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Island Hopping

In late June 2009, we left our little island paradise in the South and head to a new island paradise in the North for one of the most relaxing vacations we ever had. In the week leading up to our vacation, we were experiencing temperatures in the upper 90s, with a heat index averaging around 105°. Time for a cool change. The day after we left, our neighbor Don measured 102° (real world temp, index was 115°) in the shade. We found a cottage in Southwest Harbor, Maine, that sounded great. So, on a Saturday we headed out to the airport. It took us about 12 hours to get there, but the trip was worth it. The following journal highlights the adventure. And yes, we had to light up the fireplace the first night.

Our cottage

Geography lesson

Mt. Desert Island lays off the coast of Maine, connected (like our island) by a causeway. The island is huge. In fact, MDI is the third largest island in the U.S. behind Manhattan and Martha’s Vineyard. But even given that, you can drive from one end to the other in less than half an hour. It’s a horse-shoe shaped island and the left side of the shoe is called the “quiet side” and the right half of the shoe contains much (but not all) of the national park activity and the cities of Bar Harbor and Northeast Harbor.

Click on the Map for a full screen view.
The red highlights on the map show some of the places we visited.

We decided to avoid the tourist action and stay in Southwest Harbor. Since we live on a tourist island in Florida, we didn’t want to have to deal with crowds. Good call. The tourist season hadn’t kicked in completely yet, but we got the feel of what Bar Harbor would look like in a few weeks. We were happy with our spot on the “Quiet Side.” Besides, we weren’t here to be tourists, we were here to learn. Don has long wanted to come to this island and wanted to talk with lobstermen about their lives. While the tourist shuffled through t-shirts in the shops we walked the docks and talked to the people who pulled their lives from the sea.

Mount Desert Island sits about 3 hours off Nova Scotia, Canada (by boat) and the same from Portland, ME. A host of small islands surround the larger island, but few folks live on them year-round. This is a cold place. For our late-June week we used the fireplace almost every night. But Southwest Harbor isn’t a ’summer home’ place. This is a working town. In the winter the population of the town is larger than the ‘big city’ of Bar Harbor. Southwest Harbor is the home of some of the best boat-builders in the U.S., including one of our personal favorites, Hinckley Yachts.

This is not a ‘Tony’ northeast yachting town, this a working town. Lobster boats fill the harbor, not sloops (although they’re here, and some day we wouldn’t mind picking up a mooring ball for a season).

But what separates this island from the rest of the coastline is the mountains that meet the sea. In fact, Mt. Desert Island has the only fjord in the United States. As the glaciers carved out the area 10,000 years ago, an 8,000 foot high ice sheet added some little details to the island that gives it many of the unique features that makes it such a spectacular place to visit to this day.

Father’s Day

We traveled all Saturday, flying from Orlando to Chicago and on to Portland, ME. Then we grabbed our rental and headed out for a 3 hour drive to Mt. Desert Island. We arrived around 9 p.m. So we’ll pick up our adventure Sunday morning, Father’s Day…

Our neighbor’s chickens

The owner of the cottage suggested getting breakfast at Jordan’s (divine blueberry pancakes!) in Bar Harbor and then we provisioned for the week at Hannafords Grocery next door. Our goal was to eat in most of the week, so we bought everything we thought we’d need, and pretty much nailed it. Our history of provisioning boats for week-long outings paid off. When we left the cabin, we had one can of beans (backup), a little pasta, some sugar, two tins of tuna and some oatmeal left over. In-between, we ate like kings.

Downtown Southwest Harbor

We walked down our short road to the town (less then a minute if you ran) to explore the area. We found a good variety of shops. The usual tourist stuff, sure,  but also everything you’d need in terms of groceries and such. We explored the shops and their offerings. In our wanderings, we got to know the the owners of the Salty Dog Gallery. Thursday night was the gallery’s re- ‘open house’ and we made arrangements to attend. The week was off to a good start.

Ginny and one of the lobsters

It was Father’s Day, and in Maine, that could only mean on thing. Don loves all things crustacea, so it was New England boil time. When we were ‘in town’ we picked up four live lobsters, some corn and potatoes.

Lobster Hypno

While Don explained the generalities of the experience to his crew, he also mentioned that lobsters could be ‘in  theory’ hypnotized’ so that they would relax shortly before being dropped in boiling water, thus reducing their general anxiety about the event, but also possibly lessening the amount of adrenaline they release at the crucial moment, making their meat more desirable.

Just drop it in

The water was boiling and the corn and potatoes were in. This is the time you just drop the lobster in. Ginny did the honors. Somewhere in the food chain the rubber hits the road, and with cooking lobsters, this is it. But the girls were brought up on crab boils so it’s not that big of a deal. We honor their lives with respect.

