Jolly Old New England

This past year I have been working at an elementary school, so summer break sounded as exciting as when I was a kid, so we had to take advantage and go on a summer vacation. After lots of thinking and research we decided to go to the New England area. Neither of us had seen most of it and it sounded like a nice relief from the Texas heat. 

Our first stop was Lincoln, New Hampshire.  We hadn't heard of Lincoln before, but turns out, it's beautiful. We flew into the Portland, Maine airport and took a quick drive over to New Hampshire. 

Top: The route the GPS told us to take to our hotel was a windy highway that cuts straight through the White Mountain National Forest. It was all fun and games until it started to rain.  Then we saw signs saying, "Brake for Moose, it could save your life, hundreds of collisions." I was like "Whaat?? Not only is it raining on this windy road, but we have to make sure we don't run into a huge moose!?" Then to make things more of a white knuckle drive, it got so foggy we couldn't see more than about 10 feet ahead of us. I was like 99.9% sure we were gonna run right into a big moose. Turns out we survived and no humans or moose were harmed. 

Bottom Right: Russ' awesome parents have some time shares throughout the country and one of them is in Lincoln, New Hampshire. It was such a fun hotel and even had a game room! So naturally Russ and I challenged each other to about 10 rounds of the Fast and Furious racing game. 

Bottom Left: We knew we were officially in New England when we grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald's the next morning and we saw they have lobster rolls on the menu! 

The first item of New Hampshire business was visiting The Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch State Park. The weather was overcast and about 60 degrees. The perfect hiking weather. The flume and the trail were "gorge"-ous! Seriously, the whole trail was full of beautiful trees, moss covered rocks and limbs, and the flume itself was beautiful.

We went to explore more of Franconia, NH and got to see The Basin & The Baby Flume. We also got to cruise by Robert Frost's house. 

This was one of the scenic lookouts off the highway. 

The next day Russ and I hopped in the car to meet up with his brother Logan and sister Ruth-Anne. Ruth-Anne and Logan are living in Boston so we all decided to meet up in Vermont.  The drive to Vermont from New Hampshire was filled with even more dangers! Above are just some of the warning signs shown within about a 10 mile period. Like as if looking out for moose wasn't dangerous enough let's also keep an eye out for "low flying aircrafts!" Once again we survived and met up just outside Sharon, Vermont.

We drove to South Royalton to see the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial. We were glad we did. It was really cool.

Top Left: There's not much left of the original house, but this is the original stone front step to the house.

Bottom Left: This statue is supposed to be a very close likeness to him and the face is made from his death mask.

Bottom Right: The stones show the frame of the house. Inside the museum we got to see the original fireplace hearth, a chair that's believed to have been built by him as a boy, and we read some testimonies about him.

Top Right: At the end the sweet senior missionary talked about how the big obelisk was such a feat to put in place, but there were a bunch of little miracles that led up to its completion. She tearfully read the quote Joseph used to describe himself, "I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else...Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty." Hearing the story of how the obelisk came to be and hearing that quote in that setting was really touching.

Then we drove to Quechee to eat at a restaurant called Simon Pearce. The restaurant is attached to a shop that sells handblown glass items. The items are made in the store. It's set right by a covered bridge and waterfall (not too shabby of a view) and while we waited to be seated we got to go to the basement and watch the glassblowers at work!

After lunch we headed to Sugar Bush Maple Farms. Cause when you're in Vermont I think it's like the law that you have to have some maple syrup. And we didn't want to break any laws. :) There were some adorable animals on the farm. (Though Logan may not think they're so adorable because shortly before this picture was taken this horse bit him on his jacket.)

We got to try some yummy Vermont cheese and some syrups. They were delicious! After our tour of the farm we headed back to New Hampshire. 

The next day we took Logan and Ruth-Anne to Flume Gorge. Even though we'd seen it a couple days before it was just as beautiful and it was fun to share it with them.

Left: Siblings at the Flume. Right: Avalanche Falls

After we hiked around the trail (and took a picture with the only moose we ever came close to seeing) we headed to Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

We checked into our rental house and headed to the Portland Head Light. It's historic and for you history buffs George Washington was actually the one who commissioned it. 

We wandered around a little and climbed down to some rocks for a different view of the lighthouse and we got to see some cool little rock sculptures people had made. After we visited the lighthouse sadly, Logan and Ruth-Anne had to head back to Boston. They were fun travel buddies and we were glad to hang out with them.

