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Author Topic: Maine Master Thread  (Read 37692 times)

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #20 on: July 22, 2015, 10:47:14 PM »
Time to revive a thread from the dead. We'll be in Maine (flying into BGR, out of PWM became there was nothing available from BGR) for 2 days during Chol HaMoed (Arriving 11am Wed, leaving 7:40p Thu). The idea is to spend time in Acadia NP and hopefully go leaf peeping. We're thinking of using a free night at a Residence Inn by Marriott in Bangor for the night. The idea is to go straight from the airport to Acadia, spend the day (6:18 sunset) and drive back to Bangor. Does it make sense to go back the next day as well (keeping in mind it'll add 1 hour to the 2 hour drive to PWM)?

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #21 on: July 26, 2015, 02:20:48 AM »
Bump

Offline Aj3042

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #22 on: July 26, 2015, 07:52:00 AM »
Time to revive a thread from the dead. We'll be in Maine (flying into BGR, out of PWM became there was nothing available from BGR) for 2 days during Chol HaMoed (Arriving 11am Wed, leaving 7:40p Thu). The idea is to spend time in Acadia NP and hopefully go leaf peeping. We're thinking of using a free night at a Residence Inn by Marriott in Bangor for the night. The idea is to go straight from the airport to Acadia, spend the day (6:18 sunset) and drive back to Bangor. Does it make sense to go back the next day as well (keeping in mind it'll add 1 hour to the 2 hour drive to PWM)?
Why wouldn't it make sense? You can't really experience the whole thing in one day. If you can get in another day or most of it why not?

Offline G11600

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #23 on: July 26, 2015, 12:55:24 PM »
If you're going to Acadia National Park, you can stay in a very nice kosher B&B (though they don't advertise the fact that they are kosher..)

http://www.shorepathcottage.com/kosher.html

Under supervision of local Rabbi, not sure if CY would be an option.
If you are there for Shabbat I am fairly sure they will arrange meals (not sure if cost).




Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #24 on: July 26, 2015, 01:44:41 PM »
If you're going to Acadia National Park, you can stay in a very nice kosher B&B (though they don't advertise the fact that they are kosher..)

http://www.shorepathcottage.com/kosher.html

Under supervision of local Rabbi, not sure if CY would be an option.
If you are there for Shabbat I am fairly sure they will arrange meals (not sure if cost).
Thanks for the tip, although we won't be there for shabbos. We'll also be staying in Bangor at the (yet to open) RI by Marriott with a free night cert.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #25 on: July 26, 2015, 01:47:00 PM »
Why wouldn't it make sense? You can't really experience the whole thing in one day. If you can get in another day or most of it why not?
There might be other things to do in the area that don't involve driving back to Acadia. There would be time to go back at least until 3pm, but then we'd need to drive to PWM. While I'm sure you can spends days in Acadia, do you think that ~6 hours isn't enough for the highlights?

Offline Aj3042

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #26 on: July 26, 2015, 04:29:21 PM »
There might be other things to do in the area that don't involve driving back to Acadia. There would be time to go back at least until 3pm, but then we'd need to drive to PWM. While I'm sure you can spends days in Acadia, do you think that ~6 hours isn't enough for the highlights?
AFAIK it's by far the best thing to do in the area. And 6 hours may be enough of you rush but if you want to really get the experience it's not.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #27 on: July 26, 2015, 05:27:02 PM »
AFAIK it's by far the best thing to do in the area. And 6 hours may be enough of you rush but if you want to really get the experience it's not.
So how would you suggest dividing up 2 days (or the ~6 hours I have the first day and ~5 hours the second day)?

Offline Aj3042

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #28 on: July 26, 2015, 10:04:59 PM »
So how would you suggest dividing up 2 days (or the ~6 hours I have the first day and ~5 hours the second day)?
Don't remember enough detail to tell you but just between the driving, hiking, boating and swimming you have all your time set up (and there's lot more stuff than that). Try visiting the NPS website and seeing what they say.

Offline eliteflyer

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #29 on: August 18, 2015, 11:51:49 AM »
Just returned from a great trip to Maine, rented a house with extended family 20 miles east of Bangor and spent 4 days hiking in Acadia. Hopefully I'll get a TR in some time soon.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #30 on: August 18, 2015, 11:59:26 AM »
Just returned from a great trip to Maine, rented a house with extended family 20 miles east of Bangor and spent 4 days hiking in Acadia. Hopefully I'll get a TR in some time soon.
I'd love to read it, especially if you can get it done before I go on Chol HaMoed Succos.

