Now that we've saved up money and time, we decided to go all out for our trip to Boston. We decided to go in October so that we could see the fall colors change. We decided on a fly/drive trip.
We flew to Boston on Saturday and stayed at the Boston Harbor Hotel. This was a serious indulgence. The hotel was right on Boston Harbor and we had a harbor view. When we landed at Logan airport, we took a water taxi to the hotel. How cool was that? Our driver was really good about giving us tips about the city and he even recommended a place for us to have dinner.
The hotel was amazing. I think it was the most decadent place we've ever stayed. The plan was to stay at this hotel at the front end of our vacation and at the back end. The visit, we got a room with a view of the harbor.
This is the view from our room. Isn't it beautiful?When we first got there, we had some time left in the day so we bought some subway tokens and, using the Frommer's, made our way over to the Cheers bar.
It was very goofy. We thought we might stop in and have a drink. Nobody knew our name and the bar was packed! They actually had three bars in this building and you couldn't move in any of them. Finally, we decided to leave and walk around some more.Right across the street was a really nice greenbelt. We assumed it was the Boston Common. If not, it was still gorgeous. There was a long pathway through the middle where there were walkers and runners. There were lots of benches to sit and just enjoy the view. Being right in the middle of the city, it was very peaceful. At least I thought so.
The next day we headed out to Cambridge to visit Harvard (or should I say "Havahd") University. The campus was really nice. There weren't a whole lot of students out and about but then, it was Sunday morning. Now I can say that I "went" to Harvard.
We were going to have lunch at this popular burger place that we'd heard about but when we got there, there was a note on the door. Closed due to kitchen fire. Bummer. We walked a little farther and saw a huge crowd at this little diner type place so we decided to stop in. There was a reason it was crowded. It was a greasy spoon that was excellent.
After brunch, we headed over to the JFK library and museum. This was really cool. They didn't actually let you in to the library to see his papers and stuff but they had some really great exhibits.
After the library, we headed back to the hotel for a little rest. Then on to a tasty dinner.The next day we rented a car and headed out for our "Fall Foliage Experience". The driving tour went to Maine, New Hampshire and finally back to a mini tour of Massachussettes. As we left Boston, the first state line we crossed was into New Hampshire.
The drive from Boston to Maine was beautiful. The main purpose of the trip was to see the fall colors. There was a lot of that along the way.
Our first stop was Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
We were on a quest to have a lobster roll at the Lobster Shack. It came highly recommended. Boy, you really have to know this place is here. The restaurant was at the top of this hill right off the ocean. It was freezing there but the restaurant was full. We had our lobster rolls and fried clams.
The fried clams were good until I actually saw one without the breading. That made me "full" right away. After lunch we walked around a little to stretch our legs. It was a beautiful area.
We were right there at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. If it hadn't been so cold, I'd like to have just stayed there a bit and just look out at the water. It was relaxing.
If you turned the other way, this was the view. I don't know why but I love lighthouses. This one was surrounded by the beautiful fall foliage. But, it really was cold, so we got back into the car and headed out to the final destination of the day, Portland.
This room in Portland was not quite as plush as the one in Boston but it was comfy and clean. Plus we had a great view of the harbor. We were directly across the street from the ocean.
We didn't have a lot of daytime left but we walked around town a bit and ended up over at this mansion that was built back in the 1800's.
The tour of the house showed all the original (in some cases, restored) furniture and decor. The tour guide gave us the history of the house as well as the history of the family that built it. It was really very interesting. By the time the tour was over, the other places we wanted to check out were closed. We had reservations at a great restuarant that also came highly recommended. So we went back to the hotel to rest up.
This was the view from our hotel window at night. Beautiful, no?The next day, up and at 'em. We had breakfast at this awesome old diner right on the edge of town. Then we took the back roads from Portland, Maine to North Conway, New Hampshire. This was a really pleasant drive. Very scenic.
As we were driving along, we happened to look right and this is what we saw. So, we pulled over for a closer look. I have no idea what body of water this is. I assume it's some sort of lake. It was very windy there as you can see by the choppy water. But it's beautiful. If you looked to the left, there were actually houses with this view.
Further along the same route was this view. Right behind me (I'm taking the photo) is somebody's house. Can you imagine living right next to this? The photo, sadly, does not do the view justice. It was breathtaking.
Finally, we crossed the state line into New Hampshire. You may be wondering why we selected North Conway as our destination city. Well, neither of us had been to New Hampshire so it was basically just throwing a dart. We were scheduled to stay at the White Mountain Inn.
This was a nice little inn up in the mountains. But it was full of older senior citizens. We were, by far, the youngest people here. Still, it was nice. We had some time so we went driving around.
