Photo of the Month

July is in full swing!

Julie picking Strawberries for our reunion	These are just a few of the trays so berries they all picked!!

Our relatives drop in to say "HI" or should I say "Yo Ho"
(the lumberjack yell) to Tina at the "Great Maine Lumber Jack and Jill Show"!!

As you can see Tina is happy to see us??!!	The "LumberJill" on our Red team chopping away!!
Red team making some saw dust fly!	I don't know if they were aiming the sawdust at Tina but it sure looks like it!!
During a break in the competition, the kids get to try the razor sharp saw (note leather guards and jacket pull to make sure one of our fourth generation does not get close to the teeth!	The RED team won this round of the log rolling but I think the green team took the second round (Boooo, Hiss).

Three generations following the pink flamingo ...
and getting a little miniature golf in at the same time.

OK Gramps, (wait ... that is my generation!!) show them how it is done	Remember ... follow the pink flamingo!
Some of the teen's in our group playing it cool!	There is that pink flamingo again ... I think he double boogied!!
Some of the third generation proving they can keep up with us second generationers	The fourth generation is not too shabby either!

One cousin, Mike, got a new 500mm lens and captured some great shots in our cove!

Off to the buffet line again for a little snack ...	I'll just drop in here and see what they have today ...
Nothing like a little mackerel ... especially if it is fresh ...	It's the latest look ... just a little gel to keep the feathers shiny ...
A osprey cruised through the cove, checking things out ...	The Bald Eagle was not too happy about anyone even thinking about cutting in line!!

The construction is still going on but it shouldn't bother you too much!

Your first view of the construction, tar all torn up and lots of machinery at work.	That ends just over the hill and most of the 7 miles has 2 lanes paved already!
There are three short sections that are still being worked on. This one has the tire mats down just before blasting some ledge.	They have 6 lanes paved between Ellsworth and the island where the new Acadia National Park visitor's center and bus terminal will be.
The fork in the road just after the bridge onto the island is finished.	The traffic light has been moved down the road about 100 yards.

Sorry no pictures of President Obama!!

They shut down the road between the park entrance and town to all but local traffic.	The Coast Guard had this helicopter up covering the roads and a bunch of zodiac's covering the water.
Julie was picking some more fruit at the entrance to our place while we waited to see if the President drove by our place.	Strawberries are about gone but the Blueberries are getting ripe pretty fast!!

Click image for LARGER view
Click LARGER image to return to this page

What's New?!

7/18/10 - We have been busy this past month!! We hosted a family reunion for my Mother's side. We had a small turn out ... only 80 this year! We rented a 20 x 30 foot tent and we barely fit into it! We went to some of our favorite places like Timber Tina's Great Maine Lumberjack Show. We show up to the show about 60 strong and really get into cheering on our team. Tina had us figured out this time and put our group in the middle so that we were split up and had to cheer for both teams (last time we sat on one side and our yelling overpowered the other spectators!). Of course we missed seeing Tina do the log rolling ... maybe next reunion we will have to request that!! If you want to get some more info on The Great Maine Lumberjack Show, got to: Timber Tina's Great Maine Lumberjack Show

We also had popovers at Jordan Pond House, went biking, hiking, sightseeing, played miniature golf and of course did a lot of eating!! In fact, we always seem to be eating!! Luckily, we keep active enough that we don't gain 20 pounds that week!! The lobster prices are still very good so many of the cousins splurged and got a bigger lobster. We usually have at least 3 lobster dinners during the reunion and try and get out for "generational" dinners so we can touch base with our cousins and find out what has been going on for the past three years. We have been hosting our family reunions here since 1975 and they are always a lot of fun!!

The mini golf course is about a mile down the road from us and it was fun to see the change in roles as many of my generation are grandparents now!! We used to ham it up and now we are the serious ones teaching the fourth generation to play while the third generation hams it up!! Of course, we are a pretty hard act to follow ... I didn't see anyone in the third or fourth generation with a flamingo hat on (sorry, not me but MY generation!!)! The fourth generation always follows what Uncle Bud does so as you can see in the last photo, they put hats on as well!! Maybe it skips a generation??!!

One of my cousin's picked up a new 500mm lens before this trip and he had lots of opportunity to use it! The mackerel have started running already and that has brought the Bald Eagles into our cove more often. One day they sat and watched a pair of eagles dive in and catch 4 fish in the cove!! Another day an osprey flew into the cove and did a couple of circles around before leaving. As you can see in the photo, the eagle was not too happy to have anyone going after his fish!! I also got a new lens, a 300mm but I was a little busy hosting so did not get to see as much of the action! The schools of fish bring lots of wildlife along with them so sightings of porpoise and seals are up as well.

The construction is moving right along! The first photo shows the road being torn up and since then they have already paved two lanes of that hill! Most of the seven miles of construction as two lanes paved so traffic moves right along. They have not been working on Saturday so getting here should go smoothly. Some of our guests did say that they ran into a section of I295 that was one lane and they were working on Saturday so it did slow them down some. They are putting down thick layers of asphalt and there are many changes in levels and some abrupt transitions that can rattle you up a bit! They put a little ramp to go up a layer but if you hit a 3 - 4 inch high ramp at 45 mph it will rattle you a bit (especially if you have a smaller car). If you are traveling up during the week, they are still working and can work through the night so it can slow you up 15 - 30 minutes.

You must have noticed the news about President Obama and his family visiting Bar Harbor last weekend! It did not effect us too much other than the little detour we had to take through the park to get to downtown while chauffeuring our niece and nephews around. They shut down the airport so we saw the President's plane fly overhead and a helicopter flew back and forth over the road. There were lots of people lining the road, hoping to see the first family but they ended up taking the Eagle Lake road into town so we didn't see them. During Julie's chauffeuring duties she did see the Presidential motorcade drive by! I did not see any of the action but did see the coastguard bringing in 4 big zodiac boats to cover the water. The Obama's visited Hawaii while we were there last winter ... maybe they are following us around???!! Anyone want to invite us some where after we close to see if it works??!!

The weather here has been warmer than normal with a higher humidity as well. Most of our guests say that it is nice here but it is much hotter than we are used to! Some of our guests have been from Texas and they through that it was a little cold here!! Our normal weather does pop back in every once in awhile so you still have to be prepared for the 50 degree nights and 70 degree days that are more normal for us! Most of last week was in the 80's during the day and 60's at night. So, enjoy your summer and we hope to see you here soon!

