It was just as beautiful as we had hoped, and the weather could not have been nicer.
We puttered around the top of Cadillac Mountain, swam in Echo Lake, wandered the low-tide sand bar in Bar Harbor, hiked to the summit of North Bubble, enjoyed a scenic lunch spot at Jordan Pond where the girls devoured the signature pop-overs and jam, and played at Sand Beach.
For the girls, the unbeatable highlight was the sea creature tour with Diver Ed. Diver Ed and his wife, Captain Evil, run a family-friendly boat tour out of Bar Harbor. The boat motors out to one of the nearby islands (we went near Burnt Porcupine, I think), and then Diver Ed suits up in a dry suit (the water is cold!). He invited all the kids to come help give him and his heavy equipment a big push off the back of the boat, and then down he goes to the sea floor to find and collect small sea creatures to bring back up to show everyone. He carries a video camera that is connected live to a huge screen on the boat so we can all see what he is seeing. His audio equipment crapped out, so Captain Evil seamlessly (and hilariously) narrated his discoveries for us. The kids especially loved his safety dive buddy, Mini-Ed, a Playmobil diver he brought along for size reference and fun.
We had three full days in Bar Harbor, where we rented a little vacation home through HomeAway. What we hadn't realized is that several hundred other people also thought Bar Harbor in late August would be irresistible (the place was completely overrun for the first two days). On the weekend, it cleared out as families went home to prepare for Back to School.
We are already talking about going back, but we know we'll try to make it off-season next time. As Ellie said, "We just have to come back to Maine! It's too good."
No comments:
Post a Comment