We were so grateful to be able to borrow this gorgeous guest house in Bar Harbor for the week! Incredible views from the front yard, and just a short walk in town.
Balance Rock along Shore Path in Bar Harbor. I don’t understand About Balance Rock: The large boulder is an excellent example of a glacial erratic and has been popular with the photographers for years. It has a different makeup than the surrounding rock, as can be seen by the color and texture of the stone compared to the ledge it sits on. It is not indigenous to this area and was left behind at the end of the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago. Geologist speculate that its origin is 40 miles northwest of here in the Lucerne area, just south of Bangor. The glacial ice was more than a mile thick and moved in a northwest to southeast direction. It played a major role in sculpting our bays, lakes, mountains and valleys, and scraped off the tops of the mountains leaving them rounded rather than pointed like the younger Rockies.
In all honestly, Rachel and I found this garden to be a bit underwhelming. We were expecting to see tons of Azaleas, but there were hardly any. May have just been the time of year.
True Crime Connection: See Leslie Spellman story: https://www.darkdowneast.com/episodes/lesliespellman
We did have the chance to drive a bit further into Northeast Harbor to visit my friend Jennifer Judd-McGee’s sweet gift shop called Swallowfield, which was far more of a treat!
Rachel and I had some time to kill while we waited for our evening kayaking trip in Castine, so we popped by Fort George.
Fort George was quite uneventful. Not much remaining on the site, and definitely not worth driving out of your way for. It was also very buggy, so bug spray was a must!
About Fort George: Fort George was built in 1779 by Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War as part of an initiative by the English to establish a colony called New Ireland. At the time, it was Britain’s largest fort in North America. The fort was the principal site of British defense during the Massachusetts-organized Penobscot Expedition - a failed attempt to retake Castine. The fort was abandoned and demolished in 1819, and the state of Maine acquired the land and the remains of the fort in 1940.
Rachel and I in our tandem kayak, about to head out for a bioluminescent kayaking trip in Castine Harbor!
Cafe This Way is the Best Brunch Spot in Bar Harbor! Amazing food and drinks, outdoor seating and friendly waitstaff!
When our whale watch got cancelled due to “rough weather off the coast”, Rachel and I thought: “why not take a sightseeing and nature boat tour along the coast of Bar Harbor instead”? This was by no means a luxurious boat and it was quite chilly on the water, but the sunset was gorgeous, we got to see a bunch of seals, and our all-female crew were very knowledgeable about local species and Bar Harbor history, including the elite families who built mansions along the coast!
Fun fact: We went by an uninhabited island that had several deer on it, and learned that deer swim from the mainland to the islands! 🤯