5/3/10 - I still can't get used to writing or typing 2010!! Maybe by 2020 it will be natural?! Julie and I are busy cleaning up after the winter storms! The actual winter was not bad and Bar Harbor did not get much snow at all! I saw some photos from my Aunt in Maryland and it looked like she had over 4 feet of snow in her front yard!! Julie and I suffered in Hawaii again so we really can't say it was too harsh a winter! There was that Tsunami alarm that we lived through. I guess there was a bit of a wave that hit us but nothing like the tide change we get every day here in Bar Harbor!

The photo of the dock above was taken during a full moon at around midnight and the tide was almost 12.5 feet. The low was close to 2 feet below normal as well so there was a swing of over 14 feet!! There was quite a bit of light from the moon but I did have to expose the photo for about 30 seconds to get the shot.

The ground thawed out early this spring so they are going all out to try and get as much road construction done as possible before the roads get crowded! They have started widening a new section between Trenton and Ellsworth for some type of new welcome center. The west side of the park loop road is being worked on so it is closed just north of the Jordan Pond house. They are doing major repairs to the road so that section is completely closed down!

We have had good response to our lower May rates so we decided to lower the off season June rates by $100/week! All our guests who booked already will also get the lower rate! If you want to see the park during the quiet season, now is the time to do it! The weather has been great so far and temps are in the mid 60's to low 70's. Bugs are out but they are not bad and things are opening up all over. The first cruise ship stopped by a couple of days ago and campers have been driving by for several weeks now. Julie and I have been busy getting the cottages ready but we should be able to start hiking pretty soon and we will get some photos for you! I have a new 300mm lens so I hope to get some better wildlife shots for this page. I am working on a facebook page that I will put some more photos on. Well, enjoy your spring and we hope to see you all soon!

10/6 - Fall is in full swing and the leaves are beautiful this year! We had a mild summer and it was warm up until about 3 weeks ago when the temps dropped! They stayed low during the nights and the leaves started to turn soon after that. The ocean water brings up the temps here at the cottages a few degrees so our trees are not as far along as the mainland and interior of the island. We do have trees that have turned but I was amazed to find a single leaf that turned before any others on that tree or the ones around it! It really stands out as the photos above show! No photoshop or watercolors!!

We had several Hawaii relatives visit us this month and we were forced to go apple picking and eat lots of lobster (The things we do for relatives and friends!!)! This was a very good year for apples! There was just enough rain and sun and not a lot of wind so that there are lots of apples on the trees. The lobster is still cheap so we encourage all of our guests to help the lobstermen out and eat lots of lobster. So far we haven't had any complaints from our guests!

We are full over Columbus Day Weekend but the weekdays are pretty open. We have lowered the rates for those days so that you can pop up for a short visit if you have the time! You can catch the foliage, some of the October sales in Bar Harbor and help out the lobstermen!! You might even have some fun!!

We have been seeing Bald Eagles quite often in the cove and at least once a week for almost a month someone has seen an Eagle dive into the water after some fish. There are still schools of fish here and our guests have seen them jumping in the cove and seen porpoise and seals when they are out on the kayaks! The Eagle photos I took this month were late in the day so the light is not very good but the Eagle was way out on the dead branch so he was very visible.

We have also started taking reservations for 2010. We are currently placing our returning guests and will start placing new guests on Nov. 1st. If you are one of our regulars, drop us a line so we can get you into you favorite cottage. If you would like to be one of our new guests, fill out our contact page with your preferences and we will place you in a cottage on Nov. 1st.

Enjoy your fall and we hope to hear from you soon!

9/1 - Our little island has been in the news lately and we are sorry to say that it was not for good news!! When tropical storm Bill passed by a little over a week ago, the waves picked up and everyone headed out to watch them crash into the shore. It was a perfect day for viewing, the storm was far off shore and there was no rain and the sky was clear. We went down to see the waves and the roads and shore were packed with people. We had to park way down by Otter Cliffs and as we walked back towards thunder hole a giant wave swept some people off the rocks and into the ocean. Most of the people made it back up the rocks but three people did not and a very young girl did not survive. The park rangers were trying to keep people back from the rocks but there were thousands of people there and the photo above showing people on the rocks was taken after the people were swept away. The park Rangers closed the park after that and are trying to figure out how to let people watch giant waves safely.

Julie and I celebrated our anniversary with our friends, Bill and Pat, by having dinner out at the Isleford Dock Restaurant! The restaurant is located on Isleford aka Little Cranberry Island. The only way to get there is by boat and one of the nature tour boats runs a dinner trip out the restaurant 5 nights a week. The Restaurant usually closes soon so you may have to visit it next year. The food was delicious as always and our friends had the lobster which the restaurant gets from the lobster co-op the next dock over. We enjoyed our raspberry crisp as the sun set and then cruised back to Mount Desert Island. We have celebrated three anniversaries at the Isleford Dock Restaurant and will head back out again soon!

Things are changing around here and if you are visiting us this fall you may see some of them! We have a new Super Walmart that is supposed to open the middle of this month. It is located on one side of the new traffic triangle in Ellsworth. One side of the triangle, route 3 towards the island, is now one way. The Walmart is on the adjacent side of the triangle across from Home Depot.

They are working on another triangle just after you cross the bridge onto the island. It is supposed to be one way all the way around, sort of like a triangular rotary?! They have cleared and blasted the connecting road so that may be finished some time this fall. We have been told that our directions from the state line that you can download on our FYI page is a little out of date. Some of the rest areas have been closed and the tolls have gone up! We will try and drive it soon so that we can update it. The exits haven't changed so it will still get you here!

If you are visiting us this fall we thought that you might like to know about the farmers market in Bar Harbor. There are actually two of them. The first is held every Sunday in the YMCA's parking lot where you will find lots of fruit, vegetables, breads, meats and even prepared dinners. The second is on Wednesdays and is held in Reel Pizza's parking lot. So if you are picking up groceries on the way in you might want to keep them in mind as you shop.

We were full just about all of August and the first week of September but there are openings starting next week so check our availability page and see if we have a cottage for you?!

