Saturday, June 22, 2013

June 22 – Bass Harbor


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Today was sort of a gloomy when we got up and the forecast called for rain in the afternoon. We decided to do a road trip to a bunch of short things so we could dash back to the car if it rained. As it turned out it only sprinkled twice for about about 5 minutes and we even had some nice sunny periods.

It is going to be a post with a lot more rugged coastline pictures because those are our favourite spots.

Our first stop was called The Wild Gardens of Acadia. I saw garden in the name and thought we might see some nice flowers. It was  actually a labelled garden of all the wild plants in the park. It was interesting but Jennie already knew a lot of them. We moved on.

We made our way around the Park Loop Road and stopped at Otter Point to do the last little bit of the Ocean Path that we had missed on Tuesday.  We had stopped on the eastern part of the point. The trail continues along the end to the western tip.

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From the path along the road we climbed down some steep stone steps to get closer to the water.

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We saw a rock off in the distance throwing off some big spray.

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So we continued on for a closer look.

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The waves came in sets. A long lull and then a few big ones with big crashing spray.

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The view around the end of the point.

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On our way to the next stop we passed under one of the bigger carriage road bridges. It is actually curved. I’ll get a better picture when we bike over it.

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Next was the Asticou Azalea Garden. We were a bit late for the azaleas.

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But it was a very nice Japanese garden to just wander around.

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It started to rain just a bit while we were here but it just seemed to add to the ambiance.

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We decided to go out for lunch today since we hadn’t been to a restaurant in a while. I had read in someone’s blog that a good place for chowder was the Seafood Ketch in Bass Harbor. We started out on the balcony overlooking the harbour.

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It was a real working harbour. Not a tour boat in sight.

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It started to rain and it was a bit cold so we moved inside. The food was very good but a bit pricey.

I overheard one weird thing a the next table. One lady had wanted a BLT but didn’t want white bread which is all they had today. She ordered it anyway and just didn’t eat the bread. Initially the waitress came back and said the owner had deducted the sandwich from the bill. The lady said something like “Oh that is nice but you shouldn’t have. The bacon and tomato were very good”. When the waitress came back with the bill, I couldn’t believe it but, she said that because of what the lady had said the owner had put it back on the bill. WOW!

On to the Bass Head Lighthouse. You first go down a small path to get a close up view. It has a red light. The roses smelled great.

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And then there is another path that loops around down to the water for the upward view. No rocky steps here.

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The rocks were very pinkish orange.

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There was no wind and no waves here. It was very peaceful just staring out at the water listening to the occasional ring of a bell on a buoy,

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To work off that very rich lunch we decided to to a short 2 km hike called Ship Harbor Trail. It follows the shore of an inlet out to the ocean. Since it was almost exactly low tide it wasn’t the greatest looking bay.

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There was a gravel bar for Jennie to do some more rock hunting.

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Out at the end there were some long flat sections of rock leading gradually down to the water.

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It was still flat calm so we again sat a while enjoying the peace and quiet. It reminded me of Northern Ontario.

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Heading back to the car and then home.

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