Adventures in Wandaland: Bah Hahbah (or at least that's how they pronounce it)

Bar Harbor was a port we had to use tenders (smaller boats) rather than parking (!) right at the dock.

Usually that can result in long lines, but things moved very quickly and we proceeded directly to the tour Mark had scheduled for us: a Lobster Boat.

This proved to be a wonderful two hours out with a knowledgeable, funny guide.

Lobster traps on the dock before we went out:

A little bit of lobster humor on the side of the boat:

We learned all about lobster fishing, the anatomy of lobsters, laws and conservation regarding lobsters and fishing. He pulled up a couple of traps, the first one there weren't any lobsters, but the second one yielded three. The scenery was quite beautiful:

and we had a good vantage point to take pictures of our ship:

We also went out by the lighthouse and learned about the different kind of seals off the coast of Maine and saw some as well as a bald eagle.

We learned about the many wealthy families with houses in the area. The Campbell's soup guy owns this house, but is only there a couple of weeks a year.

Martha Stewart also has a place at Bar Harbor. Her place is surrounded by trees and is a bit inland, but this house was on the shoreline:

Because of the bad weather, they weren't sure we were going to be able to go out, but I am very glad we did. After our tour we grabbed lunch at a nearby restaurant and had.... you guessed it, lobster!

We also had some delicious seafood chowder and warm blueberry pie with ice cream. Maine is famous for their blueberries and blueberry products: jam, pie, muffins. After lunch we met up with two other couples who were sharing the cost of a tour guide with a mini-van. Both couples are from the Chicago area, Kathy & Dan, Carol & Ron. Dan and Carol are quite funny and have Chicago accents. Their spouses are more quiet. We drove around the island seeing the sights. The first place we stopped was a visitors' center with a map of the area, which was helpful for us:

Unfortunately, it was so overcast and foggy on top of Cadillac Mountain that we couldn't see the views that were supposed to be beautiful. We saw a lot of cyclists riding the roads that criss cross the area, even as the rain came pouring down. J. D. Rockefeller bought up a ton of the land and donated it to the government after creating or maintaining the "carriage trails" which are used today for hiking or mountain-biking. Where the trails cross the main road he built carriage houses.

Bar Harbor was the place for the wealthy to escape the summer heat and humidity in the New York/Boston area in the early 1900s and I suppose it still is today. We also learned that the island that Bar Harbor is on is largely granite. Sand Beach was a lovely inlet that our guide told us was not really sand, but ground up granite.