Since they were both close to our hotel, we decided to visit two college in the area. First, we drove by (and accidentally through) Amherst College. Next, we walked through Smith College to visit their botanical garden. There was very little activity on both campuses, which we thought was weird for a weekday. Valerie looked it up and both schools finished finals last week.

We drove to the Springfield Museums quadrangle. Sadly, all the museums were closed on Monday, but we were able to walk through the outdoor Dr. Seuss sculpture garden. There was a small lorax and a giant cat in the hat.

Next, we visited the Mark Twain house in Hartford, CT, and the adjacent Harriet Beecher Stowe house. We didn’t actually take the guided tour through either of the houses, but we did walk around the buildings and tour through the accompanying museums.

Valerie was getting frustrated trying to book a hotel using her phone, so we stopped by the Portland (MA) Library to book a hotel using our laptop. We ended up at the La Quinta in Danbury, CT.

On Tuesday, we decided to take a rest day before heading to New York City. We ate the free breakfast and then returned to bed. We checked out around noon and then we stopped by Tarrywile Mansion for a self-guided tour and a hike around a pond. For dinner, we ate at Mima’s Meatballs in Danbury, which has a great service and a BYOB policy. We spent the night in Danbury, CT, just about an hour from NYC.

Although we were planning to spend about 2-3 days in the White Mountains, we pretty much finished what Valerie planned to do on Friday. So, Valerie quickly put together a new plan on Friday night. We’re going to slowly drive down the Connecticut River Byway along the New Hampshire/Vermont border.

Before visiting any touristic sights, we stopped at Wayne’s Mart (attached to a gas station) where Valerie ran in and bought several sandwiches for our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Valerie ordered so much food that the cook said that Valerie must be very hungry.)

Our first touristic stop of the day was the Franconia Notch Flume Gorge state park, which usually includes a boardwalk over the gorge. Sadly, the boardwalk was closed due to latent snow, but we were still able to hike along much of the 2 mile loop trail. After our hike, we drove a bit further to The Basin for a picnic lunch along the river/creek.

The ranger at the flume gorge recommended the Lost River Gorge (which just opened that day) since the boardwalk at the state park was closed. Similar to the park, it advertises a boardwalk over a river gorge. While the boardwalk was very nice (somewhat reminiscent of gorge boardwalks in Switzerland), sadly most of the caves at the Lost River Gorge were still closed due to the high water level.

As we continued our drive southbound along the edge of the Connecticut River, we just happened to run into Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. We walked around the campus for a while and then ate the remainder of our sandwiches at one of the park benches on campus.

We spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in White River Junction, VT (just across the river from Hanover). The hotel seems to be full of people visiting Dartmouth.

The next morning, we stopped at the King Arthur Flour bakery store in Norwich, VT, where we picked up sandwiches for lunch and other treats. Apparently, the bakers at this store start work at 3:30am. (I’m glad I’m not a baker.)

On the recommendation of our friend Lily, we decided to take an “easy” hike to the Gile Mountain tower. While the hike was not as easy as I might have hoped, the top of the fire tower offered great views of Vermont landscape.

As we continued our drive, we stopped at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. Unfortunately, most of the facilities were closed for the weekend, but we were able to eat our sandwiches outside in the gardens. Interestingly, this site has the statue of Robert Gould Shaw that is the counterpart to the plaster cast we saw at the National Gallery of Art in DC.

Valerie’s book indicated that the flagship store of LA Burdick chocolatier is in the tiny town of Walpole, NH. We made a quick detour for some drinking chocolate and mid-day snacks. Nearby, there was an orchard that usually sells cider, but sadly, there was no cider as there were no apples (too early in the season?).

We made a couple more stops along the drive. Valerie couldn’t resist stopping at Northfield Creamie for soft serve after we saw a giant line in front of the building. We also stopped at a super-hipster book store in Montague, MA, that happened to be next to a particularly pretty creek.

We are spending the night in Holiday Inn Express in Hadley, MA.

Today, we drove west toward the White Mountains in New Hampshire. After picking up a take-out lunch from an Umbrella grocery store along the way, we decided to have a picnic lunch at Sebago Lake State Park. Unfortunately, when we got there, almost all the facilities were still closed and the park was mostly empty (too early in the season). We ate our lunch at a table by the lake and then walked along the lake trail for a while before departing.

Next, we stopped by Pondicherry Park in Bridgton for a short walk. The park has several walking loops and, as one might expect from the name of the city, several bridges. Afterward, we tried to go kayaking, but the kayak rental shop was still closed for the season

We briefly stopped at Westons Beach in Fryeburg only to discover that it was more of a sand bar in a river than a beach, but there were plenty of trash cans, so I used the opportunity to clean up the rental car a bit.

