Belfast and surroundings, then on to Acadia

We left you as we were settling into our campground in Belfast, The Moorings.  I indicated we weren't real impressed with any part of it except the view and that opinion holds.  It bills itself as a resort, but hasn't anything that would make it a resort, so with the tight maneuvering and sites, the uneven sitting areas with the mysterious extra sewer connections here and there , and the very high price, we do not recommend it.  You would be much better off to stay at the Camden Hills State Park, where we have stayed in the past and enjoyed, but were not able to get into this year.  But it made a good base for us as we explored Belfast, new for us, and did a bit more eating and visiting.

First we made our way to downtown Belfast, a cute Maine coast town, that has the advantage or disadvantage according to your viewpoint of being just off the main drag, Rte 1.  Makes it much easier to get around, but I don't know if it impacts the tourists visiting for the local businesses.  There is a rail trail along the Passagassawakeag River  that was delightful. I know that's a mouthful, so it is referred to as the Passy Rail Trail.  We walked it and really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately our short visit in Belfast was half rainy days, so we didn't get to do as much as we had hoped.

Pretty and peaceful along the trail

We made it to Mt Battie Take Out, one of our favorite eateries in the Camden area.  We had discovered it a few years ago.  It is just a small shack along the road with fresh and delicious seafood, cooked perfectly, large portions, and very affordable.  They have a few picnic tables here and there if the weather is good.

Waiting outside for our order

The incredible haddock sandwich

And the tiny scallop and haddock plate:-)

Back in 2015 when our son, Jason was visiting us in Camden, we went to a very good small place a few miles away in South Thomaston, McLoon's Lobstah Shack.  We all found it excellent, so we wanted to go back.  

Unfortunately, we were disappointed with a very limited menu, small and inconsistent lobster rolls, in fact mine had almost twice the lobster as Jan's.  So sometimes it doesn't pay to go back.

But, it is still in a gorgeous location on a cool pretty day

But our absolute highlight for our time in Belfast was our visit with some more of our Maine/Florida friends, Doug and Nancy.  They live north of Belfast by about 50 miles so we drove up for a wonderful visit and got to see their beautiful home and had a great time.  But the piece de resistance was the incredible lobster BLT's they served us!  It was a first for Jan and I, and what a taste sensation, and that was topped off by homemade raspberry pie made with raspberries out of their garden.  Fantastic!  Thank you guys so much!  We have been lucky to have been able to see 6 of our Florida friends so far this trip, Bob and Harlean, Scott and Sue, and Doug and Nancy.

So with even more rain the next day, we were ready to move to up the coast.  We commented to each other how unique it was moving out, hooking up, driving, and arriving in the rain.  It is phenomenal, to us anyway, with all our years of travel and full-timing how infrequently we get caught in the rain.  Guess it's all that clean living:)  

Crossing the incredible Penobscot Narrows Bridge in the rain

Anyway we bid Belfast goodbye, and headed out on our huge 43 mile journey to Trenton which is the gateway to Mt Desert Island, the home of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  Our destination was Narrows Too RV Resort where we had splurged on a reservation for a "Best Oceanfront" site which we had studied, perused, asked questions to others that had been here and picked site #317.  It looked to offer privacy, waterfront beauty, and the ability to get our satellite locked on for TV.

Now I should mention we have been coming to this campground for years and years.  Back when we lived in NH, we would come up here every Labor Day with Jan's parents, Vern and Viv in their own motorhome, and later were joined by our neighbors and friends, Ray and April, and we have been amazed at how this campground has changed and improved over all these years.  It joins the few over "10" rated campgrounds we have experienced.  So it was with much anticipation we arrived to check in.  Now normally when we get to a campground, Jan goes in and takes care of checking in and paying, well I'm sitting there waiting for her when she texts, "Come inside".  I'm thinking that can't be good.  Well I run inside and the very nice lady there informs us that we won't be able to get our satellite dish on our site, and did we want to try another?  Oh man, we thought it would.

Well, I should also mention that for some reason the season up here is very slow in getting started, the campground right now is mostly deserted so there are lots of sites to pick from.  She circles several that are either near or right on the water as alternatives, and we have to admit the ones off the water would save us a bunch of money, but we had our hearts set on that site.  We ask if we can go look and she says of course.  So first we go to "our" site.  I get out the compass app on my phone and man o man it looks tight for the sat, but oh maybe, maybe.  We check out the other sites and pick one as an option and go back up to the office to pitch our plan.  We ask if we can take the coach down onto our site, mess around and see if we can get the sat and if not we'll move to the other site?  She says knock yourself out, take your time and let us know, could not have been nicer.  So off we go, we wiggle this way and that, pull into the site rather than back in, we were planning on doing that anyway, and creep close to the water, actually close to the very steep bank down to the water, level, and try the sat.  It whirls and whirls, and appears to get locked in, but looking at the signal strength it isn't going to cut it:(  So Jan and I walk around some more, I figure we can pull a bit closer to the cliff and it might do it, someone isn't really comfy with that, we compromise and pull closer to the cliff, and try it again, and finally after what seems an eternity, tada, we have satellite!  And wow, what a site it is.  We are looking right out over the water, we have trees on both sides of us making this site very private, we have our own little sitting area overlooking the water, and mostly it is just awesome.  We think it ranks as the nicest site we have ever had anywhere, and that is saying something!

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Our sitting area at low tide

Nice, huh?

Now we have to bribe mother nature to help us out.  It rained the rest of the day, and the second day was overcast, gloomy, cold, and windy, so we haven't even been able to sit outside yet, but it's looking good for the next few days so we have our fingers crossed.