Bike riding in Bar Harbor

It was a beautiful day for a bike ride in Maine, and Acadia National Park, about 5 miles West from where we docked is the place to take your rental out and put it through it's paces. We paid $15 each for our bikes because as is usual on our days ashore, one of us, this time it was Eric, had a rehearsal until noon, leaving us only a few hours to spare when you take into account the tender ride (here demonstrated by Eric, Duncan and the new trumpet-player Josh) and all-aboard at 4pm.

We turned from the Bar Harbor Bike Shop and onto Duck Brook Road, crossing a bridge after about a mile with gorgeous views of the turning leaves. Here we are on the bridge with our nice orange bikes. See, I had a difficult angle while I was setting the timer. We didn't really need to bend down, I see that now.

Here's our map. Our plan (which we executed perfectly, I-ah thankyou!) was to bike the 6 mile loop around Eagle Lake and take in the Port Description's write-up of the park: 'a wild, unspoiled paradise...John D. Rockefeller considered it one of the great views of the world.' There were signposts too, like these ones, and I instantly fall in love with names like Cadillac Mountain, Witch Hole Pond, Paradise Harbor, Aunty Betty Pond, The Tarn and Bubble Pond.

We talked about our favourite TV painter (come to think of it, I guess he's the only TV painter I know of!) Bob something-or-other, whom we both used to watch regularly as kids. He'd paint landscapes of trees, always calling them "Happy Little Trees", and describing the paints he was using and how he'd tap his brush to get the right effect. You were of course supposed to buy his paint-set and paint along with him, but his paints were never just called white, or light green. They had names like green ochre and titanium white.

If I were Bob, what would I have called these colours in my Happy Little Tree painting?

Sorrento Lime?

Tuscan sunset?

Honey-mustard?

Terracotta orange?


Cabernet Sauvignon?


I love taking pictures while biking, I like the motion you can see in the foreground of this picture. Then I swapped camera duty with Eric and realised he liked taking pics while riding his bike too (sorry Mum, I didn't wear a helmet, but look, I did wear gloves, a hat AND a scarf!)

We also saw some Tandem Bikers. The tandem I like. The fluorescent matching get-ups, in broad daylight, I do not.



When we got to the tip of Eagle Lake we took a pause for the cause, because the ride had contained more uphill sections than we'd anticipated. Quite frankly I was cream-crackered. It was serene and beautiful. Although I couldn't catch them in a shot, we saw Kingfishers too.

Just before we left the park, we stopped for another Kodak moment. What a gorgeous place. My man looks awful happy!

For being such a good girl and biking so far, Eric decided to take me for a surprise. By asking him just two questions ("Can I eat it?" and "Will the food be kind of pinkish?") I was able to deduce that he was taking me for a Lobster Roll! We are in Maine after all.

On our walk there, we encountered this woman, wearing these purple tie-dye effect tights. Lady, I salute you!

We went to the Lobster Claw, on 54 West St. The owner can do your lobster roll four ways, as you can see. I went for the butter version, meaning they serve you just the fresh lobster in a toasted roll with lettuce and home-made potato-chips, but you get a tub of melted butter for dipping, which I thought was well-deserved after my bike work-out, AND still better than the mayo option.

Mmmm....

I love this picture, check out the shadow: Chow Down, Eric!

It was so good, that having bought it for me Eric was keen to ask after my bread if I wasn't going to eat it (needless to say he was given short shrift for not giving a girl time enough to eat her lunch before jumping onto her plate) because we were given so much lobster in relation to carbs. The sign of a good sandwich, and a hungry boyfriend.