11 Aug - Acadia National Park Tour, Fabric Store

11 Aug
Today we planned to visit Acadia National Park.  This is it's 100th anniversary, and also the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.  Rather than waiting in line, we were able to purchase our vehicle pass from the comforts of our RV, and print out the vehicle pass that must be displayed on the dashboard.  Then we drove to the Visitor Center at Acadia National Park and caught the 4 Loop bus tour.  This is the route that was recommended.

The buses run about every 15 minutes, so the wait was short, but the first bus was full.  Moments later a "special" bus arrived that had been added to the schedule due to the high traffic volume as we are here during peak tourist season - luck us!!

Our first stop was "Sand Beach".  What is unique about it is beaches are not real prevalent here in Maine.  The coastline is very rocky.   They say that roughly 70% of the sand on this beach is made up of  crushed sea shells, urchins, mussels, periwinkles and other sea life.

The beach was very busy and we shed our socks and Nikes, and walked out into the 50-some degree water.  Yeah!

So there we were, looking over the beach and the beach-goers.  Overhead, routine CAS (close air support) flights of sea gulls patrolled the beach.  All of a sudden a sea gull did a quick touch and go on a beach towel between a young girl and dad.  The gull grabbed a hold of one of their sandwiches which was still in the plastic baggie.  And off he went!  Ah, but not before I snapped a picture of it!  The family and everyone around were flabbergast and it garnered a good laugh from everyone!!

After the beach, we headed back to the bus and the next stop, Thunder Hole.  It is a naturally formed inlet to a small cavern, that emanates a deep sound when waves hit it.  When the wave hits, it collides with the in the cavern forcing it out and creating a thunderous sound.  It also creates huge water splash, sort of like a blow hole.  We were told to see this during high tide, but that did not work out.  It was still quite interesting! 

After Thunder Hole we traveled a short distance to Otter Cliff. It is 110 feet high and it touted as "one of the highest headlands north of Rio de Janeiro".  The view was spectactular, and we could see many sights off the coast that we had seen on our lighthouse tour boat ride.  

Doreen's knee has been giving her fits so we did not want to press the issue with hikes over uneven terrain, so we opted to enjoy the remainder of the tour from the bus.  We plan to drive back into Acadia and to the top of Cadillac Mountain.  If timing works out, there is supposed to be a spectacular sunset view from there.  

On the way back to the RV, Doreen's internal "radar detector" went off and the truck veered to the right and into a fabric store!!  There she scored various theme fabric which she is already envisioning the next quilt, I believe!!

Tomorrow (Friday) is a down day for the most part.  I have an appointment to get the front end alignment checked on the truck as I am noticing some outside edge wear on the front tires.  Doreen will knock out some laundry.  

On the radar is a lumberjack show just down the street from us which takes place every evening.  Also, Doreen is going to try lobster!  Yep, you heard it here first, folks!  I think she will like it.