New England 10/5 Mount Desert Island

Bar Harbor is located on the largest island on the coast of Maine. French explorer Champlain called it "Ile des Monts Deserts" or "Island of the Bare Mountains" because the mountains on the island are bare rock. It is known now as "Mount Desert Island", or MDI. There are 5 harbors on the island: Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Southwest Harbor, and Bass Harbor. Bar Harbor is the most famous.

On Saturday we drove around the island to get familiar with it. After lunch, Poppa got to know someone else's dinner:




Have you heard about the government shutdown? One of the things affected is the National Park Service. Unfortunately, one of the biggest attractions on MDI is Acadia National Park. Perhaps the most frequently taken tourist photograph this week is of the Park Closed" signs:




So far, the closing of the park consists of putting up roadblocks and signs at the many entrances. People just park outside and walk in. Maybe the shutdown is just the government's way to get Americans to exercise more. If the park was open, we would have parked at the lighthouse instead of walking half a mile to visit it:



This is the Bass Harbor Head Light, and here is the lighthouse keeper's house:





- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa