One goes to Mount Desert Island to enjoy nature - spectacular ocean views, hiking, boating, birding, and a bit of solitude. This lovely home allows one to enjoy all of MDI’s beauty on property in utter privacy, hosted by the extremely responsive and helpful owner Sara, who will give you personalized tips about where to explore, shop, and eat. The home itself has a lovely great room with floor to ceiling windows, a great ocean breeze, a large bathtub, a nicely laid out kitchen, and again, utter privacy.
A pleasant half hour drive gets one to Bar Harbor’s shops and Acadia National Park and its mountain trails, Park Loop Road, ocean path, and carriage roads — but also in summer many people, many cars, few parking spaces. In about fifteen minutes, one can easily get to the less touristed town of Southwest Harbor, with its shops, restaurants, and the island’s outstanding lobster piers - no traffic, ample parking.
Though we came for Acadia, after a few days of exploring the park and tiring of the crowds, we actually spent much of our time on this property, enjoying its mature Maine woods right down to the ocean from its perfectly situated swing or bench, cooking superbly fresh fish on the grill and eating it outdoors, enjoying a twilight camp fire in the fire pit, and watching the stars from the private dock. We rented a kayak for the week and paddled out daily, grateful to launch from the dock into the somewhat sheltered cove, and thence out to the sea, admiring a bald eagle, broad-shouldered hawk, porpoises, seals, and sea birds along our route, staring all the while at Blue Hill Bay and MDI’s outlying islands. We were so happy we chose the Quiet Side of the island and even happier that we chose this house. We are already planning our next stay.