Hey Canada, We’re back! – Guilford, ME to Moncton, NB – Day 15

Trebor Mansion by day

Well, we didn’t see any ghosts in the mansion, but it was amazing! There was a gorgeous balcony off our room and Robert, our host, was a font of local information – he even recommended a great breakfast joint that was an actual mom and pop place (mom was in the kitchen and pop was serving and the food was good and cheap)!

Then we headed through Maine to Bangor – the home of Stephen King, who even is part owner of the local classic rock radio station – proudly advertised on the side of the building! – and then past that to the US/Canada border at Houlton, ME. Houlton was a cute enough town, but pretty much everything was closed on Mondays, so we just stopped to buy a little more “freedomized” beer and carried on.

We were a bit surprised that the border was as busy as it was, but it turned out that it was actually New Brunswick day, so maybe that was it! We drove right on past Fredericton, but decided that since it offered a lot of historical sites, we’d stop there on our way back.

Adam’s mom had booked us a room at the Residence Inn in Moncton for the 4^th and 5 (our 1^st anniversary) so we stopped briefly for supper at a Jungle Jims (when we saw it I was SO excited, as I actually worked at the first Western Canadian location in West Edmonton Mall) – It was a big plate of nostalgia, with a side of squealing children. Right. That was why I quit and started working at a sports bar!
^th

We arrived at the hotel (which, incidentally, has rooms nicer than any apartment either of us has ever lived in) and I spent the rest of the evening researching what to do in Moncton, planning the next week or so of our trip, and basically luxuriating in a super swanky hotel!

Moultonborough NH to Guilford ME – The other Portland! Day 14

It’s hard to believe we’ve been at this for 2 weeks! But not as hard as it is to believe that 2 weeks after leaving Vancouver, I was able to put my feet into the Atlantic Ocean this afternoon! (For those wondering, it was cold. And cool.)

Today we went to try out the pool at the little Rodeway Inn we stayed at last night. First of all let me say, it was a marvel of forced perspective! In the photos it looks like a huge rectangular outdoor pool. But that’s just the angle. In fact, it’s a tiny (but cute) trapezoidal pool. Even in real life, if you stand at the narrow end, looking at the hotel, the optical illusion holds. Genius, really! Unfortunately, the pool didn’t seem to be heated, and after a string of warm but overcast days, it was too cold to swim in. Oh well, no big deal – we gave it the old college try!

We got packed up and headed on our way, stopping for breakfast at a nice café. I had fun watching the little kids on holiday: “We’re going fishing today, aren’t we, Dad? I want to go fishing with you… but I want to go fishing first!” Adam enjoyed the Eggs Benny with freshly made hollandaise, on a fresh baked croissant, with a giganimous slice of ham on each side! We set our course for Portland, Maine and headed out on a gorgeous drive – we avoided the Interstates and just enjoyed the countryside – and since we were moderately far north (the Lakes District of New Hampshire) it actually wound up being faster!

I really wanted to take Adam to a brewery today, and had scoped one out in Portland, (and yes, I see the parallels between one Portland’s brewing culture and the other’s!) based on noticing that the last beer we had bought for me was a Portland, ME brewer. Unfortunately, they were a little overwhelmed – it seems they were busier than they thought they would be on a Sunday, so even though we happened to arrive just at the beginning of their “free “virtual” tour and tasting,” and there were clearly available seats in the theatre (my understanding is that they show you a video of the brewing process, show you the bottling process in real life, and then give you beer) they said the tour was full and to come back in a half an hour. But we didn’t have that kind of time!

So we left and found a restaurant/pub, had a beer, and asked the bartender: “If you only had this afternoon to do something in Portland, what would you do?”

He suggested we take a small ferry over to Peak’s Island and wander around, see the sights, and you can look back across the bay at Portland. Ok, we’re in! The ferry terminal was about 2 blocks away, so we went back, moved the car to longer term parking, and went to get the ferry. Our timing was impeccable, as we basically bought our tickets just as they started boarding, and we just walked on! We stood on the upper deck of the ferry on the way over, and saw some lovely boats (including a reproduction tall ship) and a couple of mysterious buildings on smaller islands in the bay.

The island was adorable, and the first thing I saw were stairs down to a tiny stretch of beach, where I took my shoes off and put my feet in the aforementioned Ocean!

Then we walked up and down a couple of the main streets, got a light lunch at the food truck by the ferry terminal, (again noting the comparisons – when in Portland (either one), eat at a food truck!) I finally got some ice cream – I keep seeing great looking ice cream shops, but then we eat too much lunch or supper and I forget. It was worth it – a black raspberry and dark chocolate explosion in my mouth!

That brought us round to just about time to line up and board the ferry back to the mainland, where we got back in our car and went on our way.

