Sarahenity: On the road: Visiting the NE

I'm in the Big Apple for work this week, so my return to the East Coast seems like a perfect time to catch up on my travel blogging and share about my trip to the NE with my mom in July. And there's nothing like crazy, psychotic drivers to get me in the mood to recount our week through Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

When I knew that I had three months off, I offered to take my mom on a trip somewhere different, as I had offered to do this the summer before. Unfortunately my life blew up at that point and the trip never happened. So, this spring, we debated places to go. The conversation, as I remember it, went something like this:

Me: Where do you want to go?

Mom: We could go to the Olympic Peninsula. Or the San Juan Islands.

Me: Yes, we could. But we can go anywhere! I don't have to worry about the time off.

Mom: Okay. How about Vancouver or Victoria?

Me (frustrated): Mom, I said anywhere!

This is what happens when you travel for work -- your sense of what counts as "traveling" changes. My mom does like to see new places, whereas my dad would happily visit the same two or three destinations for the rest of his life, so I asked her where she wanted to go that Dad might not want to visit, and we came up with the NE. So I booked two tickets to Boston, reserved our rental car, and started looking at interesting destinations.

Covered bridge

My first lesson about the NE: Everything is close. Right there. I think our longest driving day was maybe -- maybe! -- three hours. These are tiny, blink-and-you-miss-them states. So we decided to spend a few nights here and there, our first in Boston, two in Maine, one in New Hampshire, and the final three in Vermont.

My favorite city, hands down, was Burlington, VT. It was a laid-back college town, and with sunsets over the and surprisingly foodie restaurants, it was a nice change of pace. We could see the lake from our room (though because our room was over the hotel bar, we also got a big dose of jazz music)! It was also closest to the best museum of the trip, the Shelburne Museum, a huge property with a collection of all sorts of real buildings that the owner, a very wealth woman, bought and had moved to the property -- barns, cabins, trains, a lighthouse, and even a huge sidewheeler paddleboat, 220 feet in length! It was also close to Ben & Jerry's, and I had to make an exception and consume dairy. The stomachache was worth it -- and I had forgotten how much I love chocolate chip cookie dough!

The friendliest people were in Maine. We spent most of our time "down east" on the central coast. These were small towns but very chic, expensive ones -- there are no bargain lobsters in Maine. The land had a wilder, rougher, ragged feel to it, from the jagged coastlines to the wind-beaten houses. Our bed and breakfast in Wiscasset, ME was, despite the humidity, fantastic -- they had two cats for me to pet, chef-made breakfasts, and a yoga and massage studio on-site. That was one of the best massages I've had in a long time. We also drove further up the coast and stopped at little towns along the way.

It's Orchard House!

My biggest geek-out moment was visiting Louisa May Alcott's home in Concord, Massachusetts, a town that was vastly better than Concord, New Hampshire. We took a tour of the house and many of the items were exactly the same -- they had even preserved "Amy's" (the Amy character is based on Louisa's sister, May) pencil drawings on her door and windowframes and most of Mr. Alcott's study. I also loved looking at everything in the gift shop, as any literary geek would.

I think it would be a fun place to return to in other seasons, as it was sticky and hot in July. What charmed me most of all was the scenery and the places, more so than the people, though it seemed the further away I was from Boston, the nicer people (and drivers!) were. It was a good first trip to a new region, and I hope to go back again!

For more photos, scroll down -- and see the rest in my G+ album!

xo
Sarah