ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, Maine

For the past three days we've been in Acadia National Park hiking shore, mountain, stream, cliffside, creekbed, lakeside, woodland and carriage trails with names like Schoodic Head, Beech Mountain, Jordan Pond and Cadillac Mountain. Atop Schoodic Mountain we gazed at a panorama of islands and along the Bar Harbor Shore Path we peeked at Summer Cottages (i.e. mansions) along Frenchman's Cove. The weather has been picture-postcard-perfect, the masses don't arrive until next weekend, and in Bar Harbor the restaurants are plentiful and open and all walkable from our hotel. It's about as good as it gets in an Acadia vacation.

Acadia National Park was cobbled together from land donations from the wealthy who had already bought up this delicious slice of the Atlantic Seaboard. While amazing in its splendor, I do resent (subconsciously and only a wee bit) the small settlements and outcroppings of summer retreats all coded with "Private Drive." On this trip we got beyond the main section of the park on the Park Loop Drive and scouted out some of the off-track patches. Schoodic Point (on a completely separate peninsula proved a splendid stop for a picnic lunch) and tomorrow we'll take the boat out to Isle au Haut which gets only 7000 visitors a year (of the nearly 3 million that visit Acadia).