Bar Harbor, Maine

 We woke up to a beautiful day and rolled over to get a bit more sleep since it was only 5 am.  Sunrise was at 4:48 am.  And I believe it will be that early for some time to come as we continue to head north on this trip.  Our tour this morning was called Best of Both Worlds, but I'm not quite sure why.  We boarded a lovely bus and went through town to the Acadia National Forest.   This island, called Mount Desert Island (although apparently, it is also acceptable to pronounce that Mount Dessert for some reason) has 26 mountains and 26 lakes and is 108 square miles.  It is home to many wealthy people and was one of the hot spots for "cottages" during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.  There is a famous blow hole here where we stopped (along with lots of others), but didn't actually see the "blow" as conditions weren't just right.  No bother, it was a beautiful site, as shown in these photos.

Back onto the nice, but overly air-conditioned bus to our next stop, a sweet hotel whose name I've forgotten, where we had a lecture on lobsters given by a retired lobsterman - their anatomy, the conservation efforts being taken by Maine, and how the traps work.  It was all interesting and fun.

After that we walked a bit in town and stopped for lunch at the West Street Cafe where I had a pricey Caesar salad with (wait for it) lobster.  Must admit it was delicious.  Michael just had a large house salad along with a taste of my lobster.  And we sampled the local brewery's beer which was also very good.  

Not a big one for posting photos of food, but this seemed appropriate.

The main drag of Bar Harbor

Then back on the tender to the ship.  The Holland America ship, Zaandam, is also in town so it was rather busy, much to the delight of the local population.

We got nice Eddie Bauer jackets from Regent which will come in very handy on this trip.

Cocktails at the Navigator Lounge where I tried the next drink on the list, the Mariner.  Wasn't a favorite.  Then another delicious dinner at Compass Rose.  I had the foie gras appetizer (to die for) and the lobster tail.  Those are both on the always available menu which could be dangerous.  There seem to be more tables of just 2 diners than we remembered on the Mariner.  That's probably a sign of Covid Times.  Didn't make the show tonight; just too tired after waking up so early along with the high alcohol content of the Mariner drink.  It's a clear night with a little swell, but just enough to remind you that you are on a ship.