The Cruise: Bar Harbor (i.e. "Bah Hah-bah"), and Acadia National Park by horse drawn wagon

While Portland was a welcome segue to a slower, friendlier and more pleasant travel experience after the urban madness of NYC and Boston, Bar Harbor (that's "Bah Hah-bah" in northern Maine) was the epitome of New England charm, scenic vistas and an early, idyllic autumn.

Bar Harbor would be the only port of call that required "tender" boats (passenger ferries/excursion craft) to take us from ship to shore, where we had booked a combination bus and horse-drawn carriage tour of Acadia National Park.

Barbara and I were agreed: that Monday, when the weather broke to breezy, sunlight and clouds amid the lush forests and rocky coastlines of the North Atlantic, proved a perfect day.

On the back of an open-air carriage, the pine-scented air blessing us with rivulets of nature's perfume, the sight of the swaying branches, and rhythmic jostling of the ride, the sound of the horses hooves in a relaxed clip-clop . . . what a way to explore the beautiful forests, lakes, streams, and stone bridges of the region. (Video below)

Our guide and narrator was well-versed in local lore, happy to engage in light-hearted banter with the riders. The carriage roads, nearly 60 miles in all, were the brainchild of avid horseman John D. Rockefeller Jr., who wanted to retain the peaceful transit free of the encroaching automobile. The whole system, employing hundreds of engineers, stone masons, quarrymen and other laborers, began in 1913 and wasn't finished until 1940.

Almost all (45 miles) of the crushed-stone road system, still car- and bus-free, now belongs to the park, donated by the Rockefeller family. Our carriage ride hosts (Wildwood Stables) operates as a private business with a long-running concession to run the carriage trips on the park land.

(*Next up: Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Peggy's Cove)