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Published: October 18th 2016
I'm quite a long way behind now - about two blog entries! I've altered the start of this entry so many times that I'm going to leave it as it was on Sunday when I finally finished it even though it's two days out of date now. - I'm in Ecuador now having left the States yesterday. My Spanish lessons start tomorrow. I'm actually quite looking forward to a bit of routine for the next few weeks. I also had no desire to get on a plane to London when I was at Miami airport yesterday which I'm taking as a good sign. I've had a great time in Canada and the States and could happily go back and do it all again, but this part of the trip is what I originally took the time off work for. I'm jumping ahead though - this is not where I left the last entry off. Now, where were we?
Day 21: Wednesday 21st September - To Boston
The first bus I caught this morning was late, but fortunately I made the connecting bus and was in plenty of time for the plane. The border control was on the Canadian side
which was a bit odd - flights to America had their own gates and section of the airport. The flight to Boston was fine. I had a window seat and got great views of Nova Scotia, Maine and Boston on the way over. It was a lovely clear day.
I got to the hostel an hour before I could check in so I sat in the lobby and finally finished my blog entry. The hostel was very nice with a free breakfast, but the front desk was very under-staffed so it took a while to get in at 4pm due to a long queue. I didn't venture far on the first evening. The hostel was close to a Chinatown so I ate locally and had a short walk up the road to begin to get my bearings.
Day 22: Thursday 22nd September - Boston Day 1 - The Freedom Trail
It took a while to get going in the morning. I had to phone the bank which involved lot of being on hold. I also wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I had been told by many people how nice Boston is - which it
is, although I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected, possibly due to the money stress or because my expectations were high - but I didn't really know where to start. In the end I started with the Freedom Trail - taking direction from Trip Advisor yet again!
The American Revolution/War of Independence is not a part if history that I know much about. Most of my knowledge up to my visit to Boston was based on what I picked up about 15 years before on visits to Philadelphia and Washington where I ended up feeling embarrassed to be British. I knew that the colonialists had a problem with having to pay taxes without being allowed to vote - which is understandable. Now I know where the whole tea dumping in the harbour thing fits in and a few more details about the key characters and the battles.
I started with lunch in the park before finding the beginning of the trail. I decided to follow the path without a guide - written, human or App. There's a red line on the ground to follow and lots to read on the way. I also eavesdropped a few
guided groups and overall I got the gist of most of it. The trail goes past a number of significant museums, churches and sites all related to the war and you probably would need a couple of days to do it all properly. I skipped most of the museums but I did have a look round the Paul Revere house. Apparently he rode through the streets of the North End of Boston to warn the colonial militia that the Brits were coming. I looked around a number of churches that were attended by various key revolutionary figures. A couple of them didn't have traditional pews. Instead each family sat in it's own "box" (which you had to pay for) that had extremely high walls so you couldn't really see much when you were sitting in them, let alone kneeling. I've seen similar things in churches in England but what was novel about this arrangement was that not all of the seats faced the alter. There was either a pew or some chairs facing the opposite direction. Apparently these were for the children so that their parents could keep an eye on them during the service.
Another place that I
spent quite a bit of time was in the Granary Burial Ground which is a cemeter in the town where many significant historical revolutionary figures are buried, including Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin's parents. There was also a plaque explaining some of the designs on the gravestones which was interesting. There was supposed to be one with a sand timer with angel wings symbolising the passing of time which I spent some time hunting for but I couldn't find it.
The advantage of following the trail is that you end up walking all around the city and seeing bits that you might have missed. There is a memorial to the victims of the potato famine - who Bostonians were apparently happy to send money too but weren't quite so pleased when they started arriving in the city - some things never change. There's also a very moving memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. One of my favourite sections was the North End where you are surrounded by Italian restaurants and shops and most people hanging out in them were talking in Italian too. I meant to go back to a meal but I never got round to it.
