Acadia and Boothbay – Sep 17

It took about a week to get our RV out of mothballs and get it organized before we left the Islands on September 7th for Maine.  This trip had four notable destinations: Boothbay, Maine, Acadia National Park, Boston, and Connecticut.  We hadn’t been to Maine and wanted to hit it in good weather.

We met up with my cousin Mary Evanofski and her husband Connie in Boothbay.  They bought a little broken down cottage a couple of decades ago and turned it into a summer paradise.  Connie worked a lot of magic to make it happen.  Not only did we have a couple of great meals together with their charming daughters, but they took us on a comprehensive tour through the Boothbay area. The whole area is quintessential Maine, with a picturesque town and fabulous views on every turn. We stopped at a small seafood stand that they particularly like – the lobster rolls were overflowing and we were in gastronomical heaven. As a bonus, we toured the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens which were beautiful.

From Boothbay we headed north to Mount Desert Island where Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor are located.  Our campsite was in a very nice RV park that overlooked the Mt. Desert Narrows.  We found out once school starts in September, all the RVers that aren’t retired are working and not camping.  Consequently, there were no children or adults without gray hair in the park.  Despite the geriatric population content,  when the sun started to set the entire park showed up daily at the water edge with a glass and/or bottle of wine to watch the sun go down.  It was great fun and a major BS fest.

My sister and brother-in-law joined us for 5 days that made the whole thing that much more fun.  We drove and hiked Acadia, had wine lunches in spectacular areas of the park, cooked outstanding food, took a carriage ride through the park, toured Bar Harbor, and consumed a significant amount of quality vino.  The Evanofski’s joined us for a night and we had dinner under the stars.  Mary is a major hiker and she took us on a trail that was pretty challenging.  But, I was a mountain goat -toying with the rocks, a virtual Irish step dancer of the trail.  I was THE man.  Until the next morning, and the morning after that, and….and now three months later I’m healed.  That aside, being in Maine, it was mandatory to stuff ourselves with lobster and other seafood.  We went to the #1 Trip Advisor restaurant in Bar Harbor twice – the Travelin Lobster.  It was a seasonal Lobster stand with only outdoor seating at picnic tables and deserved the ranking.  We went to a couple of excellent restaurants that had indoor seating as well. Acadia NP has a lot of really nice trails and carriage roads (thanks largely to David Rockefeller Jr.) but the real beauty is in the water front.  If you haven’t been there, put it on your bucket list.

We had planned to stay just outside Boston and go explore the old Boston area, but with Hurricane Maria threatening to bring 60 mph winds to our campground, we elected to move off the coast into Connecticut.  Our RV is heavy duty, but we didn’t want to find out if it would hold up to winds like that.  We ended up with an extra RV park move, but managed to commute to Sarah’s and Kelly’s for a few days to catch up with them before heading back to the 1000 Islands.