One long day without much progress. Didn't quite get through Kansas so spent the night in Topeka. And in our infinite wisdom, decided to go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, completely forgetting it was Cinco de Mayo. Luckily, not a big holiday in Topeka so got in right away. Otherwise - it was Kansas (must have been a little league something near by as the hotel was full of little kids in baseball uniforms. A little noisy but survived it)
Day 2 - May 6, 2018
Still seeing a lot of I-70 but at least made more progress. Actually made it to four states today, leaving Kansas, drove through Missouri, Illinois, and ended up outside Terra Haute, Indiana. Having seen Cody's home state of Minnesota, the spring here reminds me of that. Lots of light green, deciduous trees, little lakes and rivers everywhere. Very different from Colorado, but beautiful in it's own right. Crossed the Missouri River several times, crossed the Mississippi at least once, and crossed the big and little Wabash rivers. Another full day of driving tomorrow.
Day 3 - May 7, 2018
Driving, driving, driving! We went through four more states - left Indiana, and crossed through Ohio, cut through the corner of West Virginia, before ending up in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania (just south of Pittsburgh). Tomorrow on to Bensalem and our visit with Grandma Dott and Chuck, and at least one day of only local driving. So we're on our way to beating our record of 27 states in one trip. But we'll see how the whole thing tallies when we're done.
Day 4 - May 8, 2018
Drove across PA to Bensalem. Steve had the first leg which we thought would be a challenge because of old, narrow lanes on the PA Turnpike. But the final leg (Sherry's) a truck and an SUV decided to simultaneously come into my lane, where I was, with another car right next to me. I can't remember the last time I used the horn, but I sure used it then. Luckily they both woke up and we avoided any collision, but I was pretty shaken. Two glass night for wine for me. But Mom looked great and lots of hugs and no tears. So the day ended well. Went out to Carrabas for dinner.
Day 5 - May 9, 2018
Today was the budget conversation Mom. Not easy because of her memory issues but we got through it and after a little break getting her some flowering plants for Mother's Day, we had a really nice dinner at Bonefish Grill for an early Mother's Day celebration. On to New England tomorrow.
Day 6 - May 10, 2018
Finally a day of some driving but also some fun. After saying our farewells to Grandma Dott and Chuck, we chose to go to Maine in a little roundabout way. Today it was by way of Mystic, Connecticut. First our state count. Left Pennsylvania, drove through New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, into Rhode Island. So the current count is 11 states. Mystic CT is an old ship building port and currently has two tall ships in port. We timed our entry perfectly so we pretty much had the place to ourselves and got in for half price. Got lots of information from the curators in the ships and in the shipyard shops, particularly the barrel maker. Very nice afternoon break, then continued our drive to Rhode Island. Our hotel was overbooked so we got moved to a very nice Marriott Residence Inn, with lots of room and a full kitchen - for free. Extended our reservation for an extra night so we don't have to pack up and move again until Saturday.
Day 7 - May 11, 2018
A day of memories for me. We took the day to visit Newport, RI. I used to spend a couple of weeks each summer here when I was a kid and my parents and grandparents all lived here. We were able to find the gatehouse where my mother was a child just from the drawing she has hanging in her apartment. The estate is now part of the Salve Regina Catholic University.
She was raised by her grandparents and her grandfather, Alexander Fraser, was the head gardener on this summer estate of Mrs. Florence Twombly (a Vanderbilt), then called Vinland. So when I say something is from "the big house," this is what I am referring to:
After strolling through to mansion (now administrative offices and classrooms) we went next door to visit The Breakers, which was the summer "cottage" of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Definitely defines what opulence is! It was built in the late 1800's, with 15 bathrooms and at least 20 bedrooms (not counting the servants' quarters). It had electric as well as gas lights and full indoor plumbing (very unusual for the time.) Most impressive were the walls they thought initially were silver leaf but then couldn't figure out why they didn't tarnish. Ends up the whole room was platinum leaf.
Billiard Room inside the Breakers
The card room's wall paper was actually hand carved Spanish leather, and the bathtub for Cornelius Vanderbilt was made out of a single piece of marble. It had hot and cold regular water spigots and another set for hot and cold running salt water. The stone was so cold they had to fill it 3-4 times to get it hot enough to keep the water hot.
Afterwards, we walked a bit of the Cliff Walk just to see some of the other "cottages" from the gilded age.
After lunch at the Black Pearl on the wharf and ice cream at the Newport Creamery (my mom's first job was at the original location), we headed back to the room to rest up and prep for our trip to Maine tomorrow.
Day 8 - May 12, 2018
On to Maine! Today, another driving day, led us from Rhode Island, through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and on to Maine. We passed a lot of historical places - one exit for Lexington and Concord, another for Walden Pond. So many names we recognized but still a lot of interstates. This did remind me of a fact which was better placed on the Kansas entry. But in any case, Kansas was home to President Dwight Eisenhower who was the father of the interstate highway system. I had always heard that he thought of the system because of his military background and that all the long, straight roads could be used as landing strips if there was ever an invasion. What we learned, however, was that as a young officer in the early 1920's, a trip from DC to San Francisco took him 62 days and he thought of the interstate system as the best way to truly unite the country by making it much easier to traverse. Pretty nifty, and very smart.