In the centre of the city I saw the balcony from which the Declaration of Independence was read to the waiting crowds and stopped to watch some of the street entertainment. I also saw "Cheers" which was very exciting until I learnt later that it was the wrong one! The trail then took me across the river to Charlestown. Here I went up to Bunker Hilol where there is a monument that looks like the Washington Mountment. A key battle was fought here, which actually the British won. Finally I made it down to the USS Constitution which was shut by the time I arrived but still had a canon fired on it shortly after I arrived which made me jump.
That was the end of the trail so from there I made my way back across the river. I used a pedestrian bridge that opens and shuts to let boats through. I had to stop for one and the movement of the walkways reminded me of the stairs at Hogwarts! After all that walking I decided to reward myself with a meal at The Cheesecake Factory. I took my first trip on the Boston subway metro to
get there but chose to walk back to my hostel. It turned out that it wasn't too far but I was beginning to get a sense of how much there was to do and how little I was going to be able to see in three days.
Day 23: Friday 23rd September - Boston Day 2 - The JFK library
The one thing I was certain that I wanted to do was visit the JFK library and that was my primary destination for the day. First though I went to Boston's Public Gardens which were very pretty. They are also home to a sculpture of some ducklings following their mother down to the pond. From here I walked to the river and came across some more scultpures and an outdoor concert arena. Eventually I got to the metro stop I was heading for and saved my legs for a bit. This metro line goes across the river on a bridge which had some great views of the city so I made a mental note to come back. The metro stop you get off at to get to the library was very unpromising and I just missed the bus
which was frustrating. I had a dull twenty minutes waiting for the next one, which it turned out only serviced the library and a college nearby as there isn't much else out there.
Finally I arrived at the library. I have previously been to George Bush Snr, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton's libraries and found them all interesting, although I think the latter was the best because it had more information about what Clinton actually achieved while he was in office. The JFK library is now at the top of my list though. I didn't really know anything about his early life and only pockets about his presidency. I think what he achieved in three years and his handling of the Cuban missile crisis were impressive and who knows what the world would look like now if he had served two terms. Obviously we know now that he was far from perfect, but one of the things that struck me most was how much preparation and knowledge he had before taking on the position, especially in comparison to the bafoon that the Republican Party have as their candidate in the current election. In fact it made me realise that
A statue of John Harvard - except it's not
Apparently if you've seen the Social
Network you will know all about this.Trump would be completely incapable of doing the job. He'd either have to delegate everything to other people or resign from the post within a few months (if he hasn't started a nuclear holocaust by then.) Returning to the more inspirational figure of JFK, I also didn't know that he had written some books. There's one about politicians who put their job on the line for a cause that they believed in which I would be particularly interested to read.
I walked back to my hostel from the library, which turned out to be quite a long way. (My steps count for September is amazing but it drops off a bit after I met up with my parents and we got the car.) It was a nice walk along the bay front though and there was a beach at the end with nice sand to walk on. There was a storm brewing resulting in great cloud formations and a decent sunset. I didn't have a map with me, just offline Google maps which showed me where I was and where I wanted to get to but lacked a bit of detail. I started to head away from the beach
into town and realised I was walking around South Boston which didn't seem like a place I would want to get lost in in the dark so in the end I headed back towards the beach, took in the sunset, and worked out a better route back. It was still quite a walk and the wind really picked up but I made it in the end and saw yet more of the city. The storm was quite i when it finally broke.
Day 24: Saturday 24th September - Boston Day 3 - Harvard - Black Hertiage Trail
I was a bit more organised today as I had two things I wanted to do and I knew what time I needed to be where. First I headed over to Cambridge for a tour of Harvard. When I got out of the metro station I asked the guy in the infor booth where the tour started. He was so rude. I've never known someone in the tourist industry behave like that. Clearly he was in the wrong job. I found the right place in the end though, despite his poor directions. The tour was given by one of the students
who was very informative and proud of his university. His friend also made sure that we knew that it was his birthday. I think he got some good tips. Havard seems like a good place to study. I may have to see if I can find an excuse to spend some time there while I'm doing my PhD! Cambridge looked nice too but I didn't have much time to explore because I wanted to get back to the centre for the guided tour of the Black Hertiage trail.
