Our fifth day in Coastal Maine was my birthday, so hubby planned a special day. We started with a foggy morning again, but soon it was clear enough for us to drive the short distance from the Bar Harbor Inn to the trail around Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park.
Jordan Pond is a source of drinking water for the area, and it’s clear in some places to about 45’. No animals or people are allowed in it, and only a certain type of boat can be used in it. We noticed loons in the water and could hear a group of people on the far side of the very large pond, but other than that and the occasional hiker, we were alone in our walk around the entire thing.
We saw traces of beaver activity, and one long section of the path was elevated on Lincoln-log type structures.
All the reservations for Jordan Pond House, which offers yummy popovers, were taken, but visitors can arrive at 10 a.m. when they release more reservations. Hubby got in line at exactly 10 a.m.
We elected to sit on the lawn overlooking the pond. It was quite chilly, and I had ordered a blueberry lemonade to go with my popover. Hubby was so kind to give me sips of his amazing coffee to warm up between bites.
The snack was just enough to sustain us for our next adventure to find some gardens I’d googled nearby. Thuya Garden wasn’t open for the season yet, but an older lady using hiking sticks to come down a steep, terraced hill suggested we go up anyway and ask for a peek. Instead, we went up, pausing periodically to take in the gorgeous views of the harbor below.
Then we visited another little garden in the area, Asticou Azalea Garden, which was very well maintained and positively delightful.
We’d heard about another barred island (not so uniquely named Bar Island) at Bar Harbor. We timed our trip back to town so that we could cross the sandbar at low tide and explore some ruins up top.
The island offers a good view of Bar Harbor. It had just rained, so I used my macro lens on my Canon to capture a few raindrops on some lupines along the trail.
After exploring the island and the ruins, we headed back to town (all this on foot) before the tide came back in, and looked in some shops, an art gallery, and an Episcopal church that boasts some gorgeous Tiffany stained glass.
We were exhausted when we made it back to the Inn. We had 6:30 dinner reservations in the Reading Room, which was lovely. We’re pretty sure our specially reserved table got snatched up by a little lady who was just ahead of us, gushing to the hostess about how she and her husband have come to the Reading Room for every anniversary for the past 35 years. We got called to our table, stopped, and reversed. In spite of that, the view from our new table of Bar Harbor was still quite nice.
It was the very best birthday thanks to hubby, my BFF (he even brought along a wrapped gift from home for me to open)!
I had never felt so happy to elevate my feet that evening. I checked my health app on my phone and confirmed 28K+ steps for the day!
