The Gratts on Vacation: New England Road Trip: Bar Harbor Days 1-2

The day we drove to Bar Harbor was rainy. We had planned to stop at Portland Head Light, the famous lighthouse in Portland, Maine so I could see it and get the famous picture like this beautiful picture Ben took for me last year.

This is now hanging in my bathroom.

However neither of us could get excited about standing in the rain to see a lighthouse and it would also add an hour to our drive. So we decided to drive straight to Bar Harbor from Jackson which would take a little over four hours.

On the road!

Always on the lookout for moose.

Some of my rainy window pictures. I didn't want to disturb Ben by talking too much so this was how I occupied myself.

We were in Maine pretty quick.

Our first look at our hotel, the Bar Harbor Inn and Resort!

The hotel had a heated pool and a hot tub.

The beautiful Reading Room restaurant where we would have dinner the next night.

So happy the last long drive is over!

We stayed in the Newport Building. This was by far our favorite hotel of the four, and the second cheapest as well.

Our beautiful room! This was the nicest room we had out of all the hotels.

The hotel had a lovely towel animal on our bed.

It was always too cold or rainy to sit on the balcony, but it was nice to have one.

The hotel left us a lovely card and chocolates for our anniversary. We ate the chocolates once we got home and they were so good!

Once settled, we did some exploring around the property.

Ben had the idea to have dinner at the Oasis Bar in the hotel. We knew we would be tired and would not want to go anywhere. This ended up being a great choice!

Our table by the window.

I started with a blueberry martini and Ben had a beer with fresh blueberries.

Ben saw an ad on the bar's website that said "Join us for a blueberry martini and a crab cake." So that is just what I did!

The first of many blueberry martinis.

My crab cake was delicious. I vowed right then that I would only eat seafood while we were in Maine. We finished it off with another Maine staple, blueberry pie. This is the best one we had the whole trip.

After our wonderful dinner, we hit the hot tub before bed!

Our first full day in Bar Harbor was supposed to start with sunrise at Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. But it had rained the day before and was cloudy so we skipped it--we were too tired anyway!

We planned to have a leisurely day walking around Bar Harbor and then ending with our fancy dinner at Reading Room restaurant. We started with our free continental breakfast at the hotel.

Even though they call it "continental breakfast," it was really more like a full breakfast buffet.

They even had oat milk for my cereal and coffee.

We started by walking the Bar Island Path, which is a gravel land bridge connecting the town of Bar Harbor and Bar Island. The bar is only exposed at low tide so you have to consult the tide chart before crossing or risk being stranded.

The first peek of color in Bar Harbor.

Crossing the gravel bar.

From the other side, you can see the gravel bar exposed and people crossing over.

Once you are on Bar Island, you are technically in Acadia National Park.

Views of Bar Harbor from Bar Island.

This is the location of the former home of Jack Perkins who was the only person to ever live on Bar Island. Once he and his wife got older, island life became too hard and they moved to Florida. The national park purchased the 12-acre property and removed most of the structures in 2010.