Thursday July 21 - Maine Day 2

Jen woke up first and got the back of the van ready. I was awoken early in the morning by a mosquito that bit my face. I guess that it was about 5 o'clock because the sun was already up as it rises and sets much earlier here on the east coast. After that the mosquitos bugged me for about about an hour as they buzzed in my ears every time I was about to fall asleep.

We drove to Eagle Lake to bike but the parking lot was full so we drove to the Visitor's center where there was another access the carriage roads that we were riding on that day.

The carriage roads were built by Rockafeller Jr. and are now used for biking and hiking through much of Acadia National Parks. The trails are very well marked and are paved with a nice crushed stone.

Before we started Rogan was already saying his stomach was hurting. We got started out on the trail, a tough climb right from the start. The trail went up and up some more, around a curve and still up, one by one each of us except Greg had to hop off our bikes to walk it up. It was a real quad burner and the tough start put the kids in a negative mind frame. Each time we would stop the kids would begin whining, gently at first and then increasing over time. Not even a mile into the ride, Rogan had given up and Jen rode back with him to the van. Lilly commented " mom, i dont mean to hurt your feelings but this is the worst time i've had on vacation ever." The rest of us soldiered on.

The ride itself was really nice. We came into Eagle Lake and took a short break for some pictures. A couple places throughout the trail we would pass under stone bridges built in the 1930s. We made made a decision not fully supported by the kids to continue on to bubble pond, so named for it's view of the bubble shaped mountains beside it. Again we paused for some pictures and then started back to the visitors center.

The ride back seemed much easier. The 200 ft. descent at the end was very fast, and it took some careful braking to to keep from flying out of control. When we got back to the van, Rogan had read his book and seemed fine. After all the previous complaining, Lillian said, " I guess this wasn't so bad after all. "

We decided to try to clean up a little bit to get ready for lunch in the visitors center. The visitors center was really cool with a large 3D map of the entire island along with lots of books and a theater for listening to information about the park. We changed into warm clothes because we were planning on doing a whale watch and the temperature was supposed to be only 40 degrees out in the ocean.

We ate dinner at Bar Harbor Blues Cafe and then headed to buy the whale watch tickets. We were disappointed to find out that the whale watch was canceled due to rough seas.

So instead we decided to take a "Swim shower" at Echo Lake.



The water there was about 60 degrees, so it was warmer than the swim hole in Ithica, but it was nonetheless still pretty cold. We were told that this was the only place that is really swimmable in the area. There is an ocean beach called Sandy Beach that is supposed to be much colder. Some people said it is too cold to even stick your feet in. Greg and I intend to try anyway.

That night we checked out the tide pools around the campground before the sun set. It was low tide so you could see a lot of crabs and other sea plants and animals in them. It was also great light to take some pictures.

The sunset looking toward a small lake near the Atlantic Ocean.