Back in Bar Harbor

When you're away from home for so long and have little in the way of scheduled commitments, knowing the day or date largely becomes irrelevant. Even holidays seem unimportant. I should have paid more attention.

Egg Rock Lighthouse at sunrise

At our shipboard briefing before landing in Bar Harbor Tuesday we were told that, in addition to the optional excursion, we could hop on the Island Explorer bus system emanating from the Village Green, which I use during my regular summer visits, to reach all points on Mount Desert Island. My plan was to bus to one of my favorite spots for watching the tide come and go. But the buses stop running immediately after the Columbus Day weekend, the "official" end of the season in Bar Harbor.

If only I had remembered that the Columbus Day weekend was last weekend, not next. My plan to visit my favorite rock and tide pool fizzled when I walked up from the waterfront to the Village Green and saw none of the propane-fueled buses with the L.L. Bean logo, which underwrites the service.

I could hire a taxi or Uber, but none were to be found: passengers from the largest vessel scheduled to call Bar Harbor this year, the Norwegian Escape with 4,270 berths, commandeered the town's limited car services, with another liner (Seabourn Quest, 450 berths) also in port. Of course, all these visitors made the merchants very happy, making the corner of Main and Cottage streets seem like Times Square; autumn's colorful maples and oaks in New England, even on an island where conifers dominate, make for thousands of leaf-peepers.

I wasn't prepared for an 11-mile round trip walk to my favorite spot near Otter Point. So I called Paul Woodfin, who with wife Mary owns Snell House where I've stayed whenever visiting Bar Harbor for the past 15 years. He took time for his day to drive me to my special spot, then picked me up to get me back to town. Many thanks, Paul!

I had sufficient time after Paul dropped me off to stop by the Thirsty Whale, which serves the best fried clams on Mount Desert Island. That, an Allagash White and three hours spent at my favorite place in the world made for a perfect day.

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Greenland Passage

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