Jordan Pond House

One of the sights in Acadia National Park is Jordan Pond. At that location is Jordan Pond House restaurant. I had read many of the reviews that cautioned about reservations and parking so I set out to mitigate these issues. I used the form on their web site to request reservations. I got the most bizarre response. "At this time we cannot accept a reservation before 3:00 pm. However, we set aside 66% of our seats for walk up guests…" So who gets the other 34% of the seats before 3:00 pm? In a couple of follow-up e-mails I arranged a reservation.

The day before our reservation we took a drive up Park Loop Rd. to scout out the parking situation. It was AWFUL. All 3 parking lots were full with cars circling looking for places. We took Jordan Pond House's recommendation and rode the #5 Island Explorer from Village Green. We arrived 45 minutes early for our reservation and when we checked in she offered to put us in the queue for an early table. We were seated under an umbrella in about 20 minutes. Incidentally these umbrellas are sufficient to keep you dry even in a light rain.

The waitress recommended the Maine Seafood Chowder (which came with a popover) and we took her recommendation. The chowder was good with lots of seafood.

After lunch we took a walk down to the "pond." I'd call it a lake. And then took the Island Explorer back to Village Green.

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Their web site is here and the TripAdvisor reviews are here.

C-Ray's Lobster

I don't usually write posts about a restaurant but C-Ray's Lobster is special.

One of the clerks in a shop in Bar Harbor said about C-Ray's: It's like those places down South. You look for the pick-up trucks and know that the food is good. There were a couple of pick-up trucks at C-Ray's but they were tourists. Still the food and service were awesome.

Don't let the appearance scare you off. C-Ray's operates in a little shack behind a residence on the way into Bar Harbor. There is no indoor seating. You order inside at a refrigerated case next to the live lobster tank and they bring your food out to you. There are some picnic tables with umbrellas but several parties were just eating in their cars.

We got there around 6:00 on a Thursday night and they were already sold out of some of their menu items. The line was literally out the door but moved fast and the food was served quickly as well. There are no indoor restrooms, but there was a portable toilet fully equipped with hand sanitizer.  The staff was very jovial and the crowd was as well.

While you won't want to eat there every night you won't want to miss it either.

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Their web site is here and the TripAdvisor reviews are here.

Campobello Island

While I normally don't like guided tours Campobello Island is one of those places where you will benefit from a tour guide. Peter Harwerth runs Campobello Sightseeing (+15067521901). While Peter is a German native he's lived on Campobello for 8 years and knows everyone (all 900 of them).

Peter picked us up at the IGA in Lubec, ME and drove us across the border. While we could have taken our rental car into Canada I felt like it would be easier to have a local escort us across. As expected Peter is on a first name basis with the border guards on both sides.

After we crossed the border we had lunch at Jocie's Porch. Then the gravel road excursion began! Given that the Roosevelt Campobello International Park covers about 1/3 of the island, many of the sites are on well maintained gravel roads. I'm certain that I would have been reluctant to explore them in a rental car much less have known where to go.

Our first stop was Friar's Head where you have a view of Eastport, Maine and back across Friar's Bay to Jocie's Porch.

Peter took us on to Mulholland Lighthouse which has a great view of Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Bridge between Lubec and Campobello Island. There's a whale exhibit next to the lighthouse which has an energetic and knowing staff.

When we arrived at Liberty Point at the south end of the island a fog was rolling in. It was coming in so thick and quick that you could actually see it blowing by you. The temperature had dropped about 10 degrees (Fahrenheit). While the fog reduced the visibility significantly the local coastline was beautiful with the fog.

By the time we reached the north end of the island it was hot and sunny. Campobello Island has a fascinating micro climate.

But Peter took us everywhere. I love it when a tour guide drives up to a popular location, in this case Head Harbor Lightstation, and says "Don't go that way (to the marked routes) but go this way where the view is better."  Peter had a vast knowledge of Head Harbor Lightstation since he has been involved as a volunteer in the restoration of this facility.

Our final stop was at the Roosevelt Cottage where we had more than an hour to explore. That got us a nice visit in that cottage but If you want to visit the Hubbard cottage you should arrange with Peter for more time there.

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Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park is the home to a number of sights. We drove from Bar Harbor and made the loop of Park Loop Rd. When you enter the Acadia National Park you have to pay an entry fee (seems like there are LOTS of ways to avoid this though, e.g. Island Explorer bus) but as seniors we qualified for the $10 family lifetime. The road is well kept and mostly one-way. The right lane is sometimes crowded with tourists parked who have walked to sights and trails. We didn't make every stop but some of them that we did, i.e. Thunder Hole, were marked better for the gift shop than the natural site.

The path down to Thunder Hole is treacherous and it doesn't normally make a sound. The locals say that it takes a winter storm to make it "thunder" but that didn't stop the crowd from standing interminably in front of it. The only signage on Park Look Rd directs you to the gift shop and the path down to Thunder Hole is a little hard to find. Hint, it's BEYOND the gift shop on the other side of the road.

Cadillac Mountain is 1500 ft. high but has panoramic views of Mt. Desert Island. There's enough parking there - we only circled once.

Where there isn't enough parking is Jordan Pond. We had checked out the parking the day before and realized that we probably wouldn't be able to find a parking place.  All 3 parking lots were full with cars circling looking for places.

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Their web site is here and the TripAdvisor article is here.