Oh how I do love myself a good alliteration! It is definitely Fall in Maine. I know my Midwest family experienced unseasonably high temperatures this past weekend, and even though it was in the 70s in Acadia yesterday, that was not the case during our whale watching expedition on Saturday out of Bar Harbor. It was about 55 degrees on the boat and it took me until, what felt like Sunday morning to thaw, and it was worth it!
We just finished our first week in Brewer, ME. A very small town of 9,636 people, Brewer is just across the river from Bangor which is slightly bigger with 31,921 people. We chose to stay in Brewer because of its proximity to Acadia National Park. When we began planning this trip several months ago we were thinking that Acadia would be an incredible place to see the fall colors. We had been to Maine once before and only made it as far as Portland back in 2015. We absolutely loved the landscape and have been wanting to come back ever since.
We had a pretty easy week after the seemingly non-stop sight seeing of Quebec and it has been nice to not feel as much pressure to do that since we’re here for four weeks. After settling in, shipping packages home because I of course brought more than I needed, getting groceries, going to the laundromat and getting my vaccinations, I did manage to get out of town a couple of the days to do some exploring. We have met so many nice people so far who have all graciously given us recommendations for what to see and do while we’re here. My first stop was at Dragonfly Winery in Stetson. One fun fact about that is that the wine is very similar to the wine in MN. This is mainly because of the similar climate and the fact that several of the wineries in this area use the Frontenac grape that was developed at the University of Minnesota, represent!
I also visited Bissell Brothers in Milo and Orono Brewing which is in Orono where the University of Maine is located, and the Orono Bog Trail, which I shared some pictures of below, was absolutely gorgeous and peaceful. One of the things that I was taken with there was this amazing carpet of red sphagnum peat moss that looked like it should be growing under the sea. It is nice that some of the leaves and ferns are beginning to change colors and I can’t wait to go back and do more exploring there as there are several trails in that area.
Saturday we did a whale watching trip out of Bar Harbor. Dave had never been whale watching before, and we had heard they had seen a Sperm whale earlier that week, so we thought we’d give it a try. We were told that it can be at least 10 degrees cooler on the boat so we brought several layers and were still pretty chilly. We just haven’t had a chance to acclimate yet, and like I said above, it was worth it. The first cool thing we saw was a pod of over 30 Atlantic White-Sided dolphins. They were following along with the boat for a while and it was really fun to watch them jump and play in the waves. As we continued on we did get to see one Humpback Whale named Ditto who got pretty close to the boat. Toward the end of the trip we also saw a few Fin back whales but they were pretty far away and we learned that they don’t show their fluke when they dive so they weren’t as easy to see. We also saw several Puffins, Harbor seals and Grey seals along the way as well.
Yesterday was the celebration of life for my friend who passed away. She absolutely loved nature so I knew that I wanted to be somewhere experiencing its beauty in honor of her and nature definitely showed up! It isn’t peak colors yet but you can definitely understand why people say Acadia is one of their favorite parks. The mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees, the mountains, rocks, islands and proximity to water all contribute to the majesty of the park. We’re hoping to go back several times in the next three weeks before we leave. We still need to see Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, Otter’s Cliff and Jordan Pond.
We finished our day yesterday with a walk along the Bar Harbor Shore Path which offered great views of the Porcupine Islands of Bar, Sheep, Burnt, Long and Bald. Our whale watching guide gave us a mnemonic device for how to remember the names in order; if a Sheep is Burnt too Long it will be Bald.
This is truly a gorgeous area and I am so thankful for this extended amount of time here to enjoy and explore it. There is so much to see and to not feel stressed about trying to see it all in one week is truly a gift. We are really working on our “BE” while we’re here and I think we’re off to a good start.
