After Salem we swung by Perkins Cove, in Ogenquit.
This place is small and quaint, and well-known for it's lobster. Obviously, we had to have it!
A whole lobster is plonked in front of you with all the tools. Luckily I had watched a how-to YouTube video, so I attacked it like a pro. Really delicious! If a bit of a faff.
We hit Portland pretty late, around 10pm or so. We still headed to the waterfront to have a look around, as we were leaving first thing next morning. A bigger town for these parts, with a lovely harbour and lots of cafes and restaurants and ice cream places. (Blimey, Mainers LOVE their homemade ice cream)
Next day we headed to Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park. The drive is beautiful, looking a lot like Canada, which makes sense when you think about it. Lots of crystal lakes and pine trees.
We stopped off in Augusta for a leg-stretch, seeing as its the capital of Maine. Not only is it pretty small, but very run-down and near-empty. Most of the shops on Main St were boarded up, with no one about. Pretty desolate and sad. Home to a great club sandwich though, in a small locals' diner where the proprietoress was very chatty, with a strong Mayor Quimby-esque accent.
After a long drive we arrived on the island early evening and headed down to Bar Harbour. (bah habah in localspeak) A really lovely town, very picturesque. At low tide, twice a day, a sand bar emerges, creating a walkway between the town and a small forested island half a mile away. Great for some rockpooling.
The mountain on the island is a big one, and has spectacular views. We also then drove around the whole park, stopping off to see natural beaches, wildlife and so on.
Very early next morning we took a boat waaaay out into the ocean to go whale spotting. It was an incredibly foogy morning, you couldn't see one end of the harbour from the other! After an hour of sailing out in glacial waters it cleared up enough for us to spot thin-back whales and humpback whales. An incredible experience.
When back on land we needed to warm our bones, so clam chowder then on the road back to Massachusetts.
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