Maine - Bar Harbor / Acadia - 09/14/2015

The second day was the first and only full day we had to explore the gorgeous Acadia National Park! After the warm up hike we had yesterday, we planned for longer hikes in the morning and the afternoon. But before that, a nice breakfast is something desperately needed to give us the energy for the exciting day ahead of us!!

Food - Breakfast
There were two more breakfast spots we wanted to sample for the two mornings left on our trip. We picked the closer one - Jordan's Restaurant to try first. It was a diner like set up with a open kitchen. The place was packed but the turn around was fast enough so that we were seated within 5 min. Our seats were these narrow old fashioned booth table. It wasn't the most comfortable but it was cozy. The first thing that caught my attention was the efficiency of the staff.  It seemed chaotic with all the staff going around everywhere but everything seemed to work out well. We had our water, coffee, and even food in front of us in less than 10 min from the time we sat down!! That itself deserves a 1 star by itself.

The coffee was too weak like most of the other places but the food made up for it. As the pattern goes, I ordered their blueberry pancakes. They were fluffy, moist, and flavorful! Without a doubt, they were the winner in my books out of all 4 places were tried. A solid 4 out of 5 stars if not 4.5 stars. Only bummer was that they charge for the maple syrup but the overall price was reasonable that the checked turned out to be about the same as other places if not less.

Hiking - AM

Ocean Path map

As a side note to start with - I think one strategy to find out the must see sites when you travel is to see which places are made into souvenirs in the gift shops. Even though we mostly mapped out our game plan, it was reassuring that we were on the right track. Jordan pound and Cadillac Mountain are the places that we can't miss. For this day, we planned to walk the Ocean Path and loop around Jordan pound.

Before hitting the sites, we decided to stop by the visitor center to see what's there. It turned out to be a very good idea. Like most visitor centers at national parks, the Hulls Cove visitor center had a good size model of the park with the famous sites mapped out and had a short 15 min film introducing the park which we didn't see. Instead, what turned out to be very useful is that we were able to purchase the park pass and get some very helpful information from the park ranger before the crowd came out of the film session. And of course, pick up a map of the park.

Ocean Path

We noticed that there are free shuttle buses that run throughout the park but didn't plan to use it since we were driving. What we didn't think about is that not all trails go in loops and we would need to use extra time to double back on some trails. The perfect solution was to park further down the one way park route, hike back up the road, and take the shuttle down to our parking spot. It made perfect sense and it was exactly what we did for the Ocean Path walk. The other piece of advice was to hike up to the the South Bubble while we were in the Jordan Pound area. We didn't think we had enough time but we did and it was worth the while! The third piece of advice was to make a reservation at the Jordan Pound House restaurant beforehand which turned out to the absolutely necessary. All these advises turned out to be great suggestions that saved us a lot of time and allowed us to hit all the sites.

Thunder Hole observation deck

Taking the advice, we headed towards the parking lot at Otter Point which was at the south end of the Ocean Path (link1, link2) and easily found a parking spot. The weather turned out to be quite nice. And a walk along the coast was a perfect way to start a day like this. The trail was flat and ran along the coast. It was a great warm up walk for rest of the day that also was had great views of the ocean. Two of the attractions on the path are Thunder Hole and Sand Beach. Thunder Hole - you got to love it if not for its name! We made thunder and hole jokes for the next 2 days. It was basically a cave on the side of the cliff and as waves rush in and out of it a thunderous sound occurs! As we finished the Ocean Path at Sand Beach we were lucky to catch the bus coming in and hopped on it that led us back to our car.

One thing that we didn't get to experience was laying on the soft Sand Beach watching the starry night blink at us without the interruption of the city lights. And this is a the guided tour by the park service. Maybe next time!!

----------------------- TBC -----------------------
Food - Lunch
Jordan Pound House restaurant (link1, link2)
Hiking - PM
South Bubble / Jordan Pound (link1, link2)

Food - Dinner
Bar Harbor Popcorn / Bar Harbor Beerworks / Mount Desert Island Ice Cream /