Day 23 - An Island and a Lighthouse

Friday, June 22, 2018
Posted from: Smuggler's Den Campground - Southwest Harbor, Maine
Miles Driven: 71
Total Miles: 3,216

Today is off to a good start! Camping doughnut day is always a good day.

Having an outdoor kitchen/cooking set up is a must for these messy powdered sugar creations.

Hot off the stove!

Dipping in powdered sugar

A big pile of doughnuts. We didn’t finish them all, but we made a big dent.

Grace enjoyed trying to take pictures of me in my ball cap.

I woke up earlier than the others and managed to get eight loads of laundry and the dishes done by 10:00 am. This may be the last time we do laundry on this trip (she said with hope filled eyes). 

We took off to the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. This was a pretty lighthouse. We could walk down to it but not in it. A Coast Guard family lived in the lighthouse, which was kind of interesting to think about growing up in a lighthouse. 

These roses filled the air with a really sweet smell. 

Based on the tide schedule we saw yesterday, it looked like it was currently in low tide. The kids had really wanted to drive into Bar Harbor to walk across to Bar Island during low tide. 

All of the sand and rocks in the picture below are only exposed during low tide. Cameron demonstrated his strength by picking up a large piece of drift wood and referring to it as his walking stick.

Caleb had to try it out too.

The water is clear and was rising very slowly by the time we got there. They tell you to be off the island 1.5 hours after the end of low tide which was at 1:45 pm. It was currently 2:15 pm. 

The signs asked that you not stack or move the rocks. Clearly people have trouble reading. The boys were inspecting the peace sign someone had made. 

Um, so, yeah. Don’t lose track of time! The bolt is blocking it, but the price is $150...per person. That’s a vacation budget killer! 

Oh and if the park dispatch has to come get you...you have a significant fine and legal problems.

We are standing on the island. Bar Harbor is behind us. It is hard to see in the picture, but the water had visibly come up at this point. Some of the areas we were walking are now under water. 

One of our big goals today was to go to a lobster pound. These are casual locations where you usually pick out your lobster and order at a window then sit on picnic tables to eat. Second to cooking one yourself (nope) it is the least expensive way to enjoy lobster. We found one close to the campground and on the water called Beal’s Pier Lobster Pound. 

We arrived at 3:30 pm in hopes that no one else would be in line since we had no idea what we were doing. They were awesome and walked us through the process and what to pick. They even let us bring a packed lunch that we had brought for Caleb (no seafood for this kid). And they had a good craft beer selection. Matt tried something called Lobster Beer. (No it didn’t have lobsters in it, but it was supposed to go well with lobster.) He thought it was good. Cam had some local root beer. 

Lobster!! We shared two and ordered a lobster grilled cheese sandwich...really good and really filling. Three of us shared the sandwich. 

This interesting gentleman joined us. Cameron found this hat and chose it as his trip souvenir. 

This was a fun experience. We are not used to lobster, so a little goes a long way for us. We got of our fill of lobster. 

Nice view of the pier where we ate. We could watch them bringing in boats with their catch while we ate. 

Time to swim again! 

We ended the evening with a nice fire. Cameron made us popcorn over the fire. It was so good! 

We also enjoyed s’mores...well some of us did. I was lovingly browning one for Matt and I (it is our anniversary eve after all), when mine caught on fire. Oops. 

We did a lot today, but we like how close everything is. Nothing is more than 20 minutes from the campground, which is a big difference from the hour or two it took to get into the last few cities. A very welcome change!!