Destination Bar Harbor

On the move again

Yesterday morning, we said goodbye to our Eastport hosts, hopped on Route 1 and headed south and west for Bar Harbor. My Uncle Bert (my mom's brother) and his wife Suzi have a summer home there. Since the audio book we've been listening to had expired while we were away from the Internet and unable to renew it, we switched over to Bossypants by Tina Fey. I doubt she'll be in the race for a Pulitzer, but she is one funny gal.

Rusticators

Remember those wealthy tourists that Campobello Island was trying to attract? Well, Bar Harbor was trying to do the same, but whereas Campbello landed only the Roosevelts, Bar Harbor was able to land the likes of the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Morgans, Fords, Carnegies and Astors. With that kind of financial firepower, Bar Harbor became a haven for the ultra-wealthy while Campobello quickly petered out. These ultra-wealthy became known as rusticators, affluent people who wanted to "commune with nature" within the comfort of their 18-bedroom "cottages" and tended to by a dozen servants.

We took just a single picture yesterday (below), of Uncle Bert, Aunt Suzi and Alison.

Tidbit

Before 1918, Bar Harbor was known as Eden, not for its picturesque landscape, but after Sir Richard Eden, an English statesman now so obscure that he doesn't even have his own Wikipedia page. But, you've got a name as wonderful and evocative as "Eden" and you change it to something named after a sand and gravel bar visible only at low tide? I don't get it.