It has been nine years since we visited Acadia National Park for the first time and this year I was feeling very nostalgic and so we made plans to drive up to Maine again.
Yesterday it had been a very long and arduous week at work for the both of us so packing did not really start until 8 pm Thursday. I had to deliver a gift to someone at my workplace so driving over there and back took over an hour out of my packing time. Hans tidied the house while I was away.
We had originally hoped to leave at 8 am but in the end our drive began about two hours late. After a quick gas n' grub stop we headed north on I-95. The only highlights of the drive were when we crossed the George Washington Bridge in New York and later not knowing if our bikes up on the roof rack would fit under the low bridges of Saw Mill River Parkway. The lowest bridge had a clearance sign that said eight-foot-eight and there is no way that was correct because otherwise we definitely would have had a collision!
By 7 pm we were near Lowell, MA so I selected a business hotel that was close to where I stayed in August for a work trip. For dinner we ate at the Emerald Rose in Billerica. I warned Hans that when my coworker and I ate there our server kind of shamed us for not finishing all of our food. It turned out that Hans and I wound up with the same server and she was as business-brisk as before.
When I asked her what the soup of the day was she replied "Beef an' pahtatahs...DON'T order it...." with a shake of her head. I had the bangers and mash instead.
Back at the hotel I fell asleep while Hans watched Bob's Burgers on TV.
Ready to go!
This morning we were up early and had a very mediocre breakfast at the second IHOP I have ever been to. The 17-mile drive through New Hampshire was over quickly and then the traffic significantly disappeared in Maine. We pulled into our camp site by about 2 pm. Setting up the tarp shelter took a few tries since I had only recently learned some basic knots through the school of YouTube. Once the tent and shelter were set up we moved the picnic table under the tarp.
Home sweet home
My very amateur fisherman's knot
By this time it was early evening and we were very hungry so we drove into Bar Harbor to stock up on food supplies. Our dinner at local favorite The Thirsty Whale was not bad at all. We both ordered the local fried haddock. The beers we had were pretty great too. I was very jealous of Hans' pint of Black Bear Brewing's Demon Stout. Good luck finding it anywhere. As of the time of this writing Black Bear sells only to locan bars and restaurants. Their brewery is in the college town Orono, Maine.
Everyone's fall garden dahlias were blooming spectacularly
Every evening on this trip I read Hans a bedtime story lol
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