Trip report : The bargain flights of a lifetime
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Hey all!
Sorry for the lateness, life has been manic busy here with hospital appointments and uni and work... but I think we're finally gettng ourselves sorted!
Someone on the previous page asked for a ring pic, and of course I'd be delighted to provide
Thanks for all the congrats peeps, we're super excited to get planning things but it's all on hold at the moment while we deal with some health stuffs, so reliving our holiday is the next best thing to planning a wedding, don't you think?
Next chapter coming shortly!
Sorry for the lateness, life has been manic busy here with hospital appointments and uni and work... but I think we're finally gettng ourselves sorted!
Someone on the previous page asked for a ring pic, and of course I'd be delighted to provide
Thanks for all the congrats peeps, we're super excited to get planning things but it's all on hold at the moment while we deal with some health stuffs, so reliving our holiday is the next best thing to planning a wedding, don't you think?
Next chapter coming shortly!
Chapter 4 : New England
Sunday 7th October
Today was a free day in Boston to do as we pleased. Well, what pleased us was a decadent sleep-in, a lot of walking (about 18km, so says my pedometer), some delicious food and drink, and a quiet night in.
We were staying in the beautiful suburb of Beacon Hill, characterised by its architecture, cobblestone streets and expensive real estate. We wandered up the infamous Acorn Street and I feel instantly in love - it reminded me so much of England and I was instantly homesick.
We took photos of dozens of houses all beautifully decorated for fall with their stunning pumpkins and wheat sheafs, and some with Halloween decorations. We wandered the city, popping into stores and bars as we saw fit. We wandered Boston Common and played with the squirrels and fed the ducks. We had a burger at Shake Shack and I was very unimpressed, not quite sure why so many people rave. We walked down Newbury Street (I used to live in Newbury in UK so that was fun - so many place names were familiar to me!) and were both very impressed by all the churches on the street flying pride flags and urging people to "Vote yes for 3". We looked it up because it was clear it was something to do with the LGBT+ community so we wanted to find out.. it was a Massachusetts referendum to enact an anti-discrimination statute supporting transgender rights. How amazing that traditionally conservative MA was leading the way on such important rights cases, but moreso that every church we passed were supportive of it. So heartwarming to see, and we were ecstatic to read just last week, that it passed with a 68% yes vote! Woot, way to be progressive, MA!!
We wandered down to the harbour and walked the waterfront, visited the Boston Tea Party ships & museum, then headed down to Faneuil Hall to wander the markets for an hour or so, buying delicious food and some souvenirs. Then we ended up in the Cheers Bar, drinking delicious coughtails (which we later got the recipe for and went and bought the ingredients we'd need to recreate them at home - including pumpkin pie vodka, and cinnamon liqueur). Headed back to the hotel for a quiet night and a good sleep, because our day would start early tomorrow.
I've finally worked out how to do photos on here, so here's some of today's snaps:
General fall pictures:
Acorn Street:
Boston Tea Party:
Monday 8th October
Today was a public holiday for Columbus Day, we didn't really see anything which was closed, or any particular celebrations. We gathered our bags and caught an Uber over to the parking garage, we thought they opened at 7am but sadly it wasn't until 8 so we had to wait a bit for them to open. I'd booked a hire car on Expedia a long time ago, I usually find it gives the best prices. We got a midsize SUV (a Nissan Rogue, which is what we call the XTrail) for $440AUD for 8 days, including insurance. A very good deal! We had to pay an additional driver fee, but it was only $20US I think so not much. We needed an SUV for all of our bags - a suitcase each, a carryon each, and being camera geeks we also had a camera bag and a tripod each... there was no way we could have put all that in an economy car
As I was driving, it was Mr Scubabe's job to do two things : find us interesting routes, and to say out loud to remind me every single time my indicator went on : "Long Left! Short Right!". And I think he felt like a bit of a numpty doing it the first few times, but I tell you what... we didn't have any mishaps with that system It was just nice to have someone helping me to remember the only thing that was really different about driving on the wrong side. I work in telecoms so I have lots of devices at my disposal, so we brought a spare phone with us with nav apps and the whole of North America downloaded locally to the phone, so handy to have that so we didn't need to worry about mobile signal. It also had all the speed limits programmed in so there was always something I could check to see if I was speeding or not. Not that it really mattered, I think I was possibly the only driver in the whole of New England who was obeying the posted speed limits...
We drove north out of Massachusetts and into New Hampshire, and just as we were leaving MA there was a motorway electronic signpost which said "Traffic is wicked bad at exit 130" hahaha gotta love their lingo We found a large Walmart and headed in. For those who've never been, Walmart is like a Coles and a KMart all under one roof. We bought a cooler, some water and soda, and lots of roadtrip-type snacks. Cheese, crackers, sandwich meats, fruit, vegetables, cream cheese for dipping them into (oh my gosh! They have like 40 different flavours of cream cheese!!!), nuts, and weirdly (but perfectly for me), a bag from the fridge section with pre-boiled and shelled eggs. Then with a cooler bag full of snacks we finally hit the road for our first day of road tripping.
