We woke again to the beautiful view of the White Mountains, the foliage just starting to turn.  We checked out at 10:00 am and drove about two hours to Portland, Maine, which was back to where this trip started.  Since we had several hours before our flight home, we only felt it was appropriate to have our final meal at the same restaurant where we had our first meal — Luke’s Lobster. 

I have to correct something I said in yesterday’s post.  Yesterday was NOT my last lobster of the trip — today is!  I started with the usual Bloody Mary.  Then Mary and I had lobster bisque, a lobster roll, and a lobster grilled cheese.  This may have been our best lunch of the trip. 

After lunch, we headed for the airport.  Two uneventful flights got us back in St. Louis around 10:00 pm.  A wonderful trip it was!

Today was our last full day, so we were determined to make the most of it.  And that we did.  Donna, Mary, and I lounged in the morning with coffee, soaking up the view of the White Mountains from the deck, while Bill took a hike.

Around noon we went into town for lunch.  We then drove about 30 minutes to visit the Mount Washington Hotel.  Mary and I had stayed there one night in 2017, and we insisted that Donna and Bill should see it. 

We went inside and roamed through much of it.

We decided to have a drink on one of the scenic patios. 

Then back into Jackson. 

Once we got back home, we didn’t want to have to go back out for dinner, so we stopped to get a to-go dinner for later.  I got my final lobster dinner — a lobster roll. When we arrived back home, we had a cocktail hour and music fest on the deck, including some Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, followed by a sunset. 

We ate breakfast at the inn and got an early start out of Bar Harbor.  The first thing on our list for the day was visiting Acadia National Park adjacent to Bar Harbor.  We spent about an hour and a half on the loop drive around the park. 

After Acadia National Park, we had a three and a half hour drive to our next Airbnb — a chalet in Jackson, New Hampshire in the White Mountains.  It seemed like a long day, finally reaching our destination around 6:00 pm.  It was in a remote area near a ski resort.  Nothing fancy, in fact a little rustic, but a perfect, cozy place to end our trip. 

We had a very picturesque view of the White Mountains from our deck. 

By this point in our trip, we had tired of going out to dinner, so we simply ordered pizza, wings, and salad from a local pizzeria to eat at “home.”  This was my first day of the trip without eating seafood. 

I set my alarm for 5:30 am to get ready for today’s travel.  We had a 2 1/2 hour drive from Lunenburg to Digby, Nova Scotia to catch a ferry across the Bay of Fundy to St. John, New Brunswick.  On the way, we hit a small deer that had run right in front of us.  Bill pulled over right away.  A car traveling in the opposite direction saw the impact and he stopped to pull the deer off the road.  After Bill assessed that the damage to the rental car was minimal, we continued to Digby. 

We arrived at the ferry an hour and a half before departure.  After an hour wait, we drove onto the ferry.  It was a two-hour sail, so we went to the lounge to get some lunch.  I had fried Haddock. 

And when in Canada, …

(I think this is the very first selfie I’ve taken in my entire life,)

After disembarking the ferry, we had another three-plus hour drive to Bar Harbor, Maine.  We arrived at our destination — Black Friar Inn — just before 5:00 pm.  This inn was an original construction from days gone by.  It reminded me of Chautauqua, Illinois. Small, quaint, and squeaky wood construction.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of it.  The ground floor had a tiny front desk and a pub/restaurant.  The second floor had maybe four rooms.  The third floor had another four rooms.  Then a level above that was an open-air seating area.  No elevators. 

Mary and I got a room on the second floor.  Bill and Donna got a room on the third floor.  As soon as we checked in and got our luggage to our rooms, we went to the pub/restaurant for cocktails.  It was a Saturday night and the pub was full, so we took a table on their outdoor patio.  Fortunately, the weather was perfect.  And our two servers were great fun.  We ended up just staying there for dinner.  I had lobster tacos. 

During dinner, a party of two couples sat at the next table.  They were from southern Maine on a weekend trip.  We hit it off with them.  They were staying on the third floor, and they invited us to join them after dinner on the roof deck.  We did, and had a very fun time with them.

Today was cloudy, breezy, and chilly.  In other words, a perfect day!  After a leisurely morning, we finally got out to explore more of Lunenburg. 

We selected a lunch spot on a deck overlooking the harbor.  I had a Bloody Mary and a lobster salad. 