You definitely needed a guide for that one as it's not marked on the streets and there are no plaques (although it is marked on maps). Our guide for this tour was excellent and it was the best thing I did in Boston. We walked around the hill that had been where the black community lived in at the time of the Revolutionary War and Civil War. Although the black population were free in Boston, they were not rich and they didn't have the same rights as the white population. Now the hill is a very exclusive neighbourhood with an extremely small black community - that seems to have shifted to
South Boston! On the tour we learnt about the first company of black soldiers that fought in the Civil War (about whom there is apparently a film called Glory that I'll have to watch some time), some of the key characters in the railroad for the slaves escaping from the South and the ongoing battles for equality. There was one local politician who draughted a civil rights bill 100 years before one was finally passed. Apparently he was beaten up by a fellow Congressman following a speech he gave on the practice of slavery in the Southern states and was not able to attend Congress for a year.
The tour ended at a small museum which had a special exhibition of photos of Fredrick Douglass. It said that he liked photos because he felt they didn't lie. He didn't smile in his photos because he wanted to challenge the image of happy slaves that were common at the time. (He was an escaped slave himself.)
After the tour I made my way to the correct Cheers. I had been hoping to have a drink there but it was really busy so I didn't stay long in the end.
Instead I walked back to the bridge from yesterday to take a few photos and then back to the hostel. There I googled a few photo shops to see if I could find somewhere where I would be able to transfer the photos on my memory card to my memory stick. For the next hour and a half I embarked on a fruitless hunt for such a shop. I got to see even more of Boston but ran out of time to go to the North End for supper, opting instead to head for the cinema. I saw The Dressmaker which is an odd little film. It was enjoyable but had the black humour associated with Australian films like Muriel's Wedding and Strictly Ballroom. I was sorely tempted to sneak into Bridget Jones afterwards for a bit of light relief, but it would have been a late finish.
Day 25: Sunday 25th September - To Maine
On my quest to find a photo shop the evening before I had come across one place that looked more promising a bit out of town near the baseball park. I had thought of fitting in a quick tour but didn't make
it up in time. I don't think I would have been able to anyway because there was a massive queue outside for some event that was going on. Fortunately the trip wasn't a total waste of time because I was able to sort out my photos. The people in the shop were very helpful indeed. I walked back to the hostel along a stretch on parkland that runs up the middle of a busy road and came across some interesting statues, including a women's memorial. I picked up my luggage and then headed to the airport to meet my parents. Their pilot must have put his foot on the gas because he made up almost all the time that the plane had been delayed by at the London end. We ended up talking on the phone to each other on opposite sides of a pillar!
Collecting the car went smoothly and we headed up the coast to Maine. The only slight blip was that mum told me how amazing the Boston science museum is which I had skipped due to time considerations and the number of science museums I have been to in other cities - always ask people
for tips! Our first three nights of our New England tour were spent in Kennebunk, which is a very nice town close to the coast. It was nice to have a large hotel room to myself. There was an outdoor pool that we had a quick dip in. The receptionist had said that it was 80 degrees but it definitely wasn't. We had supper in a nice local restaurant and then a quiet evening as my parents had been up for a while then. I spent the rest of my evening uploading photos to Facebook in the hotel lobby. There was a man sleeping on the couch for quite a bit of this time. He claimed that he had locked himself out of his truck and was waiting for his friend to come and rescue him. However his friend was going to take 6 hours to get there.
In the end, the staff in the hotel had enough of him sleeping on the couch free of charge and asked him to leave. This did not go down well. He phoned the police; they phoned the police; he threatened to sue the hotel for throwing him out in the cold
when he didn't have a sweatshirt or jacket (it was quite cold) and then the police turned up and took him away. All very dramatic!
