Portland

The day before we headed up to Bar Harbor, I drove from New Jersey all through southern New England.  I went all the way over to Cape Cod during the day because I had never been there before.  Then I drove up through Boston that night to pick my mother up from the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire.  We spent the night in Concord, New Hampshire and then drove to Maine in the morning.  I didn't see much color at all through Connecticut, Rhode Island and Cape Cod, so I was surprised at how much color there was in New Hampshire since I had come through there after dark the night before.  We saw pockets of brilliant colors all the way to Bar Harbor.

We stopped for lunch in downtown Portland at the Old Port Sea Grill.  I got two of the obligatory Maine dishes out of the way by ordering New England clam chowder and a lobster roll.  Then we headed to the Portland Head Lighthouse.  The last time I was there over 8 years ago, the ground was snow covered.  It was windy, but much warmer this time around.  Then we took the scenic route up to Bar Harbor.  We went straight to the top of Cadillac Mountain when we got there, but we were probably just a few minutes late for sunset.  It was a little too dark to take good pictures at that point.  After checking into our hotel, the Bar Harbor Regency, we found our way into town and had dinner at the Quarterdeck where I had a delicious lobster thermidor.