Dinner time

For Father’s Day we had one lobster per person, but there was a lot left over, and that could mean only one thing…lobster omelets. The girls presented their Father Day gifts and we settled in to the family room.

We ended the day by playing card games around the fire. We brought Authors and Pirateer (one of our favorites) and played till we couldn’t any more. We’d like to think that it was possibly one of the best Father’s Days on the eastern seaboard.

Southwest Harbor dinghy dock

Exploring the island

On Monday, we explored the island. It was foggy and the forecast had zero percent of any sunshine for several days (we saw the sun again on Friday ) It was cool and after the blazing heat, we were good with ‘the shade’. We decided to do “the loop” which is the National Park’s big ‘if you want to follow our map of interesting things…here you go’ kind of tourist wrap-up. Since it was Monday, and it was raining, we did it expecting the crowds to be low. And they were. We had fun. We caught the video at the visitor center (as our cottage owner suggested) and then we drove the loop.

Girls at Seal Cove

Before we launched into the ‘expected’ loop, we had our own fun. This photo above is our singular favorite of the trip. We were on Seal Cove heading up to ‘the loop’ and the girls were exploring the beach. Melora caught this shot of the girls. There’s just something about this moment. It was magic.

Sand Beach bluff

Sand beach was kind of interesting. Lots of people gathered to this small spot on the island that had a ‘beach’. The island is mostly rock, so this beach is rare. Since we’re used to beaches, what interested us was the mountains that bowed down to ocean on either side. These buffs stood tall around us.

Thunder Rock

If you catch Thunder Rock at the right time (and we did) there’s an echoing “BOOM”. In this photo, you see Don (in the foreground, stripes) shooting a photo of the girls (Ginny green, left; Savannah, white, right).

Foggy day on Cadillac Mountain, no view today

We drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain and then on to Jordan’s Pond and enjoyed the pop-overs. Since the fog settled in, we decided to head back to the cottage and call it a day. We cooked a Maine Ham Steak (that’s maple syrup dripping ham) and yummy vegies. We followed it with games. We downloaded Trival Pursuit on Don’s iPhone and we played a few rounds. Another great day.

Tuesday: Crossing the Bar

Why is Bar Harbor called Bar Harbor? Any sailor will tell you that ‘crossing the bar’ is usually the tricky part of entering a harbor that has a bar. We’ve sailed over many ‘bars’ in our time. Some tricky, some not. But Bar Harbor has a unique bar. The bar is a buildup of sand, yup, a sand bar. Bar Harbor’s bar really stands out because at low tide it connects the city to Bar Island.

The Bar

When the tide goes out, Bridge Street in Bar Harbor becomes a little more than a short road. It becomes the only way to drive to Bar Island. We walked the bar at low tide and explored the tidal pools. When we made Bar Island, a bagpiper on the crossing sounded up. The rest of our adventure was accented by the lone tunes of the piper. A fog moved in, and then out. Another great moment.

Dinner and games. In addition to a pinwheel of salmon stuffed with spinach and feta, we steamed some mussels in butter, wine and garlic and served them on a bed of angel hair pasta, olio/olio with feta with a side of artichokes. Vacation cooking is the best. All of it winged, no cookbook. More games post-dinner.

Wednesday

It rained a lot. We left the girls at the cottage and drove around the island. We most likely drove every main road on the island and discovered places that we’d later visit… in better weather. We did get a break in the morning for a bit and hiked up Flying Mountain with Ginny.

Hiking montage

The view of the fijord was wonderful. Don was set to have one good hike every day, and this was the hike of the day. Another night of great cooking and games with the girls. Local lobsterman we met earlier dropped by with his kids and we talk on the deck for a good while. Great education on lobstering. We have TV, but we don’t watch it. By the time evening games are done we are all ready to hit the sack.

Thursday

Finally, the weather gives us a break. We hike and tour the island.

Lobster shack in Bar Harbor

We walked around Bar Harbor again and treated the girls to an ice cream cone.

Oddly, we begin to set ourselves into a routine that we know won’t last. Each hike brings a new adventure or learning experience. We all continue to fall in love with this island. We spend the afternoon with a local author and lobersterman. Don read his book and called him. He and his wife greeted us with open arms and we spent the afternoon in his living room exchanging stories. Another fantastic moment.

Phil and Wallace playing up a storm

We have to leave for Philip’s gallery opening. We drop the girls off downtown to buy a pizza as we head to the gallery. Great vacation…we are in the middle of a fishing town, we have to leave the audience of a wonderful former lobsterman [and storyteller] and his wife (and we could have stayed for hours) to go to an opening of a gallery opening of an artist we absolutely respected. This is good stuff.