Offline eliteflyer

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #31 on: August 18, 2015, 03:23:10 PM »
Time to revive a thread from the dead. We'll be in Maine (flying into BGR, out of PWM became there was nothing available from BGR) for 2 days during Chol HaMoed (Arriving 11am Wed, leaving 7:40p Thu). The idea is to spend time in Acadia NP and hopefully go leaf peeping. We're thinking of using a free night at a Residence Inn by Marriott in Bangor for the night. The idea is to go straight from the airport to Acadia, spend the day (6:18 sunset) and drive back to Bangor. Does it make sense to go back the next day as well (keeping in mind it'll add 1 hour to the 2 hour drive to PWM)?
What are ages and hiking abilities of your party? If people are up to it, the hikes in Acadia are well marked, have great write-ups online and overall, really a treat. For your short duration, I think it makes better sense to stay somewhere on Mt. Desert Island Wednesday night so you can spend most of Wednesday (Acadia is about 1:10 from BGR airport) and all of Thursday there before driving back to PWM. Also, keep checking for availability (DL: to DTW or LGA; US to PHL or DCA; and UA to ORD) from BGR so you can buy yourself more time in the park. Consider flying back on Friday morning instead. 

Offline Aj3042

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #32 on: August 18, 2015, 03:28:04 PM »
Just returned from a great trip to Maine, rented a house with extended family 20 miles east of Bangor and spent 4 days hiking in Acadia. Hopefully I'll get a TR in some time soon.
I'm assuming you couldn't find availability in Bar Harbor? Because staying near Bangor and traveling back and forth is a major schlep.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #33 on: August 18, 2015, 04:10:45 PM »
What are ages and hiking abilities of your party? If people are up to it, the hikes in Acadia are well marked, have great write-ups online and overall, really a treat. For your short duration, I think it makes better sense to stay somewhere on Mt. Desert Island Wednesday night so you can spend most of Wednesday (Acadia is about 1:10 from BGR airport) and all of Thursday there before driving back to PWM. Also, keep checking for availability (DL: to DTW or LGA; US to PHL or DCA; and UA to ORD) from BGR so you can buy yourself more time in the park. Consider flying back on Friday morning instead.
That's for your help! It's just two of us, one of whom is not really into hiking (walking with minor inclines in nature is great though). The reason we still plan on staying in Bangor itself is because it's a free night cert, and I really don't want to pay and and use Arrival+ to offset it if I have a free night.

In terms of flights, my thoughts are like this: I just checked and a flight from BGR-PHL (PHL is our origin) opened up at 5:25pm instead of PWM at 7:40pm. If I switch to the BGR flight I'll have to pay to cancel the other tickets ($11.20) which isn't bad, but I won't be saving that much time since I'll have to leave 2 hours earlier anyway.  With that in mind, do you still think it's worth it to switch?

We can't fly back on Friday as there are no flights early in the day (5:25p flight is available again, but it won't help us).

Even if I change to BGR-PHL, we'd need to leave Acadia at 3:15pm at the latest to make it to BGR by 4:25, return the car, and fly back, or to arrive at PWM by 6:15pm.

Now putting it all together. Based on the fact that we'll be staying in Bangor (I also hope for a minyan on Thursday), would it make sense to go back to Acadia knowing I'd have to leave by 3:15p, or can I do enough (I know I can't do all) of the highlights the day we arrive (in about 6.5 hours)? We don't need to do big hikes, just easy walk/hikes and driving around the park loop. If we don't go back to Acadia, I don't have any big ideas of what to do instead (besides perhaps the LL Bean Factory store in Portland), but I'm sure there's something.

Thoughts?

I'm assuming you couldn't find availability in Bar Harbor? Because staying near Bangor and traveling back and forth is a major schlep.
Bangor to Acadia looks like an hour drive without traffic (which I assume they don't have much of on that route. What is the minimum amount of time needed to spend in Acadia NP that would make the drive from Bangor worth it? 2 hours? 4 hours?

Any help is appreciated.

Offline Ergel

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #34 on: August 18, 2015, 04:25:46 PM »
Dates? Maybe IHG BRG?
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Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #35 on: August 18, 2015, 04:26:41 PM »
Dates? Maybe IHG BRG?
Night of 9/30. The brand new RI my Marriott is a cat 5 and I have a free night cert. Any thoughts on a second day in Acadia or flying from BGR or PWM?

Offline Ergel

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #36 on: August 18, 2015, 04:30:58 PM »
I can't really answer that question because I think you should sleep in Bar Harbor. I think we should resolve that first...
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Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #37 on: August 18, 2015, 04:41:25 PM »
I can't really answer that question because I think you should sleep in Bar Harbor. I think we should resolve that first...
Since it's chol hamoed I'd prefer to daven with a minyan, making Bar Harbor not an option. Can we move on to my question now?  ;)

Offline alpicone

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #38 on: August 18, 2015, 04:44:53 PM »
Just returned from a great trip to Maine, rented a house with extended family 20 miles east of Bangor and spent 4 days hiking in Acadia. Hopefully I'll get a TR in some time soon.

Acadia is on my to do list also. Looking forward to the TR!

Offline Ergel

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Re: Maine Master Thread
« Reply #39 on: August 18, 2015, 04:49:09 PM »
Since it's chol hamoed I'd prefer to daven with a minyan, making Bar Harbor not an option. Can we move on to my question now?  ;)
Now that's a real reason (not I have a cert I need to use).

I would probably go back to Acadia NP, even for 3-4 hours.
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