Last night I checked in with Air B&B again – which we haven’t done since Deadwood, since you need to give the hosts at least a day’s notice – and I just fed in “Maine,” since it really didn’t matter where we stayed – anywhere in the state would do.

Up pops this amazing mansion in mid-Maine – it’s northwest of Bangor – in a town called Guilford. It’s just this amazing rambling mansion (that apparently once housed a Senator!) in a town whose main claim to fame is that it is home to the longest continually operational textile mill in America. That and the butterfly meadow, which is just next to the mansion. Did I mention that it’s a mansion? With a freaking turret! (we didn’t get the tower/turret room, though – someone else already had it. Our host, Robert, told us to ask for it next time.)

Obviously, we booked it, and it was everything we could have hoped. The parlor downstairs has 3 pianos (in varying states of disrepair, but still!) and everything is beautifully appointed. The floorboards are a good 16” wide! Unbelievable!

We couldn’t find the internet password written down anywhere though, and our host lives in the other side (wing) of the house (mansion) and I didn’t want to bother him. So I’ll post this in the morning or tomorrow night, after our return to Canada (but a part of it I’ve never seen before)!

Westminster, MA to Moultonborough NH - One Day in Boston! - Day 13

You know how, sometimes, even though something's not really on your way, but it's cool, so you go there anyway?

Hello, Boston!

We drove from our hotel in Westminster to Lowell, MA (where, we learned too late, Jack Kerouac is buried) and took the commuter train into Boston. We focussed our tour on the Freedom Trail (which is conveniently paved right into the streets! - Red and grey bricks down the centre of the sidewalks so you can do a self-guided tour without ever getting lost. Very cool!


We saw Faneuil Hall, which has been a meeting house and marketplace since 1742... and holds a 32'x16' painting that has to stay inside the hall forever now because it won't fit out the doors. It also held a huge (my guess is about 5'x15' "sketch" for a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, that was found behind another painting in the hall.

The old State House

Former 

We saw the site of the "Boston Massacre" - and heard a National Parks Service ranger tell us a really interesting, non-partisan version of events that I thought was really impressive.

Where the merchants were
meeting on the night of
the Tea Party - it wasn't me!

 We followed her tour to the next stop, where she talked about the Boston Tea Party... again focussing on the "history is written by the winners" aspects of the story. For example, the Tea Act: Yes, it imposed a tax on British East India Tea. And it gave the British East India Tea Company a monopoly on tea sales in America. However, it also guaranteed a cap on tea prices that, even including the tax, would have given the American colonies the least expensive tea in the world. But John Hancock and Samuel Adams were merchants, and the idea of tampering with their new "market economy" was pretty threatening, and they were having none of it.

We saw the gravesites of Ben Franklin's parents, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock at the Granary Burying Ground (which looked like every spooky cemetery you see at Hallowe'en) - almost all of Boston's burying grounds were always civic land and not affiliated with any particular church. This one is the third oldest in Boston and was established in 1660ish.

Of course, we had to visit Pinckney Street, which is in the swanky Beacon Hill area (took pictures at the corner of Pinckney and Joy!

There were memorials to the fallen in pretty much every war I could name, including a massive one to the 54th regiment (one of the first African American regiments fighting in the Civil War - the one the movie "Glory" was about), just outside of the new Massachusetts State House. (The old one was where the massacre took place).


We walked back near Haymarket Square to the Bell in Hand (the oldest active pub in the US - it's moved a few times but has basically been a going concern since 1795. We had some nachos and a drink, and then continued on the last leg of our tour for today.




We just barely arrived at Paul Revere's home in time to look around, and were able to look around the Old North Church,  the church whose steeple held the lanterns for "One if by land, two if by sea."

We could easily have spent a week in Boston (I was particularly disappointed we didn't have time to see Salem - it's close by, but we had a train to catch) so we'll definitely go back one day.

Got back to the car in Lowell without too much fanfare, although making use of the commuter train's wifi system showed us our next problem, which was that practically every hotel room in 3 states was rented out.

Eventually, we found another Rodeway Inn, this one in Moultonborough (I'm glad I didn't have to learn to write that in elementary school!). It's really darling - sort of Alpiney looking - and it has a pool (a good reason to wake up at a reasonable hour)!

It's also in the "New Hampshire Lakes Region." We drove up here after dark, so I'm quite certain that the views will be astonishing tomorrow!

Rochester, NY to Westminster, MA - Day 12

Suffice to say we have not mastered the "selfie"
Adam says to tell you he thinks it's perfect.

