R n R in stunning Bar Harbor

Better writers than I have attempted to capture and convey the breath-taking natural beauty that is Bar Harbor on Mt Desert Island in Maine. I’m not even going to try with words; and my pictures really fail to do the area justice, but they do give some idea of the magnificence of the area.

Bar Harbor itself is a delightful little town that varies from 4400 hardy residents in the snows of winter, through to 50,000 once the white has departed and the mercury has clawed its way above freezing and beyond. Over the summer months the town is also blessed (or cursed, depending on your ideology) with around 120 cruise ships visiting to disgorge themselves of floods of tourists and, I imagine quite importantly to the region, tourist dollars. Thankfully, our visit was well out of peak season. 

Our main reason for visiting Bar Harbor was to finally meet Carrie Jones in person, the New York Times best-selling author of the fabulously wonderful series Need, Captivate, Entice, and Endure, who endorses my own novels with her awesomenessness. We called in the next morning, but missed Carrie so left a get well card for one of the dogs and the cat, who had both been to visit the vet that week. Then we went for a wander around this delightful little town, oohing and ahhing at the houses, and wondering if all the vampires left town over winter. There just have to be vampires living in many of those houses; you can tell just by looking at them.

Don't let the expression fool you ... off-season is a great time to visit Bar Harbor

LOVE the yellow school buses in the USA

Vampires totally live here!

Quite brisk!

Love the US post boxes.

Bark Harbor at Bar Harbor - awesome!

Dinner that night was at the rather lovely Galyn’s, where we had (and here I describe in detail for Pete ♥) a superb lobster bisque (Mum) and a divine tomato and basil soup (me), followed by a plate of garden salad each (this, I guess, is an American thing … they eat the salad first, not together with the main meal), and then for the mains (or entrées as the Americans call them … they should Google the word and see what it means) … fresh-I-was-swimming-this-morning haddock in a horseradish sauce (Mum) , and fresh-I-was-swimming-this-morning Maine salmon (me). Absolutely superb.

Dinner at Galyn's

Mmmmmm fresh Maine haddock and salmon

The next morning we paid a visit to the Museum at Bar Harbor College of the Atlantic, where all the displays were made by the students. Very impressive.And then it was time to meet up with Carrie, who is as delightful as I suspected, and had a real treat in store for us as we accompanied her to the local Rotary Meeting, where she was the Sergeant-at-Arms. What a treasure to meet the local people in such a touristy town and to hear a little bit about their lives. Very exciting.

With my FB friend Carrie Jones at the local Bar Harbor Rotary meeting. Awesomely lovely people; a real treat to meet them all.

After the meeting (and lunch - wow - thanx Carrie‼!) we followed Carrie’s tourism advice and headed into Arcadia National Park and up Cadillac Mountain, which blew us away with views, vistas, ice sculptures, deer, and trees that made it seem like we were driving through one of my cousin Lisa's  beautiful paintings (www.lisaelley.com). 

Driving through my cousin Lisa's paintings

Frozen waterfalls galore in Acadia National Park ... very exciting

Sand Beach - surfing only allowed during winter. I don't think so!

Sand Beach, Acadia National Park

Natural ice sculptures, Acadia National Park

On top of Cadillac Mountain, Arcadia National Park. How cold was it?

It was THIS cold!

The frozen waterfalls were simply breath-taking

Another vampire house, this one in Acadia National park. Probably for vegetarian vampires at this time of the year .... plenty of deer, not many humans

Proudly flying the flag on our drives around the USA

Just making it down the mountain by dark (around 4.15pm: freaky) we called into the delightfully kitsch Geddy’s for a … wait for it … Pumpkin Martini! Bwa ha ha … only in America.

The wonderfully touristy Geddy's Bar ...

... where I totally had a pumpkin martini!

Then it was back to the Atlantic for a swim, a soak in the hot tub, and then down to the bistro for dinner … where we found not a single item on the menu that was dairy free (Mum) or gluten free (me). Shame. Still, with the stunning view below not visible at night, and it being dark by 4pm, it wasn't such a loss.

Great view, but NOTHING dairy or gluten free

One of the best bistro view in the world

So, back into town, and to the Siam Thai Orchid Restaurant we had driven past the previous night. Thai is always a fairly safe bet for finding something dairy free AND something gluten free, and in Americaland we kind of need the dish to be both, as we usually order one meal between two. Contrary to popular belief there a not a lot of fat Americans around, but goodness, you’d think they all would be with the size of the meals. Maybe they have a high metabolism, or maybe they all get To Go boxes.

A light snowfall was once again presented for our enjoyment the morning we left … just enough to get some photos, before melting off to make the roads safe to drive on.

Another lovely dusting of snow to farewell us f rom Bar Harbor