In Which the Weatherman Sets a New World Record for # Days Right

Brewery Guard Cat
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The weatherman's dire predictions of heavy rain AND fog most of the day today held true, making the weatherman right two days in a row.  A new recored.  Another guest at breakfast was insisting that the sun would come out at 1:00 (coincidentally the time for which he and his wife had whale cruise tickets), and we were rooting for his prognostications, but he was wrong.  As the dense fog (Even more Stephen-King-like than yesterday) rendered another trip around the loop road pointless, we decided on a different tack for today:

Done with the Blueberry Beer, On to Blueberry Wine
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We drove down to the lighthouse in Southwest Harbor.  This one is on the island rather than off-shore, so we could see this one, by walking right up to its foot.  As it started to rain again at lunchtime, we had to bag the picnic (hope for better tomorrow!) and buy lunch, so we toddled off to the "Mainely Meat" barbecue located, helpfully, at the Atlantic Brewing Company, which brews all of the island's microbeers, and which, fortuitously, gives free tours and tastings right after the lunch hour.

Blueberry Soda is not as bad as you would think, but I wouldn't care to drink a whole glassful.

A Century's Old Tradition: Tea and Popovers at Jordan Pond
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The rest of the day pretty much consisted of our partaking of the local customs:  Blueberry Soda (Tim) and local root beer (me) at lunch (both brewed by the brewery), Blueberry Beer (during the tasting), Blueberry Wine (on the junket to the local winery after the beer tour), and tea and popovers at the Jordan Pond House.  Evidently they've been serving this for tea ther for more than 100 years.  The waitress informed us that they serve between 3000 and 5000 popovers a day.  We accounted for four of them, on what appeared, due to the rain, to be a 3000-popover day.  But the sun did come out right about the time we finished, so we got one panoramic view down to the Jordan Pond and over to the Bubble Mountains behind it.  That was it, though; a quick tour to the coast confirmed that Stephen King was still at work there.

First Sign of Blue on the Day
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Judgments:  Blueberry Soda is not as bad as you would think, but I wouldn't care to drink a whole glassful.  Blueberry beer smells more like blueberries than it does taste blueberry, and Tim approves.  I bought a case of the root beer.  The blueberry wine is actually rather nice--we agreed that if we hadn't been told it was blueberry,we would have known it wasn't grape, but would have been hard put to say what it was.  Fruity, but not especially sweet.  We are bringing a bottle home...anyone want to come to dinner and try it out?  Popovers and tea pretty much what they are cracked up to be.  A bit on the pricey side, but you pay for the ambiance and the tradition, I suppose.  (Translation:  it's a tourist trap.)  I'd say go if you're in the area.  When will you ever be back here again?

More Blue--this time in the Blueberry Soda
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We're going for Lobster dinner tonight, and then we'll have sampled all the traditional local wares.  If the weather man is right again tomorrow (three days in a row?  Could that even happen????), we will probably run a bit of the loop road on the way out, just to get a look at what all the bruhaha is about with regard to the scenery here, then we're off to another NPS site north of here.  More anon!