As we entered the mountains, we stopped at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center, which was full of hikers with giant backpacks. At first, we just assumed they were hardcore day hikers, but upon further consideration they might have been hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Around 5:30pm, we made it to Mt. Washington Auto Road. The auto road allows drivers to make the harrowing drive up Mt. Washington at only a fraction of the cost of the cog train. Sadly and fortunately, the road was closed by the time we arrived, so we decided to skip it since I am a terrible driver and we had already been on many taller mountains at various points in our lives.

Instead, we drove along the beautiful Kancamagus Highway toward Lincoln. The National Forest Service set up some very nice scenic viewpoints of waterfalls and rapids along the highway. We were fortunate to arrive at the Pemigewasset scenic viewpoint just in time to watch the sunset behind the mountains.

At the suggestion of the owner of tonight’s motel, we ate dinner at semi-famous Woodstock Station brewery and restaurant.

On our first day in Acadia National Park, we spent the day driving around the Park Loop. We started the day by dropping by the visitor center to buy a park pass. While we were there, some friendly park employees told us about National Park Passports (you can stamp them at each national park you visit). Since we are planning to visit many national parks in the future, we picked up one.

Early in the day, we were feeling adventurous and attempted to hike the steep Beehive trail. Alas, I was too out of shape to make it to the top, so we turned around and attempted the much flatter and easier Jordan Pond trail.

After completing the Park Loop, we drove to the coast guard lighthouse at Bass Harbor and then returned to Bar Harbor for the night.

There aren’t a lot of restaurants open late in Bar Harbor. For dinner, we stopped at two places that we saw were still open, the Side Street Cafe and the Thirsty Whale.

On the second day, we picked up lunch from Rooster Brothers in Ellsworth on our way to the Schoodic Peninsula where we saw more Maine coastline and ate our lunch. Next, we drove inland to Bangor to see a very large statue of Paul Bunyan. Finally, we ate dinner at The Red Barn in Augusta before settling in at the wonderfully named Sleepy Time Motel in Auburn.

Today, we drove north along the Maine coast toward Acadia National Park, stopping along the way for sightseeing and food.

On the recommendation of one of the employees at the LL Bean store, we started our day with a scenic drive down one of the “fingers” (long narrow peninsulas extending from the coast of Maine). There wasn’t much at the end except for a harbor, so we took some pictures and headed back up the finger.

For lunch, we stopped at the famous Red’s lobster shack in Wiscasset for a very meaty lobster roll and some other delicious Maine seafood. For dessert, we shared a slice of the excellent four-berry pie at Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro.

As we continued our drive, we stopped at the Rockland breakwater for a nice walk and yet another lighthouse. There were a few fishermen out on the breakwater and a surprising number of pedestrians.

Outside of Camden, we drove up Mt. Battie in Camden Hills State Park for a magnificent view of the area. Sadly, there is a per-person fee to enter the park and non-Maine residents have to pay more.

We’re staying the night at the Bar Harbor Motel in Bar Harbor, where the staff is refreshingly friendly.

As we move further north, it seems like more and more hotels and motels are either closed or just opened. I guess the season starts a bit later up here.

After breakfast, we started our morning with a walk along the Marginal Way coastal trail in Ogunquit. There were waves, rocks, wind, and very limited parking. Valerie got cold, so we moved on to our next stop, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge includes a short, well-maintained walking trail loop that shows off some of the features of the nearby tidal estuary and its ecosystem. Unlike many NPS & FWS facilities, this refuge has free parking.

Our next stop was Eartha at the DeLorme building in Yarmouth. Eartha is advertised as “The World’s Largest Revolving and Rotating Globe” and it really is quite big and free to visit! Sadly, the facility was closing when we got there, so we were only able to admire the giant spinning globe for about 1.5 rotations before leaving.

Most museums were closed by now, but LL Bean Flagship Store in Freeport is open 24 hours a day, every day. We decided to visit the store to see the giant boot statue and to see if we could find some insect repellant clothing for Valerie’s upcoming trip to Africa.

While resting somewhere in the LL Bean complex, Valerie booked us a hotel in Brunswick, where we stayed the night.

The owner of the motel we stayed at in Rockport recommended we stop by Eastern Point Lighthouse on our way through Gloucester, so we did. By car, the lighthouse is only accessible by a single, narrow, private-looking (but not actually private) road. Sadly, the lighthouse was closed, but there was a nice breakwater that we were able to walk out onto to get a nice view of Cape Ann.

