I'm missing the national parks right now. I want to be in the woods. My parents got to visit two national parks this week while on the west coast, and I am so jealous. Right now, the best thing I can do is reminisce about the parks.
So, day 4 in Acadia National Park. We woke up around 6:30 and tried our hand again at making monkey bread. As previously mentioned in another blog post, the first attempt didn't go so well. This time we decided to cook them over coals instead of an actual fire. This time it went much, much better. They came out tasty and delicious.
There was a 60% chance of rain that day. We had originally planned to rent bikes to bike the carriage roads, but we didn't want to risk getting rained on. So, instead, we decided to risk it and go on a hike. We chose a trail that involved some walking on the carriage roads. We found one that went around the perimeter of Eagle Lake for a little while. We then verged off and took the path to Conners Nubble and then back up the carriage road. It was a great secluded hike. We only saw two other hikers the whole time, which we really like. If you ever want to hike this trail, park at the Bubble Pond parking area. Here are some pictures from this hike.
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Sign for the carriage road. These run throughout a good bit of the
park and are a popular biking destination. |
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| Eagle Lake |
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| You can tell it was a gray day |
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| It was really neat to see all of the low hanging clouds moving in. |
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| Looking towards the woods. |
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It was really clear. If you look closely in this picture, you
can see the rocks and fallen logs in the water. |
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| Water flowing through the woods and down to the lake. |
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| Couds covering the hills. |
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| Moss ready to reproduce. |
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| View from the top of Conners Nubble. |
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| Sign showing we reached the top!! |
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| Several bluets growing along the side of the carriage road. |
After our hike, we headed back to camp to rest just a little and then reheated leftover hobo stew for lunch. We didn't want out day to end there, but they sky looked really overcast. On our drive into the park, we passed an "Oceanarium". We thought it might be an aquarium of some sort, so we decided to check it out.
The Oceanarium is more focused on lobsters, though there are some other sea creatures. There is a lobster hatchery, marsh tour, lobster museum, and touch pool if you pay for the full package. It think it was around $16-$18.00 per adult. It was a little overpriced if you ask me. But it seems they get a steady stream of tourists, so I guess they are doing ok. When you buy tickets, you get a tiny map of the place, with times for you to be at each different location.
Our tour of the place started off with the lobster hatchery. I was excited about this because I read
The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson before we went to Maine. The book is a good mix of scientific information and understanding the life of lobstermen that live on the Cranberry Isles, located off of Mt. Desert Island (where Acadia is). So, they had several lobsters that they were hatching in special containers, as well as females holding eggs, and juvenile "superman" lobsters. It was neat to see all the things I read about in the book. Here are some of those pictures.
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| Female lobster with all of her eggs |
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| Big mamma lobsters |
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| Larval development in lobsters |
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A juvenile lobster. They are called superman lobsters
because they swim forward with there claws out in front of them. |
After we finished checking out the lobster hatchery, we went on the marsh tour. It was grassy and you could see where the water was coming in from the ocean. There were several dead trees that died from the salt water. Here are some pictures of that.
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| Views of the marsh |
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| Examples of tools used by the previous inhabitants of the area |
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| They had sheep in the marsh walk enclosure. Hubby had to pet them. |
After the march tour, we went to the lobster museum. They had a retired lobsterman who would talk how the traps work and size limit. My favorite part of the museum were seeing the lobsters with the pigmentation mutations, since pigmentation is near and dear to my heart because of my PhD dissertation. They also had some odd lobster claws, which were excellent examples of Hox gene mutations. Hox genes help form the linear parts of your body, like making sure each arm bone is in the proper location. There are flies with Hox gene mutations that have legs sticking out of there head instead of antennae. Anyway, I was excited. Here are pictures from that.
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| Calico pigmentation mutant lobster |
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| Lobster with pigmentation mutation that turns it orange |
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| Big lobster!! They had a contest going on to guess its weight. |
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| Examples of mutant lobster claws. |
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Example of lobster with half of its shell one color,
and the other half a different color. |
We didn't stay the whole time for this leg. We went to check out the touch pool, but weren't too enthused. They had sea cucumbers and horse shoe crabs, but that's about it. The only thing my hubby liked was this dried shark head.
Overall, it wasn't a bad visit. We only had one complaint. While they seem extremely well educated on the information on lobsters and marshes, and sea creatures, there were religious undertones. There were several signs and posters with bible quotes scattered throughout the place. Also, someone who was explaining the starfish, which has one eyespot on each arm, say "who knows why the creator did that?". Being a science educator, I strongly believe science and religion should be kept separate. However, it being a private establishment, one can't stop them from running the place as they deem fit.
After we were done, we went to the supermarket and went back to fix dinner. I made cous cous and curry for hubby and I had spaghettios.
Next time, our last day in Acadia National Park :(
