Maine 2

Still Friday - As I said, the B&B sits on top of an 80 foot cliff. At the edge of the cliff, is this lovely little sitting area that looks straight out onto Frenchman Bay. We had seen a picture of this area on their website when we were planning our trip and we couldn't wait to take advantage of the area. Every morning during the length of our trip, we would finish our amazing breakfast and then take our books down here to the ledge and read/bask in the sun/watch seals and porpoises for an hour or more. A lovely way to start the day!


Another heavenly spot to relax but still have a lovely view of the bay -- the hammock! But be careful, the gentle rocking will lull you to sleep and leave you a helpless victim to the mosquitoes on steroids and the nasty black flies with a horrid bite! :-) You should see my ankles!

If you dare -- you can traverse the steep stairs down to the beach and do even more exploring. But go at low tide!

Here is Dave, on the beach, right underneath our reading spot (see the flag, then look at the first picture and notice the flag). The cave behind him is not accessible during high tide as the water level rises 13 feet!

We loved to explore the beach and hunt for sea glass -- which we found a lot of!

Saturday - what an unforgettable day! Wait -- what am I saying?! This whole trip was unforgettable!!! In the morning, we read at the ledge and then headed into Bar Harbor as we had reserved spots on a Whale Watching/Puffin Tour! (See the boat below!)

We found perfect spots at the bow of the boat -- which we were told receives the most wind and is the roughest part. Once the boat started to move, it got downright cold (we were told it was about 40 degrees) so we were thankful that we had done some major layering of clothing and had bought gloves that morning! The boat passed through Frenchman Bay and then went out to Petit Manan Island to see the puffins -- which are considered to be the Penguin of the North. You can't tell from the picture below (which is Petit Manan Island) but the coast was full of pelagic birds, including puffins!

We then turned our focus to finding whales. We sped out into the Gulf of Maine and at one point, lost sight of land (very cool). We searched and searched and then Dave and I saw our first whale!!! We ended up seeing 2 kinds of whales over 40 times: Finback Whales (the 2nd largest creature to ever be on earth after the Blue Whale) and Minki Whales (a smaller breed of baleen whale). To see these huge creatures was so moving and so beautiful! The Minki at one point was probably about 5-10 yards away from our boat while the Finback was about 50 yards away. It left us speechless! :-)

It was such a beautiful and clear day that after our whale watching trip, we decided to go into Acadia and go to the summit of Cadillac Mountain. At 1500 ft elevation (don't laugh, you people from the west!) this is the highest spot on the Atlantic coast. I kid you not! :-) But the summit provides an uninterrupted 360 degree view of the area. It was such a clear day that we could see Mt Katahdin which is over 100 miles away (where the Appalachian Trail ends). During October to March, Cadillac Mountain is the first spot in the U.S. to see the sun rise every morning.

View of Bar Harbor and the Porcupine Islands from the top of Cadillac Mountain!