We took a car there, of course. The trip was 12 hours long; uuuuuuuugh. Yes, 12 hours cooped up in a car. Luckily, air conditioning exists...
The first two nights we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Bar Harbor. It was really nice, very quaint. It was in one of the few remaining buildings from historic Bar Harbor, as opposed to the others, which were all redone completely since they had basically all burned in a fire. But our inn survived!
Let me recount for you the events and stuff we partook in.
The first day we went to an Oceanic Museum. That was amazing. There were three parts to the tour. First, we listened to a guy do a presentation about lobster hunting, their main industry in Maine. He showed us the huge cages the lobsters get trapped in. They're made specially so lobsters can't escape. the rope goes into them on an upward incline. The lobster then climbs in, and falls to the bottom. He then tries to escape, but can't because of the angle of the rope, of which the 'exit' is above his head now, too high to escape. But there is a hole just large enough for undersized lobsters to escape through, saving the lobster catchers time when it comes to weeding out those unfit for eating: too big ones, too small ones, and pregnant ones. The too big ones aren't allowed because they want to make sure there are enough full grown ones to breed. Oh, and apparently, it's okay to throw them in a pot and boil them live. It makes no difference; they don't feel pain. They have no brain function other than the basics: to eat, swim, reproduce, and breath. Apparently it raised a moral question, so scientists formally studied the lobsters, which led to that conclusion. Too bad for the lobster-rights club; how can something with no brain or nerves have many rights? We also learned from him how to weave the net. It's pretty easy, but I'm not going to explain it; I would just confuse everyone, since I'm no good at giving instructions for things like that. The sample net piece the guy wove in front of us was given to Michael. That was cool; a souvenir, but for free! That's a rare find at such a touristy place. The next stop of the tour was the Lobster Hatchery. It was full of these large, upright tubes of water with tiny lobsters, only between 1 and 6 millimeters long. The Hatchery obtains pregnant lobsters, and then keep the eggs and babies until they reach a certain stage in their life. Then, they are released back into the wild. Why don't they keep them until adulthood? Well, that would get too expensive. Lobsters are very reclusive, and would each need their own tube, rather than all 6,000 being in one. It is much more expensive to keep them than release them and let the lobster fishermen recatch them. You see, a lobster lays about 6,000 eggs. In the wild, about 3 of them eventually survive, since as babies they are prey to many creatures, as plankton-like things while they float in the open water. Yet by living those early stages in the hatchery, about 1500 eventually survive- much better than 3. Plus, there's no high costs like there would be if kept in captivity. The last part of the tour was a small aquarium and a touch tank. In the aquarium was the biggest lobster I'd ever seen- at least ten pounds, no exaggeration. It was at least three feet long, with claws more than a foot long each. I wouldn't want to get on its bad side! The touch tank was really cool, too. They had a sea cucumber; it was very squishy. The sea urchin was very spiky, but still fun to hold. The starfish, too, I enjoyed. Did you know they have a small eye on the tip of each foot? It looks like a little red dot, and it senses light. The Horseshoe Crab would cringe whenever I blew on its stomach. That was fun to watch [no, I wasn't hurting it or anything- tickling it's more of the word]. There were also large snails, a spider crab, and hermit crabs. Those were cool, too. I really regret not having my camera with me that first day; though, consequently, it led me to be sure I had it on all the other days.
Oh, and we also saw the movie "Up." It was in a historic theater; only one movie playing at one time, since there was only one screen. It was very cool looking, though. The ceiling was painted, and the screen had a curtain over it, like a stage. They had technical difficulties with that; it kept opening and closing during the first five minutes. But, those were previews, so it didn't matter. The lights kept going on and off, too. It was a little freaky, I suppose. Haunted Theater? The movie itself was very cute, though. I liked it.
The next three nights were camping, making 4 days. I hate camping. The beds are not comfortable at all, the "waterproof" tent was leaky as it rained, and everything else about it's just so much of a nuisance.
That first day of camping, day two of the trip, we drove up Cadillac Mountain. It's the tallest point on the easy coast, until Brazil. But unfortunately, at the summit, we couldn't see a thing. It was extremely foggy. We're lucky we didn't fall down the mountain, since we could barely see three feet in front of us.
The next day we went hiking for a bit, to some nice views of the ocean. Then we went to something even more amazing; Improv Acadia. It was a fully improvised comedy show, and the audience got to join in with the ideas. It was one of the best things I've ever been to. I really wish more existed; but I suppose it takes a lot of talent to create such a great show, completely improvised. That was just a sample show, though, perhaps twenty minutes compared to a full hour and a half show. It was for the Art Week in Bar Harbor. There were a lot of free concerts and exhibits and things like that. It's rather hard to explain about the show, but they do skits and things based on the audience's ideas. They're different things each time. For example, when asked for the title of a possible play that doesn't exist, a woman in the audience shouted out "Cairo's Burning," and they created a huge skit about a pharaoh faced with a rebellion, with improvised songs and all. It was really good. They also asked us for an item the would not come with instructions, and we chose 'Sponge'. So, they made an instruction manual for a sponge. It was hilarious; they asked the audience for sub categories, and one of them was "Water Emergencies." So, they made up a long thing about buying thousands of the "Spongetron 5000" to stop a flood. It was much more humorous than I make it sound, though. I do it little justice. After that, we discovered that the sun was actually out! We listened to some of a free rock concert in the park while I practiced cartwheeling on a grassy hill. I'm getting better, I think. We also had a campfire, since it wasn't raining. S'mores rock!
