Day Nine: Breakfast, Kayaking, & Southwest Harbor

We had to be in Bar Harbor at 9:00, and you should already know that is early for us. And we like breakfast. Simply by luck we stopped in the Coffee Cup Diner in Bar Harbor and struck it big time! Excellent breakfast in under 20 minutes! If you are in Bar Harbor, don't miss it.

Coffee Cup Diner, Bar Harbor

Next we arrived at Acadia Park Kayak Tours. Tip: The parking rules are not enforced in Bar Harbor. We parked in a three-hour spot for nearly 8 hours without a ticket. I was starting to panic that I wouldn't be able to have my camera or phone while kayaking, so I was trying to get the girls to grab a few shots in the parking lot ... they were less than thrilled. 

She looks like she has energy, doesn't she? Don't be fooled.

I really need to get this dual-glasses thing figured out ...

We drove just a couple minutes down the road to Frenchman's Bay. After a brief overview of kayaking that included things like "consider the law of physics before leaning over the edge to explore the ocean bottom with your paddling partner", and "nine times out of ten if you tip, your body will just fall right out of the hole" we were ready. Since we were a party of three and would be kayaking in tandems, one of us needed to find a partner. Oh how I wished the rule wasn't "anyone under 16 must paddle with an adult in their party", because I knew that meant I would get "my-biggest-form-of-exercise-is-changing-an-episode-on-Netflix-Annelies". Paradis ended up with a cute boy from North Carolina. 

Above we are mid-way through the kayaking experience, taking a break on one of the Porcupine Islands. Annelies opted to be in the back and steer when we started. Let's just say she wasn't talking to me while we took our break because we both figured out she can't do two things at once. Therefore she never paddled. 

After a 20 minute break we set back to where we started. This is the best photo I could get of Paradis because her and "Mr. Cute Boy Who Also Helped Paddle" kicked our butts. Well, everyone kicked our butts. I steered on the way back, and quickly realized it wasn't Annelies' inability to do two things at once that slowed us down, it was merely the fact she doesn't like any form of excercise. 

Paradis and Mr. Cute Boy

Here is Annelies. To try and gain some rhythm, we counted out 400 strokes in unison on the way back. This photo was apparently taken when she was doing one of them. In an effort to motivate her I sang "America the Beautiful" as I told her to visualize we were Columbus seeing land for the first time. She didn't find that amusing. 

One of her 400 strokes on the trip

Overall the trip was a lot of fun, and I suspect I'll be milking that story for years to come with her children. The scenery was spectacular, and I have to say the family we met from New Jersey said this was the hardest kayaking they had ever done in their lives.

Regardless, I grabbed a beer with lunch immediately following. 

Post Kayaking Beer

After filling our stomachs, we walked through the shops in Bar Harbor which included another ice cream stop. We drove back to Southwest Harbor (takes about 20 minutes), I dropped off the girls because they were done for the day, and I drove into town. 

I drove to the harbor to check out the boats, and walked through the shops. Southwest Harbor is called "The Quiet Side of Acadia" and I would agree. It is beautiful, but much smaller and quieter than Bar Harbor. Nice to know if you like things quiet.

Southwest Harbor

Southwest Harbor

It was another fantastic day. Tomorrow is August 10th. It is a big day in my life, but I'll let you guess what that is (and of course I'll remind you tomorrow if you forget to text me).

p.s. Dang ... I forgot to get photos of our farmhouse. I'll do that tomorrow. Hopefully. I am on vacation after all.