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McCrann Family Vacation to Acadia National Park?
We are looking to get away in August (of course, peak time) for a week after IMUSA. No tri, just down time. It appears expensive, but don't want to stay in motel 6, etc. Anyone have ideas / suggestions / connections???
Thanks!
P
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I went last year for the first time. Been trying for years to get up there and finally did it. Well worth the long drive from Boston area.
Linda Patch is our resident expert as she goes every year and was a wealth of info for me.
We rented a house about 30 - 40 min off of Mount Desert Island. Awesome house, reasonably priced, but I'd want to be on MDI next time.
There's also a great Island shuttle that takes you all over so you can leave the car at home if you're on island.
My kids were 5 and 3 1/2 at the time and loved all the hiking, biking, beaching. We also had the only good weather week of the summer, so my experience is definately biased.
Diver Ed is a must if you go. Google it.
Dave
We stayed with my inlaws in Rockland, ME over Christmas/New Years and nearly drove there one day . There was some town that had both an LL Bean outlet store where I scored 5 sugoi winter running tops for 60% off and another place in the same town had Filson stuff 40% off, even luggage which is unheard of so we got an entire set.....(insert choke here) Anyway, it was very near Arcadia....my point being there are several VRBO places in Rockland. Maybe look on that website (www.vrbo.com) for a town near Arcadia and see if you can get a house for the week. Might be fun and you save cuz you can do a lot of your own cooking. If you are in Rockland.....I'm giving a plug for Primo restaurant. Anthony Bourdain was there when we were and there will be show airing about the restaurant in April but more important that all of that
is that my daughter will probably be working there this summer learning all about food production, organic cooking..... The restaurant is probably $$$$ out of $$$$$ but so worth the money. Another really great place to eat is Cafe Miranda (and I think my daughter will be working there too on her off days from Primo). Great organic food bought from local producers. Primo grows most of their own food and they also get everything else from local producers.
OK...can you tell that we are looking for a way to move there and actually make a living there?
I have lots of info for you! Keith and I have been going there every year for most of our marriage. Am at a client, so I'll go into more detail later. Definitely stay on MDI--we stay on Great Long Pond (7 mile swimmable lake) on the Northern Neck of Mount Desert (to be a local it's pronounced dessert, not desert
). Southwest Harbor is nice (ocean), and Northwest Harbor is beautiful but very tony. Too bad you're not going before LP--hill training extraordinaire! It really is a triathlete's paradise up there. Anyway, gotta work. More later.
Halligan--do you still have that info in the 3.0 PMs? I looked back bur deleted it. Rats.
Linda, Include me in for that info, trying to decide where to go as well. Hmmmmm maybe go and stalk the mccranns
No prob. I'll get to it. Thanks for checking.
Acadia is beautiful. When you're there assess how we can have a training camp up there!
Hills, lakes--it's got it all.
I'm no expert on places to stay on all of MDI, but I can tell you what we do. We stay on the Northern Neck (Northern Neck Road) in the town of Mount Desert. The "camp" we stay at (ie rustic, spit-shine clean house) is on Great Long Pond, which is a 7-mile swimmable lake. It's a 20-foot walk to the water. See pic--view from the deck. It's very, mucho quiet if you like that kind of thing. I can give you the name of the people we rent from, and tell you more about the house if you're interested. They (I think ) now deal with a realtor, but we've been going there for so long we still deal with them directly. One thing about that house--the deck is pretty high up and kind of open. You'll have to have an eagle eye on the girls, or rig up something to create barriers. It's the one thing I worry about with little ones.
The house is 1.5 miles down a dirt road. All you hear are the loons. It faces west, so the sunsets are incredible. Across the lake is part of Acadia so it is pristine. If you decide to stay on that lake (there are other houses for rent there), be sure to get a house that faces west. It is isolated a bit, and you will have to drive to the grocery store, etc. But we go into what I call our "family cocoon." The boys have yet to even ask to bring a friend-Ryan even came without his GF last year to be with "the brothers.". This is OUR time, and it's very special.
Right near the house, down the road is a sandy beach for playing, and a kayak rental place.Our house comes with an ooooold motor boat and a canoe. From that area of Mount Desert you can easily get to the main parts of the park in 15-20'. Carriage paths for walking and biking--beware with the kids--nothing is flat for very long. If you decide to go, I'll give you some good little kid hikes. We go once a year to watch the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain--first on the eastern seaboard. Wonderful. A few times we've climbed up the access road in the dark trying to make it up before sunrise.
Southwest Harbor is nice, a little funky, but with more of an ocean orientation. Northwest Harbor is very beautiful but elite in feel. You can't go wrong, it just depends on what you feel you like. I don't know much about staying in Bar Harbor.
So it's a long-winded way of saying I would recommend lake living--Great Long Pond/Echo Lake, and staying in Mount Desert or Southwest Harbor. When you get further along, and find a place, run the area by me. I can give you my thoughts. Then closer to the time you go, I can recommend things to do--you have to hike Gorham, go to Thunder Hole, drive or ride down Sargent Road, climb Caddy on your bike, etc. We're going July 14-24. To the Moo camp, home, then turn around and go.
There's lots more to stay, so let's start with this.
Hey P--we need a coffee/niche outreach date. Next week? Lemme know.
View from our deck: