President Obama Vacations in Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park
The three-day trip to Maine will involve a lot of scenery.
July 16, 2010— -- President Obama and his family are once again vacationing in a national park, this year choosing a quiet corner of America that for generations has served as a summer retreat for families with last names like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Carnegie and Astor.
The first family is spending the next three days on Mount Desert Island in northern Maine, home to Acadia National Park and some of the most incredible scenery in the Northeast.
The president's itinerary hasn't been made public, but he is said to be staying at Holiday Inn's Bar Harbor Regency Hotel -- the Secret Service has blocked off surrounding streets -- and will probably take some time to explore the national park's 125 miles of hiking trails and 45 miles of carriage roads.
But the real highlight is likely to be a sunrise trip up 1,532-foot Cadillac Mountain. (The spot happens to be the place where nearly three years ago then-first daughter Jenna Bush got engaged. )
It's the tallest peak in the park and one of the first places in America to be hit by the sun's rays.
"There's something incredibly powerful and rejuvenating about that," said documentarian Ken Burns who did a six-part series The National Parks: America's Best Idea.
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Just before the national broadcast of his documentary in September, Burns and his family joined the Obamas at the White House for a private screening. Burns showed a highlights hour of the show, including scenes where past presidents had been involved in the parks' creation, preservation and growth.
"He understood that the parks resonated in a way," Burns said. "He spoke very movingly about the trip that he took" as a child to the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone.
Last summer, the president recreated that trip with his daughters, although instead of riding a bus, they took Air Force One.
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