8/13 - Well, now that our reunion is over we have had some time to get out a bit and snap some new photos. The end of July was a little wet!! Not as wet as it got south of us but much wetter than normal! We took a hike out on the Great Head peninsula in the fog and it was very peaceful. There were tons of blueberries and they seem to be ripening at different rates so the season might last for awhile.

The Eagle's nest that is just one cove down from us has some new chicks this summer so we have been seeing the adults fishing in our cove quite often. The fish are running so fishing is great both for them as well as us. We have also seen an immature eagle in the cove with one of it's parents so we have at least two pairs fishing in the cove!

Dexter, a high school class mate stopped by to visit and took his son and our nephew out deep sea fishing. They saw a bunch of humpback whales while they were out and got some great photos. They caught several types of fish and even came back with some lobsters! The boat they were on assigns a number to each fisherman and on the way back in they pull up a lobster trap for each number and you keep any lobsters in the trap! They had a great time and were exhausted by the time they got back!

Julie and I had to take a trip down to Portland to pick my Mother up at the airport. We are happy to report that they have finished most of the construction along I295! That's right ... both lanes are open! The DOT web site says that they are still working on the ramps for the first two exits to I295 so there will likely be some delays there?! We also ran into quite a bit of bridge work and other road work along the way so expect it to take a little longer than normal to get here! One of our guests said that her favorite rest stop was closed so looked for it and found that they have combined some rest areas to accommodate both north and south travelers. You actually exit the Maine Turnpike and then have to remember to get a voucher from a machine in the rest area so that you don't have to pay again when you get back on! We have to agree with our guest that the old rest areas were nicer! They had lots of trees and shade so you could sit and eat your lunch in peace! We got back home quite late and found that they were paving parts of the road at night! We went through some construction at about 10pm so allow some extra time for your trip up!!

We keep seeing an eagle's nest in the poles of some high power lines crossing I95 and finally jotted down the mile markers to locate it! It is easier to see as you head south but you can look for it on the way here. It is located between mile markers 153 and 154. Take your time and stop at one of our favorite food spots:

Governor's Restaurant has good home style food and homemade bread and rolls. They are located all over the state.

Dysat's Restaurant is a truck stop in Bangor that is open 24 hours a day and is home to the Bonecrusher hamburger ... a one pound hamburger named after the logger on the discovery channel!

Pat's Pizza was started in Orono where I grew up and has small, pie sized pizzas that are reasonably priced and always hit the spot! They now are located all over the state!

Drive safe and eat your way up and you won't mind the delays! Maybe next time we will give you a list of our favorite shopping spots?!

7/7 - We just finished hosting our family reunion here at the cottages and had about 55 people attending! We had a lot of fun and managed to get some outdoor activities in as well! We went hiking, biking, shopping, eating, bowling, shopping and of course eating again ... did I mention eating and shopping??!! We have a number of good cooks in the family and had all of our meals here at the cottages. Of course, there were several of the real easy meals ... lobster dinners!! Our cousins showed up from all over the country: Hawaii, California, Illinois, New Hampshire, Indiana and Maryland! So, we had Blueberry pancakes for breakfast one day and Hawaiian Sweatbread french toast the next (it was all good!).

Another thing that we enjoyed several times were fresh strawberries! That's right, it is strawberry season here and if you are heading up our way you will see quite a few roadside stands selling fresh strawberries. We have a number of them between Bangor and Ellsworth from Tate's that are quite good. They also allow you to pick your own but the fields are above Bangor so we decided to pay extra for the picked ones. We also saw fresh strawberries in the Hannaford grocery store in Ellsworth from Tate's and another local grower.

Several weeks ago we were out driving around and noticed a car flashing it's lights at us so we slowed down and around the bend found a car stopped in the road. We pulled up behind it and the cars stopped going the other direction as well. A Doe was standing on the side of the road and once the cars had stopped proceeded to walk across the road! When she was about half way across, the smallest fawn I have ever seen, stepped out and followed it's mother across the road!! It must have been born recently because it was still unsteady on it's feet. Of course, it would have been the perfect photo to add above but, guess who forgot to put his camera back in the car after downloading the last set of photos (one hint, it rhymes with ME)! That is two great shots that I have missed, the fawn and the time that we saw three bald eagles in one tree!

My Brother was up for the reunion from Indiana and one of the first things that he did was throw a hook in the water! He is the fisherman in the family and even had a lobster boat when we were growing up. We don't usually see the schools of mackerel until late July or August but he managed to pull out several batches of them! This group loves their sea food and between the fish, lobster and local crab (very sweat I have been told buy a number of out of state people), they managed to get their fill of seafood! The price of lobster is still low and the pound we use was selling 3 pounders for $8.99/pound! It usually is about half again as much as that so we really had our fill!

We have been seeing a seal on our ledge fairly often and the bald eagles are quite active. Some of our guests went by the nest close to us and saw an eagle land on the nest and heard a lot of chirping so we think that the pair there must have some new chicks! We also saw a fox on our bike ride on the carriage trails and of course the fawn we mentioned earlier!

They state is working on I295 again this year. This time it is on the north bound lanes. They plan on rerouting the north bound traffic to the south bound lanes so you shouldn't have any trouble getting here. Check it out on the way up and you can decide if you want to take the detour on the way south or just bypass the whole thing and stay on I95 on your way south. Maine does take easypass so that can make the toll booths a little easier! Check the links on our FYI page for more info on the construction.

We hope that you will be able to join us this year. The summer is filling in fast but there are still spots open in the fall. Drop us a line if you have any questions and enjoy your summer where ever you are!

4/30 - We are very busy these days trying to finish raking 5 acres of woods and other things we need to do to get the cottages open for the summer. We have had some animals around to keep us company! A bunch of deer, some ducks, Bald Eagles, woodpeckers, turkeys and our Aunt and Uncle saw an otter swimming in the ocean a couple of coves over!

We are out of the office quite a bit so please leave us a message or email and we will get back to you as soon as we can. We may not get back into the house until after dinner so let us know the best way and time to get hold of you.

The winter was lots of fun! We had lots of snow as the photos above show! We also had an ice storm that took down quite a few branches and power lines! It was not as bad as it could have been and we were out of power for less than a full day. We had some big rain storms that melted off the snow and then some high winds that helped dry things up!

