What do you do when you have a flight credit that expires in December?
Well, you use it, of course!
Maine has been high on my bucket list for a while (I want to hit all 50 states before I am 50 years old). And one of the *only* good things to come from the pandemic are the super cheap flights available right now! It didn’t take too much to convince my parents to tag along (they are my favorite travel buddies & I’m pretty sure they were in need of a weekend away too).
Maine felt like a very safe location to visit, and after seeing how seriously they took precautions, I would absolutely recommend it to anyone. Most restaurants and businesses are open. Masks are required everywhere indoors, you must present a negative Covid test or quarantine for 14 days (unless you’re from a specific state), and restaurants took down names and phone numbers for contact tracing. Overall, I felt like the virus was taken seriously, which as a nurse I appreciate. All this proves that travel CAN be done safely, and Maine is doing it right! Now, on to what we did!
DAY 1
Our plane landed on a Saturday around noon. We immediately headed over to the rental car area to get a vehicle we had rented ahead of time from Expedia with Enterprise. There was basically every major car rental company right there at the airport that you could choose from, so it was very convenient. We actually booked a car, but they were out so they upgraded us to a minivan! At first, I thought it was kinda funny but it ended up being so much more comfortable. I’ve decided I want a minivan everywhere I go now!
After getting our car, we were hungry and needed something to hold us over until supper, so we headed to the Holy Donut. If you ever visit, you MUST try them! There are delicious and made with potatoes, and they have a ton of flavors to choose from too – we all three loved the sweet potato pumpkin spice!
Since we couldn’t check into our hotel until 3 (we stayed at the Holiday Inn; basic, but cheap and did the job just fine), we decided to check out one of the most popular, still working lighthouses in Maine, Portland Head Light! There are many many many lighthouses to choose from to the point where you could probably spend several days just seeing all of them out, but if you can only visit 1, this is where I’d pick. Mainly because there is more stuff to do there. When you arrive, you’ll find a parking lot and pay at a kiosk (only a couple bucks an hour, I would spend at least 2-3 hours here). There is a lot of history in this area since New England was the first colonized part of America. You’ll find old forts, places where they used to fire cannons, etc. There is a walking path along the coast with lots of different viewpoints of the lighthouse as well as the shore, so spend some time taking it all in!
After we left and checked into our hotel, we walked to the pier area for a sunset sailboat ride with Portland Schooner that I had booked ahead of time for $65 a person. Unfortunately, we discovered that this time of year is pretty cloudy and foggy, so we didn’t get to see an actual sunset. However, simply cruising around on an old schooner in the ocean, surrounded by mist and watching different types of birds and seals was still an amazing experience. I do recommend wearing warm clothes and bringing along gloves and a warm hat, because even though it was comfortable on the shore, it was quite cold out on the water. They did a great job of spreading people out on the boat. Masks were required if you were walking around or when the crew members were near you. I loved getting to watch them put the sails up! Our boat was made in 1912, which puts it at 108 years old!
For supper we tried out Luke’s Lobster, which was within walking distance from the pier and our hotel. Prices were very reasonable for location since it was right on the water, and they have both indoor and outdoor seating. My mom and I both got the fried haddock and my dad tried a sampler of lobster, crab, and shrimp. After supper we went right to bed because we had a lot planned the next day!
DAY 2
Originally, our intentions were to drive to Acadia National Park for the opportunity to see what is supposedly the very first sunrise of the day in the U.S. on Cadillac Mountain. Unfortunately, after looking at the forecast, it was pretty evident it would be too cloudy to see anything, so we chose to skip it and sleep in a bit more before we went.
We left Portland around 5-5:30 in the morning and started the 3-hour drive north to a town called Bar Harbor for breakfast, which is right next to Acadia. We had breakfast at a place called Jordan’s Restaurant, which was delicious! They are famous for things made with blueberries, so we made sure to grab some blueberry muffins and blueberry jam. I think the place is a bit overpriced and will say our service wasn’t the best I have ever had, but the food was great and the place had a cute atmosphere!
Bar Harbor is a very walkable town, so we strolled around a bit and picked up some souvenirs. We also walked down to the water and saw the crossing spot for Bar Island which is an island you can actually walk or drive to when the tide is low. We didn’t do this, but maybe next time!
Then we headed into Acadia National Park, which is about a 15-minute drive from town. I had already bought our pass ahead of time since we originally thought we would be coming early in the morning, so we showed it to them at the gate and they let us in. Here is where I bought my pass in case you need one! I got the $30 one, which is good for 7 days.
We started by parking at Sand Beach, one of the few sandy beaches in Maine. Like I said before, Maine is very foggy this time of year, so you could barely see anything. We then chose to do the Ocean Path Trail, which is an easy walking/hiking trail. From Sand Beach, take the stairs that are behind the bathrooms and turn left and you’ll see the sign for the trail.