We enjoyed watching the boating activity in the harbor while we ate. 

After lunch, Mary and I took a nap (perfect weather for a nap) while Bill and Donna took a short drive to explore more of the coastline. 

When they returned, it was cocktail hour.  Here’s Donna and I sitting on our deck mesmerized by the harbor activity. 

We selected our dinner restaurant based on their seafood menu.  Mary and I shared Lobster Mac and scallops. 

We got home before 9:00 pm so we could get to bed early in preparation for tomorrow’s travels. 

We had a longer drive today, so we left St. John’s a little after 9:00 am.  Had a good breakfast/lunch around 11:00 am.  I had bagel, cream cheese, and lobster.  After lunch, we had planned on stopping at a famous place for the highest/lowest tide in the world.  But we met a local woman who told us the best place to see that was a different place just 30 minutes away, but in a different direction.  We took her advice.  Since we arrived at high tide, we couldn’t appreciate the difference between low tide and high tide.  This side trip added an extra two hours to our day’s travel, but we were still glad we made the trip. 

We finally crossed into Nova Scotia. 

We arrived in Lunenburg just before 6:00 pm.  This is a harbor town, bigger than Stonington, but still fairly rustic.

Our Airbnb apartment was across the street from the harbor.  It was a two-story, two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment that was newly built. 

The view from our main deck.

The view from the upstairs room. 

After some relaxation from the long drive, we walked about three blocks to a waterfront restaurant where the main attraction was scallops.  Good dinner.

We hated to leave Stonington today, but we do what we HAVE to do.  It was a pleasant 3 hours and 50 minute drive northeast to St. John.  About half way through, we stopped for lunch in Ellsworth, Maine.  Since I had half of a lobster Rueben sandwich left over from last night, I was determined to have it for lunch.  So we stopped at a diner that had a picnic table outside.   Mary, Donna, and Bill ordered a carry-out lunch to eat out on the picnic table with me.  By the time they came out with their food, I had finished my delicious lunch. 

We continued into Canada, ending our day’s journey in St. John about 4 pm.  (We were now in a time zone one hour ahead of Eastern Time.)  This is just a one-night stopover on the way to Nova Scotia.  We had rooms for the night at a Hilton Hotel, overlooking the Bay of Fundy, which separates the mainland from Nova Scotia.  We gathered on their outside deck for our happy hour, celebrating our safe day’s journey. 

Then we went out to dinner.  The best nearby restaurant was Billy’s Seafood, so we gave it a try.  Great decision!  The place had great vibes, great employees, great music, and great seafood.  I finally had my boiled lobster dinner!  It was yet another very fun day. 

Stonington is a very small, quaint town. 

We are staying in Inn on the Harbor. 

Our two rooms, each with a private deck.

This is the place next door, where we had lunch today.  (You won’t believe this, but I had a Bloody Mary and a lobster roll.)

Here is a view of our inn from the lunch place. 

In the afternoon, we took a drive to check out beaches and coves nearby. 

For dinner, we went across the street to an outstanding restaurant that had about everything under the sun.  It seemed too good to be true, but we ended up being totally impressed.  Mary and I both ordered the full steamed lobster dinner.  We started with clam chowder, which had the most clam I ever had!  Then we were informed that today’s live lobster haul had just been sold out.  So I settled for a lobster Reuben and Mary settled for lobster sliders. 

We had to box up half of our food for lunch tomorrow.  Then went back across the street and went directly to our rooms, calling it a day. 

We drove from Portland, ME to Stonington on Deer Isle.  We stopped along the way for lunch and had the BEST breakfast of Bloody Marys and lobster eggs Benedict.

An awesome retro diner — the table jukebox actually worked. 

Stonington, on Deer Isle, is off the beaten tourist path and is the prime lobster harbor in Maine.  Our Inn was right on the harbor coast and the private decks of our rooms were directly overlooking the harbor. 

For dinner, we drove 10 minutes to the historic Pilgrims Inn (where Mary and I had stayed several years ago).  We had Wagyu burgers and lobster. 

Caught a 6:00 am flight to Chicago, then to Portland.  Arrived around noon and went right to a pier to have a Bloody Mary and lobster-roll lunch. 

Checked into our Airbnb mid-afternoon and rested up.  This evening we walked 100 yards to a cozy, neighborhood bistro for a delicious light dinner.