Next, we drove to Crane Beach, which was surprisingly crowded. There were a lot of families on the windy, cold beach (although we didn’t see anyone in the water). Our parking pass also covered the nearby Crane Estate (managed by the oddly named Trustee of Reservations). Sadly, the jewel of the estate, Castle Hill mansion was closed, but we were able to walk around the grounds for a while.

As we were driving to our next stop, we saw a restaurant on the side of the road with a line out the door, The Clam Box in Ipswitch. We decided to stop for lunch. The food was a bit pricey for a clam shack, but delicious.

Our next stop was Plum Island (Massachusetts) where we visited the national wildlife refuge (which was mostly closed for plover mating) and Sandy Point State Reservation. Valerie was hoping to do some tidepooling, but alas the tidepools didn’t have much in them beside broken sea shells.

Finally, we drove to Portsmouth, NH for dinner and spent the night in Wells, ME.

We started the day with a filling breakfast at our hotel, the Sonesta ES in Burlington. Our first stop of the day was Salem, site of the famous witch trials. To orient ourselves with the town, we stopped by the National Park Visitor Center. Afterward, we walked across the street to the Peabody Essex Museum, an art and historical museum. The museum was full of stuff, but nothing particularly impressive (at least to me). However, the steep admission price included a guided walkthrough of three old homes in the area. The tour wasn’t particularly informative, but the guide was very exuberant. After the museum, we walked to the nearby cemetery and witch trial victim memorial.

After we left Salem, we took a quick drive through Marblehead, which the guide book says is where rich people live. As expected, there were a lot of mansions. Finally, we drove to our hotel in Rockport. We ate dinner in town at one of the few open restaurants.

Since we were already in Plymouth, we decided to visit the famous Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims legendarily landed in the New World. I was a little disappointed to find that it’s just a small boulder with a year carved into it. And it may not even be the actual rock. In fact, according to the sign, there may not be an actual rock. But at least there was no admission fee to visit the rock.

The other major attraction in Plymouth that we visited is the Plimouth Plantation (spelled with an “i”), which has recreations of the early settlements of the Pilgrims and a nearby Native American tribe. It was interesting to see the difficult living conditions of the early settlers, but probably not interesting enough to warrant the high admission cost.

Next, we went to the town of Quincy (pronounced Quinzy) to visit Adams National Historic Park. For only $5 per person, we took a bus and walking tour of the various homes of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams and their descendants. The rangers did a spectacular job describing the homes and the life and times of the Adams family.

Since we needed to drive through Boston anyway (I hate driving through big cities), we decided to stop by MIT and Harvard in the neighboring city of Cambridge. The old brick buildings of Harvard are what I’d expect from an Ivy League school. The MIT campus was a mix of old and new buildings, each bustling with students and faculty. I’m really glad I didn’t attend either of these schools; it’s just too cold.

While we waited for rush hour traffic to subside, we picked up some slices of pizza from Ottos near Harvard Square for dinner. It was tasty, but I wish they had more indoor seating so we didn’t have to eat outside.

We started our day by by heading to the National Park Service’s Salt Pond Visitor Center. The ranger was able to give us some good advice about which sights and hikes would fit our itinerary.

We made our way to the town of Provincetown, on the tip of the cape. Their library (which is apparently one of the best in the country) has an actual full-size ship located within the children’s section of the building. (Sadly, the interior of the ship is not accessible to the public.) The library also offered the “best view in town” from its upper levels.

We drove back down the cape to do a short hike to an area swamp. As we started our trek, a sign warned that this was a tick infested area. The ranger said that the ticks are not out in force yet, so we shouldn’t worry too much about them. Nevertheless, we doused ourselves in tick/mosquito repellant before our walk. The swamp was accessible via a raised boardwalk and was quite swamplike.

We started our second day in Cape Cod by driving to an area of Yarmouth that supposedly has a lot of old mansions. We failed to find the mansions we were looking for, but somehow stumbled upon the Edward Gorey House. Neither of us knew who Edward Gorey was, but we decided to tour the house anyway. It was small and probably very interesting for people who enjoy the works of Edward Gorey.

Next, we drove to some tidal flats near Brewster. Valerie was hoping to find some tidepools, which we failed to do. However, we did see a lot of flat beach.

Valerie wanted to go for a bike ride, so she browsed the Internet for the best easy bike ride on the cape. We eventually made our way to Falmouth and rented a couple bikes for a quick 45 minute ride (each way) to Woods Hole. After a quick snack at a local cafe, we made our way back to Falmouth and then headed off the cape to Plymouth, where we are staying the night.