Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine

Two cruise ships hit town this morning and 5000 extra people appeared on the streets so it was a good day for us to go to Acadia National Park with our native guide in his bus - tour coaches like ours are too big for the roads.

The Rockefellers are great benefactors of this park, donating much of the land and having personal involvement in the running. John D the second decreed that no automobiles be allowed on carriage roads which holds true to today - and we benefited from that decree this afternoon.

In the morning we drove around the meadow and looked at the wild plant gardens which were established by the local Garden Club, a worthy cause, and a huge amount of work. The cruise ships had commandeered every bus in the area and they were all at Thunder Hole on the coast waiting for it to thunder (usually more of a whisper according to our guide).

Then a stiff climb in the bus up Cadillac Mountain to look out over Bar Harbor and see the two cruise ships sitting innocently out in the bay. It was freezing up there with an icy wind blowing and I hated it - was very happy to come back down to Jordan Pond House Restaurant for lunch pre-ordered by Merryle.

This is the best lunch yet! We had a private dining room and the owner as waiter who explained there has been a restaurant on this site for one hundred years and they still serve the same specialties. Bring it on! They are real lemonade, unsweetened with simple syrup in jugs if you like it sweeter, seafood chowder and popovers. Popovers are a revelation: they're simply Yorkshire pudding batter cooked in muffin tins so they pop up and fall over; they're served hot from the oven and you plunge a knife into its heart, add butter and strawberry jam, shake it and eat. I am ashamed to say everyone at our table ate two - and that was before the seafood chowder, the crabcakes, salad and ham and cheese paninis. Not to mention the homemade real vanilla ice-cream with wild blueberry sauce.

The poor horses had to carry all that on our two hour carriage ride. This was a special treat for the last day and what a delight it was to sit back in the carriage and let our two French percherons driven by Emily carry us up the hill on gradual slopes. Emily is a funny and informative guide and she handled Pete and Gub with skill and obvious love. Pete has had one eye removed and experimental surgery on his other eye so it's touch and go for him but he and his brother didn't skip a beat hauling us up that mountain and seemed to enjoy their work.

It was lovely to slowly and quietly drive under the trees and see at close quarters how the trees cling to the rocks with little shrubs and mosses around their trunks and gaze out at the sea - the cruise boats far in the distance and no cruisers within sight or sound.

Two hours passed too quickly and soon we were back saying goodbye to Pete and Gub and Emily.

David and I had a light dinner and an ice-cream cone: I was intrigued by maple bacon but after a sample settled for maple walnut - delicious - and $2 for 2 cones because they are closing next week.