Bar Harbor or Bust!

Today we headed north for our annual visit to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  This will be our 11th year enjoying the bountiful beauty of Maine.  Generally, we stop at the L.L. Bean outlet in Ellsworth and shop for half an hour or so.  However, for the past few years, we haven't found any real bargains and it's been a waste of our time, so we decided not to stop there this year.

Instead, we spent our time visiting the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory.  As senior Maine residents, the fee was only $2.50 each.

These photos were taken on our trip in 2011 and it shows the old Waldo/Hancock Bridge that has since been taken down (the smaller, green one in the background).

This one shows the three floors of observatory windows at the top.  Thankfully there is an elevator that travels to the bottom of the windows, with only three flights of stairs to climb.  That was done in order to provide an unobstructed 360* view.

At 447' high, it is taller than the Statue of Liberty and the Bunker Hill Monument AND it's the only bridge observatory in the US.

Looking up toward the top, it's very impressive.

Not a single cloud in the sky!

The views were spectacular on this picture perfect day.

Paper mill/power plant

Town of Bucksport

Fort Knox is on the promontory on the left

Looking the other direction

Where are we supposed to look???

(Selfies are difficult with so much sunlight streaming through the windows.)

Looking toward the other obelisk and the road. 

One of us needs longer arms...

Looking toward the road from which we came.  158,000 cubic feet of rock was removed from this wall.  I think they removed the rock in order to make the large sweeping turn.

Next time we might check out Fort Knox; I vaguely remember visiting there ages ago with the kids.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)