Bar Harbor: Not So Much

Do me a favor. Take a second and free associate the following words: downpour, washout, deluge, fog, zero visibility, torrential, misty, and gray.

Done? Good. Now I don't have to bother telling you about our trip to Bar Harbor because you've already got a fairly accurate visual picture.

It's my fault that the weather was hideous. There's nothing like guaranteeing your out-of-state visitors over and over how gorgeous and picturesque and scenic the place you're taking them to is and how they're just going to fall in love with it. I waxed on about the sparkling blue waters of the harbor, the crisp white of the sailboats, and the breathtaking view from the top of Cadillac Mountain. Then I obsessively packed and repacked my camera gear because obviously I'd be taking thousands of photographs there, right? Hahahahahahaha.

This photo, taken about 10 minutes after arriving in Bar Harbor, shows the absolute sunniest weather we saw. Notice the barely visible ships in the mist.

Five seconds later the sun disappeared. We never saw it again. We progressed to this:

And then this:

And then flat out, in-your-face rain. It was swell.

At the park entrance, the ranger's station has a white board where they jot down tide and weather information. On Friday, it said the following:

"Fog and extremely limited visibility followed by obscene amounts of rain."