Thursday, day four of the trip, we were supposed to go on a whale watch, but it was once again foggy. Instead, we went on more hikes. One was really awesome; it was out to a small rocky peninsula. we were climbing the rocks, getting great pictures and things. By late afternoon, it got sunny again, so we went back up Cadillac Mountain. That time, we could see the view a bit before the fog rolled in again. It was really, really awesome. a wonderful day. We ended the day with a campfire and S'mores, once again.
Friday was okay, but not the most fun. We were stuffed in the car with all the camping things, and just drove around the island, since my mom wanted to see the rest of it. In Northeast Harbor, I stopped at a store and bought a neat bracelet. I also bought Chinese Checkers, to give us something else to do. Every night before, Me, my brother, and Michael had been playing lots of the card game "Uno," and were getting a bit sick of it. at least, I was; After all those nights, I had accumulated very few points, whereas Michael had over a 500 point lead on Brandt, and more than a 1,000 lead over me. Blah. So I bought a new game to play. We played it that night. it was a very intense game of Chinese Checkers; it pretty much ended in a complete draw. Still, it was fun. Oh, and we stayed at the inn; no more icky camping.
Saturday, the last day of the trip, we were able to go on that Whale Watch! It was a little foggy, but not that bad. We saw a whole lot of Seals, which was very cool. We didn't see any whales, but that was okay. It was still an awesome boat trip. That evening, we all went shopping. Extreme shopping. We visited every store there that was open. I ended up paying a bit more than I usually spend on a shirt, but that was okay, because the shirt was extremely awesome, and unique. It had lots of sparking red and white rhinestones on the black stretch fabric, short sleeved. The stones were in the shape of wings on the back, with a little red sun on the corner in front. It's the best shirt I've ever owned. Then, we went to the Improv again! The full show was amazing; even better than the sample show. I really wish there was one in NJ! I would go every other night. That time, I suggested a part of a skit. They wrote everyone's suggestions down, and during the skit the actors would pick up random ones off the floor and so them, or say the lines, incorporating them into their skit. Those actors did not know what was on the paper, since they went out of the room while we gave the suggestions. Mine was to hunt werewolves. The skit was fabulously funny!
Then, the trip ended with another 12 hour car ride. Actually, it ended up being 14; in Massachusetts, two car accidents held the roads up for two extra hours. I got mad at McDonalds, since they gave me a honey mustard wrap when I asked specifically for ranch.
Oh, and about food. Can't forget that. I got to try lobster. It wasn't as yummi as I though it would be. Didn't taste too different than crab, actually; I don't know why people get all excited over it. My favorite food there was the pizza. There was a great place called Rosalie's. I got Pineapple and Chicken as a topping, and it was one of the best pizza I ever had! There was also a cool diner. It was very retro; it had lots of things all over the walls, which reached up the length of two stories. It had old signs, decorated plates, license plates, and all other things all over it. But it was a cool clutter, especially for a diner. It was amazing. Great atmosphere. I don't remember the name, though. Overall, great food in Bar Harbor. Great ice cream, too. There was one called 'lobster tracks', which was vanilla with white chocolate candies filled with caramel, dyed red. Also, 'black bear', which was raspberry stripes in vanilla, with chocolate candies filled with raspberry syrup. Very yummi, rich ice cream. Only problem was that it had no fast food. Everything was at least ten dollar meals. But, there was a neat restaurant with a cool salad bar. It included muscles. Mmmm!
So, overall, the trip was AMAZING. I recommend going to Bar Harbor and Acadia National park to anyone interested in going on a vacation to a park, but who doesn't want to be really in the wild. Lots of nice inns and hotels to stay in, for those who dislike camping [like me]. Also, many easy hikes to nice views, not far from the town at all, unlike other parks where the hotels and towns are an hour away. Plus, they have great things to do, such as Improv Acadia, Museums, and a Whale Watch, on top of a great town with cool shops and dining. I loved it! ^_^
Some Pictures:
Bar Harbor Street
Aerial View of Bar Harbor
Bee on a Flower
Ship
Foggy Cadillac Mountain
Coastline of Maine
Foggy Island
Graveyard
Seagull
Harbor
Mountains
Lighthouse
Lobster Shop
Lobster Traps
The Inn We Stayed At
Rosalie's Pizza
The Porcupine Islands
Road
Wet Rocks
More Rocks
Our Tents
Theater
Very Touristy Rocky Outlook
Tree with Writing
Turtle Art Exhibit
Atlantic Ocean
Whale Statue
See how much cool stuff there is? These are only a small sampling on the 200-something photos I took. Actually, it was 800-something, but that's just because I like to take ten pictures of everything, then delete all but the few best. I love digital Cameras. I love Maine. But I wouldn't want to live in Maine- winters get too cold. The summer was a nice temperature, though: never too warm, but never cold either... like a NJ Spring, really.
Well, I'm off! Hope you enjoyed my little recollection of my trip to Maine!