So I think I wrote earlier that we're both foodies. We had planned one very special meal in each seperate week of our holiday, and today was our New England foodie treat. Mr Scubabe grew up in New Hampshire, and his family always used to visit Pickity Place. It's the most divine spot, it's a really old cottage and they grow all of their fruits, vegetables and herbs onsite. They have three seatings a day, one set menu a month, your only choice is what flavour tea you'd like, and whether you'd like the meat or the vegetarian main. It's a 5-course plated lunch, unlimited non-alcoholic drinks (they don't have a liquor licence). We arrived early so we could take photos, wander the gardens and greenhouse, and buy some treats in the gift shop. We also arrived early so that I could give Mr Scubabe a special gift... see, this house, Pickity Place... it was used as the illustration for the 1948 Little Golden Books printing of Little Red Riding Hood... and unbeknownst to Mr Scubabe, I had managed to secure a copy of that edition for him. So I wandered the grounds until I found precisely the exact spot I wanted him to stand in when he opened it... and then I dragged him over there, kicking and screaming, and gave him a really sweet momento of this meal
Then it was time to go inside and oh my gosh! The food was absolutely to die for!!!
We started with warm spiced tea, and a spinach dip with homemade crackers.
Then we had autumn slaw with candied walnuts - like eating the fall harvest, but sweeter
Next up was a cranberry orange ciabatta with blueberry ginger butter - ohhhhhhhhh I can still taste that butter! It was accompanied by a creamy onion and pickled shallot soup. So delicious, I only wish I could make soups this tasty!
For our mains, I had the chicken francaise and Mr Scubabe had the fall vegetable timbale, both served with roasted cauliflower from the garden (we saw them picking it an hour earlier!).
We both finished with a huge slice of bourbon pecan pie with homemade apple icecream, and a mug of warm spiced mocha.
We rolled out of there with huge smiles on our faces... that was an amazing meal, and it truly lived up to all of the raving he'd done about it in the months leading up.
Now I am determined that we'll return to New Hampshire at least 11 more times... I want to try every month's menu!!
I left the navigation to our final destination for the night down to my co-pilot, we knew we wanted to drive Route 2 (Mohawk Drive) as it's well-known for being a fabulous leaf-peeper's route, and he was determined to get us to some off-the-beaten-track photo spots on the way. Off the beaten track is right... we ended up spending over an hour offroading in our hire car, it was so much fun, and we found some great photo spots enroute. Oh, and we almost ran over a skunk! I was so excited to see it, they're bigger than I thought they'd be. We eventually headed out of New Hampshire and back into Massachusetts, winding our way towards the Berkshires. It was getting late in the afternoon now, the weather was a bit pants, and the cloud was rolling in very low. We were hoping to get up to Mt Greylock this afternoon for some photos in Golden Hour, but with the weather it wasn't to be. It was about 7pm when we reached our destination and checked into our hotel for the night, Berkshire Hills Country Inn in Williamstown, room was huge and clean, the property as a whole was very pretty, and it included a huge breakfast buffet - and was only like $70USD for the night, great bargain. We had dinner in a local pub and fell into bed exhausted and happy.
... to be continued
Sunday 7th October
Today was a free day in Boston to do as we pleased. Well, what pleased us was a decadent sleep-in, a lot of walking (about 18km, so says my pedometer), some delicious food and drink, and a quiet night in.
We were staying in the beautiful suburb of Beacon Hill, characterised by its architecture, cobblestone streets and expensive real estate. We wandered up the infamous Acorn Street and I feel instantly in love - it reminded me so much of England and I was instantly homesick.
We took photos of dozens of houses all beautifully decorated for fall with their stunning pumpkins and wheat sheafs, and some with Halloween decorations. We wandered the city, popping into stores and bars as we saw fit. We wandered Boston Common and played with the squirrels and fed the ducks. We had a burger at Shake Shack and I was very unimpressed, not quite sure why so many people rave. We walked down Newbury Street (I used to live in Newbury in UK so that was fun - so many place names were familiar to me!) and were both very impressed by all the churches on the street flying pride flags and urging people to "Vote yes for 3". We looked it up because it was clear it was something to do with the LGBT+ community so we wanted to find out.. it was a Massachusetts referendum to enact an anti-discrimination statute supporting transgender rights. How amazing that traditionally conservative MA was leading the way on such important rights cases, but moreso that every church we passed were supportive of it. So heartwarming to see, and we were ecstatic to read just last week, that it passed with a 68% yes vote! Woot, way to be progressive, MA!!
We wandered down to the harbour and walked the waterfront, visited the Boston Tea Party ships & museum, then headed down to Faneuil Hall to wander the markets for an hour or so, buying delicious food and some souvenirs. Then we ended up in the Cheers Bar, drinking delicious coughtails (which we later got the recipe for and went and bought the ingredients we'd need to recreate them at home - including pumpkin pie vodka, and cinnamon liqueur). Headed back to the hotel for a quiet night and a good sleep, because our day would start early tomorrow.