Once in Ellsworth Maine, we connected with Lilia and Rafael who will be our travel partners for the week. Looking forward to some sightseeing tomorrow!
Day 9 - May 13, 2018
Happy Mothers Day. I did remember to call my mom and I rode on Lilia's coattails and let the guys make us dinner (pizza). They even cleaned up afterwards. What a deal. But that's how the day ended.
We went to Acadia National Park for our first time (of hopefully a bunch more). Drove around a bit and decided, on the recommendation of a friendly park ranger, to take a hike on the eastern side of Mount Desert Island where the park is situated. The coastline is indeed very rocky, and dotted with a ton of little islands.
I can see why it is a summer vacation paradise, so easy to have water edge property. But the season is short, like in Colorado. A lot of businesses have not opened for the season yet. Just the way we like it. Beautiful weather today and even on a weekend, not too many crowds. We picked the perfect time to come.
We had a picnic at lunchtime on a sunny cluster of rocks, protected from the wind. Really wonderful, then continued on our hike. By the time we were done, everyone was a bit droopy so we went back to Bar Harbor for a jolt of caffeine. I always feel a bit nostalgic going into these small town coffee houses - harkening back to my hippie days, but I digress. After perking up (no pun intended) we drove to Cadillac Mountain. This mountain is the highest mountain on the Atlantic Coast (1,530 feet). Hardly a mountain by our standards but tall enough to give us a wonderful view - though very windy and colder .
Day 10 - May 14, 2018
After a late night of Hand and Foot and watching Guardians of the Galaxy, we slept in a bit and had a lazy start since it was chilly and cloudy day. We eventually made our way into Bar Harbor and visited the Abbe Museum which was a small museum dedicated to the local indian cultures. Afterwards we decided to go to lunch near the harbor only to discover that a cruise ship had arrived and belched out thousands of people. Totally different town than what we had seen the day before, but we eventually found a cute restaurant a bit away from the water. Those cruise people - never really want to walk anywhere 😄!
After lunch, we went to Jordan Pond in the national park. Still kind of grey and windy, so we didn't get full benefit of what is supposed to be the prettiest lake/pond in the park but it was a really good hike around it.
Started off like a normal hike, only to become the "Bog Walk" where the trail was was actually half logs laid next to each other. A bit of a challenge but not bad.
Beautiful forests with avalanches of granite. Wonderful to look at until it became the trail...
Luckily, the trail evened out and then the sun came out.
We were very glad that we started the loop trail at the difficult side. Probably would have turned around. We returned home for a home cooked dinner and another round of Hand and Foot. Score is now Steve and Lilia two and Raf and Sherry one.
Day 11 - May 15, 2018
Today was supposed to be the warmest and nicest day of the week - wrong! It was a tad bit warmer but rainy and blustery. But we had already planned for a boat tour, so we bundled up and headed for the actual Bar Harbor. The waves in the harbor were rough enough for our boat to actually clear some air but as far as I could tell, there was only one passenger who couldn't stomach the waves. We all did fine.
The boat took us around the coastline of Mount Desert Island, hearing about the lives of the rich and famous. This time the Rockefellers and JP Morgan and families instead of the Vanderbilts. Since this was supposed to be a nature cruise so I was starting to get worried but we finally made our way into the bay and at the lighthouse we saw a bunch of seals and tons of birds.
There are something like three thousand islands around Maine and if linked they would reach from Maine to Florida. There are little tiny islands that were used by the rich as little hideaways, as shelters for the sailing ships during storms back in the day and one called Rum Key that was used during prohibition by the Canadians who hid liquor bottles in submerged lobster traps to be picked up by the deprived US people. (Rumor has it that the Kennedy's made their fortune by "rum running" in Massachusetts).
Our last wildlife siting was two nests of bald eagles. We saw one bird in flight but several that were protecting their nests. Steve caught them the best.
Back to port and happy to be on steady ground, we hit the souvenir shops in Bar Harbor then had a wonderful lobster dinner at the West Street Grille. So good!
Day 12 - May 16, 2018
Today started - and stayed - with a beautiful clear sky and hardly any wind. A little chilly but pretty much perfect.
So we hit the Arcadia Park Loop Road. We got to the Sandy Beach (a rarity in Maine) in time for lunch. We had the company of a very observant seagull and a very tenacious squirrel.
After lunch we hit the trails. They sure don't make trails the way we are used to. This was the start of one trail we chose not to go on.
We all started on one trail but Raf and Lilia chose the very scary and strenuous Beehive trail. Full of ladder climbs and narrow trails, we give them kudos for doing it.
The trail we chose - the Bowl Trail - ended up being 2 miles of steps all going up. A real workout for us both, but especially for Steve.
But it was worth it. Beautiful reflections of the surrounding hills. About as idyllic as you can get. Saw a beaver home and a beaver dam but no beavers.
After the long slow walk back down all those steps we hit the loop road again, stopping at several pullouts and taking a coastal walk near Otter Point. Quintessential Maine coast.
