We feel like we saw a whole new Acadia today. Finally, the fog lifted and we could see how gorgeous Acadia, the coastline and the mountains were. Here’s an example of the same location from us and from my friend, Amy:

We could literally watch the fog lifting. Oh, well. At least we have a reason to come back now. At breakfast, we ranked our favorite National Parks, and Acadia is definitely in our top 5. Although, it is only top 10 for Michael the Contrarian. 🤣 It will be hard for any park to ever beat Zion, Glacier, Grand Teton and Yellowstone to us.

We tried to get back to Thunder Hole to see if it really was louder at or near high tide. I think we missed the timing for the full effect, plus sea was much calmer today with waves coming in at an angle. But, still very cool to see.

And with no mist (and remembering to wear sneakers not crocs), the boys could do a little more climbing around on the rocks. I have to admit, I completely understand why they like climbing around here. It really is fun to scurry around on the rock/cliffs.

We made our way around Park Loop Road – stopping to take some more photos now that the sun was co-operating. These came out even better than they looked with my naked eye. It was beautiful! I say it every year, but our National Park system is amazing! Even with the crowd/traffic, I am so so thankful to be able to see these with my favorite people.

We started our last long drive of the trip… 4-5 hours to end the day in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Let me tell you Maine is a LOOOONNNG state. We did mix in some US Highways with the Interstate, and the little towns along the way, they were just perfect pieces of Americana. But it took forever to finally cross back into New Hampshire.

We decided to stay off the Interestate for a while so we could miss a traffic mess in Portsmouth. We traveled through Berwick (North and South), Dover, Durham and Exeter. They were the cutest towns. I think we need plan another trip up here to just stay in the cottages and bed & Breakfasts that we passed.

We made it to Massachusetts… State #46!

The scenery changed a bit in Massachusetts. Most of the houses were built in the 1800’s or older. The towns were full of Flags and reminded us that we love to travel around the 4th of July!

We made it to Gloucester, and it is just what you would expect a Massachusetts beach town to be like – lots of fishermen, beautiful homes and coastal views.

Our hotel. Atlantis Oceanfront Inn, made Mike and I nostalgic for the Myrtle Beach motels growing up… think circa 1980. But really really clean. It was awesome! The bathroom has the open sink and sliding doors for the tubs, the door locks to say “Do not Disturb”, and we have actual keys!

DeeDee at the front office said we should definitely try The Lobster, so off we went! Holy Cow! This was so good and so reasonable – $22 for 2 lobsters! Yes, I did eat them both! Poor Mike had to fight for the last bit of blond brownie and ice cream.

We took the long way home so we could scope out a running route for the boys in the morning, and to see a little more of Gloucester. I’m not sure about the rest of the town, but the sunset and coast are gorgeous! We will check out more tomorrow.

Not a bad place to write a blog 😁