Back in the USA - Bar Harbor Maine

Dateline: Out of Bar Harbor, Maine at sea in the Atlantic
Date: October 25, 2230 hours

Today was our first day being brought into a city and back via the “tenders,” which is just a fancy name for the larger 150 passenger lifeboats we have on the ship. However, it is a lot of fun to watch them lower and raise them, and to get a chance to actually ride in one of them. Although they are fairly large and each hold 150 passengers in some level of comfort, have life jackets, LORAN, GPS and full lockers of emergency rations, I am not too sure I’d like to spend a week in one at sea with 15 – 30 foot swells, which are common up in this country during the winter months. It was sort of rough in the bay and the boat we were in was bobbing up and down like a cork in a waterfall. Again, Mr. Patch saves the day!

We dropped the hook off the City of Bar Harbor in Frenchman Bay about 0700 this morning, and our first order of business was re-entry back into the United States, which went very well given they had to clear some 3,000 people from all over the world in a space of about 90 minutes. Cruise ships make NO money sitting idle in port, so it is either onto the next destination, or get the herd off the boat and onto expensive tours as quickly as possible. Again, in watching the people who work on this huge ship work to get these things done, it is amazing to see how practiced and quickly they get their tasks done. They even load these older folks and their Rascal scooters into the life boats so they can go ashore for tours, which is a really cool thing. However, not too sure what they do if the transfer had to be made in the rough seas we encountered the other night.

We hit the dock in downtown Bar Harbor to find many of the businesses closing, or closed, due to the end of the summer season here; as this is a summer resort community (you already know this if you are a Stephen King fan). It was overcast, cold and threatening rain so Carol and I decided to wimp out on our bike ride through Acadia National Park and signed up for a local tour of the park. It was a good choice.

One gets a sense of history here in the North East for the constant fighting between the Brits and the Frogs when they were both considerable European powers. Every port we stop in tells of a history of one country’s army and navy pushing out the other, then the positions reversing 50-75 years later, and the locals getting stomped to shit in the process. The indigenous population of the area must have thought these white ass holes are mucho loco!

Acadia National Park is not very large, but what it lacks in size, it MORE than makes up for in beauty. We thought the colors in Canada were gorgeous! Unfortunately, because of the dry summer Maine experienced a lot of the reds were very short-lived this season, but the yellows, oranges and golden colors were nothing short of spectacular. Our driver and guide was a local who actually lives on the edge of the park. She has degrees in Natural Resources and History, so she was a natural to do this trip with us. She is also a NPS docent like we are for the USFS, so we bonded well with her of course. We are trying to figure out how to return here on “business” to teach Leave No Trace courses in the park, which they are just really getting into here. She told really bad jokes, but it was obvious she loves her work in the park. Make sure to check out the new additions to the “Fall Colors” photos we shot during the day. We saw deer, beaver, otters and a lot of other critters in the park, and had an opportunity to go to the top of Cadillac “mountain.” Now, if you are from California or Colorado, a 1,500-foot hill is not a mountain, but in this country it is. Anyway, we were afforded an amazing 360 degree view of Frenchman Bay, the Atlantic, and all sorts of large and small lakes inland. Also, by the time we got to the top of the mountain, the weather had completely cleared, the sun was shining bright and it was so hot we had to strip down to T-Shirts for the remainder of the day. The area was/is also the playground for the super rich from down the coast. The Navy was going to build a communications station next to Acadia National park, but the Rockefeller family told the U.S. government, “Nope, you ain’t gonna do that here… however, because we are Americans and do wish to cooperate with you to some degree, we will build you a Navy base down the road and WE will pay for it!” We didn’t get to see the base, but she said it is the most-beautiful Navy base in all of the states. The Rockefellers, Fords and some of the other destitute of America also constructed 54 miles of horse and bridal trails throughout the park, including a “carriage house” that is about five times larger than the place we live in, and to this day you cannot drive a car on any of them. Hiker, horse person and mountain biker heaven! In the winter when it is colder than hell and snow is everywhere, one can cross-country ski, snow shoe and (yuk) snow mobile in the park.

After getting back to town we headed out to the actual “Bar Harbor,” which is how the town got its name. Look at the photos we took, where Carol is walking across the bay (you always knew she could walk on water, eh?). The tide changes about 12-15 feet every six hours and it creates a very large and long sand bar, so you can actually walk to the long island which is across the bay from the town. You just have to be mindful of the fast tide racing back in unless you want to swim back to town. There are some wonderful historical homes and some totally out-of-control mansions in and around town. Steve took some photos so you can see how the REALLY rich slugs live on the East Coast! Check out the Google Photo Album! Our tour guide told us the same issue exists in Maine as in California, where the people who actually do most of the work in the town cannot afford to live there, so many of them are commuters. She told us you could snag a two bedroom one bath shack for about $400K.

Highlight of the day was Carol’s opportunity to get her hands on some REAL New England clam chowder, which she is addicted to. Our friend Anne Marie Gold who is a part-time local here told us about a restaurant called the Bluefish Café, but it was unfortunately closed for the season, who we hit a lobster joint right down by the docks. We told the waitress we had traveled from Lake Tahoe (no one know where the hell Pollock Pines is) California, across Canada, to Newfoundland, and down the East Coast of North America just to get a bowl of real New England clam chowder, so she brought us each a nice, large bowl of the stuff. Carol was in heaven, and the local beer was pretty damned good as well.

Carol also got a new job aboard the Scurvy as a “Welcoming Person on the tender dock, which is this cool thing that unfolds right out of the ship of the ship, just above the water line. There are two or three of them that are working at the same time in order to get all of the cattle back on time to sail. Anyway, if you want to get some idea of just how big this ship is, take a look at the photos I shot from this platform looking straight up the side of the ship, which is 120 feet off the water line at it highest point (not counting the additional 30-feet of draft between the waterline and the bottom of the keel!). So there I was taking all of these photos and Carol got bored, so she started assisting the crew in greeting people back aboard. I think she is looking for a new career now.

After dinner is was off to “Snooker’s Bar” and Cuban cigar smoking establishment to watch the Red Sox pound the shit out of the hapless Rockies. Lots of fans for both teams, so the place was rocking pretty good. All of our friends (Jack, Fosters, Chardonnay, etc.) were in attendance, so we hung around until it was 6-1 Sox and then called it night.

Until Boston….