I've finally worked out how to do photos on here, so here's some of today's snaps:
General fall pictures:
Acorn Street:
Boston Tea Party:
Monday 8th October
Today was a public holiday for Columbus Day, we didn't really see anything which was closed, or any particular celebrations. We gathered our bags and caught an Uber over to the parking garage, we thought they opened at 7am but sadly it wasn't until 8 so we had to wait a bit for them to open. I'd booked a hire car on Expedia a long time ago, I usually find it gives the best prices. We got a midsize SUV (a Nissan Rogue, which is what we call the XTrail) for $440AUD for 8 days, including insurance. A very good deal! We had to pay an additional driver fee, but it was only $20US I think so not much. We needed an SUV for all of our bags - a suitcase each, a carryon each, and being camera geeks we also had a camera bag and a tripod each... there was no way we could have put all that in an economy car
As I was driving, it was Mr Scubabe's job to do two things : find us interesting routes, and to say out loud to remind me every single time my indicator went on : "Long Left! Short Right!". And I think he felt like a bit of a numpty doing it the first few times, but I tell you what... we didn't have any mishaps with that system
It was just nice to have someone helping me to remember the only thing that was really different about driving on the wrong side. I work in telecoms so I have lots of devices at my disposal, so we brought a spare phone with us with nav apps and the whole of North America downloaded locally to the phone, so handy to have that so we didn't need to worry about mobile signal. It also had all the speed limits programmed in so there was always something I could check to see if I was speeding or not. Not that it really mattered, I think I was possibly the only driver in the whole of New England who was obeying the posted speed limits...We drove north out of Massachusetts and into New Hampshire, and just as we were leaving MA there was a motorway electronic signpost which said "Traffic is wicked bad at exit 130" hahaha gotta love their lingo
We found a large Walmart and headed in. For those who've never been, Walmart is like a Coles and a KMart all under one roof. We bought a cooler, some water and soda, and lots of roadtrip-type snacks. Cheese, crackers, sandwich meats, fruit, vegetables, cream cheese for dipping them into (oh my gosh! They have like 40 different flavours of cream cheese!!!), nuts, and weirdly (but perfectly for me), a bag from the fridge section with pre-boiled and shelled eggs. Then with a cooler bag full of snacks we finally hit the road for our first day of road tripping.So I think I wrote earlier that we're both foodies. We had planned one very special meal in each seperate week of our holiday, and today was our New England foodie treat. Mr Scubabe grew up in New Hampshire, and his family always used to visit Pickity Place. It's the most divine spot, it's a really old cottage and they grow all of their fruits, vegetables and herbs onsite. They have three seatings a day, one set menu a month, your only choice is what flavour tea you'd like, and whether you'd like the meat or the vegetarian main. It's a 5-course plated lunch, unlimited non-alcoholic drinks (they don't have a liquor licence). We arrived early so we could take photos, wander the gardens and greenhouse, and buy some treats in the gift shop. We also arrived early so that I could give Mr Scubabe a special gift... see, this house, Pickity Place... it was used as the illustration for the 1948 Little Golden Books printing of Little Red Riding Hood... and unbeknownst to Mr Scubabe, I had managed to secure a copy of that edition for him. So I wandered the grounds until I found precisely the exact spot I wanted him to stand in when he opened it... and then I dragged him over there, kicking and screaming, and gave him a really sweet momento of this meal
Then it was time to go inside and oh my gosh! The food was absolutely to die for!!!
We started with warm spiced tea, and a spinach dip with homemade crackers.
Then we had autumn slaw with candied walnuts - like eating the fall harvest, but sweeter
Next up was a cranberry orange ciabatta with blueberry ginger butter - ohhhhhhhhh I can still taste that butter! It was accompanied by a creamy onion and pickled shallot soup. So delicious, I only wish I could make soups this tasty!
For our mains, I had the chicken francaise and Mr Scubabe had the fall vegetable timbale, both served with roasted cauliflower from the garden (we saw them picking it an hour earlier!).
We both finished with a huge slice of bourbon pecan pie with homemade apple icecream, and a mug of warm spiced mocha.
We rolled out of there with huge smiles on our faces... that was an amazing meal, and it truly lived up to all of the raving he'd done about it in the months leading up.
Now I am determined that we'll return to New Hampshire at least 11 more times... I want to try every month's menu!!
