Friday, June 5, 2015

Day Sixteen

Sunshine at last! It was so good to see that bright orb this morning. I know folks get weary of reading so much about weather conditions, but when you spend 8 hours out in the elements, weather conditions are a big part of the day's experience.

We got up, had breakfast at the restaurant across the parking lot, got packed and left a little after 11 am. Janice had read that there was a beach nearby that featured millions of small smooth stones of red, grey and green hue.  Jasper Beach. So, we took off in search of Jasper Beach.

Hwy 192 went eastward down a broad peninsula to the beach. Riding along, we saw one single sign at a dirt road, but decided that there would be a "real" sign for the beach up the road. Wrong! Up the road was the end of the road. A U turn later, we were riding down the dirt road. It was short, and dead ended at the beach.

We walked out to the beach, and found that the descriptors were right--smooth rocks sized from about a half-inch to 4 inches or so went several hundred yards to our left and right. It looked like they washed onto the beach and piled up into several layers of different sizes. Pretty neat. Janice collected several and we were on our way.

Our next destination was Prospect Harbor. A friend's grandmother was instrumental in founding the library there, so we wanted to see it. Down a narrow, winding road along the shore, the village was right where the maps said it would be. We stopped at the post office to take a pic, also hoping someone would show up so we could ask for directions to the library.

Our hope was realized when a woman came out of the post office and walked towards her car. Janice spoke to her, and 10 minutes later, we were on our way to the library. Turns out that the lady volunteers there, so she knew a lot about its history. And she had lived in NC at one time.

A block down the street was the library. We stopped, took a few pics and rode on.

She had also mentioned that we should see a part of Acadia National Park that most visitors don't visit. It was along the way, so we did. And it was pretty magnificent. Along the water, there were several vistas that were just beautiful. The park is directly across the bay from Bar Harbor, and you could just see a few sights of the town. A good diversion to find this jewel!

On to Bar Harbor. We had reserved a room before leaving the previous hotel, so we rode to the motel and checked in.. An older, but very well-kept room awaited us. Another nice place for a couple of nights.

After resting and unpacking, we uncoupled the trailer and rode the mile to downtown Bar Harbor to get something to eat.  We found a  local restaurant, West Street Cafe and had what Janice said was the best fish she had ever eaten -- Haddock.

Finishing our meal, we decided to ride to the top of Cadillac Mountain for sunset. It's one of Malcolm's favorite destinations in the eastern states. At 1,500 feet on the summit, it's not a tall mountain, but there's no other place with as pretty a view as you get from there. An almost 360 degree panorama of green, wooded islands in the bay and ocean, with blue-green water, it's breathtakingly beautiful. It was cold on top, but the sunset was worth the cold. 

When the sun dipped below the mountains to the west, we got on the bike and rode back to our room and called it a night.

It was an outstanding day.








1 comment:

  1. I also fell in love with Haddock when traveling in Maine. Ordered it several ways. Always delicious. Beautiful pictures. Happy to hear it has stopped raining.

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