Our Acadia

In this my eighth summer on Mount Desert Island, I decided to start exploring some of the smaller islands around MDI.  On a Saturday morning Fred and I took our bikes on the 9 o’clock ferry from Bass Harbor to Swan’s Island.

You wouldn’t like it.

The island is hilly for biking.  There are no restaurants to speak of, only two or three take-out shacks.  And we were told the islanders don’t like cyclists.  That’s why the ferry service charges $16.50 per bicycle, in addition to $17.50 per passenger.

Still, you might like the ferry trip.  Packed in with some pick-ups, a lobster bait truck, and a few SUVs loaded with kayaks and vacation gear, we spent the 40-minute crossing both on deck and above, marveling at Acadia’s mountains as they became more and more distant, then turning our attention to Swan’s as it emerged to the south.  Ferry rides are exciting, and this one passed quickly.

Then we arrived, and something surprising happened.  Every time we pedaled past a motorist, he waved.  Sometimes it was a full-fledged wave, sometimes merely a finger off the steering wheel.  But it was nearly universal.

We biked past freshly painted white Victorian farmhouses and the Methodist Church (1891) on our way to our first destination: the Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse on Hockamock Head.  It marks the entrance to Burnt Coat Harbor, a curious name that seems to have come from the explorer Samuel de Champlain, who in 1604 called the island Brule-Cote or “Burnt Coast.”

(Speaking of the origin of place names, don’t look for swans on Swan’s Island.  It’s named after James Swan, one of the Sons of Liberty and participant in the Boston Party, who purchased the island in 1786.)

The Burnt Coat light station, built in 1872, was operated manually until 1974 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  The lighthouse and the keeper’s house are pristine white forms, topped in black and red, handsome geometry straight out of a Hopper painting.

A man on the ferry had kindly mentioned to us that there’s a hiking path at the top of the hill leading down to the lighthouse.  We found it past a huge outcropping of raspberry bushes and followed it among moss-covered boulders and stunning silvery birches down to Burnt Coat Harbor.  And there was the second surprise of the day, a lobster pound.

You’re thinking, “She said there were no restaurants.”  Such lobster pounds (aka lobster shacks) derive their name from the holding tanks where restaurateurs keep the live lobsters.  But this lobster pound in Burnt Coat Harbor, created by wood fencing and pilings with netting, is where lobstermen hold their catch until pricing is favorable for them to bring it to market.  It wasn’t in use, perhaps reflecting the low price of lobster.

This focus on lobster made us hungry.  We biked back past the Post Office, the busiest spot on the island from what I could see. During the 2000 Census, the population of Swan’s Island was 327, and a good percentage of them seemed to be at the Post Office on Saturday morning.  We headed to the Carrying Place, a beautiful narrow spit of land between Toothacher Cove and Back Cove, so named because it is where the Indians carried their canoes from one body of water to the next.  At the Carrying Place Take-out (40 North Road, 526-4043) we ate lobster rolls and curly French Fries at a picnic table beside a meadow.  (They had a Shrimp Basket with French Fries for $10.35, a Clam Basket for $13.95, and an entire lobster dinner for $10.95, not surprising considering the island’s primary industry.)  Then we headed for Sand Beach.

There’s also a Sand Beach on Mount Desert Island and, as beach lovers, we recognize that “sand” is a relative term when it comes to the coast of Maine.  We were somewhat skeptical.  We cycled north on the paved road 0.4 mile and took the second gravel road on the left.  Over several hills and around bends, we pedaled another 0.7 mile, whirling in dust as a couple of cars passed on the loose gravel.  We stopped where four or five cars were parked and took another left almost missing a rather unpretentious sign to the beach.  We walked another half mile on a pine-needle path, sporadically overtaken by roots or mud. 

When we emerged, it was paradise. 

We discovered a perfect crescent of fine sand beach with only a few appreciative people playing lacrosse and building sandcastles with their children.  It looked more like the Caribbean than Maine.  We waded in the water, quite warm by Maine standards, and sunbathed on towels that had been squeezed into our backpacks.

I had wanted to visit Quarry Pond, from which granite was mined and taken out on ships for cobblestones in major eastern cities.  But we had lingered at the lighthouse and lobster pound and beach.  The last ferry returning to Mount Desert Island was at 4:30pm. 

On the way back I noticed a woman taking in laundry that had been drying all day in the sunshine.  The stretch to the dock seemed longer than when we had arrived.  The fragrance of the rosa rugosa intoxicated us with the idea of finding a B&B for the night, or buying a farmhouse and staying forever.

Thank you to Fred Stern for his help with the photographs for this post. 

In the movies the harried corporate executive buys a B&B in New England, starts a successful mail order business, and lives happily ever after. 

If you have ever visited a B&B on the Maine coast – or plan to this summer – you may wonder if innkeepers’ lives are as sweet as the chocolate-drizzled banana French toast they serve for breakfast.  For one couple, the route to Mount Desert Island, which annually lures over two million visitors to Acadia National Park, had as many switchbacks as a park hiking trail.

Alan Feuer, who today owns Ann’s Point Inn on Bass Harbor, says, “I taught computer science at Northeastern and ran a company that offers specialized search engines.  My wife Jeannette worked at the Museum of Science in Boston.  When our youngest finished college, we decided it was time to sell our 120-year-old Victorian in the city and try something different.” 

The couple commenced a nationwide search to meet an exacting set of standards for a property.  According to Alan, they wanted a spectacular setting in an interesting community with high-quality amenities like excellent grocers and restaurants.  Because they had already had an old house in Boston, they decided to look for a property of contemporary design and construction.  They focused on inns with fewer than five rooms so that they could really meet their guests.  And they wanted a seasonal enterprise that would give them time to themselves. 

