Bar Harbor, Maine report

After Boston and Brookline, I proceeded to KBHB. Here’s the view of Mount Desert Island out the PC-12 window:

Note that the view out of an open helicopter door is a lot better (the Mount Desert section starts at about 19:30):

Our first planned outing, a boat trip to Southwest Harbor and the Claremont Hotel, was subjected to (life-saving) abortion care due to fog that developed suddenly. We drove there instead to enjoy a typical Maine sunset:

The next couple of days were gloriously sunny.

This was Graham Platner country, but after he was unpersoned the good citizens of Bar Harbor put up their Troy Jackson signs:

Jackson is a progressive Democrat and supports Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, ending arms sales to Israel, expanding worker rights, banning certain purchases by non-Maine firms of starter homes, and an increased lodging tax on out-of-state visitors. He strongly supports abortion rights and LGBTQ rights, after having opposed them in his early career.

(On his campaign site, Jackson says he will “End the genocide in Gaza”, presumably by declaring war on Israel and having the U.S. military go in to destroy the IDF. He also promises to “Tax the billionaires” (let’s all send our property tax bills to MacKenzie Scott Bezos and Melinda Gates!). Jackson is leading Susan Collins in statewide polls.)

Despite the high level of righteousness, I found a beater Toyota on the southwest corner of the island with an “Awesome People Love Trump” sticker:

The sensitive will want to rush away from this kind of hatred to the safe space of the bookstore in Bar Harbor where August was still “Pride Month”:

As in Brookline, Maskachusetts, books about hockey-playing members of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community were featured in two separate sections of the store. New Englanders simply can’t get enough on this subject.

(See also Pride Parade and Children’s Drag Show in Bar Harbor, Maine and Unofficial Pride in Bar Harbor, Maine, both from 2025)

I returned home out of Bangor via Delta Airlines (for which I once worked!).

Progressives in Maine are passionate about river-to-the-sea liberation in the distant mythical land of “Palestine” and also they’re happy to do absolutely nothing to help their homeless neighbors:

(See The #Resistance in Bangor, Maine for a “Free Palestine” rally a year ago in Bangor, which also featured Rainbow Flags and which was therefore a legit “Queers for Palestine” rally.)

I complained about the 20-year-old suspension fork on a hybrid bike at my friend’s house hitting a stop and then I saw this bike with much more serious fork issues on a side street in Bangor:

The Bangor Airport doesn’t seem to realize that “Amelia Earhart Room” might not be the most comfortable place for nervous passengers:

Like the bookstore in Brookline, the airport has signage associating 2SLGBTQQIA+ identity with mental illness:

The terminal bookstore was ready for golden retriever customers:

A view of West Palm Beach:

Would Maine be the perfect place for a Floridian to have a summer home? The pluses are obvious:

• cool weather
• interesting terrain (only “hilly” by Rocky Mountains standards, but potentially qualifying as “mountainous” for some)

The minuses are severe, though:

• plethora of biting insects (hardly any in settled parts of Florida due to spraying)
• 9.15 percent state income tax rate to which a part-time resident might yet become subject
• 12 percent estate tax rate to which a temporary resident who dies might become subject (Maine could try to argue that the person had gotten sick and spent more than 6 months in Maine while dying, for example, and thus became a Maine resident)
• a powerful lust for taxation of part-time residents (the Democrat nominee for the 2026 governor’s race, currently leading in the polls: “Require Second Homes to Pay Their Fair Share: Hannah will adjust property tax law to allow municipalities to tax second homes owned by non-Maine residents at higher rates, ensuring seasonal and investment properties support the infrastructure and services they rely on and reducing the burden on Mainers.”; this is absurd when you consider that the second home owners don’t send children to public schools and probably seldom get arrested and imprisoned (ergo, how much can they be costing?))
• history of sales and excise taxes on aircraft ownership, including pursuing part-time residents from states that are free of aircraft sales tax (such as MA and NH) for Maine tax

It would make more sense to be in New Hampshire, which offers similar climate and terrain, one of the nation’s best GA airports, and has no income tax, no estate tax, and no sales tax for that matter.