Postcard from New England

 Hey guys! Good morning (or whatever) from New Hampshire!

I'm just going to get right to gushing. This little pocket of the world is a friggin' treasure, especially right now. New England was made for fall. She is a queen and damn her crown is sparkly in October. 

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First, let's start you know, at the beginning.

This trip feels so different from our summer out west. First, I spent one day packing instead of two weeks. I forgot a lot more, but also didn't leave behind anything truly important. I have my ish together so much more, too. The first few weeks of the last trip was spent learning how to live on the road. This time, we all just slid right into the groove. It feels good to know what I'm doing. I'll say honestly that my primary role is "fetcher of things" because we're nearly always driving through the day, so I'm fetching snacks every fifteen minutes for Duke, hunting down Ryan's watch or sunglasses regularly, and making more lunchtime sandwiches than I ever have before, but we all have a job to do, and at this point, we're very profesh at getting them done. Duke keeps us entertained by chattering all day and calling out every water tower on the eastern seaboard and Ryan navigates us through traffic that gives me nightmares. I make the sandwiches, refill the drinks, and snap the photographic evidence of our travels. 

NEW YORK

So here's something I learned on this trip: Canada got the money side of Niagara Falls. We obviously couldn't cross the border since sight-seeing doesn't count as "essential" and while the US side is pretty, I've convinced myself that the show-stopping view was across the water. But since I'm committed to seeing the silver lining to everything, here's the recap: it was 70+ degrees, relatively empty, and the sun was shining. I'll take it. 

We spent a few days trolling around the Finger Lakes. Watkins Glen has a really cool state park with a gorge (definitely did not know what a gorge even is before we landed here) and my socks were knocked right off my feet. Some rich guy built a resort back in the oldies and even though that is gone now (did everything burn down in the 1900's?!) there's beautiful stairs and paths through the gorge.

We drove through the Adirondacks, which are just as nice as their namesake chairs, and I saw a couple boarding schools that felt very Gossip Girl. We also scooted through Lake Placid, NY which was a NIGHTMARE. Cool place though! It has hosted the Winter Olympic Games twice - once in 1932 and again in 1980 - so there are some cool ski jumps and Olympic stadiums to check out. But it's also basically Mackinaw Island in July, but with cars. People everywhere and even though it's literally less than five minutes to drive through, I've never been more scared of running over a pedestrian in my whole life. 

Finally, a quick stop over the Hudson River. Weird to think this pretty little wash of water makes its way all the way down to NYC where it becomes transportation for dead bodies and trash. 

VERMONT

Okay, so after New York, the states get small and you can pop through them like popcorn, crossing state lines every couple of hours. We had Burlington, VT on our list first and then wandered over to the smallest capital city in the US, Montpelier, which felt like driving through a small town with big capital buildings.

 

Side note - when in Rome - er, Vermont. 

MAINE

Back in July, we arbitrarily landed on Maine as our fall destination, and whenever we talked about our fall plans, it was "we're going to Maine!" even though there's like a billion tiny states along the way. Anyway,  when we crossed the state line, it kind of felt like hey, we're here!

First stop was for an obligatory lobster roll, or as I like to say lobstah roll. 

A nice lady suggested we go to Bah Hahbah. That's Bar Harbor to you, midwesterners. We'd just come from there, but I literally could not understand this sweet old lady, and so I told her it sounded lovely, we'd put it on our list and how do I spell it? Jokes on me! I could have been searching "Bahabba" on GPS for an embarrassing amount of time. 

It is a very pretty, albiet touristy place to visit. Now it's a been-there-saw-it place and I probably wouldn't go back, but I'm glad we saw it. 

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

Acadia is one of the very few national parks on this side of the country. Out west hogs all of them and you stumble on a new park every 30 miles, but on the far east coast, you get one. It was pretty misty and foggy on the day we came through, but honestly, that didn't take away from how neat the whole place is. 

I feel like a ding dong for not knowing a dang thing about the country I was born in. Just like I did not expect a gorge in New York, I was not anticipating red rocks on the Atlantic coast. We took a walk down to a neat little spot called Thunder Hole and just spent 30 minutes wow-wow-wowing all over the place. 

The Internet says we have the Rockefellers to thank for all the fancy stone bridges in the park. So, thanks Rockefellers. Last summer, I read a book about the Astor family, which was packed with total assholes and we all know about the Duponts, and I guess I figured the Rockefellers fell in the same category. Maybe I'll read a book about them next summer, but in the meantime, thanks for the ice skating rink in NYC and thanks for the Acadia bridges. 

BELFAST, ME

Final stop for the week was in Belfast, where we parked next to a skate park and my baby immediately decided he wants to be a skater for Halloween and also for life. It's foggy, wet and muggy, which I think is a throwback to its namesake Belfast in Ireland. I read Angela's Ashes and I remember the way they call their standard weather "the wet" and it was totally apropos for what we encountered. 

Misc. 

A couple of fun things, not categorized by the state we were in - 

You know I can't end a postcard without talking about the weather. We started this trip with perfect transitioning season temperatures. Roughly 70º and it was flop appropriate for about a week. Then we hit a weather wall and it's more seasonally appropriate. I'm okay with it! But also RIP summer 2020, you will never be forgotten. 

I can't wait to discuss this book in my What I Read round-up later this month. Easily the best book I've read this year. 

Someday I will make a photo book and call it "All The Weird Places Duke Asked Me to Take His Picture." He is VERY proud of his photo ideas and I'm supportive of that, so I just ask if he'd like the flash on and snap snap. 

And finally, some New England landscape. That's what I physically came here for, and maybe that's what you virtually are here for. Sorry for all the words I sprinkled in here before I got to it. Ha!

Catch you next week with another update from afar. 

Cheers!