Acadia - Overview of a long trip

Acadia National Park
Distance: 1,420 miles
Drive Time: 21 hours, 15 minutes.

We are fast running out of National Park's within a days drive. Out of the 59 National Parks, there are 6 that are easily within a days drive and 2 more at the bottom of Florida that can be done in a long day. 5 of those are behind us, leaving just 1 easy drive ahead of us. Being gluttons for punishment, we decided to wait on the easy one, and instead take a trip all the way to frigid north in the state of Maine. Our trip, including detours, would take us over 3,000 miles and through 15 States.

Before we got to Maine, we took a detour to visit Beth & Nathan Tousley, who are currently stationed at Fort Meade, an army base in Maryland about 1 hour from Washington, D.C. We were excited to take the opportunity to see our Nation's Capitol and visit with Stacy's sister at the same time. We spent 3 days there, and took in as much sight-seeing as possible. But even with our packed schedule, we didn't even scratch the surface of what DC has to offer.

Acadia National Park is on the Atlantic coast of Maine on Mt. Desert island. It was discovered by French explorer, Samuel de Champlain. He remarked, that due to the lack of vegetation near the top it was the "Island of Bare Mountains". Even though "desert" is spelled the same in French and English, it is a French word and therefore pronounced like the English word for pie and ice cream.

For accommodations, we chose Ann's Point Cottage: Treehouse #3 in the town of Tremont,  a cottage on the quiet side of the island. It was about a half-hour drive from Bar Harbor and the main entrance to Acadia National Park, but the more relaxed atmosphere made up for the drive every day. The cottage itself was two stories, with access to the living area only on the second floor. The first floor was a garage and basically used as storage for the Ann's Point employees. It had 2 bedrooms and 1 bath with a large living room / kitchen area.

Finally, our return trip would take us through Ohio, where we would spend Memorial weekend with Stacy's grandparents before coming home. In the end, our 12 day vacation had us spending 4 days in the car, 3 days in DC, 3 days in Maine, and 2 days in Ohio.