Maine part 1

We drove up to Ellsworth, Maine this past Friday. It is a long drive, and we made it longer by taking a route that would avoid the majority of city traffic; leaving at 6 in the morning, we didn't arrive until around 9:30 at night. Ellsworth is in the Downeast section of Maine, right near Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor.

Saturday we visited the Atlantic Brewing Company to sample very small quantities of several delicious varieties of beer, root beer and blueberry soda. Afterward we started driving the park loop, which has several park ranger-selected points of interest, including fantastic overlooks and hiking trails of various difficulty. On Sunday, we hiked a moderately difficult trail starting at Sand Beach that wound up at Great Head overlook. Afterward, we had a delicious three-course seafood dinner in Bar Harbor where we were a bit under dressed.

Yesterday, we took the high speed CAT ferry from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. We only stayed the afternoon in Canada, but had a fantastic lunch on the waterfront. Today, we kept the theme water based and rented a kayak and spent a couple of hours on Long Pond. It was just a bit chilly, and we got rained on!

The area is really slow paced with great weather and better food. We tried chevre (a type of goat cheese) that was made right up the road in Lamoine; it is delicious! We also are huge fans of the maple mustard.

We'll have pictures and another update in a couple of days.

-- J & J