Day 7: Aug. 9, 2009

We slept later than the past few mornings, and missed breakfast. Oh well, Acadia National Park, here we come. Taking the Park Loop Road entrance near our lovely positioned hotel, we zipped in and enjoyed the breathtaking views along the main drive. Pulling off every once in awhile on designated pull-off areas of course, to take pictures and take in the awesome scenery. It was a very clear and sunny day, only a few marshmallow like clouds in the crystal blue sky, and here we are in one of the most beautiful National Parks! Wow, we felt so lucky!

Continuing further along Park Loop Rd, we came upon Thunder Hole. We entered the visitors center and the one of park rangers that work there spotted doe and fawn in the back so naturally we had to get some pictures of that. Ok so Thunder Hole, It's a little hard to explain unless you're looking at it, but there are a lot of rock formations here along the shore, and there's a certain rock formation shaped in a way that when the waves crash into it at high tide, it sounds like really loud rolling thunder. Pretty damn cool. We stopped at the Thunder Hole gift shop that's run by two park rangers, and there was some excitement! One of the rangers quietly told us that if we wanted to slowly sneak out back, there was a doe and her new baby! We got some pictures from not too far away. It was a cool experience! By then, we were mighty hungry!
Back in town, we enjoyed an awesome parking spot right in front of the Portside Grill, and decided to get lunch there. Jen had the Shrimp Carbonara with fries and coleslaw, I had a South of the Border Burger which had salsa, avocados and fries. A good lunch for a long trek through Acadia. We also stopped into a little ice cream shop where I had Maple Walnut and Jen tried a scoop of pistachio and a scoop of blueberry. The girl serving us commented on what a weird combination that was, but Jen said they were surprisingly good together.

We decided as we were leaving town that we wanted to drive up Cadillac Mountain that afternoon instead of the next day, so we took the awesome curvy road all the way up to the top, stopping here and there to take pictures and take in the scenery. Once we reached the top, which was absolutely breath-taking, we took a ton of pictures and walked a trail up there. We found out that when you're at the top, you're 1,530 feet high! It was really windy and chilly, but beautiful.

After a short chill-out time, we went to The Looking Glass. This is the restaurant shared by our inn and the one next door. It's really nice in there, but still pretty casual. The food is delicious! I had some great clam chowder, and Jen and I both got the "Downeast Macaroni & Cheese". Now I know what you're thinking: we come to Maine, and we get mac n cheese?? Listen- this was some kick ass mac n cheese- it had three kinds of cheese: gruyere, parmesan, and white cheddar- and tomato and ham. Jen also got this drink called "Blueberry Pie a la Mode" that tasted exactly like blueberry pie.

We like going to downtown Bar Harbor best at night, so we went back to stroll for awhile.

Pictures off the top of Cadillac Mountain: