On our first day in Acadia National Park, we spent the day driving around the Park Loop. We started the day by dropping by the visitor center to buy a park pass. While we were there, some friendly park employees told us about National Park Passports (you can stamp them at each national park you visit). Since we are planning to visit many national parks in the future, we picked up one.

Early in the day, we were feeling adventurous and attempted to hike the steep Beehive trail. Alas, I was too out of shape to make it to the top, so we turned around and attempted the much flatter and easier Jordan Pond trail.

After completing the Park Loop, we drove to the coast guard lighthouse at Bass Harbor and then returned to Bar Harbor for the night.

There aren’t a lot of restaurants open late in Bar Harbor. For dinner, we stopped at two places that we saw were still open, the Side Street Cafe and the Thirsty Whale.

On the second day, we picked up lunch from Rooster Brothers in Ellsworth on our way to the Schoodic Peninsula where we saw more Maine coastline and ate our lunch. Next, we drove inland to Bangor to see a very large statue of Paul Bunyan. Finally, we ate dinner at The Red Barn in Augusta before settling in at the wonderfully named Sleepy Time Motel in Auburn.

Today, we drove north along the Maine coast toward Acadia National Park, stopping along the way for sightseeing and food.

On the recommendation of one of the employees at the LL Bean store, we started our day with a scenic drive down one of the “fingers” (long narrow peninsulas extending from the coast of Maine). There wasn’t much at the end except for a harbor, so we took some pictures and headed back up the finger.

For lunch, we stopped at the famous Red’s lobster shack in Wiscasset for a very meaty lobster roll and some other delicious Maine seafood. For dessert, we shared a slice of the excellent four-berry pie at Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro.

As we continued our drive, we stopped at the Rockland breakwater for a nice walk and yet another lighthouse. There were a few fishermen out on the breakwater and a surprising number of pedestrians.

Outside of Camden, we drove up Mt. Battie in Camden Hills State Park for a magnificent view of the area. Sadly, there is a per-person fee to enter the park and non-Maine residents have to pay more.

We’re staying the night at the Bar Harbor Motel in Bar Harbor, where the staff is refreshingly friendly.

As we move further north, it seems like more and more hotels and motels are either closed or just opened. I guess the season starts a bit later up here.

After breakfast, we started our morning with a walk along the Marginal Way coastal trail in Ogunquit. There were waves, rocks, wind, and very limited parking. Valerie got cold, so we moved on to our next stop, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge includes a short, well-maintained walking trail loop that shows off some of the features of the nearby tidal estuary and its ecosystem. Unlike many NPS & FWS facilities, this refuge has free parking.

Our next stop was Eartha at the DeLorme building in Yarmouth. Eartha is advertised as “The World’s Largest Revolving and Rotating Globe” and it really is quite big and free to visit! Sadly, the facility was closing when we got there, so we were only able to admire the giant spinning globe for about 1.5 rotations before leaving.

Most museums were closed by now, but LL Bean Flagship Store in Freeport is open 24 hours a day, every day. We decided to visit the store to see the giant boot statue and to see if we could find some insect repellant clothing for Valerie’s upcoming trip to Africa.

While resting somewhere in the LL Bean complex, Valerie booked us a hotel in Brunswick, where we stayed the night.

The owner of the motel we stayed at in Rockport recommended we stop by Eastern Point Lighthouse on our way through Gloucester, so we did. By car, the lighthouse is only accessible by a single, narrow, private-looking (but not actually private) road. Sadly, the lighthouse was closed, but there was a nice breakwater that we were able to walk out onto to get a nice view of Cape Ann.

Next, we drove to Crane Beach, which was surprisingly crowded. There were a lot of families on the windy, cold beach (although we didn’t see anyone in the water). Our parking pass also covered the nearby Crane Estate (managed by the oddly named Trustee of Reservations). Sadly, the jewel of the estate, Castle Hill mansion was closed, but we were able to walk around the grounds for a while.

As we were driving to our next stop, we saw a restaurant on the side of the road with a line out the door, The Clam Box in Ipswitch. We decided to stop for lunch. The food was a bit pricey for a clam shack, but delicious.

Our next stop was Plum Island (Massachusetts) where we visited the national wildlife refuge (which was mostly closed for plover mating) and Sandy Point State Reservation. Valerie was hoping to do some tidepooling, but alas the tidepools didn’t have much in them beside broken sea shells.

Finally, we drove to Portsmouth, NH for dinner and spent the night in Wells, ME.