10/12–Waterville to Montreal

Up early, breakfast, then hiking. Hiking not so great, a little wet, trails were TRAILS – we only had sneakers and didn’t want to ford the great stream we found…

…so… we headed back to the hotel, parked the car, and just walked the “Pond loop” around the back of the hotel and to the Village Square. Nice little walk for the morning.

We decided we’d hike more in the afternoon as we drove up through the White Mountain National Forest and the Franconia Notch State Park.  Stopping again at Ike Godfrey’s store on the way out of town, we picked up cold cuts for our picnic and headed North.

First we were going to stop off in Lincoln for a craft festival we had read about.  Well, that was a no go!  Fortunately it was so crazy that cars were pulling off onto the shoulder to line up for the exit off the Interstate. When we figured that out, we said “nah”, let’s skip it!  And good thing – when we crossed over the local roads to Lincoln it was bumper to bumper as far as the eye could see.  No sense wasting on our time on that!

Little did we know…..as we headed into the National Forest - OMG – the people! Holiday weekend.  Leaf Peeping prime.  We never even thought about it, but not the right time to come up here for sure!  At the first visitor’s information area we couldn’t even find a parking space –and we’re talking thousands of cars/spaces! People were pulling onto the grass over the curb (or in one minivan’s case – trying to pull over the curb and getting stuck and then blocking the road).  We hightailed out of there!

We somehow lucked out at The Basin and actually found a parking spot. It was a nice little trail around some waterfalls and through the woods. 

20 minutes to stretch our legs and then proceed up the road. It’s still crazy out there!

Every place on this drive was packed, cars are just pulling off the highway and parking on the side of the road, zoo-review!  So we just kept heading north, figuring we’d find a place to picnic – and we finally did – out of that craziness!

We headed straight to Montreal!  Border crossing was a breeze, and a breeze getting into the city too. Great roads, easy to navigate!  We park outside the hotel – this time with a hotel loading zone thank you very much! – and troop up the stairs to reception where we meet Turgay, the owner of the Parc Suites Montreal. Great guy, great hotel.  I get settled in our cute little studio apartment right off the reception area while Turgay took Ed to park the car. Ed almost gives him a heart attack parking it, the way he just whips the car in and out of tight spaces!  20 years in the car business will do that for you!  We  then stowed our gear and hit the street to get our bearings.

We’re up in the Mont Royal area, near McGill college, which is north of the old port and historical part of the city.  So, we walked…all the way down to Notre Dame to explore said old part of the city.  Nice crisp walk to get the kinks out from the drive (yeah, well, it was only a few hours in the car, but still!).  Notre Dame is lovely and the surrounding areas nice as well.

We scoped out some restaurants we thought we’d try tomorrow or the next day, then headed back “up” town to our hotel, stopping on the way for grocery shopping.  We ended up finding some great looking sausages and some fresh veggies, so we figured we’d have those for dinner tonight and just relax a bit. And that is just what we did!  Showered, cooked, hung out and relaxed and got ready for our next day of biking!

10/11 Boston to Waterville, NH

Again – no surprise here – we are the first ones in line to disembark.  Henry (again, no surprise) is our organizer! He actually takes me and our bags over to the front of the line.  We were ready really early, because we want to get a cab quickly and get across town to our car.  Turns out to be a good strategy, because it took a while for them to release the ship – so after about 45 minutes of waiting (as I said, we were really early to get in line!) we are off! 

First in the taxi line and we are gone – on our way to Cambridge and our Thrifty Rental.  Smooth as silk! We’re on the road and out into the country in no time.  It’s amazing how quickly you can be out of the city and into the wilds of New England.  We zip up the highway, reveling in the gorgeous day, the beautiful changing leaves and the pretty White Mountains rising all around us.

We arrive at the turn off for Waterville and get information at the CoC tourist center.  Then grab wine at the liquor store and beer and this awesome wheat egg, bacon and cheese bread at a little grocery store that (as the tourist info gal said it would) reminds us of Ike and Clara’s country store on the Waltons!  Too fun. 

Off we go into the beautiful fall foliage, driving past the closed National park areas and finally into Waterville, a small little ski resort nestled in a White Mountain valley.   It’s way too early to check in, so we head to the village Square and grab lunch at the Blue Moon Café.  It’s an adorable little place and we have it almost all to ourselves.  We choose a booth looking over the pond and scarf down a couple of excellent sandwiches (Reuben for Ed, Pulled pork with spicy slaw for me) accompanied by a couple of adult beverages!

