Acadia National Park and plentiful lobster draw visitors to Maine

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Maine

It's 4:45 a.m. as we drive the curvy road to the summit of Cadillac Mountain and I am dubious about this "must-do" experience. If you go to Acadia National Park, it's imperative, everyone and every guidebook says, that you witness sunrise here.

Cadillac is the spot where the sun first hits the continental United States. You see, this mountain, at just 1,530 feet, is the tallest spot within 25 miles of the entire East Coast. It hardly even qualifies as a mountain, I say, clearing sleep from my eyes. More like a hill, really. A shower would have startled me into alertness and perhaps washed away the grouchies, but we couldn't risk missing that wow moment by my primping.

I blink twice as we negotiate the final turn into the parking lot. Am I going to have to hunt for a parking place? Lots of people beat us here. Teenagers in pajamas, some of whom have pulled up a piece of granite and gone back to sleep. Photographers attempting to position tripods on not-so-level ground. Wee children whose hands are held tightly by parents. Lovers of all ages.

Car parked, I find a perch to wait and watch. Okay, dazzle me. The sky is already pink, wispy clouds framing the view. Below is Bar Harbor and Frenchman Bay with its small islands, the Porcupines among them.

The sun first appears as a flat line, interrupting the dark horizon facing northeast toward Canada like a punctuation mark, a hyphen or maybe a long dash. Within seconds, the brightness forces me to look away and in minutes the sun is up, its light dancing on the water below. The crowd, which was already quiet or maybe sleeping, is more still now, bathed in brilliant orange and yellow. The tableau is breathtaking, well worth the early alarm. We've had a communion with nature, all 300 of us.

It's 5:10 a.m. Now what?

The island national park

The 49,000 acres of Acadia National Park stretch across Mount Desert Island and some nearby smaller islands in patches. Locals pronounce it "dessert" like the sweet meal-ender, not the sandy, arid land. It's about 50 miles south of Bangor and 160 miles northeast of Portland. Around these parts they refer to this portion of the Maine Coast, from Penobscot Bay to Canada, as "Down East."

The park is intertwined with seaside towns whose full-time residents seem to have a love-hate relationship with summer. The best weather of a year marked by brutal weather is shared with hordes of tourists. They flock Down East, spending a lot of money, which is good, but they also clog the roads and create lines for everything, not so good. The lure of lobster, chowder and ice cream, plus spectacular scenery, is impossible to resist. Far from the Sunshine State, we see lots of Florida license plates.

Bar Harbor Lodging Recommendations | United States Forum ...

Help appreciated! After spending a considerable amount of time searching, we're not having much luck finding the type of place which we usually prefer. We'll be in the Bar Harbor area at the end of Sept-beginning of October, 2011. . .so we know that it's high time to book something. We prefer a place where we can walk to restaurants, etc. but not a busy downtown street; something above "basic and clean". We're willing to go to the $175.-$200. range. A water view would be a welcome bonus! We're open to hotels or B&B'S, but prefer one that has breakfast at your own table. . .freedom to eat on our own within a time frame.

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Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island

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