Day 35 Aug 15, 2014 ~ Bar Harbour Maine USA

Bar Harbor was our first port in the United States since departing Boston over a month ago thus we must go through immmigration.  Thinking since this was a tender port, if we didn’t have a HAL tour scheduled it might be a while before we could reach shore. Unfortunately we are 4-Star Mariners.  If you have 200 or more sailing days with Holland America you achieve this “rank”. On this cruise, I believe about 75% of the passengers were 4-Star. One of the privileges is the ability to go directly to the tender, show your ship card and board the next available tender. For the rest they must obtain a ticket form the showroom and wait until our tender number is called. 
Acadia has a wonderful bus system which leaves from the town square on a regular schedule. There are four separate lines which you can catch and even change lines at various points in the park and it is all for FREE.

 

  We boarded a bus and made our way into Arcadia. It is a beautiful park. We decided to leave the bus and hike a around the park

 

 

 

  After returning to town, we made our way across the square to the Bar Harbor Brewing Company.

Had a few beers than did some browsing around the town.

 

Having sailed into and out of ports in more than two dozen countries, I can’t ever remember be accompanied by a gun boat except in the United States. They were alongside us both as we came in and as we left. Not really sure of their purpose. I guess this is part of the president’s plan to keep unemployment down….