Today was mostly a rest day. It was expected to storm right in the middle of the day, so we didn’t want to plan anything too involved or too far from cover. When we went outside it was insanely windy!—like a hurricane, although it wasn’t yet raining.
We began with breakfast at Jeannie’s; our plan was to check it out and if it was too busy, go over to the Black Friar instead. We were seated at Jeannie’s right away, though, so we decided to stay. We thought we’d try the Friar tonight, because as of last year Johnny was cooking on Sunday nights (Chef Don cooked the other nights). Breakfast was good as usual; we shared an egg and bacon sandwich on croissant and a strawberry pancake. We picked up 6 jars of the famous strawberry rhubarb sauce to take home. They’re always good for gifts or just for ourselves to put on English muffins (or popovers?).
When we were done we took a slow walk back to our room, a walk which might have been even slower if it hadn’t been so incredibly windy. For a while we watched the electrical workers installing new poles and hooking everything up outside of the new Atlantic Brewing Company building that’s supposed to open next year (it’s in the location where Little Notch Bakery was the past few years). Rich explained how all of the cabling works. Then we stopped by the Black Friar to find Johnny taking a break in the back. We asked if he would be cooking tonight and he said no, this year they’re closed on Sundays! Apparently Chef Don retired and Johnny is now cooking 7 mornings and 6 nights a week, so he needs Sunday nights off. Bummer! But we’ll be able to come for supper during the week.
We spent some time in our room and then decided to head out to the visitors center at Hulls Cove since we haven’t been there yet this year. We ran into Brandon on the way, and he told us a little bit about what’s going on in town, like why Fathom closed (the owner lost her original chef, couldn’t find another one she liked and wasn’t up to running it all herself). He explained that the gargantuan new building visible from the Park Loop Road is a Hampton Inn going for $450 a night. And it’s ugly!
Then we caught the bus and spent a few minutes at the visitors center. The large 3D map was removed from the center of the room and placed in storage for this year in anticipation of increased visitation. It was strange, the ranger started to tell us that there’s a smaller version in the Nature Center at Sieur de Monts but then said “never mind, that’s closed.” We’re still not sure what she means—the nature center is closed? We haven’t been over there yet ourselves so we’re not sure. We bought a new trail map for the park that’s at a larger scale and shows some of the more newly restored trails.
Our plan was to get the Park Loop Road bus and just poke around in a few odd places, but we missed it by two minutes. The Jordan Pond bus came next and in a spur of the moment decision we decided to take it and explore near the Pond House instead. We had a nice ride except for the tour bus that nearly ran us off the road coming around a corner, and we arrived at the Pond House under heavy cloud cover.
Our new plan was to explore some of the Seaside Trail leading south toward Seal Harbor. But by the time we were done with our quick bathroom break at Jordan Pond House, it was sprinkling and then immediately the skies opened up and down poured an insane deluge! Flooding was immediate, and keep in mind it was still extremely windy. Unfortunately we had no real options other than to catch the next bus back to the village green (actually we got off early on Eden Street, thinking maybe we could cut across to Holland Avenue, but that didn’t work).
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and researching in our room. We headed out for pizza quite early—there was a small pizza with onions with Rich’s name on it! The onion pizza was great, as were the large beers we had with it. That wasn’t quite enough to fill us up, so afterward we ordered a small white pizza with ricotta as well. Yum!
Full but not overly stuffed we took a walk around town and explored the Bar Harbor club that Tom told us about the other day. It was beautifully restored and so cool to see the huge dining rooms, lawns, and pools!