Otter Point
Then home to homemade spaghetti. Thanks, Lilia. A wonderful day.
Day 13 - May 18, 2018
Today was our road trip day into Canada. Since we all remembered our passports, we wanted to use them so took off to the great north, New Brunswick, 3 hours away. Our destination was St. John to find the Reversing Falls. Ends up that St. John was a pretty sizeable city and not the quaint village we expected. But after a few direction changes we found the Falls. This is a confluence of the bay and a river, because the tide is so strong (24 feet of change nearby) the flow of the water actually changes direction. There had been a recent flood so it wasn’t quite as striking but pretty cool nevertheless.
After a nice lunch watching the river,
we ventured into town
to see their City Market . Reminded me
of the fish markets in Seattle. This was
stalls of vegetables with little restaurants all around, plus a scattering of
artists’ booths. Quaint inside the city. Forgot to mention that the running joke of the day was the food truck selling Beaver Tails. Steve and Lil had a lot of chuckles over that little pastry.
Then
the drive home. We stopped in a small
town – St. Stephen – along the way. Just
had to, for obvious reasons.
Unfortunately, the chocolate museum was closed. Supposedly, this chocolate company was the
first to put out a heart shaped box at Valentine’s Day, in the early 1900’s. Very cute town, with very friendly people. We got an escort to the museum to see if it
was still open.
Stephen at St. Stephen
Back
in the car, I got lots of sleep being in the backseat, so a calm and restful
day.
Another beautiful day!
Perfectly clear blue skies, a little chilly but that helped keep the
walks comfortable. Back on to Mount
Desert Island, we went down to southern tip where Bass Harbor has a working
lighthouse, still occupied by a family with Coast Guard affiliation. Another short climb down to get a better
perspective then onward.
Bass Harbor Lighthouse
Our next hike was an easy 1.5 miles in Wonderland inside Acadia
National Park. We found another small
sandy beach where everyone had heads down searching for Atlantic Ocean
seashells, as promised.
Looking for Atlantic Seashells
Lunch was a picnic on a huge slab of granite, away from
the wind. So few bugs we have wondered
what the fuss is about until we spoke with a local who said in two weeks the
bugs would be so thick they could carry you away. After lunch we returned to Bar Harbor after an unsuccessful
search for a closer coffee shop – one of our essential stops each
afternoon.
Once in Bar Harbor, we
finished up our souvenir shopping and did a short distance on the cliff
walk.
Another Cruiseliner in Bar Harbor
But the wind and temperature drop
made it a very short walk. Another even
larger cruise ship in town stole our quaint little village but we had a nice
town nevertheless. Finally found out
what “Down East” means. We’ve been
seeing it everywhere. Today another
local told me it meant the wind which always seems to come from that
direction. Add that to our list of “Out
West”, “Back East”, and “Down South.”
Tomorrow, home again, home again jiggity jig. BTW – the current hand and foot score is two
for Lil and Steve and three for Raf and Sherry.
One more game tonight before an early departure tomorrow. Won’t come back to this resort again, but we
had a great week with our favorite traveling partners.
Day 15 - May 19, 2018
The weather definitely did not cooperate so the visuals will have to be in our memories but today we took the road less taken on our way home. We came to see New England and US 2 did just that. We wove through small town after small town, most proudly proclaiming its origin at 1786, 1794, 1804, and the new town incorporated in 1824. The architecture was a blend of single wide trailers to old victorians that have be added on to many times. The houses were all clapboard but the churches were made of huge stones. Spoke to the priorities of the day.
Lunch was in a little family ice cream stand/restaurant in Norridgewock, ME. They built, owned and operated the place since 1964 and the original owners still work there everyday. Steve loved the homemade baked beans and we both finished the meal with homemade peanut butter ice cream. Yum!
Once in New Hampshire we saw a very rainy White Mountain range. Still snow on the peaks, the highest was a little less than our elevation at home at 6200 feet ish but this was from sea level so much more impressive.
So we meandered through Maine, New Hampshire and ended up in Vermont. A lot of new territory for us, which is why we did this trip after all. Happy to crash in bed tonight.
May 23, 2018
Finally home. The last few days were the usual push once we acknowledged that we wanted to come home - drive, drive, drive! Our meandering drive across US Rt 2 through New Hampshire, Vermont, and upstate New York took us through so many beautiful small towns including Woodstock New York, and the Adirondacks.
Then we hit I-90 then I-80 then I-76. But even on the direct drive home, we did see a lock of the Erie Canal
And happened upon an old lighthouse on the banks of Lake Erie at a random gas stop.
But on we drove. Last day's drive was 11 hours long, 700 miles, but we made it. Note to self: in spite of the tolls in various states, I-80 was far superior to I-70. Need to secure the EZ Pass for the eastern states' toll roads (or fly instead 😉).
Final tallies:
Length of trip - 19 days
Hand and Foot - Raf and I 4 games, Steve and Lil 2 games. All well played
Miles traveled - 4760 (and Raf did all the driving in Maine)
States covered: 17 (plus one Canadian province) - not a record but not bad
