Day 52 Bar Harbour

We had left Canadian Water and arrived in the USA. This meant when we arrived in the harbour US Border Protection Officers came aboard. All passengers had to take passports and immigration forms to the café area on deck 7 and be processed before going ashore.

As we had a booked tour first up this morning we were in the early grouping to be processed. Bar Harbour has no wharf so once again we were being tendered to the docks.

The tour was a two and half hour drive through some of Acadia National Park. Bar Harbour is on Desert Island (pronounced day ser) of which two thirds is National Park. In the 1800's two well-known artists came to the tiny fishing village and painted several landscapes. These were bought by wealthy art patrons who then decided to make this a summer getaway (avoiding the crowds of Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and Rhode Island).

Here the Rockefeller's and Morgan's and friends set up holiday cottages (what the average person would call a mansion). They saw the value of keeping the area from being overpopulated and hence the formation of a National park.

We went to the top of Cadillac Mountain which is the highest point on the eastern seaboard, therefore the first place in the US to see the sun in the morning. You look down on the islands that dot the harbour. One of these islands is a long island just off from the shore called Bar Island. It received its name because at low tide you can walk from the mainland to the island via an exposed bar.

Acadia National park is very popular as was shown by the number of tourists walking and driving through the park as well as in Bar harbour as well. There are a number of walking tracks in Acadia NP that allow you to obtain a better view of the park.

At the conclusion of tour, we then spent a couple of hours wandering around the streets of Bar Harbour.

Back on the ship it was time to start to pack. Had to have our bags outside our cabin before going to bed.