Today is a very exciting day.
It's someone's 12-week birthday.
Yep.
Oh, and I already got lipstick on his head.
We are taking him to his very first national park.
But first, coffee.
Are you ready for a nap while we get coffee?
I think so.
The coffee shop is located 10 minutes away from our Bass Harbor campground.
And we've tried a couple of coffee shops in town.
This one is by far our favorite, not only because of the amazing coffee, but because
of the pastries and breakfast delight we're about to show you.
Jalapeno cheddar.
Everything is fresh baked every night, so that it's ready to go in the morning.
And you could definitely tell because it tastes so fresh.
With sustenance on board, it is time to head to the park.
We've just made it through Acadia National Park main gate, and we picked up our new 2022
to 2023 annual national park pass.
Now, if you're not familiar with this, this one pass covers all the national parks around
the country and it covers everybody in the car, or in our case, truck, which is three
of us.
So if you plan on visiting more than one national park per year, you probably want to pick one
of these up.
It's $80 well spent.
Okay.
We are already roughly halfway through the day, and there are two very important lessons
we've learned so far.
One is that Acadia preserves 38,000 acres, and it covers 65 miles of rugged coastline.
It also includes 17 coastal islands.
So it's spread out over a large area and you could easily spend a month exploring it all.
There's so many really cool places to see.
The second most important thing we've learned halfway through the day is that we've probably
spent a majority of the day either preparing for the day, or whenever we've jumped out
of the car to go do something, Dash screams that he's hungry.
So we've been away from the car, back to the car, away from the car, back to the car.
At this point three?
Yeah, there times.
Three times so far.
So even though we're halfway through the day and we had approximately six to eight really
cool things to show you, Dash said that he's limiting us to maybe two or three today.
So that's the reality here.
We're not going to get to see six to eight different things, maybe just a handful, but-
We'll see.
We'll see how the day goes.
Look how pretty.
This is Thunder Hole.
It's a super popular spot here in Acadia because when it's at high tide, this creates a massive
wave that sprays everybody.
But we are here at low tide, which means we just get to enjoy the incredible views.
Did we mention that this is the fourth most visited national park in the US?
How's Dash doing?
How's he enjoying his first national park?
Sleeping through it, of course.
But he does like the wind.
When it's nice and windy, he's really happy about that.
If you're visiting any national park across the country, make sure you download their
app.
It gives you all sorts of information about every single park, and you can download all
of the information about the park you're visiting in advance.
So just in case you don't have internet access, you can still get all the info you need.
Even though the park is pretty crowded, there are some really beautiful offshoots where
it feels like you're basically by yourself.
There are lots of places that you can hike to around here, but it's a long way with a
newborn.
So we're going to jump back in the truck and head to the next spot.
So this next stop is at the Wild Gardens of Arcadia and good news, the app says that this
place is wheelchair accessible, so we're thinking that makes it stroller accessible too.
We'll see how that goes.
But there are supposed to be hundreds of varieties of all sorts of plants here.
Let's check it out.
This looks like a really fun place to bring kids who are old enough to walk and talk.
We saw a bunch of them with little pins and sheets of paper.
They were looking and seeing what leaves and trees were what.
So really cool spot, especially if your kids are just a touch older than Dash.
There are tons of cool places in this park where, if you were organized enough, you could
easily pack lunch and enjoy an incredibly scenic view.
That being said, we're not really at a stage of our lives where we're anywhere near that
organized.
There is one restaurant here in the park, but considering how busy it is, we have a
feeling the odds of getting in there are probably pretty low right now.
But the good news is that Bar Harbor is just a few minutes outside of Acadia National Park.
So to Bar Harbor we go.
One trick we've learned about traveling with a newborn, it's the easiest thing to do is
watch the clock and make sure I feed him every two hours or so.
But he looks so sleepy.
It's hard to wake him up.
But it's time for us to eat.
So parking in Bar Harbor, maybe not the easiest thing, considering how busy it is down here.
And we are a Ford F250.
But we found a spot and now we are headed to check out somewhere that one of our Instagram
friends told us was a personal favorite, Atlantic Brewing.
There are two major things that this area is known for when it comes to food, and this
place has both of them.
First, lobster, and second, all of the blueberries.
Blueberry ale.
That's delicious.
This is Dash's idea of a perfect lunch.
Somebody is so much happier being held.
He just wants some daddy-son time.
If you've been following along with our channel for any length of time, you probably know
that Daniel and I are vegetarians, but crab and lobster were my absolute favorites.
So when in Rome, right?
I got a lobster roll.
It's just as good as I remember it.
In true new parent fashion, it is time for coffee round number two.
We love this adorable little bakery.
And also, you may notice some of these signs around here that say cash only.
That's always a way to help out a local business.
Credit card fees suck.
[inaudible 00:09:32].
We use them all the time, because we travel full time, get a lot of points, but it is
another great little tip for helping small businesses.
When you can, use cash.
Let's keep going.
We're here in Bar Harbor, and we're just exploring downtown when we came upon this huge opening
where you can see the water.
It looks so majestic.
You have these, it's like kind of like a fog, like a dense fog, that's off on the horizon.
It's not like close, it's far.
Dash is taking a little siesta here and we're just really just enjoying the moment, which
is we should all be taking the time to do.
The fog is starting to come in from the water and it is so cool-looking.
I don't think we've ever been anywhere that looks like this.
All right, baby Dash.
This is your first experience with grass.
What do you think?
You like it?
We've absolutely got to talker on our hands, y'all.
All right.
I read online about a place called Graffiti Donuts.
And honestly, how long do you think it's been since we've had donuts?
I mean it's maybe one over the last year or so.
It's been a while.
If you haven't seen our video where Daniel runs a marathon and uses local donut shops
for the water stations, we'll tag that here.
But needless to say, it's been a long time since we've had donuts and we're super excited
to start out this place called Graffiti Donuts.
In true Maine fashion, I got a blueberry donut, but it looks amazing.
Look at that.
Oh yeah.
We're fans of Graffiti Donuts.
This is delicious.
Now the flavor I chose I have yet to see on a donut before.
This flavor is my all-time favorite, Girl Scout cookie.
Samoa.
Samoa Donut.
This is exceptional.
So exceptional that I'm having a hard time talking because I just want to eat it all.
That's so pretty.
Our original plan after donuts was to head back to Acadia National Park and check out
Carriage Road, which is like 42 miles of trails.
But somebody's a little bit sleepy.
So we decided we'd head back to the Airstream.
But good news is we have all of tomorrow to continue exploring.
You a happy camper?
You want to tell the world anything about your amazing Maine experience?
Yeah.
What do you want to tell them?
Do you want to tell them to get out there and wander local.
Wander local.
It's good for the soul.