As you can see from our availability chart we are a little slow this spring! We have lowered the prices and opened the cottages to daily rentals in May. The summer is looking pretty good and the fall is a little ahead of schedule. We have also started accepting credit cards for balance payments when you arrive for your stay. We have not raised prices for several years now and hope that some of you will be able to make it here to relax during these stressful times!!

Enjoy your spring and we hope to see some of you this summer!!

10/24 - We are finally starting to place our regulars for 2009! Our server is also being updated there may be an interruption here or there while they sort things out. Please be patient with us and if you don't hear from us within a day or two please try and contact us again!! We usually get back to people that same day but I do keep some odd hours in the off season so I might not get your email of phone call message until late in the evening (alright, our regulars know I often send emails after midnight!). We will likely have to move the placement of new guests until mid November. I will try and get a new availability chart going as soon as we get some responses from our regulars so you can see how things are going. Please remember that there may be multiple holds for some families while they sort their schedules out so until the square turns into an X you still have a chance!!

I have drained all of the water pipes, hot water heaters and toilets. Pulled up all three septic pumps. Now I just have to wash the recycling cans and pull in the ramp and float from the dock. See, I do actually work around here!!

Julie and I have been banging our heads against the wall and keep thinking that we should raise our rates next year!! All of our expenses have been going up and occupancy is down this year. We see what is going on in the market and don't want to put any added burden on our guests so we decided to put off the decision until January 1st. Anyone who books a stay with us and gets their deposit to us by December 31st will get this years rate. We will be crunching numbers between now and then and see if we have to increase rates at that time. So book early and often ... Please!!

We do want to make sure that everyone sees our cancelation policy before they send in their deposits. We do our best to keep our rates low so that families can have a place to stay while they enjoy the coast and national park. One way that we do that is to rent our places only by the week. We also have quite a few large cottages that cater to families and we have found that larger families know that they have to book in advance in order to find a place to stay. We noticed that our cottages have a hard time renting for the week if any of our guests cancel their stay less than 120 days before their stay. There for our cancelation policy does not give any of the deposit back unless we are able to fill the cottage for the whole week (if you cancel less than 120 days before your rental week).

As mentioned in previous posts, we now have a credit card processing machine! We kept it simple and only got the machine for point of sale transactions so you will still have to send in your deposits by check. You will be able to pay your balance by credit card when you arrive.

So, enjoy the fall and hope the oil prices stay down (I can't believe that $2.71/gallon gas is "down"!!). I do enjoy a white winter but I do hope that this is a mild one! If you are one of our regulars and don't hear from us before the end of the month please drop us a line! We do want to make sure that we are saving a place for you.

9/24/08 - The cold weather has arrived and the trees are starting to turn! Along with that come the cruise ships! There will be a record number of ships this year and while you may think that is a bad thing it actually is not! The ships bring passengers and they like to shop! So, the shops stay open longer and you will have almost twice as many shops to explore! The passengers take tours and visit the most popular spots but if you pick your locations you can go hiking and biking and do many other activities without running into any of the passengers. They also get back on the ships about 4 pm so you have plenty of time to hit the town in the evening if you want to avoid the crowds. Most of the ships only stay here for one day so the passengers only get to see a fraction of the island. We hope that the little time they spend will encourage them to return for a longer stay.

The apple orchard just north of Ellsworth is open daily so you may want to stop on your way here and pick up some for your stay. They supply poles to help pick the high ones so you can get a bag full in a half an hour or less. Just think apple pie, apple sauce, apple crisp and leave just a few to take on some hikes!

The deer have been out roaming around in the middle of the day. The ones in the photos above were wandering around our back yard at 2 in the afternoon! Sorry, no hunting allowed on the island!!

The days are getting shorter here so if you are visiting us remember to bring a flashlight to help you get around in the evenings. The weather has been great and most of the storms have been missing us or passing through quickly. The cold weather pushing down from the north has helped give us the good weather and also started the leaves turning. That cold weather can kick up some wind and is cooled further as it goes over the water so you should also bring a windbreaker if you plan on going to the top of Mt. Cadillac or on a boat ride.

So, if you want to head our way and enjoy natures air conditioning, drop us a line, we have plenty of spots left!

8/17/08 - We have some good news for those of you who are visiting us this month! The construction on I295 south has been completed early so you can stop in Freeport on the way up here and again on the way home if you wish!! We do have a LL Bean outlet store in Ellsworth, just 20 minutes away, but if you want to stop by the main store we understand!

A young Bald Eagle has been visiting our cove quite often lately! We saw it twice on Saturday and the second time I got a few photos. I pointed it out to our guests and then went back to the office. They told me later that I should have hung around! The Eagle was there for about half an hour then it simply grabbed the branch it was on and flew off with it!! The branch was pretty big so it was quite a sight. Of course, I missed it! We wonder if the Eagle is making a nest close by?!

Since Julie and I got back from our family reunion in Hawaii, I have been thinking about all the similarities there are between there and here ... no honest ... you don't believe me?!! I decided to put together a few photos just to prove my point. If you can't afford to pop on over to the Hawaiian islands then you might as well visit us here on our little island!! We hope you get a chance to compare the two places for yourself!! Of course, you should come up here and visit us first!!

We have opened up several weeks to daily rentals so drop us a line if you want to make a shorter visit. We have also taken several reservations of more than a week from families that wanted to extend a few days past their week. The weather here has been great and as I have mentioned before, the fall is the best time to visit the area! Enjoy the rest of your summer wherever you are!

8/8/08 - Well, we have had a busy month and most of it was spent some place else so I only have a few photos to post! Julie saw a big deer in the woods by the cottages but when she tried to get close enough to take a picture she spooked him along with a couple of other deer and they ran off. Our guests this week have seen a pair of Bald Eagles on a tree in the cove almost every day this week. They are probably trying to snag some of those fish that our guests are catching off the dock!!

Julie and I just got back from a two week family reunion in Hawaii with all but one of my Brothers and his family. There were 16 of us in all and we tried to do just about everything there is to do on two islands! We also were able to get together with our relatives on Oahu and probably gained about 20 pounds! I have put up a couple of photos from our trip will try and get some local photos up as soon as we recover from our jet lag!

The weather that hit this area while we were gone did change things some! The Blueberries were ripe before we left and I expected them to be gone when we got home! The over cast weather must have slowed down the ripening and the rain plumped them way up so they are perfect right now!! The renters have been picking them on the trails and they said they are real sweet! Speaking of trails (nice segway, eh?!), the park officials have opened up the Precipice and Flying Mountain trails (the peregrine falcons have left their nests).

