Bar Harbor, Maine - May 2016
We drove three hours north from Portland to Bar Harbor and I immediately fell under the spell of this extremely photogenic island small town tucked to the side of Acadia National Park. This sweet little place is definitely moving to the top 25 list of all the places I've traveled. We chose our trip to Maine because my husband loves to hike and cave. Acadia was at the top of his hiking list and it didn't disappoint. We stayed at the Grand Hotel on Main Street and it is so charming. We had lunch at Cherrystones sitting on the patio people-watching. I ordered the lobster bisque and a crab and lobster sandwich. Is there anything better than soup with fish and potatoes in it? I learned that I'm not as crazy about lobster meat on a sandwich. It tastes vaguely like moth balls to me. Lemon juice helps some.
After lunch Paul headed to Acadia to hike the Beehive and I hit Main Street's tourist shops, bookstores, ice cream shops, and coffee shops. Main Street and its side streets remind me of beautiful Franklin, TN and Oxford, MS because they are so perfectly manicured and edited. The enormous old houses that surround Main Street are stunning. It seems a shame that they're only open Mother's Day weekend through mid-October. Maine has very long, icy winters.
I tried blueberry ice cream (there is blueberry everything in Maine) and bought tee-shirts and postcards. I walked into an antique store and had a long conversation with the gray-haired lady owner about Northern politics versus Midwestern politics. Actually she referred to Maine as coastal politics. I took as many pictures as possible because it was just so easy to take beautiful pictures at every step. I bought some maple popcorn and found Canadian maple cookies, the kind my parents and I discovered in Quebec long ago.
When Paul returned from hiking we had pizza at Blaze. I ordered a GF prosciutto, fig and gruyere pizza that was pretty tasty. The gruyere and prosciutto together were amazing. Afterwards we walked around Main Street some more and looked out at the harbor. It gets dark early and light very early.
The next morning, our last day in Maine I woke up at 4:45 to get to breakfast at 5:30. I'd noticed that Jeannie's Great Maine Breakfast served GF pancakes and opened early. I couldn't wait! Surprisingly the pancakes were meh but the GF English muffins with the homemade strawberry-rhubarb jelly sent me into an intense foodie reverie. Good grief what a great combination! The eggs, bacon, and sausage were delicious too. So were the Boston baked beans that came with breakfast but I couldn't eat everything. This place was one of my favorites and the waitress was super sweet. When Paul woke up we drove to Acadia to hike a short but somewhat challenging trail along the cliffs. As we walked along the sandy beach and scrambled over large rocks there were wind chimes softly floating over the water from a distant island. Since it was foggy it was a beautiful, haunting, appropriate soundtrack for our hike.
We were starving after the hike so we found Route 66 Restaurant in Bar Harbor and chowed down. This restaurant looks like an antique store or museum. It's cuckoo and fun. There's 1950's music playing and every nook, cranny and available wall space has ephemera on display. And the food is good! Tasty nachos, a delicious blueberry sangria, really yummy lobster and corn chowder and my favorite: baked scallops. These scallops were my favorite dish of the trip. They were baked in butter and crumbled crackers.
For dessert we went to the unbelievably charming and pretty Project Social for crepes. My husband loves Nutella and strawberry crepes and I was willing to eat gluten just to have a blueberry crepe. (For the record, I do have Celiac but sometimes I'm willing to risk a terrible mood swing and a headache to eat something I'm not supposed to.) These crepes and the beautiful table setting, decor, and food made my foodie heart grow three sizes. After one more stop in the very cute and hip Choco-latte Cafe for a Mexican hot chocolate we headed to Bangor, Maine to spend the night and catch our flights home the next day. We stayed in the charming old Charles Inn Hotel. It reminded me of a shabbier Colonial version of the Tremont in Chicago. We had a terrific Thai dinner at the downtown Thai Siam before calling it a night.
We drove three hours north from Portland to Bar Harbor and I immediately fell under the spell of this extremely photogenic island small town tucked to the side of Acadia National Park. This sweet little place is definitely moving to the top 25 list of all the places I've traveled. We chose our trip to Maine because my husband loves to hike and cave. Acadia was at the top of his hiking list and it didn't disappoint. We stayed at the Grand Hotel on Main Street and it is so charming. We had lunch at Cherrystones sitting on the patio people-watching. I ordered the lobster bisque and a crab and lobster sandwich. Is there anything better than soup with fish and potatoes in it? I learned that I'm not as crazy about lobster meat on a sandwich. It tastes vaguely like moth balls to me. Lemon juice helps some.
