The sun shone for the glorious 4th celebrations.

For those who have never experienced the 4th of July celebrations here in the US, there is always a town parade. Literally anyone from the town can take part from the youngest to the oldest and they are always very colourful and very noisy.

The Bar Harbour parade was no exception. It went right past our B&B (Stone Throw Cottage, Bar Harbor) so together with our fellow guests, all Americans, we had a superb view from our seats at the edge of the drive. As the floats pass by the people throw sweets (candy) into the watching crowd. By the time the floats reached us some had already given their supplies away but we still managed to grab a few. For one of our group, Mary, sweet collecting is one of the highlights of her day, she was quite successful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve made some wonderful new friends at the B&B, they are all lovely people, very friendly (even on July 4th!) and together, the eight of us have put the world to rights. Here we all are enjoying the parade.

From the left we have, Mike, wife Cathy, me! Mary, husband Wayne, Chris and wife Kathy. Mike and Chris are brothers who just happened to both marry gals with the same name! Good job they are spelt differently or there could be some confusion.

After the parade we decided a hike was in order and went off in search of beavers at Witch Hole Pond on Mount Desert Island. It was a three mile hike and although the beavers were sleeping and didn’t appear we did see a turtle, lots of people on bicycles and people running (mad fools, it was rather hot).

We took our first ‘selfie’ today, shame we didn’t have a ‘selfie’ stick, this photo is full of our faces!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being a Saturday and a holiday, you can imagine what the crowds were like in town and trying to get something to eat was more difficult than usual. We had wanted to go back to ‘Fathom’ but when we tried to book an early table we had been beaten to it by all the locals. The hostess said she would call the B&B if there was a cancellation. Anyway, we didn’t hear anything so decided to make our way into town to try there.

What we didn’t know until later was that five minutes after we left the B&B, Fathom called and said they had a cancellation. Our dear host, Jerry, jumped on his daughter’s bike after realising he couldn’t use the car and his own bike had a flat tyre and chased us into town to give us the good news but alas, he couldn’t find us. Jerry deserves a medal, Bless him!

We ended up in a restaurant called Blaze. I was very impressed because the first thing I noticed after sitting down was the Plymouth Gin. Well, those who know me well know that Plymouth is my ‘tipple’ but alas, not very common in US hostelries, so this one already had a five star rating as far as I was concerned. Secondly, I noticed Frangelica sitting on another shelf! Well, this place should now be rated as 10 stars. Si, get on to Trip Adviser immediately! I love Frangelica with my coffee. The food was good too!!

People who have followed our blog since 2013 will know that invariably we need to purchase an extra suitcase to take home all the goodies we’ve bought. This time I was determined that would not be the case and made sure that the three suitcases we did bring, had plenty of room for ‘purchases’ on the way home. Alas, I’m now starting to worry a little as the ‘purchases’ are mounting up, especially after a walk along Bar Harbour shops. I dread to think what Si will say if I tell him we need to invest in a fourth suitcase!! Watch this space ………………

It was our intention to go and watch the firework display but after our shopping trip we settled in on the B&B’s porch with a couple or three, bottles of wine and stayed there for the rest of the evening with some of ‘the gang’ putting the world to rights instead. It was a real hoot, just ‘lovely’, we laughed and laughed with our new buddies.

We thought, ‘hey we’ve seen Disney’s 4th’s fireworks’ can Bar Harbour’s be any better? We were assured later that they were magnificent so that’s a lesson learned. The next time we visit on the 4th we’ll make sure to go and watch the display.