Maine Klamms: Drive to Bar Harbor

Drive from Portland to Bar Harbor - July 17

On Friday we enjoyed donuts from Holy Donut in Portland (authentic potato donuts) before packing up and heading to Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island. We stopped in Freeport along the way to check out the hometown of L.L.Bean. The campus of stores they have there is crazy - a home store, hunting/fishing store, outdoor sports store, apparel, outlet and a large grassy area for their summer concert series.

We checked out a few other stores in the cute town of Freeport before grabbing lunch. We decided on this trip that we want to take the amazing brioche roll that is used for lobster rolls and expand it's palette of fillings -- pulled pork rolls, anyone? Case in point, I had a yummy tarragon turkey salad with mandarins sandwich in Freeport that came in the traditional lobster roll bread, and it was so darn good!

Back on the road, we weaved in and out of small towns as Highway 1 took us all the way up to the island. We got to the West Street Hotel in Bar Harbor in late afternoon. The hotel was one of my favorite things about our trip. I was nervous to see if the place lived up to the cute pictures I had seen, but it absolutely did. The hotel is decorated in a contemporary nautical theme, our room had a great porch overlooking the shops and the harbor, there is a gorgeous rooftop pool (again, was too cold to enjoy for long) and nightly cookies and milk served in the kitchen area on every floor. Spoiled rotten, we were. 

Bar Harbor is a cute coastal town, kind of frozen in time yet all the buildings are in such pristine condition that it seems like they were just placed there. That first night, we enjoyed dinner at McKay's Public House. We ate out on their patio and enjoyed the perfect summer night. After splitting baked brie and the McKay's salad, Jonathan had the pork porterhouse special of night and I enjoyed a creole-inspired take on steamed mussels and fries. For dessert? Say it with me, "blueberry..." pie! Delicious. We checked out some shops after dinner, and even happened upon another couple from St. Louis (the woman and Jonathan were both reaching for a Missouri cup in a shop -- serendipity at it's finest).