Friday

On our list of ‘things to do’ was to explore JD Rockefeller’s carriage roads. In the 1930s he built 41 miles roads for the expressed purpose for horse carriages, automobiles were expressly forbidden on the roads and still are to this day. While carriages still ply the trails, they’re also great for hiking and biking.The system includes two stately gate houses and 17 bridges, all designed to be state of the art but still hold a rustic feel.

Gate house and carriage road

We took an easy hike, starting from Jordan’s Pond. We hiked by one of the gate houses and then followed the carriage road along a stream to one of the cobble stone bridges.

Carriage road bridge, this is just south of Jordan Pond

One of the cool things about the bridges is that even though they look hundreds of years old, they’re actually constructed with stressed concrete and steel. Rockefeller wanted them to look rustic, though, so they were covered with stones by highly skilled masons. By the time they were finishing the last bridges, their work got too tight and JD had to have them loosen things up a bit so they still seemed rustic.

Mom loves her little trees

Don and traps

Searching the cove’s beach at low tide

We took the girls to a couple places that we explored during the rains. One place was a quiet little harbor with a floating dock and a dozen or so workboats moored out. While were where there a small schooner drifted by us. We looked on the rocky beach for heart stones and sea glass. The area is called Pretty Marsh, and across the sound was Bartlett’s Island.

Bass Harbor Lighthouse

Savannah on the rocks, near the lighthouse

We toured the Bass Harbor lighthouse area as well. There’s a coast guard family that lives in the lightkeeper’s house, what a great gig that must be, but I imagine being surrounded by tourists all day long could get a little old.

The girls at Wonderland

They say that when JD wanted to get away from everything, he came to a point that is now called Wonderland. It’s a short hike, about 1.5 miles, and it brings you to a rocky shore. We spent over an hour just relaxing, watching the waves on the rocks and exploring the tide pools.

Walking the shoreline

A cool tree on the Wonderland hike

A lupine field photo shoot with the girls

Ginny swims in Echo Lake

Both Don and Ginny wanted to take a swim in one of the mountain lakes. But the week was running out and we hadn’t made the plunge yet. We went to a spot on Echo Lake called “the Ledges” and Ginny dove into the cool, deep water. It was, of course, freezing. Don had cooled off from our previous hikes, and it was cold sitting on the rocks surrounding the lake… so he opted for another day… on another trip.

Northeast Harbor

We hung out at the Northeast Harbor marina for a little while. What a great anchorage/mooring. Any sailor would appreciate the coverage of this spot and a drive through the town really impressed us. Granted, we still like the ‘quiet side’ of the island, but this was a nice mix of Southwest Harbor and Bar Harbor.

We ended back up in Southwest Harbor. We stopped by the Salty Dog so we could have Phil sign a book he published and illustrated on the struggle of the crabbers on the Chesapeake Bay and to buy some of his art. Of course, we were invited to stay a while while the boys fired up their instruments and people drifted in to chat and wine was poured. It was a nice end to a nice day in a great week.

Misc. Vacation notes

Below are some various notes from our vacation.

The flora of the island in Summer is amazing, and Savannah and Melora shot quite a few photos of the colorful flowers bursting all over the island. Some in gardens, some in pots, some on the side of a trail.

Flora Montage

The standard loves of early spring were abounding. Yes, the hillsides WERE covered in purple/blue lupines, thank you Miss Rumphius. The lilacs, peony, and wild roses smelled DIVINE. The wild roses were everywhere - from red to white. Many of the plants in pots, etc. were ’shade’ plants - something we can’t sustain in Florida, so it was nice to see the huge BUSH of bleeding hearts and other tender souls.

An iPhone Vacation

The iPhone made a great addition to our vacation. We used YELP to find restaurants. On hikes we could locate where we were using the GPS and Google Maps. We sent texts to the girls to let them know where we were. And at night, we played games. Two of our favorite games are Trivial Pursuit and our version of Pictionary. But on top of that, Don kept in touch with his clients. Another feature was checking the local weather radar to see what was in store. Don also watched several movies on the flights, which really helped pass the time. Since we didn’t have great radio reception, we used the phone to stream both local NPR and our home NPR stations via the cabin’s WiFi. In addition to that, we simply patched the iPhone into the cottage stereo and had access to all our music via the ‘iPod’ mode of the phone. It’s a great tool.

Overall

One of the best vacations we’ve ever had. We flew into Portland, Maine, but next time we’ll fly into Bangor. It was nice to explore different parts of Maine, but flying into Bangor will chop off 2 hours of drive time to get to the island. And we most certainly want to cut down our time getting to this paradise.