When we went to Bar Harbor in 2005, it had been 19 years since my wife and I first visited Acadia.  Although we missed a few years while our daughter, Kate, was in college, next year will mark the twentieth anniversary of our first visit.  The short photo-essays listed after this introduction contain some highlights from our 2005 visit.

Each trip to Bar Harbor evokes memories of earlier trips – and builds new ones.  Kate was scarcely a teenager when we first "discovered" Acadia; our trips there soon became a family tradition.  Time passes more quickly than we realize, and eventually Kate's husband-to-be, David, became part of the family and thus was introduced to Maine and Acadia in 1996.  In 2003, their three sons (our grandsons) flew north from Arizona with Kate and David for their first experience of the area – and, for the two youngest boys, their first view of a real ocean.

When just my wife and I go to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, as we did in September of 2005, our visits always have a slight tinge of melancholy.  When I walk the trails, for example, I remember how, years ago, I was accompanied on my hikes by our daughter, who became my faithful "trail hobbit."  When I climbed the North Bubble alone this year, I couldn't help thinking about the time in 2003 that Kate, middle grandson Jeremy, and I made the same journey (it was his first mountain hike and his initiation as a trail hobbit).

But Acadia is not a place to dwell on melancholy thoughts.  It remains a special place in our family's lives, whether we share it or experience it separately.  And memories are not to be wept over but to be cherished, with gratitude that we have them.

More photos and larger (800 x 600 pixels) versions appear offsite in my Webshots photo album.

[Posting dates are fraudulent, having been altered to keep the segments in the desired order.]

11 Oct 2005	The Cove and the Cottages
10 Oct 2005	Holy Rock
9 Oct 2005	Great Head
8 Oct 2005	The North Bubble Trail
7 Oct 2005	More North Bubble Photos
6 Oct 2005	Bubble Pond

An overview of our Maine trips is presented in Adventures in Acadia, which is accompanied by Maine Photo Album #1 (containing some photos from earlier visits) and Maine Album 2003 (still under construction).