Maine Moments: My Quick Trip Up North and Down East

I’m trying to visit the Top Ten National Parks this summer. I just got back from #7: Acadia National Park, near Bangor, Maine. It was on my list for a while. I went solo because I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to check it off the list. I don’t mind solo travel. Quiet time can be nice sometimes (and needed!).

The lobster’s not bad ;) Abundant apparently. Salt water fish isn’t a thing anymore. We’ve overfished the surrounding ocean, or so a fresh water fisherman tells me. I enjoyed a generous portion of lobster at Eagle’s Nest, on the drive to Mount Desert Island, MDI for short.

I contemplated eating blueberries every day, but I restrained myself. I settled with a single slab of pie a la mode.

I stayed in Bar Harbor. It was off season, so you can find places on the cheap! Bar Harbor was great because the shops and the sea were within walking distance. I didn’t make any purchases. Though I may have pocketed a seashell or two. I definitely had my pick during low tide. Like crustaceans, shells were in abundance…

It seemed like all of the residents knew each other. I observed their interactions at a grocery store and a “downtown” pub. They knew each other’s names and remembered details of various family members. In New York, I’ve not had the privilege of living in such a community. Quite the opposite, in fact.

In New York, you can be as anonymous and invisible as you desire. Even in your own apartment building.

The women (servers and cashiers) were very good at sustaining eye contact. I was not looking at the men. Ha! But that’s another thing that I feel we’re not so accustomed to in the City. Occasionally, our eyes meet with strangers on the street. But that’s usually by chance.

Most of our time in public is spent averting other peoples’ eyes and diverting our gaze. Or closing our eyes altogether. Better to pretend you are sleeping, than to be sitting in a subway staring straight into someone’s crotch.

Two men that I met were — by NY standards — very chatty. The first was a retired architect who moved to Acadia/MDI after decades in Long Island City, Queens. He marveled at how the carriage roads were once the private playgrounds of the Rockefellers. Now anyone can bike or hike those trails to their heart’s content.

The second was the son of a railroad worker, which I found coincidental since the Rockefellers made their fortune through the railroads. Brian, now a 30-something educator, spent his whole life on the island. I guess that means college/university, too? There are a few on the island. He beamed with pride as he explained some of his father’s artwork and handiwork. I used the word “hobby,” but Brian called it his dad’s “mid-life crisis.” I guess we have differing views on art :)

I saw three beautiful M.C. Escher-style prints. They all looked highly professional, and one was HUGE — maybe four feet by four feet. My favorite had the gold-eyed little fishes, peering out at you with their Mona Lisa smiles.

I would go there again. I just don’t know when. Though, next time, I’m not leaving until I meet at least one whale and one puffin!