Maine, part 2

Here's the rest of the recap of our Maine trip:

Day 5: Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor
This was the farthest north we drove. It took about two hours to get to the park from our cottage. We were a little burned out on hiking, so we took advantage of the Park Road and drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain. More great views, even though it was a little cloudy.

We drove back down the park road and stopped at Jordan Pond. It is a freshwater lake that is incredibly clear. It was beautiful, and there is a restaurant right by it. We headed up there for lunch, and it was one of our favorites. The view alone put it up there pretty high, but the food was great. They serve popovers (big, hollow muffin-type things), and J had really good crab cakes. I had a veggie panini that hit the spot.

We had hoped to rent bikes and ride in the park a bit, but the bike rentals are all in Bar Harbor and logistically and time-wise we couldn't make it work. But we headed down to Bar Harbor. We explored the town and walked along a trail on the coastline. Bar Harbor was the only repeat place for me (I visited when I was 9), and it was familiar. We also found the big sandbar that takes you over to a wooded island. We only walked across the sandbar and didn't explore the island, but it was pretty cool. We got some ice cream and visited some shops before heading south. We stopped in Rockland for dinner.

Day 6: Wiscassett and Boothbay
On Friday, we only really had one thing we wanted to do. In Thomaston, at the turn to get to our cottage, there was a place called the Maine State Prison Store. It was a really cool store, full of things made by prisoners. There was beautiful wood furniture, model ships, wooden toys and even a Shawshank T-shirt that J got.

After that we decided to head south on Route 1 since we had only gone north in our daily trips. We did drive up Route 1 as we came up from Boston but didn't stop along the way. J remembered a town named Wiscasset, so we went there first. We wandered around the town and docks, and we noticed that all of the restaurants were dead but there was a huge line around this shack. We figured that must be the place to eat. It was called Red's Eats, and it had these huge lobster rolls. They were amazing, and apparently, this place is famous for them. The nice thing about a lobster roll is you get all the lobster without all the work. There were also amazing onion rings.

When we were done eating, J handed me the keys, and I got pick our next stop. I headed back north and pulled off to Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor. It was graduation day at the high school, so there was some traffic to get through, but we enjoyed walking around the harbor and the shops there. We headed back to the cottage and got ready for a nice dinner out. The woman that owns the cottage recommended Primos in Rockland. It was a really nice restaurant set up in an old house. It was a neat place to go, but it wasn't our best meal of the week.

Day 7: Boston
We flew in and out of Boston, and we decided to spend a day and night in Boston before flying back to St. Louis. We got up early Saturday to hit the road. We turned our car in and got travel passes for the subway. Then we took off for the Freedom Trail. We didn't make every stop on it, but we walked the whole thing. The highlight was Paul Revere's house, where an actor was playing Paul Revere and telling his story.

Once we got to the end, we took a water taxi across the Charles River. We took the subway out to Harvard for the classic picture there.

We didn't get to the library before it closed, but we walked around the area and sat outside a church. We also happened upon a memorial for the Boston Marathon. My parents had recommended a restaurant, Giacomo's, and that turned out to be our best meal. We both had lobster ravioli that was incredible. And then we headed back to an airport hotel to get some sleep before an early morning flight home.