If you have been reading your local news paper you might have seen that lobster prices have been going down instead of up!! So, please help out our local fishermen and eat some lobster!! Not a usually something we have to ask visitors to do! In fact I think that I will go out and get a batch this weekend to eat and some more to shuck and freeze the meat for lobster salad sandwiches this winter ... or maybe a good newberg ... that could add on another twenty pounds!!

We want to thank Diane for watching the cottages for us while we were gone! She had to deal with a power outage and some other minor emergencies so she has passed all the tests! She got a visit from some of her grandkids and they caught some fish off the dock! Thanks again Diane!!

7/12/08 - We had a beautiful 4th of July this year and there were a lot of visitors in the area for the long weekend! The weather has been very nice in general with much more sun than rain. That may explain why things are growing faster than usual! We are happy to see the Tate's Strawberry stands along the road and the berries look very good (at least the last 4 quarts have been ... may have to get a few more just to be sure!!). I also noticed that the blueberries are starting to ripen. They are just beginning to ripen and won't peek for a little while.

This weather must have warmed the ocean up as well because the seal has started to visit our ledge and some guests have seen porpoise swim by when they were out kayaking. Last week I was down at the dock and saw a school of fish jumping in the cove. Some of our guests have seen a Bald Eagle in the trees around our cove as well.

The construction in Ellsworth is still underway but they have paved the road so driving is much easier. The McDonalds has opened back up again and now has two order lanes in it's drive thru. The construction on the super Walmart and Walgreens are still going strong so along with the roadwork so expect some delays as you travel through Ellsworth.

I managed to break my hand several weeks ago so updates are taking a little longer while I learn to do things with my left hand! My typing was never great or fast so things now move at a snails pace! Photo editing is the hardest! Click and drag was something that I did with out thinking ... I think that I pulled something the last time I did it?!

So, come on up and enjoy the weather (make sure you don't bring any rain with you!). If we are full then we hope that you will stop in and check us out for your next trip! Enjoy your summer!

6/5/08 - Things are starting to hop up here! Not all of them for the better I am afraid. We have had several cruise ships in Bar Harbor already. They don't effect our business at all but when they start to show up the businesses open up in a hurry! That means our early visitors can enjoy things like whale watching and nature cruises as well as more shops and restaurants! The ships will continue until November so guests that visit us in October are surprised to see so many things still open!

More construction news for those of you headed up this way. You won't notice it on the way up here but when you head south you will will not be able to use I295! The south lanes will be closed from June 16 - August 30 so you will have to use the Maine Turnpike, Route 1 or the detour along Route 201. For more information you can look at the Maine DOT page.

As you can see from the photo above, the seal is back on the ledge in our cove. It stopped by 3 times last week and I saw it twice so far this week. I also see Bald Eagles quite often but have not seen the immature one for awhile. I didn't take a lot of photos last month so I have added the seal photos to the other wildlife photos I took the month before.

We have dumped the woodlandprk.com address and now just have the woodlandparkcottages.com address. We hope that everyone switched over OK! We have not used the old address for over 5 years but a number of web sites still have us listed under that address. They put us on their site without asking and make it very difficult to change the information without paying them some money! Of course, after we decided to dump the address, the gas prices skyrocketed and now is not a good time to have potential guests not find our site! Just a little FYI ... I check my email at least twice a day so if you email us you will usually get a response within 12 hours! If you don't hear from us by then, your server probably thought our message was spam and didn't let it through or trashed it! If you send us another email, let us know that you would like us to call you back.

5/15/08 - Well, we are open for the season!! The weather here has been great and Bar Harbor has quite a few shops and restaurants open. We even had our first cruise ship of the season in this week! So, if you want to enjoy Acadia National Park with out all the crowds then now is a good time for a visit. The Temps have been in the 60's during the day and in the 40's at night. The Blackflies haven't been bad at all so far. They actually haven't been bad for over 5 years. We thought that was because we haven't had much snow during that time. This winter we had lots of snow so we will have to throw that theory out the window!

This spring has been a great one for wildlife! That is why we decided to have a wildlife themed photo of the month! We have seen the Bald Eagles soaring over head and sitting in a tree just down the road. We also have seen a yearling in the area (doesn't have the white head yet). The Deer are everywhere. One large group of 7 or 8 were grazing in a field close by us. When they saw us they decided to go home I guess. Home must have been across the road from us because they raced us to the road and we had to stop to let them cross the road! On the road between Bangor and Ellsworth we saw one of the biggest turkeys I have ever seen trying to cross the road!! It was in the middle of the other lane trying to find an empty space between the cars. Lucky that no cars were going the other way! Of course, we didn't have a camera ready in time to get that shot!

A word of warning for anyone heading up this way! There is a lot of road work going on in Ellsworth. We have a downloadable set of driving instructions on our FYI page. Some of the photos on it for Ellsworth are no longer good. The KFC was torn down and a new KFC/Taco Bell was put in about 200 feet down the road. Not to be outdone, the McDonalds has been torn down and a new one is being built in the same place. The town is changing the traffic flow at the route 3 and Route 1 split so the construction will be going on for a while yet!

The harsh winter left a bunch of frost heaves and pot holes on many of the roads! They are trying to get them all fixed up this spring but the roads are a little rougher than usual this year!

A few rules of the road that may differ from your state: 1. The Police can stop people for not wearing seat belts. 2. you are required to turn on your headlights if your windshield wiper is on.

We hope that you will be able to visit us this summer! Please check our availability page and fill out the contact page and we will see what we can do for you!

4/1/08 - Happy April Fool's Day!! Don't we wish that the photos were a joke!! Julie and I do love the snow but now it is starting to cut into our opening time! The snow "storms" we have been getting lately are very small and the snow melts off in a day or less but the cold that arrives with it slows down the melting process! We do hope to get started on the cottages very soon!

For those of you who visit us regularly, you will notice some big changes as you get close to the island. Ellsworth, the closest large town (about 20 miles away) is undergoing a growth spurt! Since last summer they have added a Taco Bell/Kentucky Fried Chicken and Lowes. We have heard that a number of new stores will be added soon. They have broken ground on a Walmart Supercenter, Walgreens and there are rummers that some other large stores will join them. Developers plan to have some smaller stores in several strip malls around the larger stores! There is also some construction going on along route 3 between Ellsworth and the island. Most of the big projects are located away from the island so you may welcome the variety!

