Day 170: Bar Harbor, Maine

Sunday, 25 June 2017
At Sea — Gulf of Maine

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:00p (EDT) … UTC 1:00a (26 June)
Temp: 56.3F (13.5C)
Position: 43.51.85N / 68.23.08W

Travel makes one modest.  You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.
~ Gustave Flaubert ~

I woke up at 5:15a … but refused to get up … even with the shining sun and the blue skies trying to induce me to do otherwise.  After a restless night on a ‘jiggly’ Atlantic, I wanted to sleep in a bit now that conditions had calmed down.  Crossing my fingers that the weather would hold, I turned my back on the veranda and promptly fell asleep.  When I woke up again shortly before 7:00a, I was delighted to see that Mother Nature wasn’t going to disappoint today.  I sat down to write a bit on the veranda before going up to breakfast.  Perfection!  The sun belied the temperature showing on the TV — 61F (16C) … it sure felt a lot warmer.

Insignia maneuvered to her anchorage for today’s port of call — Bar Harbor, Maine — while we were having breakfast at the Terrace Café … look ma, no jackets!  We were wrapping up our meal when CD Ray came on the P/A to say we were still waiting for the US immigration officials to come aboard.  “Disregard the letter you received last night with the face-to-face meeting schedule,” was the gist of his message.  Once the process started, it apparently moved fast.  Our deck was called to the Insignia Lounge at 8:45a … just 5 minutes later than our original time slot.  We picked up our passports, went to one of the officials who compared photo-to-face and welcomed us home.  Well, not really home … that’s still 11 days and a flight away … but we are back in the good ole’ US of A.  We can now turn on our Verizon phones for 4G service and 40 GB of data … hallelujah!

I’ll admit that when I first saw the US portion of our itinerary, I was disappointed.  I wanted to finish this once-in-a-lifetime voyage with a bang — so to speak — by exploring exciting, new-to-us ports.  We’d already been to all of the ones on the itinerary.  I have since changed my mind.  I’m not burned out from all the traveling.  I could easily stay on the ship longer … except that we have other plans coming into play once we disembark.  No, it’s more like I need the rest that will be accompanying these familiar ports.  Not just physically, but mentally … to digest all the experiences of these past months.

But I digress … moving on to today.

We didn’t necessarily dally after the immigration formalities, but it was 9:45a before we left the cabin to pick up tender tickets from the excursions staff who were set up in the Insignia Lounge.  Our wait time to go down to the tender landing was short — maybe a minute or two — but we did have to wait for the 10:00a tour departure to join us before the boat headed ashore, carefully threading it’s way through lobster buoys by following a designated corridor.

Bar Harbor was very very crowded … HAL’s Veendam and American Cruise Lines’ Independence were in port with us.  Wanting to make the most of the beautiful blue skies and sunshine — and also to get away from the crowds — we decided to go into Acadia National Park for a short hike.  Hah!  Turns out the park was just as popular on such a beautiful day … Sunday to boot, so the locals were out in droves as well.

To get to the park, we followed directions to the Village Green where the National Park Service office was our first stop.  Here we paid for admission since our annual park pass expired in February … no sense buying another pass now since we won’t be in the country long enough to visit any other parks this year.  I thought the $12pp adult admission was on the high side, but it included free rides on the park explorer buses that take visitors to the park and shuttle people around in an effort to minimize traffic within.  Not sure how successful the shuttle is at keeping vehicle traffic at bay, though.  We saw plenty of private vehicles lined up along the road for about a mile in each direction near some of the popular attractions … with parking lots overflowing.  We are loving our parks to death … that’s all I can say.

We got off the bus at Sand Beach, which turned out to be more crowded than it looked from a distance.  Luckily for us, most of the people were there to go to the beach.  As we headed off on the Coast Path, a flat dirt trail with beautiful coastal views, the crowds dwindled … a bit.  Accessing the rocks rimming the coast from near-hidden paths along the way yielded views that were quite stunning.

The more crowded section of Sand Beach is hidden behind the trees to the left.

We walked all the way to Thunder Hole, arriving just before high tide at noon.  A considerable crowd was waiting for the blowhole to … well, blow.  We decided to move on and continued onto Otter Cliffs, enjoying the fantastic views as the ocean crashed ashore, spewing frothy water high into the air.  It was getting on towards 1:00p and we didn’t have to go back to the ship until 5:30p.  But we had promised ourselves an easy day, and by golly, this time were determined to keep that promise.  So, we made our way to one of the explorer bus stops. 

It was 2:00p when we arrived back at the Village Green.  Mui had already checked out TripAdvisor for restaurant recommendations and settled on a place called Galyn.  It was located across from Agamont Park on the waterfront.  As luck would have it, a couple of tables on the porch opened up as we walked in, so we got to have an al fresco meal, people- and vehicle-watching as we ate.

Too bad the hole-in-the-wall place that we so enjoyed when we visited Bar Harbor in 2000 is no more.  The lobster at that rustic eatery was great … and so was the blueberry pie.  Our lunch today is best described as good … not great.  My haddock was OK … Mui said his lobster was pretty good … the blueberry crisp with vanilla ice cream was the best part of the meal.

The view from our table … green and blue … could do without the cars, though.

After lunch, we walked across the street and found a quiet corner in Agamont Park to check in with family.  Phone calls complete, we decided to extend our time ashore with a short walk towards the Bar Harbor Inn — where we stayed a few days 17 years ago when we came here to visit Acadia National Park.  We didn’t go far, but it was nice to see this lovely hotel again.

Insignia is way out there, waiting for us to return.

By 3:30p we were on a tender back to the ship.  I didn’t waste time making myself comfortable on the veranda.  I read for a while before picking up the laptop to write today’s blog entry.

The Bar Harbor Inn is the ‘grand dame’ of this coastal resort town.

Now, it is 6:00p and the ship will be weighing anchor as soon as all the tenders are secured in the davits.  It’s time to get ready for dinner with the Gelmans and the Sweets at Toscana.  Tomorrow is another port of call — this time in Boston.  Not sure exactly what we will be doing but lunch with friends who were on the ship earlier in the voyage is going to be the highlight for sure.

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