Acadia National Park

Bar harbor is usually what people think about when they hear “Acadia”, but there is so much more to this place!

Tall, thin pine trees along rugged, rocky coastlines make this a very special place. It’s the idyllic location for a mystery to unfold and for gnomes to hide out in.

We stayed at Seawall campground, nestled in the forest, on what they call the “quietside” of Mount Desert Island.

Funny enough, it is quiet on this side…just they way we like it. Not that Bar Harbor isn’t nice, it’s actually just the kind of simple tourism that we enjoy with its ice cream, taffy and t-shirt shoppes. But in the end, the gems we found were on the quietside, and we are mostly talking about food of course.

Popovers are just about my favorite thing. What’s better than a hot, fluffy pancake-like puff ball!? Jordan’s Pond House is famous in Acadia for their popovers, so we headed there for tea one afternoon after a beautiful walk along the coast. It’s a serious operation…you have to get one of those buzzer things and they buzz you when your table is ready, and there are lots of waiters. The view is quite romantic and we very much enjoyed sitting side by side on the patio while devouring the best popovers and amazing iced tea.

So , yes, Jordan’s has the best popovers but the atmosphere feels a little rushed as they turn over tables like crazy. The Common Good has a totally different philosophy. It’s a donation based kitchen and community center right next to Seawall campground that offers unlimited popovers, oatmeal, tea, juice, coffee and free WiFi. Plus they make there own jams and butter…best blueberry jam and the popovers were just as good as at Jordan’s. Not on,ya that, the people are super friendly and you can sit there all morning enjoying breakfast at a really relaxed pace; on some days they even have hippie native live music. Love, love, love this placed. We went almost everyday and donated lots 🙂

Okay…now let’s talk lobstah! You can’t really go wrong anywhere around here if you are looking for lobster. Here are the places we tried:

Sawyers is a little roadside stop also very close to Seawall that does lobster rolls, fresh lobster, steamers etc. for a good price and with enjoyable outdoor seating.

We had a proper lobster dinner at the well known Thurstons in a small town called Bernard. The lobstah was perfectly cooked and you get to pick out the animal you are going to eat, but you can skip out on getting their “dinner” as it included a weak dinner roll, a corn and a small piece of blueberry cake. Just stick to the seafood!

We also went on a search for some clams of some sort to cook back at our campsite and found Beals in Southwest Harbor. This cute little town has everything you need! Beals prices were better than Thurstons and it just had a cleaner feel to it. We didn’t dine in, instead we left with 1,5 pounds of clams for about $6 and cooked them in beer with garlic and thyme over a campfire.

You can’t come to Maine and not have some pie. We managed to get a Maine blueberry pie from a little shop on Main Street. So, so good…just the way you want pie to be.

More on hikes and nature in the next post…