After driving the Kancamagus Highway and stopping at the Rocky Gorge, we continued our 5 hour drive into Maine. About 3 hours in, Kaley found a little seafood restaurant in the town of Belfast, ME called Harborwalk. We had lunch and about 30 minutes later, came upon the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. 

We continued our remaining 90 minute drive into the town of Bar Harbor. Funny how you choose a place to stay online with mostly good reviews and then check in, only to find out the place is uninhabitable. Yes, that happened to us in a motel in Bar Harbor. We found the last room that night at the Bar Harbor Hampton Inn and proceeded to book it for 2 nights. Long story short, we checked out of the motel around 10 pm on the first night and checked into the Hampton (which we highly recommend)! The first night we had an ocean view and were able to see the sunrise the next morning (both photos from my cell phone through the window). The following night we had to switch rooms, but we had a beautiful mountain view and could still see a sliver of the ocean. 

Before we had checked out of the motel, we did walk a few blocks to town and ate dinner at Geddy's. Bar Harbor was very crowded, which made it a little less fun to walk around in and shop at. 

We spent our entire 5th day at Acadia National Park. I had visited before with a friend back in 2010, so I had a pretty good idea of what we should spend our time doing. We drove the loop road starting around 8 am, before the majority of the overcrowding started. We stopped at Thunder Hole, had lunch at Jordan Pond House, explored a little around Jordan Pond and then hiked Bubble Rock. 

Our tickets for sunset on Cadilac Mountain weren't until 5 pm, so we left the park and drove about 30 minutes over to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse over in Tremont. There was a line of cars to get into the parking lot, which is very small. It was remarkably orderly though and as one car left, another would park. I think we waited about 20 minutes or so to finally park and get out to explore. Traversing the rocks 12 years after visiting the first time was really something. There were too many people there, but I did my best to capture the moment.

From the lighthouse, we headed back to town to eat. Decided not to go back to Bar Harbor, so Kaley found us another great restaurant called Jack Russel's Steakhouse and Brewery. We made it to Cadilac Mountain and drove to the summit - all 1,530 feet of it! It doesn't compare to Mt. Washington in NH, but from the summit, you can see for miles. We had amazing weather up there and explored for about 2 hours. Stayed until after the sun set and were rewarded with some amazing color.

On our last full day, we made the long drive back to NH. We chose to stay overnight in Nashua to be only 15 minutes from the airport. On our way out of Bar Harbor, we drove 3.5 hours over to Cape Elizabeth and had lunch at the Lobster Shack and then drove to the Portland Head Light at Fort Williams Park. We really couldn't have asked for better weather on this entire trip and the lighthouses did not disappoint. The lighthouse seen from the Lobster Shack is sitting at Two Lights State Park. The park's name came from the twin lighthouses located nearby. The other lighthouse below seen from Fort William's Park, sits out in the ocean marking the northern entrance into Portland's outer harbor. It's about a mile out, so I zoomed in. It's called the Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse.

The Lobster Shack Lighthouse at Two Lights Rocky Shore View Portland Head Light Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse Portland Head Light Portland Head Light Portland Head Light Did you make it to the end? Thank you! This concludes the posts about my fall trip. Below is the link to this post's galleries, as well as links to the prior two posts. 

Link to this post galleries:  Maine, Acadia and Lighthouses Galleries

Link to the White Mountains Post: White Mountains Post

Link to the Covered Bridges Post: Covered Bridges Post