Our vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine began yesterday. The wife and I spent Saturday on a leisurely drive up Route One, stopping a few times along the way. For lunch we dined at Flo's, which serves the finest hot dogs anywhere. Flo's is a one-room shack invariably filled with customers who line up and wait to be served the only item on the menu - steamed hot dogs, with or without (I strongly suggest with) Flo's sweet and spicy hot sauce. Heavenly. I always order two, only to drive away wishing I had one more. The next stop was Freeport, home of L.L. Bean, the legendary outdoors clothing and gear outfitter whose massive flagship store is open 24 hours a day. Even if we're not looking to buy anything, it's an awful lot of fun to browse, and you never know what neat little wilderness gadget you'll find. For instance, I bought myself a nifty thermometer-compass that clips onto your backpack, because as we all know, there's nothing worse than being lost and/or improperly dressed for the weather. Aside from L.L. Bean, though, Freeport is an intolerable tangle of faux factory outlet stores and overpriced food emporia. If you go to Maine and you want to shop, go to Kittery. And if you want to eat, by all means keep driving up Route One until you get to Moody's Diner in Waldoboro. Moody's has been serving travelers tasty and affordable fare for almost eighty years now, and like Flo's, it's well worth the wait. Be sure to finish your meal with a slice of their peerless blueberry pie (although my wife was quite happy with the fresh baked cupcakes, served on a plate with a knife and fork, no less!), made with fresh Maine wild blueberries, which are smaller and more tart than their southern cousins. From Waldoboro it was a brisk jaunt through Rockland, Camden, Belfast, Ellsworth, and then we parted ways with ol' Route One and headed south for Mount Desert Island, home to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. The park is small by western standards, but takes up most of MDI, nearby Isle au Haut, and the Schoodic Peninsula, and offers vacationers miles and miles of trails for hiking and biking, rocks for climbing, lakes for canoeing, and seaside vistas for kayaking.

We went hiking today, a ten-mile loop through the western half of the island, which we haven't seen much of at all. It was quiet, the hills were misty, and the climbing was strenuous to say the least! My wife and I hadn't hiked in months, so it was a workout. But it was glorious. Though all the overlooks were obscured by clouds, the smell of balsam fir was everywhere, and the stonework of the trails was masterfully done (by the Civilian Conservation Corps, back in the 30's), zig-zagging up the almost vertical trail we took like an endless staircase. Think of Acadia National Park as a giant stairmaster. With trees. Needless to say, we came back to our motel exhausted, but not too tired for a trip back down into town for some seafood at the West Street Cafe, one of our favorite places to eat in Bar Harbor. It's a bare-bones, no-frills establishment, but the mussels steamed in beer are unbelievable, and the regular menu fresh and tasty. I of course dismantled a lobster, while Maria tucked into a plate of stuffed shrimp. After that we wandered the streets, poking in and out of the shops, looking for Tourmaline, which is the state gemstone of Maine. Tourmaline comes in a dizzying array of colors, including a mixture of color that looks like a watermelon. Very odd. But again, despite the good eats and the balsam-scented souvenir pillows, Bar Harbor is choked with tourists, many of whom drive all the way Downeast only to chug around the park in their SUVs and complain about the fog. A nasty overgeneralization, I know, but my legs are sore and my feet are on fire, so allow me a little righteous indignation before I collapse in a heap and sleep like the dead.

We go sea kayaking tomorrow.