Stayed with friends last summer near Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park/Mt. Desert Island. Ellsworth, population 6,800, is the only town of any size in the immediate area. Nothing special, but a pleasant-looking Down East community.

 

Looking up Main Street

 

The other side of Main

 

Corner of Main and State

 

Looking north on State

 

Other side, Main and State

 

Water Street. It's parallel to the Union River, but it becomes State Street when it hits Main

 

Main, looking back toward Water

 

More Main -- a thriving downtown street

 

Further up the street

 

City Hall and plaza, looking north on Franklin from Main

 

Closeup on City Hall (and the church behind it). City Hall was built after a big fire destroyed much of downtown in 1933

 

Looking down Main

 

Post-fire art deco theater, south side of Main. Still operating.

 

Old, New Englandy houses looking south on High Street, up the hill from downtown. Keep going in this direction on Rt. 1 to Arcadia/Bar Harbor. But first you pass through the sprawl of the new business district.

 

More on High

 

Realty business at Main and High, with its Mini-Me playhouse

 

Closeup on playhouse

 

Across High from the Realtor's

 

Same house, different angle. Look closely and you might see Barnabus Collns

 

Time to leave Ellsworth and head down to Augusta, where our transmission died and I had to take a bus to Portland to rent a car and drive back to pick up my family and then head back to Ohio. But between Ellsworth and Augusta, we saw some pretty towns.

 

This, I believe, is Stockton Springs

 

Kitschy souvenir nirvana: Perry's Nut House, outside Belfast

 

A perfect storm of gewgaws and gimcracks

 

This is awesome.  My sister went to University of Maine, so we went to Acadia and Bar Harbor many many times.  She actually lived and worked in Bar Harbor in the summer.  That whole area is gorgeous.

Cool town.

Looks reasonably prosperous and well-maintained. I've heard Maine is a great vacation destination.

Comfortable!