This entry was posted on 9/3/2007 6:36 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
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Dateline : Bar Harbor, Maine. September 3rd, 2007
Hope everyone had a relaxing Labor Day. For those of you returning to school - here's hoping
you had a wonderful end to a great summer.
We had a great day today. We got up early, munched on some poptarts, granola bars and apples
and headed into Acadia National Park.
We stopped for a NPS stamp at the Hull Cove Visitors Center and watched a really, really
cheesy film called "The Gift Of Acadia" in the auditorium.
From the very ( not ) enlightening film, a copy of which you will never find in the
turtlexflix page of my website, we headed out to try our bikes on the Carriage Roads. This
was semi-successful. First, we road for a bit but to be honest - our Electra Townie bikes
really weren't meant for this kind of terrain. The tires just have absolutely no tread.
They're really, oh wait now I get it, in-town bikes. Yeah, oh well. We plan on trying again -
we're going to see if we can find some Carriage Roads that are paved. Some of them are, at
least partially.
From the short bike ride, we took the Park Loop through Acadia. We took the Cadillac
Mountain turnoff and summitted the mountain! This is our third summit over-all. We have
summitted Mount Washington in New Hampshire, Signal Mountain in Wyoming and now Cadillac
Mountain in Maine. Okay, okay, so you can drive 99% of the way to the top, but we still
summitted!
Personally, I'm waiting on Everest and K2 to have this kind of access before I make those attempts.
I will now recite a heartwarming little piece of Maine history, as overheard on the summit.
A small boy, perhaps four years old was listening to his father describe the history of the
mountain. This guy is obviously some kind of history professor, and very well read indeed.
And I quote - "Back in like the sixteen hundreds, there was this french guy, named something
something something Cadillac and this mountain is named for him".
Now, try to wipe a tear from your eye. It still chokes me up just thinking about it. I only
hope that young lad can absorb such detailed information.
We scored a Virtual Cache at Cadillac Mountain and a stamp.
I will mention that pookie suggested we take the short way up to the summit, but being
really not so smart sometimes, I saw what I thought was a different, easier way. Boy, was I
wrong! No matter, like I said, we summitted. And most of all, we had laughes and a good time
doing it.
From Cadillac Mountain we headed back down to the Loop Road but took a quick turn off at
Jordan Pond. Here we scored another virtual cache right by the pond. There are tons of
kayakers here. Everywhere, really.
We decided to have lunch at the Jordan Pond House, a restaurant right on the lake. This
turned out to be quite a wonderful experience. We ate right out on the patio, overlooking
the yard, which is set up with tables and benches just like "the olden days". It was
something to see. You can almost picture how it was back in the 1920's, with folks all
dressed up and proper.
We both had a delicious lunch. We shared some Brie cheese and grapes before a lunch of soups
and popovers. turtlex had lobster stew ( so sumptuous ) and pookie had the seafood chowder.
Both of these items had TONS of meat and were very light in the broth department. I believe
the lobster stew listed ingredients as lobster meat, cream, butter and a touch of sherry. It
didn't taste nearly so heavy as a bisque and was just perfectly seasoned. Pookie had raves
about the seafood chowder with big pieces of scallops, haddock and shrimp. The popovers (
apparently the place is kind of famous for them ) are these light bread popovers, buttery
and fluffy.
We loved it at the Jordan Pond House Restaurant. It was a treat and the setting very
unexpected and appreciated. The cool breeze kept the warm sun at bay and it was a prefect
lunch.
For those with a love of the canine sort - you just have to bring your little friends up
here and to this restaurant. Not only are the four legged friends welcomed, the waiter
brings them their own little bowl of water! They let the dogs sit right by your table, on the patio and out in the table area on the lawns.
experience.
From the Jordan Pond Restaurant we travelled a little more of the Loop Road and then headed
back to the Edgewater. We're pretty tired. Not sure what we'll do about dinner, but it might
involve, oh, I don't know... seafood !
Hope all is well with everyone.
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