Acadia & Bar Harbor & Down East offer vacation activites, indoors and outdoors

You thought Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor were splendid in summer?? Come let this place dazzle you in the snow. The 45 miles of Acadia's charming carriage roads throughout the park are a cross-country skier’s or snowshoer's dream. Snowmobiles are welcome on the 27-mile Park Loop Road system (including the road up Cadillac Mountain). Mountain Guides Climbing School offers ice climbing courses for all levels. A more-sedate pleasure is bird watching and -photography. After a day of play, Bar Harbor’s restaurants, inns, and B&Bs are welcome, nourishing, and cozy. Plan a visit. Phone: 207-620-9074 [photo by Earl Brechlin]

Who could possibly improve on this shop’s description of itself: “An Exploratorium and interactive shop for everyone who’s even a little curious about the last 13.8 billion years (give or take).” The Naturalist’s Notebook at 115 Main Street in Northeast Harbor is a melding of science, art, and nature learning and activities zone (not to mention its fantastic gift shop). The Notebook offers 13.8-billion-year art workshops, book signings, talks and other special events. Fun for science lovers and all the rest of us, too. Phone: 207-276-4120.

Bartlett Maine Estate Winery at 161 Chicken Mill Pond Road in Gouldsboro is a small detour off the fabled road to Acadia National Park. At Bartlett’s, prize-winning wines are pressed onsite from native fruits. A relatively new offering is Rusticator rum, with flavors of vanilla, toffee, lime and banana. The tasting room, halfway between Ellsworth and the Petit Manon Wildlife Refuge, is housed in a hand-wrought stone building. Tasting room is from June to October or by appointment. 207- 546-2408.

Spend a night under the stars at Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, and everything will come into perspective. The night sky is an endless source of entertainment and beauty, and the clear, dark Maine sky allows stargazers a breathtaking view of constellations. The Seawall Campground picnic area near Manset is an almost magically scenic stargazing spot: See the Milky Way and ocean meet. Discover the brightest stars in the sky, the "hidden" location of hundreds of black holes, and Messier 13, the famous faraway destination of a human attempt at intergalactic contact. Bring your best telescope, or get a rotating star map from the Acadia gift shop.