Beaver Lodge... Found Guilty in Salem...

We really enjoyed the trip to Salem, Massachusetts. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the actual town of Salem as it is extremely touristy. What we did enjoy was the National Park section. It is highly based on maritime history and gave me a good idea about what early 1700's shipping towns would have been like. In the picture above there is the Customs House. We had a wonderful tour guide here. He gave us a good idea about the weights and measures that it took to get barrels and goods off a tall-masted ship. I had never considered the fact that barrels did not have a standard weight and measure; therefore they all had to be done individually, taking 2 to 3 weeks to empty a standard ship.

After Salem we headed to Acadia, Maine. This is the very first view that we had of it. We were worried that the entire trip would be shrouded in fog. We stopped at the visitor center for a few maps and then tried to do The Precipice hike. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, there is one nesting pair of Peregrine falcons on this hike. That means that we were unable to go this way. Luckily we did the Beehive Hike, and it ended up being the one that Mike had wanted to do... not that it was without trepidation!

I promise to try to upload some more photos of this in our next blog. As you can see, behind us it was extremely foggy and we hope to do the hike again when the weather is better. This is an amazing hike! It should be a technical climb that requires ropes to do, but it does not. There is an amazing system of bridges, rungs and other hardware permanently put into the rock that allows the average climber to make it up.

Supposedly the views are iconic, almost as good as Cadillac Mountain, without the clouds, and more shoreline. If you would like to see Mike do some of this hike, check us out on our YouTube channel.

Next we summited Gorham Mountain. This is a picture of Mike looking at the map as we headed to the summit.

Unfortunately the views here were the same as Beehive Mountain.

Mike is explaining and imagining the view to me as he stands by the edge. Since we read the map and he's looked at so many pictures of the park, he was telling me what I should be seeing. Luckily as we dropped down on to the shore road we did see some of the coastline. Here is what we saw while heading up to Thunder Hole.

Acadia park really gives you a good idea about what Maine would have looked like before the influx of people. The stone geology is truly astounding.

Today Mike and I have decided to go on a bike ride on the carriage roads around Acadia. They were an astounding series of roads put in to make the park carriage-friendly, which turned into bikes and horse friendly today. Here you can see Mike standing next to Eagle Lake.

I must say again how grateful we are that we got to bring bikes. Mike has said numerous times that he didn't think we would use them this much in the entire trip, let alone in the first week.

The carriage roads are also extremely well-marked. You can see one of the sign posts here. They're all around the Lakes, up the mountains, and numbered. There is a corresponding carriage road map that you can pick up at most visitor centers. They are also at the trailheads but I wouldn't trust that you'll be able to get one even out of tourist season. There's absolutely no water anywhere on the trails, so make sure to bring a lot of your own.

Here is a photo of one of the carriage houses. You can rent them if you so desire. This one is really close to the main visitor center and thus extremely convenient. Just to the right of it is the actual carriage road and so it's just a moment from your room to the carriage road where you can get around to most of the portions of the park without ever using a car. Now some of the roads are quite steep, making biking a bit difficult, but I think it's worth it.

On the carriage roads there are also bridges that are about 100 years old. Here is an example of the gorgeous stone work that was done to make this particular popularly-photographed bridge.

Here is another view that is of Jordan Pond. You can circumnavigate this Lake on a lovely walk. Unfortunately no bikes arr allowed so we just took some photographs and went back to the carriage road.

Next we took the car up Cadillac Mountain. This is a view from one of the lookouts about 3/4 of the way up. In the background you can see Eagle Lake.

Here is another image from the top of Cadillac Mountain. You can see all of the islands, some of which are privately owned, and Bar Harbor in the foreground. This is where we're going for dinner tonight.

We enjoyed driving through Bar Harbor. It's quite a beautiful town and they have a dedicated RV parking area at the end of it! We got to get ready for an evening out and watch a cricket match at the same time. Can't ask for something better than that.

On the way into town we saw this beautiful schooner named the Margaret Todd. She was designed by her owner, Steven Pagels, and built by Schreiber Boatyard in St. Augustine, Florida. She Is the only four-masted schooner on the east coast. I would love to have gone out for a sail on her.

Next we joined Mike's friend M.K. and her friend Michelle at Stewman's for lobster.

The place may look very touristy but the food is quite good. I had clam chowder, a 1 1/4 lb lobster, Mussels, corn and potatoes, along with blueberry pie for dessert. Everyone else had chowder and lobster roll. Everything was very good and the view was astounding!

I'll sign off for now and we're still in Acadia, so look for our next update soon. We'll be on the quiet side of the island so the views will be very pretty.