Day 26: Monday 26th September - Kennebunk Port and around
On of the nice things about traveling with my parents was that dad had planned almost every day out so I didn have to make any decisions for a bit. The first event for today was a foodie tour around Kennebunk Port. It's quite a small place to tour around but the food was good. There was just one other couple on our tour. The first stop was a lobster place. One of the men working there, a retired teacher, told us everything we could possibly want to know about lobsters. I even got to hold one. It did seem a bit mean to then sample one of its relatives, but it did taste good. From there we went on to sample clam chowder from a local restaurant, whoopie pie from a local shop, beer from a local brewery, cheese and oils (they were amazing) and ice cream. Fortunately the tour was at a leisurely pace and the samples were small so you
didn't feel too full at the end.
Next we headed slightly out of town to a trolley bus museum. Mainly it was filled with rusting trolley buses and quite a few regular buses. However it had a little track you could take a ride on, a repair shop you could visit and some trolley buses to see that they had completed the restoration on. The place appeared to be staffed by volunteers who were all old men who loved trolley cars. It felt like they were playing with their own life-sized train set and it didn't matter too much if they had visitors or not. All the rusting vehicles have been donated to them and it's going to be several lifetimes before they are all restored. There were even trolley cars from England on display!
Our final stop for the day was a wildlife sanctuary which we walked through down to the beach. We were treated to a splendid sunset at the end of the walk which we were all enjoying until we were suddenly attacked my mosquitos! In the evening we went to a wine bar for some snacky food which was nice but expensive!
Day
27: Tuesday 27th September - Portland
Today we headed to Portland. We took a scenic route so we could see some of the coastline. Our first stop in Portland was a railway museum. It's a small museum but it has some track that you can take a ride on along the coast. The track used to stretch all the way from Boston to Montreal. After the trip we had some good quality ice cream (apparently a Portland thing) before catching a post boat for a tour around the bay islands. This was a good way to see the bay. Although it was a working boat, there was commentary for the tourists (of which there were quite a few). It was also interesting to watch the "post" being delivered. I had pictured letters and postcards being delivered, but these were deliveries of produce for shops and goods for the residents. The most interesting delivery was a sit-on lawn mower. It wa also interesting to imagine what it would be like to live on the islands. One had 57 inhabitants. There's an elementary school on the island that currently has four pupils. Middle school and high school students have to get
the boat to Portland at 6am and the school finishes at 2:30 so they can get the 2:45 boat that we were on back to the island. I think I saw two students get off. I don't think I'd want to live on that island.
The most intriguing island was one that was owned by a man from New York. He was busy having all sorts of things built on it, including a chapel and an Irish pub. Apparently he's planning to move there eventually. He's going to have to bring some friends with him though because it won't be an Irish bar if it's not full of people.
When we had disembarked, we returned to the car and drove to Orchard Beach. We had thought about eating there but changed our minds when we got there. It seemed to be very much a family summer holiday place and had an "out-of-season" feel. It had a nice beach though and we enjoyed another fabulous sunset - this time mosquito free. We ended up eating in another restaurant in Kennebunk which only served local produce.
Day 28: Wednesday 28th September - To New Hampshire
Today we left
Maine and drove to New Hampshire. On the way we stopped at some outlet stores and had a pretty successful shop. I stocked up my wardrobe a bit, including replacing the cardigan that I lost on my first day. (I almost lost the new one in Miami in exactly the same way but I noticed it's absence much earlier on fortunately. I also bought a waterproof coat (from L.L.Bean which was exciting for me because one of the charcters in my favourite book has an L.L.Bean coat and a fleece top, both of which I think are going to be useful for my stay in Quito as they were in New England.
The drive to our next accommodation got increasingly more beautiful although it became apparent over the next few days that this was only the beginning of the fall colours. We stayed near Mount Washington. It was a very odd plac - eccentric is the best word. We had a mini appartment onlay one bedroom. I slept in the lounge. We had a small kitchen so had a couple of home-cooked meals during our stay. The place was run by a family. The lady who appeared to be
in charge was quite old and got flustered quite easily. Mum said the place reminded her of the place her aunts used to run in Woolacombe. It was comfortable and clean and dad loved it.