So after our lovely day off, we decided that a more mellow pace was required. And that we really wanted to go to Boston. There were only a few things wrong with that... mostly that we're now at another weekend, and on the weekends, hotel rooms in Boston average around $250/night. (Which is not terribly realistic on our budget to begin with, much less in a city we hadn't actually intended to visit in the first place!) The plan had been to go from NY to Vermont, and then New Hampshire (both teeny tiny little states, easily crossed in a day) and then into Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and then our flight to Newfoundland, before heading back.

But Boston just sounded like a lot more fun. So we geared up for another longish day of driving (about 6 hours) and we'd figure out what to do about hotels when we got closer in.

By the way, the turnpike toll highway system in the east is getting to be a progressively bigger pain in the keister. I get that each state has its own system, but the way it's handled (ie: go off the highway, wait in line to get a ticket, do a crazy multi-lane merge to get back on the turnpike, and then at least once (if not more) in the middle of the state, you have to go off the highway, wait in line to pay the toll (which has to be in cash), drive a little more, go off the highway, wait in line to get a new ticket, do another crazy multi-lane merge... and repeat. And if you're going through several states, you do this many, MANY times) is really antiquated and irritating. Guess we should have got an EZ pass. But I wasn't sure how to do it, and we didn't know that one EZ pass would have worked for all these different states' turnpikes. Apparently it would've. Well, live and learn!

Where was I? Oh yes... so we got off the highway near Worchester, MA and drove up to a hotel. Too much. I went online and found a much more inexpensive hotel in Westminster, which, it turns out, is more of a skiing destination, so not terribly busy in the summer. But people are stupid! This was a gorgeous drive north of Worchester, through some lovely woods, past dozens of colonial houses and old farms... so picturesque you just had to sigh. Any time someone tried to come up behind me going 10 mph over the speed limit on these beautiful winding roads, I just found the next place to pull over and let them by... this was a drive you want to do slowly, and enjoy it! (No, I'm not feeling ill... highways are for going fast. Quaint country roads are for experiencing!)

We checked into our hotel and went out in search of dinner. There was a brochure in our room for the 1761 Old Mill Restaurant and Cracker Barrel Pub. (I can't take credit for these pics - the trees are way too lush this time of year to get a good view, so I downloaded some.)

Yes, this out-of-focus one is mine...

"This building was a working sawmill from 1761 for 5 generations. It was closed and fell into disrepair in the late 1800s. From 1921 until 1942 (when war restrictions forced it to close) it was run in the summer as a tearoom.

I didn't take this one either,
 but it looks like it was taken from our table!

After serving in WWII, Ralph Foster and his wife Ruth bought the Old Mill and turned it into a restaurant, and it is now being run by the third generation of the family, over 65 years later." (quoted from the brochure)

Tonight in the main restaurant, there was a "murder mystery" - and for those of you that know me well, you will know that after so many years of interactive theatre, I generally try to avoid it. And there was a lineup. So we went downstairs to the pub. It was one of the best meals I've ever had.

First of all, they bring you corn fritters, and dinner rolls, and pecan stickybuns. Life's uncertain, right? Eat dessert first. All of these things were so delicious that I hardly had room for my baked haddock casserole (imagine a huge filet of delicious haddock topped with crabmeat and shrimp and butter and breadcrumbs and baked) and side of mashed butternut squash. So. Freaking. Awesome. Adam had a Chicken Parmigiana sandwich (a whole order of Chicken Parm on a bun with fries). And 3 22oz beers. And since this was a really fancy restaurant, the cheque came to about $48.

Completely stuffed, we went back to the hotel to relax and digest and catch up on our "nerding out."

Satisfied sigh......

Taking a day off - In Rochester! - Day 11

Having found a good room at a good rate, and since both of us were really tired (and tired of being in the car all the time) we decided to stay an extra day here and take it pretty easy. And what a lovely relaxing day it was! We slept in, went for breakfast at a cute family restaurant a couple of buildings down (my breakfast cost $3!) and then Adam stayed at the hotel (to work on my super secret anniversary present) and I went out to the laundromat.

Busy setting up the fair

Laundry done, secret present re-hidden, we headed into town. Well, actually, we skirted around the edge of town to go to the Charlotte Genessee lighthouse.

There were so many beautiful churches and buildings on the way
(in fact, one of them is having a fair this weekend!) and the lighthouse itself was beautiful!

Also, we got to see another Great Lake (Ontario), although I didn't get to put my feet in this one - the beach was quite a ways away from where the lighthouse was.

Another cool building downtown

Looking at the Kodak Building
from Lake Avenue

 Straight back south on Lake Avenue (which turns into State Street when you get into downtown), we drove through the main part of downtown, and then back east to Eastman House and Museum.

Eastman House

George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak company and developed and championed the use of roll film, which, understandably, brought photography much more into the mainstream. It also (according to Wikipedia) effectively turned his business rivals into partners, since as the competition heated up in the camera making business, he focussed on making film for all their products.

