Sept. 23 Visit to Bar Harbor, Maine

Today we arrived in Bar Harbor. We had booked the excursion (bus trip) to Acadia National Park. It consisted of a visit to Sieur de Mont Springs, Cadillac Mountain, Thunder Hole and Jordon Pond House.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadia_National_Park

The first stop after we entered the park was at the scenic viewpoint on Cadillac Mountain.
From here we had a beautiful view of the Maine Coast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Mountain

We spent time here enjoying the view, walking on the paths to the top and observing birds and plant life. We took some photos and then boarded the bus for the next stop.

We drove for awhile through the park and then stopped at Sieur de Monte Springs. There is a lot to see here. Our guide told us about the gardens and the carriage roads in this part of Acadia Nat. Park. Afterwards we were given free time to walk along the paths and see the wild garden.

http://www.acadiamagic.com/nature-center.html

Since this is a 6 1/2 hour tour lunch is included and that was our next stop. Our driver took us to a local seafood restaurant in the park for lunch. The menu was clamback style-lobster, mussels and corn on the cob.
The restaurant hostess gave us directions on how to clean the lobster for eating and then starting dismissing tables to go for the food.

As you can see the food not only looked good but tasted great.

After our delicious lunch we boarded the coach for a drive to Thunder Hole.
Thunder Hole is on the coast in an inlet where the waves crash onto the shore. If the waves are strong enough water rushes into a cavern and makes a sound like thunder. The scenery here was wonderful- blue sky and sea and lots of waves.

http://www.acadiamagic.com/ThunderHole.html

Our last stop was at Jordan Pond House to see the Jordan Pond that was carved out by a glacier. There is also a gift shop and the only full service restaurant in Acadia Nat. Park.
We walked out to the pond for photos and then around the grounds until it was time to board the coach for the trip back to town.

Bar Harbor was quiet when we visited but per the guide very busy during the summer- full of people who have summer homes here and tourists.

We had 30 mins to explore downtown Bar Harbor before we had to line up for the tender which took us to our ship.
The excursion was very good chance to see a beautiful national park and spend a nice day doing it.

Sept. 22, 2014 A Day at Sea

Today is a sea day for our travel from NJ to Bar Harbor Maine.
We just spent the day relaxing and going to some presentations on the next ports we visit and other activities.
We walked the ship and found it is identical to its sister ships.

Sept. 21, 2014 start of our cruise on the Celebrity Summit

Today we checked out of the Hyatt and took the SUV to Cape Liberty, NJ to board the Summit. We have sailed on two of the Millennium class ships (Infinity and Constellation) and this will be the third one. This is a really good size ship- not too big nor too small. Easy to get around and has many amenities.
Cape Liberty is in an industrial area as far as I am concerned. No shops or anything touristy around.

We went through the usual routine- check bags, go through security, get our cabin cards, take the photo boarding ship and going up to buffet to wait for the cabins to be ready around 1:15pm.

The ship sailed at 4pm so we went on the lido deck to watch the sailaway. We went underneath the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and out to the Atlantic on our way to our first port Bar Harbor, Maine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verrazano%E2%80%93Narrows_Bridge

view from our balcony

Sept. 20 2014 Start of Fall cruise to New England and Canada

We booked this cruise as it is something we wanted to do for a long time and to get away after Sophia had her first knee replacement in June.
I looked online to find a hotel close to Cape Liberty NJ and chose the Hyatt in Jersey City. It was close to the airport and the port.
We flew Virgin Air to Newark airport and took a taxi to the hotel. When we got there I was awed by the fabulous view of New York City across the river.
We checked in and went to our room to discover it had a view of NYC. I stared in awe of the view all the time we were in the room as the view changed as the sun set and the lights in the City started coming on.
We had dinner in the hotel dining room which was ok. We were too tired from the flight to want to go out for dinner.
We arranged our transportation to the port with the hotel valet so we were ready for our departure the next day.