Cadillac Mountain and Bar Harbor

We drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain which overlooks Bar Harbor and the Porcupine Islands. The elevation is 1,532 feet which is the highest point on the North Atlantic coast. Almost exactly a year ago, President Obama and the First Family stood where we did and were probably just as much in awe of the view...

Nathaniel looking out over the rocks...

I could sit by the water all day...

All of us loved walking along the coast line on the rocks, seeing the waves crash up against them. Being outdoors like this makes television and video games boring. The kids were different when we were there.

The town of Bar Harbor is full of restaurants and gift shops. I saw this Route 66 Restaurant and had to laugh as I just had posted that I'd love to follow that highway someday!

Gotta love the Camper Van! What a perfect way to see Maine...

We spent a whole afternoon hiking the Great Head Trail that started at Sand Beach and was not just a walk, but an actual climb on the pink granite rocks up the mountain to the top of Great Head. None of us had ever done such a treacherous hike before but by the end we were loving it, even with a skinned knee when Caroline tripped and we had forgotten to bring a band-aid. (A nice hiker gave us one.) I was surprised how many older people were out doing that trail and I decided that I want to be one of them someday! We'd be walking on narrow bands of rocks and then come out into a field of wild rose bushes that smelled wonderful, then through the pines, past beautiful white birch trees and vistas of the ocean below that were breath-taking. Hiking is now something we all want to continue to do!

There was so much more we didn't have time to do-- the Trolley through the Park, Moosehead Lake (we were trying to find moose the whole time but never saw any!), more hiking trails (Acadia has 125 miles of hiking trails!) and kayaking. A week wasn't long enough. On the way home we discussed how beautiful the drive up there would be during the fall. We stopped in Freeport to see the L.L. Bean Flagship store(s) (it's a must see... a huge complex and a vacation spot in itself) and they have Outdoor Discovery classes that they do there. Now we're thinking about going back to learn how to kayak when the leaves are all colorful. When you're in Maine, you just want to be outside doing things like biking, hiking and kayaking or canoeing. We picked up some real estate info too, thinking maybe in the future we could see ourselves there. At the very least, I think we've found our favorite vacation spot!