meals, lobster roll, mac and cheese lobster, to their lobster ice cream that comes with a chunk of lobster on the top. Their are lobster t-shirts, hats, towels, chairs, blankets, etc. Really anything you can think of, you can get with a lobster put on it.

Bar Harbor visitors consume 5,316,000 lobsters that are caught right off the coast. At any one time between July and August, there are five to ten million lobster traps out in the Gulf of Maine. That is a lot of lobster. If only we lived closer to enjoy this delicacy more often.

If you haven’t noticed, I like to know a little about the history of a town so here is my brief summary.Samuel D. Champlain founded Mount Desert Island in 1604 and befriended the Indians. It was first settled by Israel Higgins and John Thomas, both Europeans in 1763. They incorporated this town on February 23, 1796 and named it Eden after Sir Richard Eden who was an English statesman. In the early days this towns industry was fishing, lumbering and shipbuilding. Mount Desert Island had great soil so they were also able to develop good agriculture and dairy.

During the late 1880’s, the wealthy flocked here so there were 30 hotels built for the visitors who arrived by ferry and train. Many influential people have spent much time here including: John D. Rockefeller Jr, J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Astor family, William Howard Taft, Roxanne Quimby (co-founder of Burt’s Bees, and Martha Stewart.

During WWII, Bar Harbor was used by the Navy and Bald Porcupine Island was used as a torpedo range. It is hard to image that time now looking at the scene here now.

There was a horrible fire that happened here in mid-October 1947 during a severe drought. On October 17^th, sparks from a cranberry blog started a wildfire that burnt for 10 days and burnt nearly half of the eastern side of Mount Desert Island. In the ruins of the fire were 67 cottages, five historic hotels and over 10,000 acres in Acadia National Park that were destroyed.

Bar Harbor is the kind of place that when you visit, you are all ready planning your next trip. This is such a quaint New England town with a thriving community and has a population of about 6,000. There goal is to keep things as they are. During the summer months here the cruise ships and tourist come here by the thousands to enjoy the absolute beauty of this town, enjoy some of the best seafood places, and enjoy experience the best New England has to offer.

We are already planning to come back as we did fall in love with Bar Harbor. It is a wonderful place to spend some time enjoying life. Till next time. Goodbye for now.