Monday, September 10, 2018 - Our Last Day in Bar Harbor, ME - Visiting the west side of the eastern half of Mount Desert Island, Dinner at The Chart Room, the rain begins.

Monday, September 10, 2018 - Our Last Day in Bar Harbor, ME - Visiting the west side of the eastern half of Mount Desert Island, Dinner at The Chart Room, One last drive through Bar Harbor, the rain begins.

What a beautiful day it was this morning - a perfect day for a drive on our last day here in the Bar Harbor/Mount Desert Island area, before we move just a short distance tomorrow to another area of Acadia National Park.

This morning we first headed back to Thunder Hole in Acadia National Park, hoping to make it in time to see some real action occur.  Cloudy weather that creates a little sea action makes it much better, and today it just wasn't happening.  When we were here 12 years ago we were fortunate to be here at the perfect time where we heard the thunder, and watched water spray many feet into the air! 

 

Even if Thunder Hole didn't provide a spetacular sound and spray today, it was a beautiful morning and we still enjoyed spending time here looking out over the water.

Our first drive on the Park Loop Road I took a picture of Otter Cove - it was at low tide - here it is at high tide. 

Water was barely flowing under this bridge in the previous picture, but you can see how high it is here.

Little Hunter Beach

These bridges within Acadia National Park are so beautiful.

As we left the Park at the south end near Seal Harbor we passed many beautiful homes, like the one above.

These are gardens around the home in the picture above.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  

A few shops in Northeast Harbor

We marveled at the height of the hedges in this area!

More homes along the way

This was such a beautiful, peaceful area.  I could easily live right here.

More homes

After leaving the Northeast Harbor area, we drove along Sargeant Drive that at times was very close to Somes Sound.  When we stopped at the Visitor Center, the attendent told us this is where many large homes are located an owned by names we might know  - such as Martha Stewart and others.  Of course, the homes were pretty hidden - either by natural trees or large fences.  A couple had open gates and you could see they were beautiful, large homes.  Below is toward the end of the drive along the Sound.

We never tire of water scenes

or these beautiful mountains - you can see the trees are really beginning to turn.

Dean wanted to get fuel before we leave tomorrow morning, so we drove toward Bar Harbor and stopped at a convenience store.  Nearby was The Chart Room, where we plan to have dinner tonight.

The Chart Room where we had dinner our last night in Bar Harbor.

Another picture of our campground office as we returned to Bar Harbor Campground and Bentley.

Dean's lobster dinner at The Chart Room - thanks David & Donna for the recommendation - it was delicious!

My blackened salmon with cusabi sauce - the most delicious salmon meal I have ever had.  I am going to try and replicate it - I've already found a recipe - now if I can just find some salmon!  I know, you'd think it would be easy......more to this story later.

After dinner we were going to drive to downtown Bar Harbor and walk to the island that becomes accessible once the tide goes down.  However, it was just too busy and parking for Bentley was not available, so we decided against the idea.  I asked Dean to drive through town so I could take a few pictures.  It is a very busy area every morning, afternoon and evening - however, we found out that early on Sunday morning - near 9, when the stores open is the best time to find a parking spot and do any shopping.  You can also make use of the Island Explorer Bus.  It will pick you up at any number of spots in the area and take you to Bar Harbor and other communities.  We did not use it the few times we visited Bar Harbor.  The first time we were lucky to find a spot to park, and tonight, we should have used it!

The pictures below are of either houses or Inns along the road leading to the waterfront in downtown Bar Harbor.

These are pictures of downtown Bar Harbor before we headed back towards our campground and our last stop this evening before returning to the campground!

This is "The Village Green" - a large green space in the downtown area.  It is always busy with folks either relaxing, or some type of activity.

A couple of cafes with outdoor seating.

....and look what we found at our last stop!  This is the ice cream shop "Udder Heaven" next door to the BBQ place we ate breakfast at several days ago.

This was the  "Pastor's Breakast" - Roger, I ate this in your honor!!

The menu - you can see what made up the "Pastor's Breakfast"!  By the way - it was DELICIOUS!!

We've had such a wonderful time here on Mount Desert Island, Acadia National Park and in Bar Harbor and the other seaside communitites.  It is such a beautiful area.

We had not been back at Bentley but a few minutes when we heard the first raindrops on our roof!  It never quit through the night (or at least every time we woke - it was still raining), we woke up to rain this morning and it was still raining when we finally pulled out of Bar Harbor Campground headed to our next stop.