Road Trip 2011: Day 17 of 20 (Bar Harbor, ME to Utica, NY)

Morning at the Blackwoods Campground in Acadia National Park

More postcards? Awww maaaannnn!

We finally got around to doing some fishing at Bubble Pond (map)

It was really shallow so I went around to the other side of the lake to see if it was deeper and I took these pictures of Helen and the kids across the lake

It was much deeper on my side so I went back and got everyone

It was a beautiful spot on a rock that dropped off to a nice depth, but we weren't having much luck. The water was crystal clear and we could see some fish following our lures but nothing would hit.

We dug around looking for some worms and I finally found a tiny little worm. That was all it took. I put the worm on and casted the line out for Adam. I was moving it a little when this little trout took a bite and Adam reeled him in.

What a beautiful little trout

Bye bye little trout

Beaver house

We drove into Bar Harbor to book a whale watching trip

The whale watching tour was full so after some tears we decided to have lunch at Route 66

We drove back to Acadia to check out Cadillac Mountain

You can see Bar Harbor down below

John D Rockefeller built miles of carriage roads around the park to escape the increasing automobile traffic 

We took a long ride around Eagle Lake

The boys wanted to go back to our spot on Bubble Pond for some more fishing

We looked for some more worms but all we found was this newt and he was too cute to fish with

We had reserved the campsite for another night but decided we needed to make some progress towards Niagra Falls, so we packed up in the early evening and headed out

Bye bye Acadia

Thursday June 16, 2011

Everyone slept pretty well, but there was no hotel breakfast waiting for us. We had some breakfast bars and breakfast drinks and headed out do some fishing.

We drove around some and saw some more beautiful scenery. We eventually decided to fish at Bubble Pond. The area that was most accessible was pretty shallow. The kids started fishing there and I went around the lake to look for a better spot. The other side of the lake was much deeper, but a little tricky to get to.

We had a great spot on a rock with a beautiful view. The water was crystal clear. We tried all kinds of lures and we could see the fish following but none would hit. I started looking for some worms but I could only find one little one. That was all it took. We put the worm on and immediately caught a little trout. He was really a beautiful little fish.

We packed up and headed into Bar Harbor to go on a whale watching tour. There are many places along the northeast coast to do whale watching, but I had passed up those partly because of schedule and because I thought Bar Harbor seemed like the best place for it.

I tried to reserve a whale watching tour spot the previous day, but the place had closed for the day. Also, Helen and the kids were not all that enthusiastic about whale watching. We had been on a lot of boats recently, especially the all day choppy and cold tour of Cape Cod, and the idea of a 3 or 4 hour boat ride didn't sit well. After a little discussion Helen was game, but the kids were digging their heels in.

I tried to make a reservation in the morning, but couldn't get cell service from the campground. On the way into Bar Harbor, the kids were still resisting the whale watching. We had a family discussion about whale watching and I tried to explain that I didn't know what the tour would be like. We might see some whales and we might not. The sea might be choppy or might not be. The whales might be close or they might be far. But, we're here and we'll never know unless we try. I pulled out a flier for the whale watching tour that showed a whale breaching the water and the kids decided it looked pretty cool. After all that, everyone was finally in agreement that they would try it.

It felt good to have the positive energy that comes with everyone being in agreement. We got to the place to book the whale watching tour and I hopped out to make the reservation. I got to the desk and told them what I wanted and they said the tour was full.

I wasn't really that upset. It's what we deserved for dragging our feet. I just wish people would figure things out for themselves instead of wasting everyone else's time and energy, especially when that time and energy is mine. I'm kind of stingy that way.

I walked back to the car and told everyone and the tears started flowing. Helen was especially upset. She had had enough of the kid's bad attitudes and she felt that it had cost her the chance of a lifetime to go whale watching. She was also lamenting the loss of innocence. We had always done things as a close knit unit and it was becoming more apparent, especially during this trip, that those days were gone.

She was not only sad about missing out on whale watching, but also trying to come to grips with the fact that life had changed forever and it was never going to be like it used to be when the kids were younger and they were happy to do whatever we wanted. It hurt...a lot. It was several hours before she felt any better and a day or two before she fully recovered.

We try not to blame the kids because a lot of it is just part of getting older...but it's hard. You know kids can be brats, but that's supposed to be other people's kids...not your own. You start to question the decisions you've made along the way and wonder if you had done things differently...maybe they wouldn't be so ungrateful and difficult to get along with...sometimes.

It took some time to decide what we were going to do next. We decided to have lunch in Bar Harbor. We went to the Route 66 restaurant nearby and it was pretty good, but the mood was still somber.

We drove back to Acadia and drove up to Cadillac Mountain. We hiked down the mountain some and saw some incredible views of the bay below. Then we got our bikes out and went for a long ride around Eagle Lake. The first half was a really nice gradual decline. We stopped at various points to enjoy the scenery. The last half had a number of tough uphill climbs. By the end we were all soaked in sweat and our butts hurt.

We kind of wanted to pack up and get on the road but the boys wanted fish again, so we went back to our spot on Bubble Pond. We didn't find any worms this time and didn't catch anything. The boys found a couple newts and it was still a great place to relax and enjoy the surroundings.

After fishing we went back to the campground and packed up everything. It was almost 14 hours to Niagra Falls and we were hoping to make a reasonable dent in that distance. I try to keep the driving part down on these trips to reasonable distances each day (2-4 hours) and prefer to do the driving at night when everyone can sleep after a long day. This drive was way longer than I would have liked, but we were running out of time.