View from “Great Head” hiking trail
In as much as San Miguel de Allende in Mexico feels like my “home away from home,” it has mostly been a winter destination for me, celebrating Thanksgiving or New Years with family there in years past. But as for a favorite summer destination, Acadia National Park could certainly qualify as “my summer home.”
Moseley Cottage Inn, Bar Harbor
I first visited there at the suggestion of my good friend Alison in 1997 while living in Manhattan. On a whim, I showed up at one of our most popular National Parks on 4th of July weekend without a reservation. I stopped at the visitor’s center on my way into Bar Harbor for a long shot at a hotel reservation, and by some stroke of luck, they found me a tiny single room with separate bathroom at the Moseley Cottage Inn, built in 1884 as a Victorian summer home. My kinda place! I knew it was serendipity as I sat down for breakfast that first morning to a table set with my grandmother’s china pattern. Over the years, I have returned to this tiny little room with the dormer ceiling so many times that it really does feel like “my room.”
“My room” on the 2nd floor with the Japanese maple tree right outside the window (pre-upgrade, 2007.)
I have visited this Inn at least 10 times over the past 15 years, but hadn’t been back since 2007. The Inn changed owners around this time, and I was convinced that my “summer home” would never be the same, as I adored the previous owners. After all, Chris and Christine still send me a handmade Christmas card every year. I read online about changes being made, the biggest being that the new owners would no longer honor my old “regulars” discount. So I boycotted for five years.
Well, after a five day stay over Labor Day, it didn’t take me long to realize the boycott was clearly my loss. Things were not the same….they were even better! A new bed, a new mattress, extra amenities, better wifi, extremely helpful staff and owners. And then there were those breakfasts! Chris and Christine always were the “crunchy granola type,” but the new menu included big fluffy Maine blueberry pancakes, and Eggs Benedict so beautiful I couldn’t decide whether to eat it or photograph it! That along with the buffet of fresh baked pastries and cookies available throughout the day certainly gave me the impetus to get out there and hike it off every day!
It was great to be back, as I dearly love Acadia, and I am so happy to find that my favorite Inn still feels like “my summer home!”