Acadia National Park-Day Three

Well, sorry if I kept in you in suspense. Here we go, day 3 of our Acadia vacation.

We woke up this morning and decided to go shower since on this day we were going whale watching and would be amongst the general public.

Blackwoods Campground does not have its own showers, but there are pay showers right down the road. You can have a hot shower for the low price of $2.00 for 4 minutes (sarcasm). But who cares, we wanted to be clean!!

After our shower, we headed down to Bar Harbor to go on the puffin and whale watching tour we scheduled through Bar Harbor Whale Watching Tours. The tour left nice and early at 8:30 and lasted about 4 hours. We were able to grab a seat on the outside of the boat for the ride. We were dressed in long sleeves, jeans, jackets, and hiking boots, and we still got chilly riding on the outside. So, keep that in mind if you ever want to go on a whale watching tour in Maine in June. Below are some pictures as we were leaving out of the Harbor.

Still docked at the Harbor.

Leaving the Harbor. Some of the inns near the area.

Looking back towards the direction of Acadia National Park.

One of the Porcupine Islands.

Our first stop on the tour was Petit Manan Island.  It is part of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Here, there are several nesting seabirds, including one of my favorites, the puffin. Being a wildlife refuge, we couldn't get terribly close, but lots of the puffins were flying by near the boat. This island is an active research site for scientists who study seabirds, and they will actually live on the island for months at a time. It also had a great lighthouse. Here are pictures of the island.

The house and observation blind for researchers on the island.

That little black speck you see is a puffin flying by.

A ton of sea gulls were around the island.

One of my favorite pictures captured on our trip.

After we got done checking out the island, we headed out to the feeding area for the whales. It was still early in the season, so we didn't expect to see much. But, luckily, we came upon a pair of humpback whales that were feeding together. We also saw a minke whale in the distance. Here are some pictures from that.

One of the humpbacks.

Mist from blow hole of the whale.

Tail fluke.

Both of the humpbacks.

Both whales diving together.

The whales stayed down from anywhere between 6 to 10 minutes and the boat would move back towards them when they surfaced. It was pretty awesome!! This whale watching tour group works with Allied Whale, a marine mammal research group. They keep track of the whales that migrate and feed in the area by identifying them based on their tail flukes. You can adopt a whale for $30 if that is your sort of thing.

It took us about an hour to get back to the dock, so we were just in time for lunch. Since Kelly and I were in Bar Harbor, we decided it was time to try ourselves a lobster roll. We went to Stewman's Lobster Pound. We sat on the deck and had ourselves lobster roll with sweet potato french fries, and a root beer made by a local brewing company. It was delightful!!

The boat we went whale watching on, as viewed from our table at the restaurant.

Lunch!! 

Flowers in flower bed near the harbor.

After lunch, we walked around Bar Harbor for a little bit. We had a piece of blueberry pie before heading back to the campground. 

After a short break at the campground, we decided to to the hike around Jordan Pond. It was a great 3 mile hike that had a lot of people on it. It was just the right distance given the busy morning we had.

Hubby stepping on the stones in the lake.

Fishies!!

Mergansers!!

This cute little red squirrel was so photogenic. 

Beaver dammage.

Really cool to see the tooth marks.

Beaver dam. Sadly, we saw no beaver.

Perfectly formed little holes. I'm guessing created by woodpeckers of some sort.

Me, looking rough.

Had to walk on boardwalks on the second half of the hike.

After our hike, we headed back to camp to fix dinner. It was hot dogs and chili again. Kelly built a fire for us, and we let it burn until about 7:30. Then we left to go drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain to sunset. It was cloudy and cold, so not the best conditions, but it was still pleasant.

After the sun set, we went back to camp and got ready for bed.

Next time, our hike near Eagle Lake.