Once we had settled in, mum and I went to the next town - Bethlehem - to pick up some groceries and then drove back to one of the many scenic viewpoints we had driven past on the way. We got out first view of Mount Washington hotel. When I win the lottery, I am going to holiday there!
Day 29th: Thursday 29th September - Leaf peeping (Bucket list item number 3)
Today dad delegated planning to mum and I, although he told us when we were doing it wrong. (Thinking about it now, we may have been given this task because mum had vetoed another train trip.) We headed to Franconia Notch State park and to the Flume Gorge, stopping at a beautiful spot called Echo Lake on the way. We went for longish and very good walk to the gorge and around the surrounding area. There wasn't much in the way of fall colours, but there was quite a variety
of things to see. The gorge itself was impressive. Apparently it was first discovered by a 92 year old woman who had been hiking in the woods and, when she told people what she had found, nobody believed her. This seemed an unlikely story at first, but the gorge turned out to be very narrow and, although it was noisy when you were next to it, you didn't have to walk far before the sound was muffled.
Other highlights of the walk included two covered bridges, a waterfall and a small bit of (optional) caving. There was a small hole in a rock formation that you could squeeze your way through if you wanted to. Mum and I decided we did; dad decided he didn't; mum wasn't sure why she had opted in afterwards. We did the walk the opposite way round to everyone else, which made life a bit difficult on the narrow path and steps by the gorge. Now I know where I get it from.
The afternoon was spent driving along recommended scenic roads in search of fall colours. We were really a few days too early, but we did have a nice stop in
a very picturesque town called Stark that had the added bonus of a covered bridge. In the evening we went to eat in a restaurant in Bethlehem which hadn't got the best reviews but turned out to be very nice.
Day 30th: Friday 30th September - Mountains
We had an early start today to go on the Mount Washington cog railway. There are quite a few scheduled departures throughout the day but only the first one has steam. We were extremely lucky with the weather as we had a clear view at the top and it wasn't too cold. The railway itself is an impressive feat of engineering. It took us about an hour both ways to get up and down the mountain. Apparent the quickest decent was one and a half minutes. The construction workers had a little plank of wood that they whizzed down on. That particular piece of wood would have had to few going at about 70mph!
We had an hour at the top. There used to be a hotel there called Tip Top House. The building is still standing and set up as it would have been when it was operational. There
was also an exhibition about life on the mountain which was interesting. There is a permanently manned weather station at the top. The fastest wind speed ever recorded was measured up there - well over 200mph.
Our next trip for the day was up a chair lift on the mountain opposite Mount Washington. It was very brave of my parents to go on. Dad had never been on one before and mum doesn't like heights. I have a picture of them sitting on it and smiling though. It was also free and had a cafe for lunch, not to mention some great views.
By now the autumn colours were really starting to come out so our final quest for the day was to find somewhere to walk. In the end we stumbled across a path that ran alongside a stream and then a disused railway line. We had just reached the end of the path when we met a local hiker who told us about a beautiful lake a couple of miles up the road. She looked a little sceptical when we said that we would walk there but that's what we did. It turned out to be
a bit further than we anticipated and possibly not quite as stunning as described, but it was pretty. It does not have a name on Google maps so I have named it Sarah's lake as she was the one who was particularky keen to walk there.
Our whole walk came about because we had pulled into a lay by with some good tree colours that we had seen many other people stopping at. It's sometimes good to follow the crowd when you're on holiday.
When we got back to the hotel I discovered that my bank had blocked my online banking. Dad kindly drove me to a place where we could get a phone signal, but the person I spoke to told me he didn't know why it had been blocked and couldn't do anything aboit it because it was the middle of the night!! In the evening we ate in. Then mum and I played a bit of table tennis before staying up much too late watching "Titanic".
