Acadia Day 4

 We were hopeful that the majority of the crowds would be heading home Memorial day and after another incredible breakfast we headed into Acadia to hike around Jordan Pond & The Bubbles (a cute name for a pair of rounded mountains at one end of Jordan Pond).  It was much, much cooler and while still fairly crowded we didn't feel like it was nearly as crowded as Sunday. 

the Bubbles; viewed from the opposite side of the lake

We made it the majority of the way up the Bubbles trail but the path turned nearly vertical at the top and I just started feeling really uncomfortable- so we turned around and headed back down the lake loop to the Bubbles Divide trail and we easily made it to the summit of South Bubble from there.  We never made it to North Bubble and I'm betting it's because we essentially hiked South Bubble twice and were pretty tired!

Lots and lots of rock scrambling on this trail! 

So close to the top!

My husband climbed up this to scope out the rest of the trail; I did climb onto these small rocks and stick my head up only to see a sheer rock face on the side of me... that's when we turned around and hiked back down. 

While much easier the second climb (up the Bubbles Divide path) was also pretty rocky and my knees and hip were hurting so bad by the time we made it to the top.

Turns out there is a parking lot right near the Bubble divide path (near the top; not the bottom where we hiked from) and it's supposed to be a fairly easy hike to both summits from there!)

Once back on the lake loop path; we still had nearly 1/2 of the lake to walk around. 

We finished up our Jordan Pond loop trail and ended at the Jordan Pond House for a delicious lunch.  We were told we had to try the famous popovers so we each ordered a sandwich and knew we wanted to split the popover sundae complete with ice cream and hot fudge! 

we both tried the blueberry lemonade

My husband ordered the bison meatloaf sandwich

I got a BLTT (BLT with turkey)

We picked chocolate ice cream and chocolate sauce for our sundae

View of the pond and the bubbles from Jordan Pond House

After lunch we walked back to the car and decided to drive over to otter point and see if there was any parking.  Turns out there was hardly anyone in that part of the park. We didn't see any otters though. 

We headed back to our B&B mid-afternoon and had some chocolate chip cookies, we settled down to watch TV and I fell asleep waking up around 5. 

I took a shower then changed and we prepared to head into the park.  I had wanted to see Thunder Hole at high tide since supposedly the waves washing into the tunnel are supposed to feel like thunder rumbling and spray up in a big arc.  We were in the park around 6 or so and high tide was scheduled to be at 7 or 7:30. 

FINALLY got my "sign" photo!

I loved hearing the tide coming in; all weekend low tide was in the middle of the day so the water was pretty low everywhere we went and I missed that sound being nice and close and loud.

There weren't all that many people around the narrow channel that leads into the small cave so we got up close.  We had the channel/cave on one side and the entire ocean on the other. 

This is the largest the spray every got and really the thunder sound was more like a gurgle.  I bet it's pretty impressive in rough seas but the water was really calm this day.

When the water recedes a bit you can see the cave better

After that we headed back to the B&B for dinner of fresh fruit and granola (that we had brought from home) and then we watched TV until bedtime.

The next morning we ate breakfast and said good-bye to Dora. We were on the road by 9, stopped in York, Maine for lunch at the York River Landing and were home (with a car full of groceries) by 4:30. 

I loved Acadia and our B&B so much that I did not want to leave!  I can't wait to go back... even if my legs were a bit sore for several days after coming home.  

Others in this series:

Acadia: Where we stayed

Acadia Days 1 & 2 

Acadia Day 3

Linking up with: Thinking out loud, Spread the Kindness,