This covered bridge was on the side of the road. I thought it looked cool so we pulled over. The other side was blocked off and had a picnic area. Next we decided to drive through the White Mountain Forest on the Kancamagus Highway.
There were lots of pull in spots where you could walk down to the water. It was really beautiful.
I actually wanted to sit on top of that rock but I couldn't climb up. That was the closest I could get.The drive was beautiful. We went all the way across the highway and then stopped for a snack on the other side. Right behind the McDonald's was a cool railroad track. I don't know why but it reminded me of something out of the '40's.
From here it was back across and back to the hotel for a little rest. All along the way, they had these signs for Moose crossing. Not one Moose did we see! It was disappointing.
I thought the signs were funny. Maybe it was the fresh mountain air.
After New Hampshire, it was back to Massachusettes. The final destination was Rockport for another bed and breakfast but along the way we made a few stops. The first was Salem. I've always wanted to go to Salem. The witch trials were something of interest to me. So the first stop when we got there was the Salem Witch Museum. The Frommer's guide, which has never steered me wrong, highly recommended this place. I guess there's a first time for everything. Frommer's was way off on this. It was incredibly lame but it had great potential.
We wandered around Salem a while. We visited the Nathaniel Hawthorne House - the house of seven gables. After having suffered through half the witch museum, John was a little leary. In fact, he gave me a hard time the whole way over there. I tried taking pictures of the house and this is what I got.
What I meant to get was this...
My husband is a goof ball. As it turns out, this was a really interesting historical tour. There was another house to tour when this one was over but we had run out of time. So we hopped into the car and headed out along the backroads to our next destination...Gloucester.
This is where the Perfect Storm was filmed. This statue is a monument to all the fisherman lost at sea. It was an amazing display because around the wall in front of the statue are the names of all the men/women from this town lost at sea. So many people...This was just a quick stop and then it was on to Rockport - our final destination. We were staying at a bed and breakfast called the Yankee Clipper Inn. I wasn't sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised at what we got. The inn was a really old house on the top of this small cliff. It had a great view of the ocean. We had a nice two room suite and they served up a mean breakfast the next morning.
The view of the b&b from the back.
If we turned around 180 degrees, this was the view. Absolutely beautiful. We sat out there until it got too cold.While in this part of the country, I wanted to see some lighthouses. I find them to be very lonely, yet fascinating. There was one not too far from where we were so the next morning, after breakfast, we packed up and moved on. We decided to take the "scenic route" back to Boston and on the way we found the much sought after light house. I would love to have been out there at night but it was still nice during the day.
We couldn't get much closer because this was a private residence. Still it was cool to see. Back on the road now and we headed into Boston. Initially, we had considered keeping the car and tooling around town but once we got close to the city, we decided we were sick of driving. We headed straight to the car rental place or so we thought. We got stuck on a turnpike of some sort and couldn't get off. We finally took the next exit possible and turned around, being very careful to stay on the service road. Then we wound our way through the city back to the rental garage. Holy cow! I thought driving in Dallas was bad. This was tough. Luckily, the rental place was not far from out hotel. It was the same one as where we stayed at the beginning of the trip. This time we treated ourselves to a city view - a suite, no less. Talk about decadent. It was REALLY nice. In fact, we wanted to move in!
We spent the rest of the day pampering ourselves and lounging around.The next day, we met up with a friend of ours from Dallas. Jennifer is actually from Boston and was visiting while we were here. She and her mom met up with us and walked around the city. Our first stop, Fenway Park.
Very cool. I wish someone would come mow my lawn like that.
The famous Citgo sign..
John and Jennifer in the "green monster". Apparently, to get these seats, there's a lottery. Once you've had the opportunity to get tickets, I think that's it. You don't get it again because there are SO many people that want to sit here.
I'm not much of a baseball fan but even I can appreciate the park and it's historical significance. It was a cool tour.After the tour, we went for lunch and then we walked along the Freedom Trail. We didn't walk the whole thing as there wasn't time. But we did visit the church where Paul Revere hung the lanterns. One if by land and two if by sea....
Back in the day, families would purchase their pews and actually sit in the same place every week.
Here's Jennifer in the Revere family pew. I think it belonged to Paul Revere's son. Also along the trail was a cemetary. This one had headstones that were really, really old.
This one is from 1693. A lot of the stones were falling over and not in very good shape. This wasn't the "good" cemetary where all the famous people were buried but it was interesting just the same. That pretty much wrapped up our tour for the day. Jennifer and her mom needed to get back home and it was an hour train ride back to their house. That night we had dinner at legal seafood for one more chance at the awesome clam chowder.
This was a view (the city view) from our window the last night. This was really an awesome trip. Of course, we need to come back and just spend the entire week in the city. There was a lot we didn't get to see but there's always next time.