As you can see from the photos above we decided to do some leisure exploring last month! Some friends of ours came down for the day so we decided to head into Bar Harbor and see what was going on! We drove through the town ... the grid lock there almost made us loose our appetites ... but we were able to find several places serving something other than plywood sandwiches! We decided to eat at Galyn's Restaurant on Main Street down by the water. We got there at 11am, just after they opened so we were able to get a table right in one of the windows looking out over the town park. The view was great and constantly changing thanks to several small snow flurries that obscured the small islands in the distance. The food was very good and the deserts pushed us over the edge! We had to take a hike to work it all off but the only trail close by was the shore path! The blowing snow caused us to rethink that idea but we did go a short ways along the trail (and doesn't the cold accelerate the calorie burning process??!!)!

Well, the snow will be gone very soon and we hope that you will visit us when the weather is a little warmer! Enjoy natures air conditioning while you can!

3/15/08 - Well, Julie and I made it back from visiting family and friends in Hawaii! We were not able to go last year because Julie broke her back so we stayed extra long this year. We had lots of fun catching up with everyone but seemed to run out of time all the same. Julie had a blast learning a new Okinawin dance for her family's Christmas Eve Party. They rented a hall and had just under 100 attendees. We seem to do a lot of eating when ever we are out there so I have about 10 pounds that I have to work off now that I am home. I hoped to get a lot of swimming in out there but it rained almost every day for the first two months we were out there! We took a trip to the Big Island if Hawaii during our visit and saw some sea turtles sunning on the beach. We actually saw two sets of three turtles on the beach and two more swimming just off shore. One of Julie's friends had a niece who won 4th princess in the Narcissus Pageant this year. We went down to Chinatown to see her and I got a picture taken with her and the Queen along with another friend we saw there.

Last year we stayed home because of Julie's back and we got hardly any snow! This year it started snowing the week after we left on our trip and hasn't stopped yet! There were two big rain storms just before we got home that melted a lot of the snow. That is why my photos do not have a lot of snow in them! We usually start work on the grounds April 1st but the temperatures have been pretty cold since we got home so the melting has stopped! We have been pretty busy since getting back; unpacking, working on taxes and getting all of our mail sorted out! Now that we are home we will update the website more often and might throw in a couple more shots of our trip to warm you up! Hope that your winters have been going well and we hope to see you this summer!

We have been seen some new info on crib safety and we are afraid that our cribs no longer comply. We do not get enough use from them to justify replacing them so have taken them off our web site contact page. There is a local baby equipment rental place that has them if you need one (see our FYI page). We are sorry if this causes any inconvenience but we are sure that you would want the safest equipment for your baby!

11/17/07 - We are now taking reservations for 2008! Please look at our availability page to see if we have a cottage that will work for you! We are still sorting out some of our regulars and reunions so some of the holds could open up. Let us know what you want and we will see what you can do for you!!

We have had a great fall for wildlife and the leaves peaked the last few weeks of the season! We started seeing the pair of bald eagles in the fall. Mostly on the little pond just down the road but several times on the trees along the sides of our cove. We saw single eagles a number of times on our cove and watched them pull fish out of the ocean! We also saw some dolphins and a young eagle in a nest just up the coast when we were out kayaking. We saw the young deer and a big buck on our place throughout the summer.

There were a record number of cruise ships in this year! They clogged up the town a little but they also brought in enough business that most of the shops in town to stayed open until the end of November! Most of the passengers took buss tours and shopped in town. The trails stayed pretty empty so it is still our favorite time for hiking!

Have a GREAT winter and we hope to see you next year!!

9/18/07 - Well, we just spoke with the town water company and they plan to keep the water on until October 20th so we can open up the cottages for another week! The week of October 13 - 20 is now open and the rates are $100 less than our special October rates! The foliage should still be good at that time and of course most of the shops in Bar Harbor have end of season sales! The cruise ships usually continue stopping through the end of the month so there are usually plenty of shops still open.

In the second photo of the month you can see a cruise ship partially hidden by Bar Island. We have a 12 foot tide here and at low tide, you can hike out to the island. In the photo you can see the path you walk on, just be sure and get back across before the tide comes back in!! There is a trail on the island that gives you a nice view across the water of Bar Harbor town.

We have had a pretty warm fall up until this week! Nights are now dropping into the 40's and occasionally the 30's and the days are up in the mid 60's to 70's. You will find links to a weather page and foliage report on our FYI page if you want to keep up on how things are going. We did have a spell of hot weather just a week ago so don't be surprised if we get a touch of summer during your visit (days can pop up unto the 80's occasionally this time of year).

We just added another kayak to our fleet. We have some kayaks that we rent out to our guests for use in our cove. Our rowboats are free to use and many of our guests bring their own kayaks. If you don't want to haul your own up we have several one and two person kayaks.

8/18/07 - I didn't think that we had too much going on last month but managed to find a few photos to show you all! We had several cancelations so we have opened up several weeks for daily rentals. Please check our availability chart if you want to pop up for a couple of days!!

We did get a visit from an old high school classmate and his family! Their visit allowed us to get out a bit!! We hiked up the north face of Cadillac Mt. and watched the fog roll in over some of the islands just off Bar Harbor. There were tons of blueberries on the Mt.. and we picked some for desert. The hike was beautiful and not too difficult but since the shuttle bus does not go up Cadillac you have to hike back down or arrange to leave a car at the top. Some of our guests managed to find a tour bus at the top and paid for a ride down the mountain!! We also went out on kayaks and saw a Bald Eagle's nest that had a young eagle watching us from the branches next to the nest. It still does not have a white head and tail so it will be hanging around for a while longer. While we were out cruising around a couple of dolphins passed by us. I was trying to get a good shot from a rocking kayak and wanted to make sure that I didn't get my camera wet, so it is not my best work!!

We finally put a queen sized bed into Bay View's master bedroom!! Now all of the cottages have a queen or King in the master bedroom. I have updated the website with the information but have not had a chance to take new photos of the cottage. The queen is now in the front bedroom and the twins are in the back.

