Wednesday, July 28, 2010

New England Vacation--Day Eight--July 28,2010

                        This morning we drove from Banngor to Bar Harbor, via more road work.


 It took us an hour and a half to drive 45 miles, but the views we experienced once we got there was well worth it.  Here is one of them.


We parked and rode a trolley around Acadia National Park which includes Cadillac Mountain, the highest mountain in the US on the eastern coast.  Here is a view from the top of this mountain.



While we were on the trolley, the driver told us a lot of history about Bar Harbor.  It used to be named Eden and only the very wealthy lived in Bar Harbor, mostly in summer homes.  He told us a a true story about this house pictured below.  It's a tear jerker, so get your tissues.

 There was a wealthy widower that lived in Bar Harbor, and he had two children.  After his wife died he later went to Europe.  While there he fell in love with a young woman and wanted to marry her.  She loved him deeply but was afraid to cross the ocean; she was terrified to travel in a ship.  He came home without her, but would not give up on his hope of marrying her.  He pleaded with her and promised that he would build her the biggest, most luxurious house on the island if she would come.  She finally agreed and he began the work on the house above.  When it was almost finished she booked her passage on the "unsinkable ship".  Yes, that's right.  The Titanic!  She never reached her beloved nor lived in the beautiful house he had built especially for her.  But the sad story doesn't end there.  He was so grief stricken that he never moved into the house.  Months later when depression was about to overpower him, he was asked to help work on the trails in what is now Acadia National Park.  He readily agreed since this was something he enjoyed doing.  He thought it would help him overcome his grief.  Well,  he fell from the mountain while making these rails.  His body was found two days later.
How tragic!  No one lived in the house for many many years.  No one would buy it.  Many years later a woman offered to buy it for 25,000 dollars.  The family took the offer.

After our tour of the island, we went to the docks and had lunch out on the dock and watched the ships come and go.  Here are some pictures of the view from our table.




Not far from where we had lunch there was a small beach.  I just had to put my feet in the water to see if it was really as cold as everyone says it is.  Yep, it is!

There were many beautiful scenes everywhere!  Here's one of my favorites.
                 
                      Now it's time to put our feet up and rest and relax for tomorrow's busy day.

Night all!

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