The Taylor's go to Bar Habor, Maine

Thanks to the high Canadian dollar we decided to spend our last vacation trip of the summer of 2006 exploring Maine. I worked till Thursday morning at 7, we slowly packed and eventually hit the road around 8pm. Nicole drove most of the way while I tried to sleep, but the kids were watching DVD's in the back and that was keeping me awake! Plus, the moose on the side of the road and Nicole's reaction to the moose did not put me in a "sleepy" mood. We eventually made it to the border and had no problems crossing into the US; the border guard was very polite and friendly.

As usual, we never make hotel reservations but fortunately we had no problems finding a place to sleep in Bangor. A room with two double beds cost us $89.00 which included a pretty good breakfast the next morning.

Afer a good nights sleep, Friday morning we went south and ended up in Bar Harbor.


I was impressed with this quaint little town. There was lots of boutique shops and some fine restaurants. The grocery store sucked but I suppose the population dips quite a bit come the winter months.
We spent the afternoon at the Acadia National Park. The beach was not too busy and there were only a few hardy souls who actually swam in the ocean as it was freaking cold! Jacob and myself both dived in and I found it somewhat refreshing. (I may have to do one of those polar dips on January 1)



After we left the beach we had a quick lunch and then set out to hike up to the top of the "mountain".

We only figured out as we were driving up a steep hill that you could drive to the top; no exercise for us that day.

The top of the "mountain" was windy but afforded a great view of Bar Habor.







We hung around there for awhile and then, again no reservations, tried to find a hotel with a swimming pool.

We settled on a cozy motel 15 minutes away from downtown which had a heated outdoor pool. This was nice, except that the minute your head came out of the water it froze.




After all of us had a shower and drained all the hot water in the motel, we went to Bar harbor for supper, wandered around and peaked into many of the shops (my favourite t-shirt, "never mind the whales, save the mooses" and called it a night around 10:30pm.

The next day we went back down to Bar harbor and picked up some souvenirs and then drove back to Bangor for back to school shopping. We had a much harder time finding a hotel, and ended up in a bit of dive outside the city. We had planned on eating supper early but the line up at the Olive Garden was huge so we only went back at 9 and still had to wait for 30 minutes. It was worth the wait though. I never understood why they could not make a go of it in Canada.

Sunday morning we had breakfast in a little restaurant in the downtown core and then hit the malls and finished off our back to school shopping. We left Bangor around 4pm, had no trouble at the border and made it home around 10pm or so. All in all, we spent a lot of money and the weather was cool but we had a good time. Next summer we will probably return and do the tenting/hiking thing.