Labor Day in Maine

All summer we wanted to go to Acadia National Park in Maine, and we finally made it over Labor Day weekend (which also marked our one year anniversary of living in Mass).

We drove up Saturday morning and stopped in Portland for lunch.  John loves to eat at places featured on the show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network, so we ate at the Port Hole and it was so, so good.  We kind of took our time and didn't get to our campground until dark (sounds about right for us though).  We decided we would camp instead of spending the money on a hotel, and it was such a cool campground.  Since it was dark, we didn't realize how close we really were to the ocean.  At our campsite, it smelled of camp fire and we were surrounded by trees, but if you walked a little ways away (like just on the way to the bathroom) you could hear the lighthouse bell and smell the ocean.  It was very cool!

You don't see this view every day-unless you live in Portland, I guess

Our little campsite in Acadia-Blackwoods Campground

 Sunday we set out the explore the park.  There were some amazing views!  We did one short hike to a place called Bubble Rock and enjoyed some more amazing views.  After that we drove up Cadillac Mountain, which is the highest point on the island.  It was a little comical for us, but at this point, we are used to the small east coast "mountains."  We enjoyed some more pretty views and some blueberry soda and then headed down to Bar Harbor for some dinner.  Of course I had lobster, I was in Maine.  It was tasty, but I think I have decided that I like lobster when it's cooked into things more than I like it by itself...plus, it's a lot of work.  While we were in town, we found a place that did ocean kayaking tours, and booked one for the next morning.

Wish that was my house

Toes in the ocean

View from our hike to Bubble Rock

Bubble Rock

I know, we are super lame and cheesy

working on our Chaco tan lines

view of Bar Harbor, ME and another cruise ship

Top of Cadillac Mountain

mmm, lobstah

I heart the ocean

So Monday we showed up for our ocean kayaking.  We were in a group of beginners.  I think that's all I want to say about that.  It was a fun trip, but we didn't do as much kayaking as we had hoped for and spent more time waiting around for everyone else.  In the end, the tour guide refunded our money because he felt bad about everything.  But we learned that we love ocean kayaking and next time we will skip the tour and just rent the kayaks and go ourselves.

John, all ready to go

Spent a lot of time waiting right here...

At least it was a beautiful day!

It was a really fun trip and I'm glad we were finally able to go.  This trip just further solidified our love of Maine and our desire to live there/have a summer home/vacation often sometime in the future.