maine guide

We had two stops in Maine, Acadia National Park/Bar Harbor for two days and Portland for one night. The drive from Vermont to Acadia on highway 8 was absolutely gorgeous! It was fall foliage the whole way and winding turns around creeks.

Portland:

Eat at Portland Lobster Co. - this restaurant was a must and hard to miss when you are walking downtown. It juts out all the way to into the marina. We ordered our food outside and ate under heated tents. I had the Caesar salad with wine and Zach had a lobster BLT with one of their local blueberry beers.

Loved that the buzzers to wait for your table were made of lobsters!

Eat at Eventide Oyster! This restaurant came highly recommended. We were told to put our name in a couple hours in advance, but we got lucky and were seated right away. Their clam chowder was amazing and I had fried haddock!

Try to find Lincoln's speakeasy - We were so excited to try and locate this place, and apparently the location is subject to change. We had to push open a bookshelf inside what looked like a therapists office, but once we were in the bar had $5 drinks and a standup comedy show!

Have a cookie at Standard Baking Co.!

I know that it seems like all we did in Maine was eat, but that was our favorite part. We ate breakfast in Portland as soon as we got there at The Holy Donut and enjoyed their delicious iced coffee over coffee iced cubes.

Portland was not small enough that we could walk everywhere, so we ended up driving to some of the locations. We drove out to Cape Elizabeth and walked the coast to explore the light house. There was a family of locals swimming in the water and it was only 48 degrees out!

Acadia National Park

Acadia is located on Mount Desert Island and 80% of the island is the park and the other is the small town of Bar Harbor. As soon as we drove into Acadia we rented a park pass, which is $30 for the week and the park loop road is 27 miles. It is all very well marked and there is a parking lot at each major stop with about 4 hiking trails each off each lot. We hiked:

-Sand Beach - Thunder Hole

-The Beehive

-Gorham Mountain Trail

-The Triad

-Ate at the Jordan Pond House

-Jordan Pond Loop

-We tried 3 times to hike the Bubble Rock trail but the parking lot was full

-Drove to the top of Cadillac mountain and decided with 10% visibility it was a bad idea to come back for sunset

(below) the Beehive Trail before I almost cried

And here is when I started to panic...

The path was straight up a mountain and the rocks were wet and slippery. I didn't mind the part where they had iron rails to hang onto, it was the free rock climbing where one slip and you were dead that freaked me out.

At the top of the Beehive. Luckily, they don't make you go back down and the hike down is super simple.

(below) Jordan Pond

The below pictures show you how crazy it was at the top of Cadillac Mountiain. I kept telling Zach it looked like the fake landscaping of a putt putt course. I can only imagine how pretty the views would be, but below is a completely sunny day. It is just such a high point, and also the first place in the United States that you can see the sunrise.

(below) the Triad Trail

If you are going to hike in Acadia, you have to take a break and eat at the only restaurant, Jordan Pond House. There was quite a wait for a table but we just put our name in and hiked around. Turns out Acadia used to be a place for only the highly rich to visit. They would hike around the beaches and then enjoy a fine lunch of popovers and jam.

We both had popovers, which are a plain pastry that is about the size of a grapefruit but completely hollow. I had the salmon for my main course, which was amazing!

Bar Harbor

The first day we arrived it ended up raining all day and night, but that didn't stop us from walking around Bar Harbor. We stayed on the edge of the town but the whole downtown area is just a couple of blocks and right on the waterfront.

There are so many bed and breakfasts to choose from! This one is the Ivy Manor House, but we didn't stay there because it was over $399 a night.

We ate at Stewman's Lobster and had the Lobster feast!

Where to Stay

In Bar Harbor we stayed at the Grant Hotel. It was perfect walking distance and we loved that breakfast started at 6:30 am so we were able to enjoy complimentary breakfast tacos before a full day of hiking.

In Portland we stayed at the Percy Inn. It was in Portland's historical district and our favorite bed and breakfast.

This was before my giant helping of homemade blueberry pie for breakfast!

If you have any questions about our trip, email me at prettygirlparade@gmail.com