We ran into a couple of hikers the other night, and hung out at the Dog & Pony with them, then ended the night at Leary’s Landing (the Irish Pub) listening to a guy play the guitar and sing songs we all know. Well, we helped him out a little bit. And being at the table closest to him, I asked him if he knew certain artists occasionally. “Do you know any Bette Midler?” I would say, for instance. Or, “Hey, can you play any Barry Manilow? Air Supply?” Unfortunately, he was more of a modern rock guy. It was fun.

The church we attended Sunday morning was very old-fashioned. It reminds me of my childhood. The same tired old songs from the hymnals, the same tired old sermons repeated every Sunday from the same tired old preacher. He was actually reading his notes the entire time. Not very dramatic. He’s no Chris Seidman, I said. But it was good. It was nice to stop down and be reminded of why we’re here in the first place. Spending a little time in worship was pleasant before we hit the streets and bars again. Which we did in short order. The Seaside Grill serves an awful Bloody Mary, by the way (though their haddock popkin is pretty remarkable).

Yesterday we happened upon another hole-in-the-wall type bar, called Cottage Street Pub. That’s probably where we’ll spend most of our time on any future trips. Some people affectionately call it the Windowless Bar, as you can see from the inset image. That’s my gorgeous red-haired wife having a pint. That place has a lot of soul for somewhere that only opened three years ago. The inn keep was telling us that everything is recycled. The bartops were made of old pickle barrels, the bar stools were made from church pews, and the bar lights were made from scrap metal. You’d never believe how much graffiti can be found on a church pew. And yes, it was there before they opened the bar.

The other cool thing about that place – and many others, in fact – is that they allow people to bring their dogs inside. We were hanging out at the pub and this dude is standing by the bar with his billy bumbler, feeding it popcorn. Pretty cool.

This morning was the first day we’ve actually seen the sun. It tried to poke its face out yesterday, but couldn’t beat the clouds, and it continued to mist all day long. This morning it’s bright and sunny, we’re sitting here in our room with the windows open while I write this, enjoying our coffee on the finest day we’ve had yet. Figures, right? The last day in Bar Harbor and we get the good weather. We’ll be driving up to Cadillac Mountain in a bit to see the view, then head on out to Portland. We’ll see a couple of breweries there, hopefully and spend the night at the altogether less appealing chain hotel in town. But that means driving two hours to the airport tomorrow instead of five.

We’ve met some cool people here, as we always do when we travel, but can’t count on seeing them if we come back. Because they don’t live here either. But if we ever make it to Atlanta, we’ll have a place to stay. I will be posting most of the good photos we’ve taken in my Google+ album when we get home, so you can see some of the attractions here. Funny, though, it feels like all we’ve done since we got here is spend money. Well, I guess that is all we’ve done. But vacation is about relaxing, right? Drinking beer, sleeping in late, and spending money. We woke up at five this morning and had to force ourselves to stay in bed until seven-thirty just because dude. Seriously? Five? No.

This may be the last of the Bar Harbor Diaries until next visit, though I may add one more if anything cool happens in Portland tonight or tomorrow morning. So since all we really did was shop and drink beer, it didn’t make much in the way of interesting journalism. Maybe we’ll see a moose on the way back to Boston and have more to report. If not, we’ll see you next time. Happy Memorial Day, friends.