Halfway through our road trip to Maine. Days 4 and 5 we spent in Bar Harbor, ME, which is on the coast and known for whale sightings, incredible lobster, quaintness. It's a small town on the salty water of the Atlantic Ocean.

This is our hotel for our stay in Bar Harbor, the Grand Hotel.

It is right downtown and within in short walking distances of everything we wanted to see and do.

One of he best parts is that in this room, everyone had a bed to sleep on. Usually when on road trips, one of us sleeps on a cot. Luckily this time we found a room with three queen-sized beds for each of us to have space to sleep on a mattress finally!

And it is spacious.

When we arrived in Bar Harbor, our hotel room was not yet ready for us, so we took a stroll along a path that runs along the coastline. This was the start of it. This path is right in town and goes from near where our hotel is located and continues into town. It was gorgeous.

The view from the pathway.

The boys straying from the path and venturing onto the rock that lines the shore.

Mom and I continued onward a bit while the boys had fun on the rocks.

The walk was peaceful and tranquil. Hardly any waves in the ocean water, the area we are in being sheltered in the harbor.

Walking into town we past through a small park.

The Main Street of Bar Harbor. We all agreed this was our favorite town of our trip so far, and probably for the rest of it perhaps.

The drive we took from Bangor, ME, to Bar Harbor was only a little over an hour. For the rest of that day, and we are getting somewhat late starts to our days taking our time waking up and getting breakfast, we stayed in town and wondered the streets some before coming back to the room to relax.

The next day, today, we had planned to go on a whale watch tour, but due to fog and mists the tours were cancelled. So we regrouped and decided to head for Acadia National Park which was planned for tomorrow. 

We took the road called "Park Loop Road" which runs by most of the unique places in the park. To start, we stopped at Sieur de Monts Spring which one of the creators of the park, George Dorr, called "the home of the park" or something similar to that. This was the garden that is adjacent to the spring. 

 Walking through the gardens.

Part of the spring, a small stream passes through the garden.

This is the spring. We peered through the plexiglass to see the covered spring that runs underground.

Next we drove to the spot named for the beaver dams that sit in this pond, Beaver Dam Pond.

The fog was still a little thick to see it all clearly but it was more fun this way–the fog added mystery to our escapade through Acadia.

For our next stop we parked at Sand Beach. One of the only sand beaches in Acadia National Park and when storms hit the beach washing the sand out, the shipwreck that hides beneath the sand becomes visible. We did not get to see this though, no storms strong enough to reveal the old ship ruins recently.

We walked a ways from the beach to some of the cliffs and this is the view looking over the edge a little.

Turning back to Sand Beach we could still see the sandy shoreline.

Once again the boys went a climbing. The videos I took of them scampering over the rock is hilarious and worth it. 

At one of our next stops, this one called Thunder Hole, we spotted a painter working along the pathways.

Somewhere in here is the Thunder Hole, which is a rock formation that traps air when the ocean water vacates a cavity and then rushes back in compressing the air and causing it to explode in an amazing sound that resembles thunder. Hence it's name.

At the Thunder Hole stop, we returned to our car to find it occupied by a seagull. He did not seem to mind that we were close around him either. We opened the doors, climbing in and out of the car situating ourselves. He did not leave until we started the engine and began to move. 

We took snack at this place called "Jordan Pond House" because it sits near Jordan Pond. We had tea and popovers which are like air-puffed muffins that have a crisp texture (to be eaten with jam or butter, we went for jam).

Looking out at Jordan Pond from the roof of the Jordan Pond House.

On our way to our last stop we quickly got out of the car to see this overlook: Eagle Lake Overlook. 

Our last stop on the Park Loop Road: Champlain Mountain. The fog still remained so we could not see all of the views of below the mountain, but we saw plenty and even went off path on the rocks covering the top of the mountain.

The rocky surfaces we traversed on our self-guided hike/walk.

Looking out over Egg Island and the Porcupine Islands far, far below. Only one side of the mountain was still shrouded in some fog, this side was clear allowing us to see the magnificent views.

Champlain Mountain.

Though this day did not start out as planned, we found our way and had a great time wondering through the park. Tomorrow walking across a sandbar to another island, maybe? Who knows, maybe we will finally get to see whales.

じゃあね！