I left the navigation to our final destination for the night down to my co-pilot, we knew we wanted to drive Route 2 (Mohawk Drive) as it's well-known for being a fabulous leaf-peeper's route, and he was determined to get us to some off-the-beaten-track photo spots on the way. Off the beaten track is right... we ended up spending over an hour offroading in our hire car, it was so much fun, and we found some great photo spots enroute. Oh, and we almost ran over a skunk! I was so excited to see it, they're bigger than I thought they'd be. We eventually headed out of New Hampshire and back into Massachusetts, winding our way towards the Berkshires. It was getting late in the afternoon now, the weather was a bit pants, and the cloud was rolling in very low. We were hoping to get up to Mt Greylock this afternoon for some photos in Golden Hour, but with the weather it wasn't to be. It was about 7pm when we reached our destination and checked into our hotel for the night, Berkshire Hills Country Inn in Williamstown, room was huge and clean, the property as a whole was very pretty, and it included a huge breakfast buffet - and was only like $70USD for the night, great bargain. We had dinner in a local pub and fell into bed exhausted and happy.
... to be continued
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craven morehead
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Very late aboard ...... playing catch up again !!
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So pleased you got the trip in before the health hassles. Wonderful TR and great photos. It looks magical.
So yikes. It's been a LONG time since I started this! Apologies for the interruption to our scheduled programming, we've had a cough c-word to deal with, so getting our heads around our new life has taken up all of our energy for the past 6-7 months.
Right now, re-living these wonderful holiday memories and looking again at the photos is wonderful medicine for my soul, so I figured I should get back into it, huh?
We're still in Chapter 4 : New England
Tuesday 9th October
Today we drove from Williamstown, MA to Waterbury, VT. This was one of the most scenic drives we did, and we both ended the day on a glorious high, we'd had so much fun adventuring! We also truly felt we were experiencing fall for the first time - we thought we'd seen pretty leaves before, in Massachussets... oh my gosh, Vermont was fall on steroi_s!
After nomming on the free included breakfast which was quite adequate, we packed the car again, filled our cooler bag up with ice (I love how practically all US hotels have those ice machines!) we were on our way pretty early as we had a lot of miles to cover today. We had planned to hit Mt Greylock very early but after waking up and seeing the low cloud everywhere we decided against it, we'd have had zero views. We drove up Route 7 to Bennington, saw dozens of painted catamounts, continued north up route 7 through Green Mountain National Forest, stunning scenery. At Rutland we turned right on route 4 to Killington where we turned left on route 100 and this is when we started sighing when we turned every corner.
This was also the day that we had an amazing photo opportunity. All morning we'd been driving in and out of clouds and showers, the light wasn't the best for shooting so we were mostly just enjoying the views from our car windows. But at about 11am we came around a corner, there was a huge break in the trees on the roadside and we had a divine vista of green grass, orange and red trees in the background, a lake and a winding road. And just at that exact moment, the clouds parted and the sun shone down on the scene. We both audibly gasped it was so stunning. So I dumped anchors and chucked a U-ie as soon as I could and went back to see if we could shoot it. The car behind us did exactly the same thing, and what started out as an empty spot ripe for photographing, within 20 mins (when we left) there were like 11 cars and maybe 30-40 people there, all shooting the same scene We were officially leaf-peeping-trend-setters
We stopped in Weston for the Vermont Country Store and spent up on lovely edible treats to bring home, absolutely worth a visit we loved it! Around Warren we stopped to shoot a few waterfalls (Moss Glen Falls and Warren Falls), and in Warren we stopped to go to the Warren store which we'd told sold amazing pumpkin whoopie pies, but sadly they had none the day we visited. At Warren Falls a local sugarworks (maple syrup farm) had a van and they were selling their local maple syrup, they had free tastings and oooooooh it was so delicious! We bought a bottle of their very tasty dark syrup, thought that was a really inventive way of getting to an audience that they wouldn't have otherwise had, just by having their van in the carpark at a local beauty spot.
With the shadows starting to lengthen it was time to start looking for our AirBNB. Down a tiny bumpy dirt road, with hardly any house numbers visible, we headed to where we thought it was. About 3 or 4 km down the road we realised we must have missed it, so we turned back and started peering down every driveway. Finally Mr Scubabe exclaims "I see it! I can see it through those trees! It *has* to be the next driveway..." and as we turned down that dark, heavily forested driveway, for the second time today we got the light just right... can you tell we're avid photographers, when all we talk about is light? It was right at the end of Golden Hour, and I stopped the car at the top of the drive so we could approach on foot. And I am so pleased I did that... because as the wooded drive opened out into the clearing that our little red barn house was in, our welcoming party was on hand to greet us... two wild deer were just munching on grass in our back garden We missed grabbing a shot of them, but we did manage to grab a divine shot of our little red barn
After we'd gotten the keys from the lockbox and checked out the barn, we jumped back into the car so we could make it to the Ben & Jerrys factory for the final tour of the day. B&J is my favourite icecream on the planet, so this was a must-do! Sadly we weren't able to get there on the one day of the week they do personalised icecream flavour lessons with take-home tubs, but we had to visit anyway. We saw the factory, spent up big in the gift shop, and ate a LOT of icecream. Then we went back to the barn and laid there in a sugar coma for a few hours, before heading out to find some food for dinner. Turned out to be surprisingly hard, all of the restaurants in Stowe wanted reservations... we finally found a pub in Waterbury which did food so we had steaks and cajun chicken.
