Our last morning in Bar Harbor found us trying breakfast at the Cottage Street Bakery and Restaurant because we hadn’t tried any pop-overs yet and they had pop-overs. They also had an outside deck and it looked like we were going to have another beautiful day.

Breakfast was just as good as at The Great Maine Breakfast and the pop-overs yummy. We took a few minutes after breakfast to wander around a little more and grab a few last pictures and then it was back on the road. What a nice mini vacation.

We decided not to detour back to the winery but just to go home. Along the way we had to cross the bridge we’d crossed on the way up. Approaching it from the other side we could see what looked like an old fort. Then JR spotted a sign and a turn off. We had time so off the exit we went to squeeze in one more adventure.

We followed the little road up to an entry hut like a toll booth. We asked the attendant about the Fort and she mentioned that we could go up the bridge too! That sounded really cool so we paid our entrance fee, followed the road to the upper lot where we could park and walk down to the bridge.

As we walked down the path to the entrance to the bridge we could hear a bird screeching. To me it sounded like a raptor of some kind but I couldn’t see anything.

An attendant gave us instructions on how to exit the elevator before he would let us on the car and then, whoosh, we were whisked up 420 feet in 60 seconds to the observation deck at the top of the supports. What a view! This is amazing! All glass, we could walk all around the enclosed elevator shaft and see views that spread out in all 4 directions. If you are afarid of heights you may not be as thrilled with this as I am. You’re really high up!

The bridge spans the Penocscot River Narrows and  the elevator up is fastest elevator in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont . That ride will take you to the top of the tallest public bridge-observatory in the world! AWESOME!

Pictures taken through the glass walls and we headed back down to ground level. The attendant was there waiting when we came back. He made a comment that there hadn’t been too many “Bird Watchers” out this year. This got my attention and I asked him what we were hearing when we came in. He said there was a nest box on one of the cross bars of the old bridge. He pointed it out to us and went on to say that there were baby Peregrine Falcons in there and that was what we were hearing. He said they screech like that when they get hungry.  As we headed back to go to check out the fort we looked again. We could see the nest box but no falcons. Too  bad , that would have been very cool to see.

It’s really nice to see the old and the new, the two bridges side by side. As far as I could tell the old bridge is not open at all  anymore but I hope they keep it for contrast…and a place for the Falcons to continue nesting. 🙂