Russ and I headed to Portland, Maine the following day to check it out. We stopped by the beach there, but the coolest part was going to the Old Port District. There are cobble streets and historic buildings. It was like walking into the past. We also got to wander around some of the little boutique shops. Russ and I were hungry so we went to grab lunch at Duck Fat and had some yummy french fries and homemade sodas. 

The house we stayed at was right by Two Lights State Park. We went to go see the lighthouses and take in the scenery. The rocks looked like they were carved metal or something. Really pretty.

We tried to go back to the park that night to do some star gazing and get a picture of the sky. We pulled up and got out of our car. It was pitch black. We set up the camera and heard the craziest noise we'd ever heard. It was like a noise neither of us could identify. The closest thing we could describe it as was a baby coughing/screaming at the same time. It happened once and we wondered what it was, but when it happened a second time in a different spot we couldn't hop in our car fast enough! We turned on the headlights and saw a fox in front of our car. In the moment I figured the foxes were communicating an attack like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, but turns out they're not too dangerous to humans. Either way it creeped us out and kinda changed our picture plans. 

The next day we took a little road trip. Our first stop was Old Orchard Beach. We walked around the boardwalk area, got some Pier Fries and shot some hoops in the arcade. Then we headed down to Kennebunkport. 

I'd never been to the driving range before and for some reason Maine just seemed like the perfect to do it. So we practiced our swing. 

The town is so charming and everything is so quaint. Even the signs for shops are like the adorable ones above.

Top Right: Kennebunkport is probably most well known for being the summer home of George and Barbara Bush. So we had to be creepsters and we got a picture of their house. We saw someone riding around on the grounds on a segway. We were hoping it was George, but my gut tells me he probably doesn't do much segway riding. 

Bottom Left: When we went to the pier in town we saw some painters with easels painting their view of the ocean and a lighthouse in the distance. 

Bottom Right: This is called the Wedding Cake House and is the most photographed house in Maine. Figured we had to get a picture too. 

Our last full day was a nice mellow one. We hung out at the pool at our house, which the warmest temperature the water reached was about 65 degrees so those swims will definitely wake ya up. Then we visited an antique shop and went to pick some strawberries. The strawberries were probably the best we'd ever had. Our house had a small pond so our last night we got to go out and listen to the frogs and watch the ducks. It was the perfect last night in Maine.

We found some pretty good food everywhere we went. 

Top: In Lincoln, NH we ate a couple times at a restaurant called The Common Man. It was like a cozy cabin. The food was good, but the best part was the chocolate homemade ding dong with ice cream for dessert. 

Bottom Left: In Portland, ME we grabbed a dark chocolate sea salt donut that was made out of potatoes! at a place called The Holy Donut. (Best veggies I ever had!) 

Bottom Middle: We grabbed probably the most quintessential Maine-y dinner ever. We got some awesome lobster rolls and a Maine Root blueberry soda from a food truck called Bite into Maine. We got to eat em on a picnic table that overlooked the Portland Head Light. It was pretty perfect. 

Bottom Right: We got some delish Maple Creemees (basically just softserve with fresh VT maple syrup mixed in) while we were in Vermont. Clearly, based on my face food brings me joy. 

We also had an incredible breakfast in NH at Flapjack's Pancake House. We had some blueberry pancakes with fresh maple syrup and some other yummy stuff. We also had great breakfasts in Maine. We grabbed some bagel sandwiches from a little shop called Scratch Baking Co. The bagels were amazing and they sell out basically every day.  

We got to see some animals on our trip too. Like a cute little black bear at a little bear park in NH, plenty of seagulls in Maine, and my favorite - chipmunks! I'd never seen one outside of the Chip 'N' Dale cartoons and needless to say they're pretty cute. 

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to see my best friend from North Carolina - Jenna! We had a layover in Charlotte and nothing says true friendship like having your friend meet you at the airport with her two precious kids and some Bo-Berry Biscuits from Bojangles. It was so great to catch up and see her adorable kids. Who knew layovers could be so fun!? 

Our trip was a blast and I had lots of fun hanging out with my "Maine" man. (Boom! Are you proud I lasted this long without using a Maine play on words?) It was such a nice break and great to see some new pretty parts of the country.