When we got back to the barn we played board games for a few hours, then went up to bed at about midnight. With all the windows in the barn open, it was pitch black, there was absolutely no light pollution. Then we checked our phones and realised it was a new moon. Then we checked the skies outside and saw that the clouds had gone and we could see the odd star in the inky blackness. And with that, we had a wonderful idea for a midnight photo shoot. We wrapped up in multiple layers (it was ffffffreezing!), grabbed tripods and cameras and remotes, and did a few hours of star trail shots. So much fun, and not something we get to do very often. Finally hit the hay at about 2:30am, two tired and happy photographers who'd managed some wonderful shots that day.
Right now, re-living these wonderful holiday memories and looking again at the photos is wonderful medicine for my soul, so I figured I should get back into it, huh?
We're still in Chapter 4 : New England
Tuesday 9th October
Today we drove from Williamstown, MA to Waterbury, VT. This was one of the most scenic drives we did, and we both ended the day on a glorious high, we'd had so much fun adventuring! We also truly felt we were experiencing fall for the first time - we thought we'd seen pretty leaves before, in Massachussets... oh my gosh, Vermont was fall on steroi_s!
After nomming on the free included breakfast which was quite adequate, we packed the car again, filled our cooler bag up with ice (I love how practically all US hotels have those ice machines!) we were on our way pretty early as we had a lot of miles to cover today. We had planned to hit Mt Greylock very early but after waking up and seeing the low cloud everywhere we decided against it, we'd have had zero views. We drove up Route 7 to Bennington, saw dozens of painted catamounts, continued north up route 7 through Green Mountain National Forest, stunning scenery. At Rutland we turned right on route 4 to Killington where we turned left on route 100 and this is when we started sighing when we turned every corner.
This was also the day that we had an amazing photo opportunity. All morning we'd been driving in and out of clouds and showers, the light wasn't the best for shooting so we were mostly just enjoying the views from our car windows. But at about 11am we came around a corner, there was a huge break in the trees on the roadside and we had a divine vista of green grass, orange and red trees in the background, a lake and a winding road. And just at that exact moment, the clouds parted and the sun shone down on the scene. We both audibly gasped it was so stunning. So I dumped anchors and chucked a U-ie as soon as I could and went back to see if we could shoot it. The car behind us did exactly the same thing, and what started out as an empty spot ripe for photographing, within 20 mins (when we left) there were like 11 cars and maybe 30-40 people there, all shooting the same scene
We were officially leaf-peeping-trend-setters We stopped in Weston for the Vermont Country Store and spent up on lovely edible treats to bring home, absolutely worth a visit we loved it! Around Warren we stopped to shoot a few waterfalls (Moss Glen Falls and Warren Falls), and in Warren we stopped to go to the Warren store which we'd told sold amazing pumpkin whoopie pies, but sadly they had none the day we visited. At Warren Falls a local sugarworks (maple syrup farm) had a van and they were selling their local maple syrup, they had free tastings and oooooooh it was so delicious! We bought a bottle of their very tasty dark syrup, thought that was a really inventive way of getting to an audience that they wouldn't have otherwise had, just by having their van in the carpark at a local beauty spot.
With the shadows starting to lengthen it was time to start looking for our AirBNB. Down a tiny bumpy dirt road, with hardly any house numbers visible, we headed to where we thought it was. About 3 or 4 km down the road we realised we must have missed it, so we turned back and started peering down every driveway. Finally Mr Scubabe exclaims "I see it! I can see it through those trees! It *has* to be the next driveway..." and as we turned down that dark, heavily forested driveway, for the second time today we got the light just right... can you tell we're avid photographers, when all we talk about is light? It was right at the end of Golden Hour, and I stopped the car at the top of the drive so we could approach on foot. And I am so pleased I did that... because as the wooded drive opened out into the clearing that our little red barn house was in, our welcoming party was on hand to greet us... two wild deer were just munching on grass in our back garden
We missed grabbing a shot of them, but we did manage to grab a divine shot of our little red barn After we'd gotten the keys from the lockbox and checked out the barn, we jumped back into the car so we could make it to the Ben & Jerrys factory for the final tour of the day. B&J is my favourite icecream on the planet, so this was a must-do! Sadly we weren't able to get there on the one day of the week they do personalised icecream flavour lessons with take-home tubs, but we had to visit anyway. We saw the factory, spent up big in the gift shop, and ate a LOT of icecream. Then we went back to the barn and laid there in a sugar coma for a few hours, before heading out to find some food for dinner. Turned out to be surprisingly hard, all of the restaurants in Stowe wanted reservations... we finally found a pub in Waterbury which did food so we had steaks and cajun chicken.