One of the pipe organs

He never married (in fact, no evidence he had any romantic relationships with either women or men) and lived in this gigantic house with his mother (who had raised him and his sisters alone after his father died). He obviously loved music (the house contained not one, but two pipe organs, a giant music room with a huge grand piano, a 4-stand music stand for string quartets, and an old Victrola in the games room) and founded the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.

Music Room

The house has been restored (they're still working on the top floor, so it's not open to guests yet) and the gardens are lovely.

Looking up to the third floor

Originally, there were huge vegetable gardens (basically, it was a farm) and that part of the property has been converted into a beautiful museum and gallery. We only had about an hour to look around, so we only looked at two of the galleries - the "history of photography" gallery - with all kinds of old cameras and beautiful photographs, and the current Lewis Hine photography exhibit, which was also awesome.

Garden view of house and museum

 As the lady at the front desk said, "if you think you don't know his photography, you actually do," since anytime you see old photos of the building of the Empire State Building or people arriving at Ellis Island, or child labourers, you're probably seeing a Lewis Hine photograph.

One of the gardens

After looking around the museum until it closed (actually a few minutes after, since we were still allowed to wander around the gardens a bit), we went for dinner and some beers at one of the ubiquitous Irish pubs (pretty corporate, but we got to have a nice sandwich and a tasting flight of beers that neither one of us had even heard of before) and then went to a movie at the theatre near our hotel.

We went to see Hercules, and while the movie was pretty good (summer blockbuster romp) but the thing that made me want to just stay there and never leave was that the entire theatre was made up of la-z-boy style recliner seats. It was so comfy and awesome!

All in all, a fantastic day off! Back on the road tomorrow - stay tuned!

Erie, PA to Rochester, NY - Presque Isle State Park - Day 10

It was hard to leave the hotel this morning... the bed was so comfortable, the room was nice, we hadn't even had a chance to check out the pool (granted, we had a jacuzzi tub) and we were both really tired. It's been a great 10 days, but a lot of sightseeing and driving and staying up too late (because we haven't adjusted to eastern time yet) and waking up too early (because we want the "free" breakfast). I was glad we did today, though, because the "free" breakfast was really yummy.

We'd gotten quite a few suggestions from Adam's stepmother Judith for things to do when we were in her old hometown - things that she'd enjoyed doing on summer vacations when she was young. So armed with her ideas, we headed into town.







Since we drove a little too far, we wound up at the top of a steep hill overlooking the lakefront, and you could see our ultimate Erie destination, Presque Isle State Park, across the water. (Of course they pronounce it Presk Aisle around here, but who am I to quibble?)

The name is pretty apt, actually, for those of you who speak French, as it is indeed, almost an island - it's a peninsula with a pretty narrow entrance. We drove around the park, first stopping at a monument to Commander Oliver Hazard Perry (yes, that's right, Hazard is his middle name) who fought and won a big battle of the war of 1812 at Misery Bay, where the monument stands. It wound up being called Misery Bay later, as the cold and an outbreak of smallpox took their toll on Perry's men. The fact that Misery Bay ends up in Graveyard Pond is no coincidence.

Erie, and the Bicentennial Tower

From the monument, you can look back across the water to the city, where the Bicentennial Tower was erected for the city's 200th birthday. I imagine there are binoculars in the tower to look back at the monument, as it's a pretty clear visual between the two.

Fun fact - apparently Commander Perry was afraid of cows.





We continued around the park to the lighthouse. It was a bit hard to see from the beach (if only we'd had a boat!) but I took the opportunity (and the brief moment of sunshine) to take my shoes off and squish my feet in the sand (which was pebbly in the tidal area but soft and gorgeous right where the water met the sand and above the high tide mark) and let the waves break over my feet. We've been on land too long!

This girl needs her beach time!










On the way out of the park, we could see an amusement park with a nice looking carousel and a wooden rollercoaster, that is also attached to a waterpark. It looked great, but the weather was starting to turn back to rain, and we needed some lunch and to get on the road for New York State.

Service Area off the Highway

We decided to aim for Rochester, which happens to be where Adam's brother Corbin did his doctorate. So after lunch, we called him to get ideas for things to do... which you'll hear more about tomorrow.

Because we found another inexpensive, weird but adorable (like us!) motel just outside of Rochester and we're going to just take it easy tonight (and I'll be able to get all caught up on this blog), and then *gasp* stay here again tomorrow! I'll do some laundry tomorrow - apparently Adam needs some time by himself to work on my anniversary present. And I want to encourage him in that endeavour! Then, we'll drive into Rochester, see the sights, drive back here (probably no more than 1 hour in the car TOTAL) and go to bed.

Relax Inn - Webster, NY

It's going to be great!