We still have openings this fall so check our availability page and see if we have a cottage and week that will work for you!

7/8/07 - Last month was a busy one for us!! We hosted a reunion for my Mother's side of the family. We had up to 85 people here at once and had 4 generations present. My parents started our family reunions here in 1975 when we had only two generations present. This year we had 4 generations present! We kept busy all week and had family in the week before and after so we were able to get a lot of visiting in.

We had some great wildlife sightings during the reunion. It started when a young porcupine wandered through the cottages and climbed up a tree by our dock. Then, on a hike around Jordan Pond, a beaver walked between some of the cousins and cut down a little bush, then dragged it back through them to the pond! Talk about your close encounters!! We also saw seals, Bald Eagles, deer, snapping turtles and more.

One thing that we do every year is to go tubing at Blue Hill Falls. There is a reversing falls there that goes under a bridge into an inland lake. We jump off the bridge or take inner tubes down through the waves. I got to play safety swimmer again and helped pull the inner tubes out of the current. I think that it is about time we got someone younger to spend over a hour in the water chasing inner tubes around!!

We also have some good news and bad news for those visiting this summer. It seams that many of the Peregrine falcons nests did not produce viable eggs this spring so the park has started to open up some of the trails that are normally closed this time of year. They have already opened the Jordan Cliffs trial and trails on Flying Mountain. The Precipice trail may open as well once the repairs are completed from the damage caused by the earthquake we experienced last fall. We hope that the birds recovery is not slowed down too much by this setback. It is still a thrill to see an Eagle, Osprey or Falcon fly over head and if you are lucky enough to see them in action that is amazing!! Lately we have been seeing the Bald Eagles fighting off bunches of crows!! We have seen the Eagles flip upside-down in flight to fight the crows with their talons!!

We will likely post some more photos we took during our reunion next month. Maybe some from our other activities and some more wildlife shots!! We hope you all are enjoying your summer?!! We are!!

6/11/07 - Well, we kind of have a wildlife theme going this month!! We have been seeing the seal almost every other day in our cove and the Bald Eagle just as often on the pond just up the road. We have also seen the Bald Eagle flying over our cove several times a week. We spotted the Osprey just as it came in to land on the top of the tree. We tried to zoom in as close as possible but we need a bigger lens (if I keep on saying that maybe Julie will let me get one ...?!). The Crows seem to like to harass the Eagles and we have seen them dive bombing the Eagle. They come very close at times but the Eagle is usually very stoic and just leans a little bit to get out of the way if necessary!!

The weather here has been great and for the 5th year in a row the black flies never got very bad!! Temps are bouncing all over the place like usual so, if you are heading up here be prepared for anything. Just about everything is open now and the free shuttle buss will start up on June 23rd. Please see our FYI pager for links to their web sites.

We learned that the late storms we had in April destroyed a number of Eagle Nests and the high winds actually blew the Eagles off their nests!! You can find a story about the damage at: http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=150037&zoneid=500 The Falcons were also affected but the park service said that they may lay another set of eggs so the usual trails are still closed.

We will be hosting a family reunion the last week of June with 85 relatives expected to attend!! I may be a little late with my update next month since I may need a week or two to recover from the gang!! I will still be checking our email every day but we may be out doing things during the day and night so please be patient if you leave a message for us. We will get back to you ASAP!!

5/13/07 - We were hit by a pretty big storm the middle of April that washed away just about all of the snow! We took a drive into the park to see the waves crashing against the shore. It turned out that the wind was blowing the wrong way and the swells did not reach the 20 foot heights that were expected. Still, they were pretty big and Thunder Hole was booming! A little further down the road the spray from the waves was coming up over the road and the cars driving on the road. We got some shots of the cars in front of us but they can't show the car shaking as the spray hit us. Julie and I had our niece with us and she thought it was great fun!!

The storm was accompanied by the highest tides of the year and hit us from the north. That brought the waves right into our cove and it smashed our float against the shore. We spent about a week repairing the damage to the float! We basically had to take it apart and put it back together again! That job is finished and it is back in the water again!! There were only a few burst pipes so opening went fairly smoothly. The cleaning ladies are finishing up the last of the cottages now so we will be ready for the big memorial day rush (we only have two cottages left for that weekend!).

Since the storm the weather has been great! We even had a few days with temps in the high 70's and low 80's. We have a few guests in already and the season is off to a great start! We have opened up a couple of weeks for daily rentals so check our availability page if you want to pop up for a couple of days. We have seen Bald Eagles almost every other day and even had a palliated woodpecker here a couple of days last week.

4/5/07 - Well, we are normally out raking our 5 acres and opening up the cottages but we just had a little snow storm that dropped over a foot of snow on us!! We will still be open The first week of May but now we will have to work extra hard to get things finished! Our peak months of July and August are becoming very full but we do occasionally get cancelations so check out availability chart to see what is available.

As soon as the snow melts we will be working on the cottages most of the time so please contact us by e-mail or if you call us give us the best times to call you back that day or the next if we don't get in until late in the evening. You can call as late a 10 pm if you want to talk to us. We will get back to you but it might not be until the next day depending on the times you give us to call you back.

The papers say that a few of the trails have been closed already because the falcon's have returned to nest. They will not open up again until either the young falcon's leave the nest or it is determined that there are no viable eggs in the nest. The barriers on the park loop road were removed last week as the park got ready to open it for the summer ... I guess that the foot of snow we just got will close that up again!! We will try and get out to take some photos with the snow. We tried today at noon but many of the roads have still not been plowed and there is no place to park.

We have heard from some of our regulars that they have been hit by this storm from New York state on up so we are not alone! We hope that you all stay warm and spring gets to you pretty soon!!

2/3/07 - Sorry that we haven't updated in awhile! This winter has been very strange! The temps have been very warm and there has been very little snow! The temps dropped below freezing a couple of weeks ago and have finally stayed there! But now we need some snow to go with the cold weather! We have not been taking many photos because of this, without the snow the photos just show bare trees and rocks. As you can see we did get a little snow but it was followed by some rain that made everything icy. We got an inch of snow on top of that and that made everything real slippery. We went out for a hike along the park loop road a few days ago. We started just before Otter Cliffs and went to the Causeway. We both put strap-on spikes on our boots to stop from sliding off the road! We saw the Bald Eagle just as we were getting ready to turn around. Once we got to the causeway we stopped for some hot chocolate on the cooping stones and headed back.

