The journey to Bar Harbor took us a around four and a half hours with one stop off at a rest area on the way. Upon arrival we checked in early and dumped our bags. The hotel room was massive! We got a pool view room which was more like two bedrooms in one. We had two marble bathrooms, walk in shower, two baths, a living room and two TV’s. It was a lot more than we expected for the price we paid! We had lobster rolls for lunch at the restaurant next door to the hotel and set about exploring the town. Bar Harbor has plenty of shops and restaurants so we spent some time walking around and taking in the lovely seaside setting.

Across the water from our hotel was an island called ‘Bar Island’. During low tide you can walk across from our hotel to the island but during high tide the water came right up to the hotel. It was quite a sight when we first saw the water at low tide as there were people walking and driving their cars across to an island which a few hours earlier was surrounded by the Atlantic waters!

The following morning we went to Mount Cadillac. The mountain is located in Acadia National Park which occupies ‘Mount Desert Island’. Bar Harbor is on the eastern shore of the island. The visibility was not great but the mountain views still didn’t disappoint. The first of the pictures below shows the ‘Porcupine Islands’ from the top of the mountain.

In the afternoon/evening we took another walk around Bar Harbor. We also walked the ‘Shore Path’ which offers some really nice views of the harbor.

After our walk we returned to the hotel and had a swim in the heated pool.

The following morning was an early start! We got up at 3:30am to return to Mount Cadillac to see the Memorial Day sunrise. Mount Cadillac is the highest mountain on the coast of the U.S. and therefore sees sunrise before any other place in America. The view of the sunrise was spectacular and a “must do” for visitors to Bar Harbor.

After our early morning at Mount Cadillac we returned to the hotel to finish our sleep. Here are a couple of pictures taken from the hotel on Memorial Day.

After breakfast at 9am we went for a drive around the 27 mile ‘Park Loop Road’ to take in some more of Acadia National Park before we returned home to New Hampshire seacoast. The Sand Beach below found just off the loop, is a lovely cove which was created 15,000 years ago by glacial ice. Swimming in the water is only for the hardy as water temperatures peak at only 50F (10C).

Our final stop before going home was to ‘Jordan Pond’. The pond has a shoreline of 3.6 miles and is another part of Acadia which was formed by the glaciers. The water at Jordan Pond is very clean and visibility is often at 46ft. Afternoon tea is served from the teahouse lawn overlooking the Pond. The signature item on the menu are Popovers however we had our signature item of Lobster Rolls! I also had a lovely blueberry smoothie.

After lunch we returned home down I-95 and luckily managed to avoid all the holiday traffic! A perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Here is a video clip of some of the highlights:

It’s been a busy few weeks, the Subaru broke beyond economical repair so we had to buy a new one (a 2006 Subaru Outback). I got a job, nice and local, very similar to what I was doing in the UK. We are also looking at going away for July 4th weekend and hope to find something nice and affordable. We are also still struggling to get our wedding pictures from our photographer! I am hoping this will all get resolved in the next week or so.

This weekend we are planning to take a trip to Portland. I have not used my camera much this past month so I am itching to get back into photography mode and take some nice photos up in Maine!

Twitpic – I am starting to put some photos up on Twitpic. Twitpic is a great site for posting quick images on twitter. If you dont follow me on twitter then my past images can be found here but the best way to see updates is to follow me on twitter.

That’s all for now. I have promised myself that I will post more regularly from here on in!

I will leave you with an image I took on my work phone two days ago while out for a walk. It shows what is hopefully the last of the snow of the season (yeah right)!

Thursday was my first Thanksgiving Day in America. We travelled to the Keene area of New Hampshire to celebrate with our parents and my wifes’ sister. A great time was had by all! The Thanksgiving meal was fantastic; it included turkey, sausage stuffing, sweet potato, cranberry rolls, vegetables, prosciutto ham, salad, pumpkin bread with cranberry butter and a gorgeous sweet potato pie.

Following the meal we went on a 3 mile walk. We walked to a nearby monument which stands where the house of the mother of a former president used to stand. It was nice to get a stretch of the legs and help the turkey go down!

In the evening we played Clue (Cludo in the UK) until we got tired.

The following day my father and I drove across the border into Massachusetts to do a walk to Royalston Falls which is a 40 foot waterfall. We saw a series of small falls and some wonderful rock formations along the ravine but did not end up seeing the main fall (as we discovered when we got back and read the literature!). While we were in the ravine it snowed a little and transformed the forest into a winter scene. On the walk back to our car I slipped on a cleverly disguised block of ice and fell over! Don’t worry though, the camera around my neck was left undamaged! I landed on my left arm and bruised it a bit though!

For the remainder of the day we drove with the rest of the family to some covered bridges and to the Vermont Country Store, followed by coffee at Burdicks.

I really enjoyed my first Thanksgiving and I am now looking forward to my second!

We spent the rest of the day driving around and visiting various farm/cheese shops. We also visited Alyson’s Orchard to buy some apples. Later on we also went to Bellows Falls, VT and purchased a ticket for the scenic train ride to Chester for tomorrow morning.

When we got home we went for a little walk and discovered a frightened looking racoon at the back of the garage!

On Sunday we made our way back to Bellows Falls railway station for our scenic train ride up to Chester, VT. It was a perfect day for weather and the scenery from the train was spectacular. The train travels along the Connecticut and Williams rivers and provides views of the Brockway Mills Gorge including two covered bridges and a waterfall.
Below is a video and some pictures from the journey.

Following the scenic train ride we had a Chinese buffet and then returned to the house for a 4 mile walk through the woods exploring old cellar holes and hoping for a glimpse of some deer. The trees lining the walk were very pretty. We saw deer tracks but no deer on this occasion.

On Monday (Columbus Day) we headed back to the seacoast area.