The search for the ideal property took the Feuers to the central California coast, the Southwest, islands off the Southeast, and Cape Cod.  They spent a year looking, then they saw Ann’s Point Inn on Mount Desert Island.  

Sitting on two acres at the end of a peninsula on Bass Harbor, this lovely B&B had four luxurious guest rooms with water views, an indoor heated pool, a Finnish sauna, a jet-filled hot tub, and nearly 700 feet of private shoreline.  And there wasn’t a fussy Victorian wreath or lace pillow in sight.

 Not only did it meet all of their criteria, but, as Alan said, “MDI had always been in the back of our minds.  We’d been going there on and off for 30 years.  Acadia is one of our favorite places.” 

Finding the property was only the beginning.  Alan’s dream was “luxury with a low-carbon footprint.”  That meant adding a solar pool heater and 3500 watts of electricity generation using solar panels.  They also redesigned their central courtyard and built three new decks and patios. 

The Feuers approached innkeeping with confidence because they’d always done a lot of entertaining.  Alan hooked up a Quickmill espresso machine to perfect his cappucino technique.  Jeannette began preparing breakfast not once, but three times a day to test recipes. 

Foodies flock to Mount Desert Island because of its inventive restaurants that focus on seasonal ingredients, seafood, and local produce. Jeannette started experimenting with some of these for her three-course breakfasts, which include herbs and produce from her garden as well as local eggs and seafood. Alan has added a refreshment hour in the late afternoon featuring Seal Cove goat cheese, a favorite mead from Bartlett Winery he pairs with roasted apricots, and honey ale from Atlantic Brewing.   

Does Ann’s Point Inn attract any particular type of visitor?  “Many are celebrating some special occasion.  That puts them in a wonderful state-of-mind.  I think everyone is enchanted by the beauty of the island. Hiking, kayaking, and eating lobster are among the most popular activities.” 

With satisfied guests and the perfect setting, it seems the one final element of the equation for innkeeper happiness is the mail order business.  “I still run the search engine business that I started in Boston,” Alan grins, “I guess that qualifies as Web mail order.”

To learn more about things to do in Acadia National Park and the best times to visit Mount Desert Island, visit OUR ACADIA.

Children can have a great time with their parents even if it’s raining in Acadia National Park.  While this kind of weather rules out whale watching, there are touch tanks and an oceanarium, a movie house that serves pizza during the show, and welcoming libraries and picturesque bookstores with waterfront reading areas. Take a look at my recent post for more ideas on what to do with kids if it rains.

This post, however, is for adults.

A book and a nap are high on my list of activities for a rainy day.  Working with that as a theme, here are three options for things to do that surely will get you in a Gene Kelly kind of mood.

1. Taste some of Maine’s best micro-brews.  Bar Harbor Brewing offers tastings of its award-winning ales and stouts at its brewery and storefront, now conveniently located at 8 Mount Desert Street in downtown Bar Harbor.  The day we went Andre Lozano was offering very generous pours to compensate for the fact that their True Blue Blueberry Ale and Bar Harbor Peach Ale were not available.  They only produce 100 cases a week, so many of the brands are in short supply, and they only distribute within 100 miles of Bar Harbor, so this was a treat.  Another day we visited Atlantic Brewing Company in Town Hill, which is in a very pleasant setting and offers tables in a garden for sunny days. Also behind the farmhouse and right next to the brewery is the tiny Knox Road Grill, which really put us in the mood for pulled pork.  Instead, though, we enjoyed an extremely interesting tour of the brewery during which we had the opportunity to smell and taste barley roasted to various depths.  Then we tasted nine different ales and stouts, as well as two sodas.  That brought us to nap time!

2. Relax with a massage.  In fact, Bar Harbor offers world-class services that may well put you into a slumber.  They will certainly help soothe some of your sore muscles from hiking and paddling.  The Bar Harbor Inn beckons you to its spa through a trellis and into a separate building, with a wicker-furnished waiting room overlooking the lawn and Frenchmen’s Bay.  Have some fruit and water before moving to a candle-lit private room (or a couples’ room) for your treatment on a warm massage table – how perfect for a rainy afternoon!  My deep tissue massage was $105.  Another option, in a simpler setting that is appealing in its straightforwardness, is the Tree of Life Day Spa.  It is operated by the owners of the Acadia School of Massage, who also provide treatments themselves on occasion.  Although my therapist exclaimed “You have knots everywhere.  I honestly have never seen so many!” she was able to work many of them out and I was extremely satisfied with the massage, which cost $95

3. Find a new novel.  We headed off the beaten path down to Bass Harbor and Bernard to explore.  This is a great thing to do on a rainy day…or a sunny one if you want to avoid the crowds.  There are a few antique shops in Bernard, but the Old Red Store (129 Bernard Road) was the only one that was open.  It didn’t matter because I found a wonderful old watercolor of loggers loading cargo on to sailing ships for $36 framed, fabulous tote bags made of recycled sail cloth, and very nice stationery.  We then headed over to Port Side, the sister bookstore of Port In A Storm in Somesville, which is also located on the water in an historic building.  I lost myself reading the reviews and recommendations of the staff – a very friendly gesture of this entrepreneurship.  I bought something by Wallace Stegner I hadn’t read, as well as Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods.  We wrapped up the day with a great lobster dinner at Thurston’s before heading home to Somesville.

Of course, a perfectly good option is to just stay in, read, nap, and head out for an early dinner.  Mount Desert Island offers many great eateries from casual to elegant, from lobster pounds to tapas and wine bars.  For reviews of 12 great spots close to Acadia National Park, visit OUR ACADIA. 

Nimbus clouds today?  Let it pour!