When we got back to the barn we played board games for a few hours, then went up to bed at about midnight. With all the windows in the barn open, it was pitch black, there was absolutely no light pollution. Then we checked our phones and realised it was a new moon. Then we checked the skies outside and saw that the clouds had gone and we could see the odd star in the inky blackness. And with that, we had a wonderful idea for a midnight photo shoot. We wrapped up in multiple layers (it was ffffffreezing!), grabbed tripods and cameras and remotes, and did a few hours of star trail shots. So much fun, and not something we get to do very often. Finally hit the hay at about 2:30am, two tired and happy photographers who'd managed some wonderful shots that day.
blackcat20
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Stunning photos.
Wednesday 10th October
Today was yet another organised tour, this time with a specialist landscape photographer, and we had booked him to take us to all of his secret spots for leaf fall shots. We had a wonderful day today, he was so knowledgable about the local area, and full of tales and legends. It was a long day, we didn't get home until almost 8pm, and we were both out of memory card space and battery juice by the end of it Learnt a tonne from him, and also worked out that my tripod was nowhere near sturdy enough for my new camera body in low light. It appears we have some shopping to do in NYC...
Our guide was trying so hard to find us a moose today, he'd had sightings of two in the area and we were trying to join the ranks of people able to shoot one of these beautiful beasts in the wild, but sadly it wasn't to be. The closest I came was when we saw a "Moose Crossing" road sign, I made him stop so I could run back and shoot a selfie under the sign
Today was yet another organised tour, this time with a specialist landscape photographer, and we had booked him to take us to all of his secret spots for leaf fall shots. We had a wonderful day today, he was so knowledgable about the local area, and full of tales and legends. It was a long day, we didn't get home until almost 8pm, and we were both out of memory card space and battery juice by the end of it
Learnt a tonne from him, and also worked out that my tripod was nowhere near sturdy enough for my new camera body in low light. It appears we have some shopping to do in NYC...Our guide was trying so hard to find us a moose today, he'd had sightings of two in the area and we were trying to join the ranks of people able to shoot one of these beautiful beasts in the wild, but sadly it wasn't to be. The closest I came was when we saw a "Moose Crossing" road sign, I made him stop so I could run back and shoot a selfie under the sign
Thursday 11th October & Friday 12th October
Today we drove from Waterbury, VT to Bartlett, NH. We started off quite early as we knew we had a long drive with a tonne of stopping for shots ahead of us - today was the start of the other famous leaf-peeping route we'd drive on this trip - the Kankamagus Highway. We were very sad to leave our gorgeous red barn behind, but we knew we were heading to even more glorious scenery. We took Routes 108 + 109 north from Waterbury, and I didn't realise it at the time but we were only 20 miles from the Canadian border. Montreal was literally "just up the road". We stopped at a huge apple cider mill for a factory tour, some foodie shopping, and grabbed a breakfast of cider donuts and two massive cups of hot apple cider to drink in the car. Oh my gosh... I had no idea that hot cider would be so delicious! So it's (obviously) non-alcoholic, and spiced, and not as sweet as I was expecting, and Oh So Very Delicious. Where has it been my whole life? Now I finally understood what my American Mr Scubabe had been raving about all these years. Wow. Yum. I must have more of this in my life again - we are so very definitely coming back to New England in the fall again!
We turned south and took the road to a little village called St Johnsbury. There, we visited Dog Mountain. I'd read about it somewhere in passing on Trip Advisor and written it down... and I was in no way prepared for the life-changing experience which would await. On the side of a mountain, the artist Stephen Huneck built a chapel. For dogs. And for the humans who love and mourn them. I was totally unprepared for the tidal wave of emotion that hit me as we entered. The entire chapel is filled, floor to ceiling, with pinned photos of bereaved dogs and letters to them from the humans who miss them. It is utterly heartwrenching and peaceful all at once. I was overcome and started sobbing silently, I turned to look at Mr Scubabe and he too had tears streaming down his face.
We spent over an hour looking at photos, reading letters, and then we each wrote our own letters, and pinned them to the walls, joining the hundreds of thousands already there. After we'd dried our eyes, we went next door to the artist's gallery, and I was greeted by Sally who came straight up to me and gave me the warmest hug and licked the tears from my cheeks. She was a black labrador, the same as a recent loss of mine, and who I'd written my letter to. She was exactly what I needed in that moment. We bought an art piece to hang in our window at home, starring a black labrador with a butterfly sitting on its nose. If you're a dog lover, you absolutely MUST visit if you're ever in Vermont/New Hampshire.
The bad weather really came in then, and for the next couple of days we don't have many pictures as there was torrential rain and heavy winds. We did however explore Mt Washington, Crawford Notch, Franconia Notch and Diana's Baths over these couple of days - we just don't have very many useable photos. Oh well, we'll have to remember the scenery in our minds instead!
We spent the next two nights in a privately owned apartment in a huge ski resort. We hired it on AirBNB and had full access to all the resort facilities, so we spent time in the spa and sauna, had a little downtime, did a lot of driving about, and spent some time enjoying the cheap shopping at the Outlet Mall in North Conway (there's no sales tax in New Hampshire). I splurged on a new Coach handbag, and Mr Scubabe bought a lot of Ralph Lauren. Oh, and I bought tonnes of running shoes, they were SO cheap! Like $40USD for shoes that cost me over $200AUD here. So yeah, we shopped
Not much in the way of photos, weather was kinda dire. We enjoyed the driving though!