After lunch Paul headed to Acadia to hike the Beehive and I hit Main Street's tourist shops, bookstores, ice cream shops, and coffee shops. Main Street and its side streets remind me of beautiful Franklin, TN and Oxford, MS because they are so perfectly manicured and edited. The enormous old houses that surround Main Street are stunning. It seems a shame that they're only open Mother's Day weekend through mid-October. Maine has very long, icy winters.
I tried blueberry ice cream (there is blueberry everything in Maine) and bought tee-shirts and postcards. I walked into an antique store and had a long conversation with the gray-haired lady owner about Northern politics versus Midwestern politics. Actually she referred to Maine as coastal politics. I took as many pictures as possible because it was just so easy to take beautiful pictures at every step. I bought some maple popcorn and found Canadian maple cookies, the kind my parents and I discovered in Quebec long ago.
When Paul returned from hiking we had pizza at Blaze. I ordered a GF prosciutto, fig and gruyere pizza that was pretty tasty. The gruyere and prosciutto together were amazing. Afterwards we walked around Main Street some more and looked out at the harbor. It gets dark early and light very early.
The next morning, our last day in Maine I woke up at 4:45 to get to breakfast at 5:30. I'd noticed that Jeannie's Great Maine Breakfast served GF pancakes and opened early. I couldn't wait! Surprisingly the pancakes were meh but the GF English muffins with the homemade strawberry-rhubarb jelly sent me into an intense foodie reverie. Good grief what a great combination! The eggs, bacon, and sausage were delicious too. So were the Boston baked beans that came with breakfast but I couldn't eat everything. This place was one of my favorites and the waitress was super sweet. When Paul woke up we drove to Acadia to hike a short but somewhat challenging trail along the cliffs. As we walked along the sandy beach and scrambled over large rocks there were wind chimes softly floating over the water from a distant island. Since it was foggy it was a beautiful, haunting, appropriate soundtrack for our hike.
We were starving after the hike so we found Route 66 Restaurant in Bar Harbor and chowed down. This restaurant looks like an antique store or museum. It's cuckoo and fun. There's 1950's music playing and every nook, cranny and available wall space has ephemera on display. And the food is good! Tasty nachos, a delicious blueberry sangria, really yummy lobster and corn chowder and my favorite: baked scallops. These scallops were my favorite dish of the trip. They were baked in butter and crumbled crackers.
For dessert we went to the unbelievably charming and pretty Project Social for crepes. My husband loves Nutella and strawberry crepes and I was willing to eat gluten just to have a blueberry crepe. (For the record, I do have Celiac but sometimes I'm willing to risk a terrible mood swing and a headache to eat something I'm not supposed to.) These crepes and the beautiful table setting, decor, and food made my foodie heart grow three sizes. After one more stop in the very cute and hip Choco-latte Cafe for a Mexican hot chocolate we headed to Bangor, Maine to spend the night and catch our flights home the next day. We stayed in the charming old Charles Inn Hotel. It reminded me of a shabbier Colonial version of the Tremont in Chicago. We had a terrific Thai dinner at the downtown Thai Siam before calling it a night.
Acadia National Park
Cherrystones Restaurant pictures below. Lobster bisque, crab and lobster roll. For dessert blueberry ice cream from CJ's.
Great Maine Breakfast - an incredibly delicious experience!! I'd never had baked beans for breakfast!
Route 66 Restaurant pictures below. Nachos, lobster corn chowder, blueberry sangria and baked scallops (the best ever) with coleslaw and fries.
Project Social pictures below. Cappuccino, Nutella and strawberry crepe, blueberry crepe
Choco-Latte was a sweet treat right before we left Bar Harbor for Bangor. I liked the hot chocolate and I really liked the vibe in the café.
Bangor, Maine - Even though we only spent a few hours in Bangor before flying home we found some great antiques, a nice musical instrument store and some great Thai food at Thai Siam.