Johnny’s List of Quirky Boston Events: 06/15/06 Extra

06/15/06 by Johnny Monsarrat

See last entry for what’s happening this weekend. I just wanted to take a break and talk about Maine, which I’ve been researching lately. Now I know a ton about Acadia National Park, which is supposed to be beautiful.

First off, Maine is a huge place which is frustrating because you can’t just explore the whole state. You have to sift through all the brochures and websites and figure out what’s going to be nearby. Acadia Park itself is sort of spread out, but it is mainly on Mount Desert Island, and the closest real town is Bar Harbor, ME. So that’s going to be your base, unless you’d prefer to camp in the park itself. All the amenities and tour guides and cultural events stem from Bar Harbor.

Two parts. First, On the Way Up to or From Bar Harbor, you’ll go through Portsmouth, NH, Kennebunk, ME, York, ME, and Old Orchard Beach, ME. The New Hampshire locations are on Rt 95 which is NOT the way to get to the White Mountains (Rt 93 is), so actually this is a nice excuse to visit a part of New Hampshire you wouldn’t normally go to. I’ve done quite a bit of research and these are the largest tourist attractions on this journey, excepting shopping outlets. 🙂

Each of these looks worth visiting, and I’ve actually been to Water County, which is the largest in New England, and great fun. Also I’ve been to the Strawbery Banke Museum which is like Sturbridge Village (1840s) and Plymoth Plantation (1620s) in that they have live recreation actors who will teach you a little about the 1890s and settlers.

There are not a whole lot of festivals in Maine, but Festivals on the way to Acadia include the below. I always try to plan my day trips and vacations to co-incide with some kind of festival because I figure that way I am getting the most out of the region.

Some comments. The medeival re-enactment is an SCA event (Society for Creative Anachronism) and is likely to be very geeky and not necessarily accessible to outsiders. Any balloon festival is at the whim of the weather.

OK now let’s get to Part Two, Things To Do Around Bar Harbor (Acadia). These include:

I don’t have any experience with these events, but the lumberjack show looks like a lot of fun — and finding something to do in the evening is the hardest part of a wilderness vacation. I went on a moose tour in New Hampshire and it was awesome, so I recommend that. Take some dramamine if you go on a whale watch. I went once in high school, the waves were choppy and about half the kids threw up. This is how I learned that I’m in the top half of non-queasy people, thank goodness.

If you can’t read these tables very well, email me, johnnydeppfun@yahoo.com, and I’ll send you the spreadsheet.

Finally, here are the festivals I was able to find around Acadia. I’m quite sure that I haven’t missed anything big.

I am forced to say that I’m disappointed that so few cultural things are happening in the evenings. Acadia National Park is the only national park in New England and quite a few tourists attend. These people need more things to do when it’s too dark for nature walks. Specifically, the two music festivals seem kinda lame. The Bar Harbor festival is classical only, which is not my bag, baby. And the Arcady Music Festival features one group per week… so if you take a week’s vacation that’s good for one night tops. Call me crazy but I really think a “festival” is an event which is happening at a pace of at lease one performer per night.

Finally, a word of caution! Those crazy Maine people recently changed all their highway exit numbers, and some of the highway numbers too. So your old map may not work very well. Keep track of the names of the towns you pass, they didn’t change those, so I guess they think they’re clever keeping tourists away but we’ll outsmart them.

OK, now you know everything I know about visiting Acadia National Park. Personally I plan to go up August 12th and catch the lobster festival, and return Aug 18-19 and catch the balloon festival and the highland games.