Today we drove from Waterbury, VT to Bartlett, NH. We started off quite early as we knew we had a long drive with a tonne of stopping for shots ahead of us - today was the start of the other famous leaf-peeping route we'd drive on this trip - the Kankamagus Highway. We were very sad to leave our gorgeous red barn behind, but we knew we were heading to even more glorious scenery. We took Routes 108 + 109 north from Waterbury, and I didn't realise it at the time but we were only 20 miles from the Canadian border. Montreal was literally "just up the road". We stopped at a huge apple cider mill for a factory tour, some foodie shopping, and grabbed a breakfast of cider donuts and two massive cups of hot apple cider to drink in the car. Oh my gosh... I had no idea that hot cider would be so delicious! So it's (obviously) non-alcoholic, and spiced, and not as sweet as I was expecting, and Oh So Very Delicious. Where has it been my whole life? Now I finally understood what my American Mr Scubabe had been raving about all these years. Wow. Yum. I must have more of this in my life again - we are so very definitely coming back to New England in the fall again!
We turned south and took the road to a little village called St Johnsbury. There, we visited Dog Mountain. I'd read about it somewhere in passing on Trip Advisor and written it down... and I was in no way prepared for the life-changing experience which would await. On the side of a mountain, the artist Stephen Huneck built a chapel. For dogs. And for the humans who love and mourn them. I was totally unprepared for the tidal wave of emotion that hit me as we entered. The entire chapel is filled, floor to ceiling, with pinned photos of bereaved dogs and letters to them from the humans who miss them. It is utterly heartwrenching and peaceful all at once. I was overcome and started sobbing silently, I turned to look at Mr Scubabe and he too had tears streaming down his face.
We spent over an hour looking at photos, reading letters, and then we each wrote our own letters, and pinned them to the walls, joining the hundreds of thousands already there. After we'd dried our eyes, we went next door to the artist's gallery, and I was greeted by Sally who came straight up to me and gave me the warmest hug and licked the tears from my cheeks. She was a black labrador, the same as a recent loss of mine, and who I'd written my letter to. She was exactly what I needed in that moment. We bought an art piece to hang in our window at home, starring a black labrador with a butterfly sitting on its nose. If you're a dog lover, you absolutely MUST visit if you're ever in Vermont/New Hampshire.
The bad weather really came in then, and for the next couple of days we don't have many pictures as there was torrential rain and heavy winds. We did however explore Mt Washington, Crawford Notch, Franconia Notch and Diana's Baths over these couple of days - we just don't have very many useable photos. Oh well, we'll have to remember the scenery in our minds instead!
We spent the next two nights in a privately owned apartment in a huge ski resort. We hired it on AirBNB and had full access to all the resort facilities, so we spent time in the spa and sauna, had a little downtime, did a lot of driving about, and spent some time enjoying the cheap shopping at the Outlet Mall in North Conway (there's no sales tax in New Hampshire). I splurged on a new Coach handbag, and Mr Scubabe bought a lot of Ralph Lauren. Oh, and I bought tonnes of running shoes, they were SO cheap! Like $40USD for shoes that cost me over $200AUD here. So yeah, we shopped
Not much in the way of photos, weather was kinda dire. We enjoyed the driving though!
Attachments
Saturday 13th October
Today we drove from Bartlett, NH to Scarborough, ME. Today we left the mountains and all the gorgeous fall colours, and we headed down to the sea in Maine. Our scenery was mostly rivers and coast, lighthouses and farmland. In fact, speaking of farms, we stayed in a gorgeous AirBNB farmhouse. We arrived in the afternoon just as a rainshower was starting, and there were divine rainbows in almost every direction we looked it was so bizarre and like nothing I've ever seen before. What a welcome! We also got welcoming cuddles from the resident dogs (an older distinguished gent, and a gorgeous 10 week old puppy, about 14 chickens who had hattched that morning, some goats and calves, and a shetland pony.
We spent the afternoon wandering the beautiful town of Portland with loads of historic buildings and cobblestone streets, many cute gift shops and art galleries and places to buy salt water taffy (which believe me, is something everyone MUST try at least once, it's divine!) and pondering our dinner options. We knew that being in Maine we absolutely positively HAD to have chowder and lobster for dinner. You don't come to the most famous town in the country for lobster and not eat your bodyweight in it
And so after lots of recommendations and reviews, we decided on Saltwater Grille overlooking Portland Harbour and beside the yacht club. It hit all our requirements - upscale dining, amazing views, excellent service, and food to die for. We were graciously given one of the best tables in the restaurant, a booth near the windows with views over the water and front row seats to a beautiful moonrise. Our chowder entrees arrived, along with coughtails, and we were in heaven! Oh I do adore chowder, and this was delicious. We were in a sunken floor area, and the booth beside ours was about 2 foot higher than ours. We got talking to the lovely older couple at that higher table and shared lots of stories of our travels with them, and they with us. Being locals, they had some fab tips for us. But the best tips? Came when my lobster arrived.