If you come to Acadia, you must do it! This path had some of the prettiest views I’ve ever seen, with so many outlooks it’s impossible to stop at all of them. You’ll also see Thunder Hole, a cave that has been worn into the cliffs by the ocean that sometimes makes a noise similar to thunder when water rushes in. You can drive the Park Loop if you wanted since the trail follows along the road most of the time, but I think you’d miss a lot and it would be a pain to keep having to park on the side of the road to go check out the view, so I recommend walking it. We visited Sand Beach again before leaving since the fog had mostly cleared by that time.
After getting back to our vehicle we drove a bit more until we found the parking lot to hike to South Bubble, which is a rounded mountain next to Jordan Pond. This was a bit confusing and I’m still not entirely convinced we did the right trail, but nonetheless we ended up at South Bubble and got to see Bubble Rock, so it worked out! Online it says it was supposed to be a 1.2-mile hike, but I think we did more than that. I just typed in South Bubble on my maps and went wherever Siri told me to go!
Bubble Rock is very interesting for a couple reasons. It was somehow deposited perfectly on the edge of a cliff by a glacier a longgg time ago (over 15,000 years!), and no matter how many people try to push it over, it just won’t budge. Apparently entire football teams have tried with no luck, which is a good thing because it makes a cool photo op! They believe this rock was transported by a glacier from a location about 30-40 miles northwest because it is made of Lucerne granite, while the other rocks in the area are primarily Cadillac granite. If it’s not too terribly cloudy, you’ll get a spectacular view from the top of South Bubble of all the fall colors and surrounding lakes. We were a bit early in the season for the full effect of autumn, but I kinda liked the mix of green in with the other colors!
After 2 awesome hikes, we were pretty hungry and worn out so we went back to Bar Harbor for supper. As I said before, Bar Harbor (or “Baa Ha Ba” if you’re from New England) is a cute and very walkable town with so many different restaurants and shops, so definitely spend some time here if you’re in Acadia. We ate at Finback Alehouse, which was good. My mom got haddock again, I got a cheeseburger (can’t help it, I love a good burger!) and my dad got the lobster and crab mac & cheese, which he claims was excellent. We took a look at a couple more souvenir shops and then headed back to Portland. Next time I’m in Maine, I most definitely want to stay in the Bar Harbor area and do more hikes in Acadia!
DAY 3
Since we were flying home this day, we didn’t get to do a whole lot. I had picked Bayside American Café for breakfast ahead of time, which was less than a 10-minute walk from our hotel. It was SO good; if you have a sweet tooth like me, you need their cinnamon bun pancakes in your life ASAP. The restaurant is also super cute and cozy, with excellent prices.
Since my dad and I are scuba divers, we wanted to visit a dive shop in Maine and chat with them to see what their diving was like. We found one called Aqua Diving Academy. I don’t think Maine will be added to my diving bucket list anytime soon (not a fan of cold water!), but it was interesting to talk with them!
We stopped for more souvenirs (I’m addicted to t-shirts, don’t judge me) then went back to the hotel to finish packing up to head to the airport. We had a wonderful weekend and I feel like we really got to hit some of the highlights of Maine! It has earned a spot in my top 3 favorite states, so you should definitely give it a try. If I get to go back, a few things I would like to do are…
- Visit Bar Island
- Take a ferry and explore more of the other smaller islands
- Go whale watching
- Try out lobster fishing
- Go kayaking
- Watch the 1st sunrise at Cadillac Mountain (still bummed the weather didn’t cooperate!)
- Visit Old Orchard Beach
- Visit Kennebunkport
I also have a few recommendations on things to know/do for your trip…
- Portland is a very walkable city so a car probably isn’t necessary unless you want to visit Acadia or another town.
- Wear layers! At times it was cold and windy and other times I was working up a sweat.
- Don’t forget not to exceed the limit for fluids on your carry on. We unfortunately forgot (in our defense we haven’t been able to fly for a while!) and almost had to get rid of our maple syrup and blueberry jam we bought, but thankfully they were nice and went and got my checked bag for my mom to put them in (she and my dad had only brought carry-ons)
- Airports are still pretty empty due to the pandemic. This was our first time using TSA Precheck (will talk about this in my next blog post!) and while it was nice not having to go through the regular security, I doubt it saved us much time on this trip.
- Bring plenty of masks, you’ll need them just about everywhere!
- If you go watch the sunrise at Acadia, you’ll need to buy a National Park pass beforehand since the attendant won’t be there that early in the morning. I’m not sure the consequences of being caught without a pass, and would rather not find out!
- Most hotels are currently offering limited selections for food or none at all, so have an idea of where you want to eat!
Hope you enjoyed reading about my trip to Maine! Have you ever been to the New England states? I didn’t realize how much I would love it and now I want to visit them all! Let me know in the comments if you’ve been and have any recommendations. Hope you all stay safe and enjoy the upcoming holidays! Thanks for reading! And as always, a huge thanks to my wonderful parents who are always willing for an adventure and let me drag them all over the world with me!