Next Summer is filling in nicely so grab a place while you can! We usually check email twice a day so can get back to you within 24 hours. If you call and we are out please let us know how late we can call back that evening or the next day. If you don't get a response please try again! We have had some calls where we could not understand the phone number so we could not call back. Some emails have been mistyped so we could not respond or your spam filter might reject our response.

For those of you who like to visit in the fall, Bar Harbor has been hit by several earthquakes since last October. The quakes caused some rock slides that damaged the Precipice Trail. The rangers have not been able to tell us when it will be fixed. If it was not finished in the fall they will not be able to resume work until August when the falcons leave. It may be awhile before it is opened up again! You can see some photos of the damage and read about the quake on the Acadia National Park site at:

http://www.nps.gov/acad/photosmultimedia/earthquakephotos.htm

There is also a link for trail closures there that gives some more information:

https://cms.ner.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/temporaryclosures.htm

We have had some aftershocks after the first quake but do not know if they added to the damage. We felt the quake but did not sustain any damage at our place. We did have some relatives visiting and had planned on taking them up the precipice the day after the quake (I do think they were relieved!).
Enjoy the rest of your winter and if you have lots of snow please send some our way! We just got a couple more inches of snow so hopefully we will get out before it melts off. If we do we will snap some more photos. If not we may have to resort to reusing some old winter photos!

OLDER POSTS THAT MAY INTEREST YOU:

11/5/06 - Well, another year has come to an end! Now the real work starts! We have drained the pipes, pulled up the dock, winterized everything and ... oh yea ... started taking new reservations for 2007!! So, if you would like to join us next year drop us a line and we will see what we can do for you!

We hosted a mini reunion for some of Julie's cousins and an Aunt and Uncle the first week of October! That gave us a chance to get out and explore some new things in the area. We took a ride out to Scoodic Point which is on a peninsula just up the coast from Mount Desert Island (the island we are located on). There is another part of the part on there that we took Julie's gang to see. While we were out there we stops in at two places on the same peninsula. The first was US Bells where we watched them pour some brass bells and coat hooks! They use sand casting and the process was very interesting to watch! You can check them out at:

http://www.usbells.com

The second place we went to is the Bartlett Winery. We made arrangements for some tasting there and picked up a number of bottles to drink during the rest of the reunion! We have a number of our regular guests who stop by and pick up some bottles every time they stay with us so we decided to check it out! You can check them out at:

http://www.bartlettwinery.com/

Of course we had to show Julie's cousins some foliage and the park! There were some very nice colors under the Duck Brook Bridge just a few minutes from Bar Harbor. Some of Julie's younger cousins were exploring under the bridge so we had them take a shot of us there by the brook. They found a baby snapping turtle in the brook that could easily fit in my palm!

We were hit by one of the largest earth quakes in recent years while they were visiting and they all were amazed that we had them up here! Then, the week after they got home Hawaii was hit by one that was much larger than the one they experienced here!!

Not to be out done, we were hit by a little winter storm about a week ago! The winds got up into the 60 mph range and some parts of the state recorded 70 mph gusts! That didn't bother us too much but the utility poles coming on to the island were blown over and ended up lying across the bridge. We were heading off the island to visit some friends and just made it out before they shut down the bridge completely for 5 - 6 hours while they put the poles back up! The island was without power for most of the day and some remote areas did not get power back for several days! Just a little excitement to keep everyone on their toes!! We hope you all enjoy your winter and that we see you up here next summer!!

5/2/06 - Well, the count down begins! We are back from visiting family and friends in Hawaii and will open the cottages in less than two weeks so we are scrambling around trying to get everything finished before then! If you drop us a line or give us a call please be patient and we will get back to you as soon as possible! We check e-mail every morning and in the evening when we get back from working on the cottages. If you call please leave an evening number in case we get back late.

Those of you who have visited the area will see quite a few changes.
1. The construction on Route 1A is finished and there are now four passing lanes traveling each direction (they added two passing lanes for people traveling west) and took out a lot of the curves and smoothed out the hills.
2. They are currently paving Route 1A from East Holden too the passing lanes. They have been at it for over a week already and seem to be putting two layers of new tar down.
3. The "widening" on I95 is finished and there are three lanes from the state line all the way up to Portland where I295 branches off.
4. There is a new exit off I95 that will get you to Route 1/3 without going through Augusta.
5. The Verona Bridge along route 1/3 is being replaced so you can expect some delays until that is finished. You can find some information on the Maine Dept. of Transportation site at:

http://www.511maine.com/default.asp?display=construction&area=ME_BarHarbor&date=&textOnly=False

Our reservations are a little strange this year ... summer and fall look good but this spring is a little slow. Bad news for us means good news for you!! We have extended our May rates a week and extended the off season rates until June 24th. Anyone who has already booked a week will get the new lower rates as well! You will see the new rates on our availability chart

We have seen a Bald Eagle sitting by the pond just up the road as well as flying over our place. I saw one feeding in our cove one morning as I was walking around the cottages. Once we open we should have some more time to hit the trails again and will get some new trail photos up. Well, got to hit the sack so we can get back to work on the cottages tomorrow!

8/22/04 - Things have slowed down some and we are catching up on things. You will find a new set of downloadable directions in the download section of our FYI page. It gives mile makers, distances and exit numbers as well as a few photos to help you find your way up here from the Maine/New Hampshire state line.

5/26/04 - The exit numbers have been changed on most of the Maine Turnpike and I95. They did place small signs on the new signs that give the old exit numbers as well. You may want to pick up a new map before you head up this way if you plan on stopping along the way up. The exit numbers now match the mile markers so the exit off I95 heading down to Bar Harbor is now exit 182A which is 182 miles from the Maine state line.

10/01/02 - Change of address - The town of Bar Harbor has assigned us a new address, please note:

Woodland Park Cottages
3 Woodland Loop
Bar Harbor, ME 04609

http://www.woodlandparkcottages.com

e-mail: paul@woodlandparkcottages.com

Woodland Park Cottages, 3 Woodland Loop, Bar Harbor, ME 04609; (207)288-4016
copyright Paul Mun 1998

Waterfront Cottage Maine | Vacation Cottages Maine | Cottage Rentals Maine | Maine Vacation Cottage Rentals