We move onto our hotel, the Silver Fox Inn, which has all the charm of a ski resort, including the fireplace in the sitting area, and is quite pretty and welcoming. 

We check right in, and don’t waste anytime taking the resort’s bikes out for a spin. It’s too pretty a day to waste inside. We ride around some of the other resorts, past the restaurant where we will be having dinner and then onto the little house where Curious George creators, the Reys, lived and wrote their books.  It’s not open until tomorrow, so we peek inside and just stand out in the driveway.  So quaint and cute!

We just sort of circle the village, checking out the scenery and the great leaf colors.

We spend the rest of the afternoon reading on the deck out back of the hotel, in the sun and short sleeves! The weather is amazingly spectacular. 

Dinner is at the Coyote Grill, where we lucked out and got seats at the bar.  The place is jam packed!  Start of a holiday weekend and all, we suppose, but wow!  Wow for the food too!  The starters alone were enough – roasted brussel sprouts with smoked gouda cheese sauce and yellow beet and fried goat cheese salad. Oh yum!

 

Ed, being his ever romantic self, gave me his bunch of parsley as a gift. The bartender said that it was truly a first for her – she’d never seen anything quite like that gift! 

The main course was phenomenal as well, and now, trying to write this blog after the fact, I can’t even remember what we had!  But I do recall I couldn’t even finish mine and we rolled ourselves back home and fell, stuffed into bed!

10/10 Bar Harbor, Maine

The sun is smiling on us again today, the sunrise as we sail into Bar Harbor is stupendous…

…and it’s quite a bit warmer. Just beautiful.  We have immigration today. Yuck!  We also have a 10:00 tour booked and the immigration schedule for our deck doesn’t really work.  We ask reception and they tell us the schedule is just for organizational purposes. If we need to be off earlier than our schedule, just go with the first group. Ok – we can do that! We watch from our balcony as the Immigration Agents come aboard….

…then hoof it downstairs to go through the process.  In the end, the immigration is a breeze – but to be honest, it is the first unorganized thing we have seen on this ship.  To date, after almost 2 weeks, we can honestly say that these guys are a study of efficiency.  Everything has been spot on, organized, done right, from organizing the tenders, getting off the ship (even with gangway issues), Latitudes club parties where there are servers constantly refilling your drinks (as opposed to most other lines where you are lucky to get your one drink and nothing more),  and customer service who is always happy, courteous and helpful.  But this was a little bit of a miss – only in terms of set up.  It was impossible to figure out where the immigration line started and where you should be. We circled the ship once before we figured it out – once we were there – it was fine – just frustrating trying to find it.

We breezed through within minutes and were on one of the first tenders to leave the ship. So no complaints at all, in the final analysis.  We were so early that we got a chance to explore the town of Bar Harbor a bit before our 2 hour Trolley tour. On the trolley tour, our itinerary has been changed – because of course the tour was supposed to focus on Arcadia National Park, and well, that’s not going to happen during the shut down. But instead we spent a lovely 2 hours driving through the park (on town roads), learning why Bar Harbor got its name (because of a sand bar that you can walk across at low tide, but that disappears and leaves you stranded on the other side at high tide!) and visiting two small villages where the “wealthy folks” have settled and have summer homes (including Martha Stewart).

The colors are wonderful and the town is really quite nice for a tourist destination.

After the tour we are planning on lunch and our trolley driver/tour guide says that the West Café is the best place for lunch – all the trolley drivers recommend it. Well, yeah, and all the trolleys disgorge their passengers right across the street.  Thus there are hordes of people in line waiting to be seated.  We sigh, and decide to search out another place for vittles, until we spy the “lounge door”.  Yeah – that’s us. We walk in and are seated at 2 empty spots at the bar – immediately (as opposed to the 45 minute wait for a table)!  We’d rather be here anyway!

And true to the recommendations, this place is great.  I end up with the lobster combo special – chowder (which we change for lobster bisques), full lobster, coleslaw, french fries and a piece of local blueberry pie (which is really highly recommended!). Ed has Haddock au gratin which is excellent as well.  and they have Leaf Peeper Ale! Cute!

Now stuffed to the gills (excuse the pun!), we head out to wander the town, hitting the Brewery tasting room, exploring the touristy shops and then settling into the Cottage Street Pub which is a narrow little pub right up our alley.  We hang out there for a bit, talking to everyone and enjoying a relaxing afternoon with Leaf Peeper Ale and a bartender who really knows how to pour!!

We meander back down to the tender pier, hop our ride and spend the rest of the afternoon on our balcony in the sun.