Maine - Day 4

Twice a day, the tide goes out and reveals a sand bar. This bar is large enough to walk on over to a small island. This is the bar where Bar Harbor got its name. There is a sign which a picture captioned: Bar Harbor bar, Bar Harbor, Maine. I thought this was hilarious and fun to say so I proceeded to say it for our trip (and teach it to my daughters when I returned) to the point it made Kathy physically ill. Ok, I know she was annoyed and did get sick at the end of the trip so it might have been causal or not. For reference this picture below is the same spot later in the day. 

After breakfast on the porch again, we began this day by walking across the bar and along the shore of the island. There were some jellyfish washed up and seagulls fighting over food, including a sea star. I think this was my second favorite thing to do. While planning in Texas, I was nervous about getting stranded when the tide came back, but this wasn't a worry as you could see both shores and there were tons of people around, but it does happen but not to us.

Back on the mainland which is still an island, we were Go for the Whale Watching tour on this cloudy, misty, cold and windy day. We got on the huge boat with tons of people.

We tried to stay warm and spent most of the ride back inside. We had a peppy grad school guide/announcer who loved shore birds which was good because we saw a ton.

We passed Egg Island and its lighthouse which was once voted by the people of Maine as the ugliest which goes to show that all the lighthouses are awesome.

About 30 miles off shore we came to Mt Desert Island which had tons of seals on it. I don't think the Yankees were impressed with seals but we were! And there is a lighthouse where whale studying grad students stay for a few months. 

We never saw any whales, just a Mula Mula big fish and a pod of tuna and a pod of Atlantic dolphins. The guide was super excited about these because you have to go far out to see them, but we thought we can see dolphins off the jetties in 'our country' which is what we said a lot comparing Texas to Maine :) Mom was impressed that I called the dolphins and tuna before the guide but that's what you get being married to a marine biologist. 

Back on shore after a cold, fast, visible whaleless ride back, we needed food and to warm up. Right across the street was a cafe-Gayln's. We sat upstairs and enjoyed the view of the park while eating more Maine food. 

Another walk, this one called the Shore Path and it runs along the shore by a park and people's houses in the town. There is a rock that fell from a glacier and tons of rose hips, which were all over Maine.  

After our Shore walk we had more time, so we went to another part of Acadia-the Wild Gardens. It was small but pretty. Kathy was starting to not feel good so she slept in the car while Mom and I explored among the trees, plants and flowers.

Back at Wonder View, our bones were still cold (don't judge the Texans) so we got hot drinks from the breakfast area and enjoyed the amazing view from our balcony and sat in three chairs which we might have gotten by climbing over to another room's porch but that cannot be confirmed.

We needed to eat again, so we headed into town with a few thoughts of places to go, and no parking places at any of those, but we finally found one by a nice cafe-West Street Cafe and there was a wait but we shopped and enjoyed the view (theme on this trip) before eating more Maine food like this lobster bisque!