Maine 3

Sunday - we started the day as we did everyday we were in Maine: fantastic breakfast and reading for an hour or so at the ledge. We then headed off to church at Holy Redeemer located in Bar Harbor. The cool thing about this church: St. Katherine Drexel used to attend here when she was vacationing in the area with her sister. There are parishioners who still attend that remember her. It is not very often that you get to attend a church (in the U.S.) that a Saint also went to!


After church and a fantastic lunch in Bar Harbor, we went into Acadia and drove the 26 mile loop through the park. There are spots all along the loop for you to get out and explore the area or just get pictures. And the first half of the loop takes you right along the coast which is the most stunning portion of the park!

Don't expect many sandy beaches in this part of Maine. We saw 2 and they were very small. Most of the coast in this area of Maine is what you see below -- rocky!

It was a lovely but warm day so after our loop drive, we had to do what everyone in Bar Harbor does -- get ice cream! We were warned before our trip about the plethora of ice cream establishments that populate the area but we had no idea just how many there would be!! They were everywhere!!!! Lobsters, Ice Cream, Moose (we will address the Moose issue later) and Blueberries are everywhere! Dave got the quintessential Maine flavor - Blueberry Gelato. I went for a mixture of Lemon and Mimosa gelato! Yum, yum!!!

After our gelatos were gone, we wandered over the sand bar to the island you see in the picture, which is only accessible during low tide. During high tide, this area is under 13 feet of water!

Dave standing in the tide pool area.

And here is where we get to the Moose issue I alluded to before. Meese (as Dave insists on calling multiple moose -- silly Dave!) are everywhere in Bar Harbor. They are names of stores, ice cream, on clothing, on pillows, on tops of buildings (as seen in the picture below) -- they're everywhere EXCEPT real ones being on the island! Yep, that's right! You go to Bar Harbor and you're not going to see one moose! I was very sad when I learned this. Dave thinks it's false advertising and doubts that there are any moose in Maine at all! :-) Silly Dave!

Monday - Dave and I took a carriage ride through Acadia National Park. A colleague of mine at work told me that we had to do a carriage ride and he was right!! It was wonderful!! There are hundreds of miles of carriage/biking roads through the park and you get to see the inside of the park up close and personal. We did the Rockefeller Bridges Tour. Rockefeller was responsible for the building of most of the carriage roads and the bridges throughout the park. It took crews 29 years to complete everything -- a long time but it was stable work during the height of the Great Depression.

Here is the prettiest of Rockefeller's 17 bridges in Acadia. It is called the Pebble Bridge. This was built in 1917 -- before the depression hit. When looking at this bridge, keep in mind that everything was done by hand. Not one piece of machinery worked on these bridges. It was all done by hand or horse power which makes them all pretty amazing pieces of architecture and beautiful pieces of art!


Out to stretch our legs at Pebble Bridge. Beautiful area with a babbling brook running through.

Maine agrees with the Pedersens!!!!

Another one of Rockefeller's bridges. All the stone that is curved or smoothed was done by hand. Rockefeller brought over a large contingency of Italians to quarry and then shape the rocks. They really are beautiful!