See, I've eaten lobster. Many times. However I've never eaten a whole lobster which came served entirely in it's shell. I've had lobster meat and lobster tails, but a whole lobster? For little old me, who's eyes are WAY bigger than her belly and who rarely even finishes a burger? Yeah, not something I've ever ordered before. But, when in Maine... So the lobster arrives and my eyes about fall out of my head. No way in hell am I going to be able to finish this. It's a good thing Mr Scubabe is here to help! I'm being childish and carefree and squealing and giggling and chatterboxing and just ever so excited about this new adventure I'm having (yes, eating an entire lobster out of the shell in Maine is an adventure!). I pick up the crushy-squishy-tool-thingy to crack the shell... and the older lady at the booth beside us tells me to stop! She very kindly explains that the thing I was about to do would end up with lobster juice/butter all over me - and kindly suggests I turn the claw the other way so I don't have a buttered-face disaster. She and her husband then proceed to explain how to eat the lobster and how to get every last morsel of meat out of it. She's so wonderful and kind and I'm so sad that now, some 8 months later, I can't remember her name, but she really helped me have a wonderful evening.
And me? I'm so proud. I actually ate the whole thing!
Today we drove from Bartlett, NH to Scarborough, ME. Today we left the mountains and all the gorgeous fall colours, and we headed down to the sea in Maine. Our scenery was mostly rivers and coast, lighthouses and farmland. In fact, speaking of farms, we stayed in a gorgeous AirBNB farmhouse. We arrived in the afternoon just as a rainshower was starting, and there were divine rainbows in almost every direction we looked it was so bizarre and like nothing I've ever seen before. What a welcome! We also got welcoming cuddles from the resident dogs (an older distinguished gent, and a gorgeous 10 week old puppy, about 14 chickens who had hattched that morning, some goats and calves, and a shetland pony.
We spent the afternoon wandering the beautiful town of Portland with loads of historic buildings and cobblestone streets, many cute gift shops and art galleries and places to buy salt water taffy (which believe me, is something everyone MUST try at least once, it's divine!) and pondering our dinner options. We knew that being in Maine we absolutely positively HAD to have chowder and lobster for dinner. You don't come to the most famous town in the country for lobster and not eat your bodyweight in it
And so after lots of recommendations and reviews, we decided on Saltwater Grille overlooking Portland Harbour and beside the yacht club. It hit all our requirements - upscale dining, amazing views, excellent service, and food to die for. We were graciously given one of the best tables in the restaurant, a booth near the windows with views over the water and front row seats to a beautiful moonrise. Our chowder entrees arrived, along with coughtails, and we were in heaven! Oh I do adore chowder, and this was delicious. We were in a sunken floor area, and the booth beside ours was about 2 foot higher than ours. We got talking to the lovely older couple at that higher table and shared lots of stories of our travels with them, and they with us. Being locals, they had some fab tips for us. But the best tips? Came when my lobster arrived.
See, I've eaten lobster. Many times. However I've never eaten a whole lobster which came served entirely in it's shell. I've had lobster meat and lobster tails, but a whole lobster? For little old me, who's eyes are WAY bigger than her belly and who rarely even finishes a burger? Yeah, not something I've ever ordered before. But, when in Maine... So the lobster arrives and my eyes about fall out of my head. No way in hell am I going to be able to finish this. It's a good thing Mr Scubabe is here to help! I'm being childish and carefree and squealing and giggling and chatterboxing and just ever so excited about this new adventure I'm having (yes, eating an entire lobster out of the shell in Maine is an adventure!). I pick up the crushy-squishy-tool-thingy to crack the shell... and the older lady at the booth beside us tells me to stop! She very kindly explains that the thing I was about to do would end up with lobster juice/butter all over me - and kindly suggests I turn the claw the other way so I don't have a buttered-face disaster. She and her husband then proceed to explain how to eat the lobster and how to get every last morsel of meat out of it. She's so wonderful and kind and I'm so sad that now, some 8 months later, I can't remember her name, but she really helped me have a wonderful evening.
And me? I'm so proud. I actually ate the whole thing!
robinsparkles
Member
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2016
- Posts
- 246
Loving the reports !
drron
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2002
- Posts
- 35,834
Now on our first visit to Maine over 30 years ago the lobsters were so cheap that mrsdrron and I each had 7 lobsters in a day.One is enough now though usually a little larger than the 1.25 lbs we had then.
We go back to the Taste of Maine in Wicasset every 7 years.We are doing so again this year but sadly the original owners have now retired.
We go back to the Taste of Maine in Wicasset every 7 years.We are doing so again this year but sadly the original owners have now retired.
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