East Coast Cruising - Bar Harbor Maine

September brought a cruise to the East Coast for Annette and I. We started in New York, visited two cities in Maine, then sailed over the International Boundary into Canada and visited several cities in the Maritime region. The cruise ended in Quebec City and we ended our holidays after spending time in Montreal.

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Our second port of call on our East Coast cruise was Bar Harbor, Maine.
The coast line of Maine is one of the playgrounds of the rich folks from the New York and Boston areas and has been for over 100 years.

By 1880 there were 30 destination resorts in the Bar Harbor area. These were very large buildings and were designed to house their guests for the entire summer. It was an adventure in itself just to get to Bar Harbor as the only way is by boat as the town is on an island..

We chose to come by boat as well but I think we had it a bit more luxurious than days of old. Where the old wooden boats may have brought 100 or so people at a time, we had 3200 tourists from many countries descend on the small town from our ship alone. The Rotterdam was shadowing us from port to port and it has 1500 passengers aboard. That was 5,000 tourists in a small town of only 5,000 residents. I can't help but think us tourists are a blessing and a PITA at the same time for the townsfolk.

We jumped on a tour bus to take us on a tour of Acadia National Park which is a large park occupying much of Mt. Desert Island on which Bar Harbor is located. 
There was a large fire in 1947 that wiped out most of the forest and destroyed 9 towns on the island, nearly destroying the town of Bar Harbor as well. As a result the forest has large spaces between trees and little underbrush to impede sight lines. 

The National Park is encouraging regrowth of native species and have created a small garden area to aid in plant growth and small animals and reptiles. This provided a break for the passengers and a chance to stretch our legs. The rest rooms were a hit with the bus passengers - use them when ever you get the chance.  :)

At the end of the tour was our first East Coast lobster lunch, I got a couple of great pictures of the bright red lobsters on the plates, but you have to go to my Flickr site to see the pictures.  :)

YOU CAN VIEW ALL OF THE PICTURES FROM BAR HARBOR HERE ON MY FLICKR SITE

This picture captures almost all of the shopping district close to the harbor area. A couple more blocks behind me, and a block or so to the left and you have the entire town in your hand.

It was a cute town, being on an island helped to keep the population growth down, plus the residents are not inclined to let the larger chain stores or coffee chains onto the island which helps keep the town's "local" feel.

We picked up a few souvenirs for the folks back home and caught a late afternoon tender back to the ship in preparation for a dinner time sailing and a diner time, well, dinner ....in our fancy three story dining room I might add  (Pictures of the cruise ship to come on a later post)

Our next port of call is Portland, Maine and the famed Kennebunkport, playground of America's political powerhouses with names like Kennedy and Bush. 

Watch for the upcoming post with more pictures to enjoy.

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