Monday, March 5, 2018

Bar Harbor Maine

Bar Harbor Maine was our first stop after technically leaving Canada, and getting back into the US.  Before we left the ship, we had to show our passports to an immigration official, then we could get on one of the lifeboats to be tendered to Bar Harbor.

We were told to be in line at 7:30 for the immigration thing.  We got in line around 7:20.  A big line had already formed.  The line finally moved around 7:45 and we spent a split second showing our passport to the official, he said thank you, then we moved on.  We were walking around Bar Harbor by 8:10.  It was relatively a short, easy process that seemed intimidating at first.

Oh, and the ports of Bar Harbor aren't big enough to accommodate a cruise ship- so they anchor out a bit, and use lifeboats to take you for about a 10 minute ride the last little bit of the way!

I described Bar Harbor to a friend the other day as a "New England Gatlinburg".  There is some great natural beauty here....  but the souvenir shops have popped up around it for sure!

Most of those shops are pretty tasteful though, and you can still enjoy a lot of the natural wonders in an undistracted way.


We were actually in Bar Harbor over a decade ago, on one of our road trips through New England.  It was a very foggy and rainy day back then though, and we really weren't able to enjoy the area to its fullest.

We did go into several shops here, and I do want to say that we LOVED a couple...

Sherman's, the oldest bookstore in Maine is here!
http://www.shermans.com/
They have a great selection of local gifts, and local books. 

We also ended up spending a good amount of time at Coffee Hound Coffee Bar.  They had some nice drinks, and the place was very pleasant.  We got a couple of coffees and took a seat.  While we were there, we noticed that a LOT of people came in to ask about wi-fi.  Most made no purchases, and a number of them were a bit stiff when asking (no "thank you" or "I appreciate the help").  Anyway, the staff here still politely told each person where to go to try to get wi-fi, and they treated each person asking just as politely as they treated people who actually made a purchase!

The whole area is nice and this is another place I hope to get back to again.










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