Day 31: Saturday 1st October - Mount Washington Resort - Dining train ride
In the morning we went to Mount Washington Hotel, after what was now a
daily phone call to the bank. (The whole online banking thing is sorted out now but I still haven't been fully reimbursed for the money that was taken from my account fraudulently despite four different people telling me they would sort it out!) We had been planning to do the official tour of the hotel but it started earlier than we thought so we did our own, unofficial tour. The hotel is most famous for hosting the meeting that led to the formation of the IMF. It's beautiful and has amazing views of the mountains and trees. We ended up staying quite a while and having hot chocolate. When we did finally tear ourselves away, we found we had to return because mum had lost her glasses. I went back with her and fortunately the glasses were recovered.
We then had to dress up a bit because we were going on a dining train. We had a lovely drive to get there with some very impressive colours. Some spots we saw over the next few days were genuinely so beautiful that they made you ache. Unfortunately the views from the train weren't quite so impressive but the food was
good. We had thought about going to the cinema afterwards but the train journey finished too late.
Day 32: Sunday 2nd October - Vermont - Lake Placid
Today we had to leave New Hampshire and head on to Lake Placid. It was a shame because each day the colours had been getting better and they still hadn't really reached their peak. That's one of those things about going to New Enkgand for the fall though. We could easily have missed it altogether. We were told by many people that the colours weren't so good this year due to the drought, but they looked good to us. This is the advantage of not knowing any better.
We had two options for our route through Vermont - north or south. In the end we went for north in the hope of better colours. In hindsight south might have been a better option to see the pretty villages - who knows. We did see some colours, especially at the beginning, but the drive to Ithaca a couple of days later was much better. There were some highlights though. We found a lovely spot by a lake for lunch. We also
had a nice ferry crossing over Champlain lake.
We arrived in Lake Placid in plenty of time to get some washing done. This was importnat because we didn't want to spend all of the following day doing laundry, although as it turned out there was no rush. While we were getting things out of the car, mum and I had a battle with a burr bush. The burr bush won. Days later we were still discover burrs attached to items of clothing and bags.
Our new accommodation was a very nice self-catering appartment. The only flaw was that one of the two bathrooms had a heater that didn't turn off. It proved to be far more efficient at drying clothes than the tumble dryer! I led us on a short walk to see some views as the sun was setting which only served to demonstrate my complete lack of sense of direction. We did spot a nice place for supper though that we went to between washing cycles. While the dryer was disappointing, the washing machine was entertaining. Mum and I particular liked the tune it played when it finished which reminded me of the episode of Friends
where Ross sings the washing song. Dad was less impressed - we may have over-hyped it.
Day 33: Monday 3rd October - Lake Placid
Unfortunately it rained today. We had a very relaxed morning trying to wait the rain out. The plan was to go walking and the weather forecast said the weather would cheer up. It was wrong. We did leave the apartment in the end and went to the town and to see Mirror Lake. It was very pretty, despite the rain. We had lunch in a nice pub overlooking the lake. We then drove to another lake and an area that had been recommended the night before by our waiter. The woods looked like they would be good for walking in but I couldn't persuade my parents that walking in the rain would be fun, despite their British roots. We did have a little trot down to the waterfront, but then we returned to the apartment. It probably wasn't a bad idea to have a quieter day anyway.
In the evening mum and I went to see Sully at the cinema. Dad didn't fancy it. He kind prepared our supper for us. It wasn't
the best film I've ever seen but it was interesting and Tom Hanks gave a good performance as always. Unfortunately the hand-held camera made mum feel ill and she wasn't able to eat anything when we got back.
Day 34: Tuesday 4th October -To Icatha (lakes and fall colours)
I think today was the best driving day that we had. We kept driving past more and more beautiful spots, and we had plenty of time to stop and take photos. I have soooo many photos of trees. We also drove past lots of lakes - so many in fact that the people who had named them had given up at one point so we drove past lake nine and lake eight and lake seven... Near the end of the drive we also stumbled across a waterfall which we had a short walk down to a bridge to get a good look at. There isn't much more to say about the day as not a lot happened, but it was definite a highlight. Our journey finished when we arrived at Nerys and Peter's but our stay with them is for my next blog...
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Lisa Whiting
non-member comment
Wow!!!
This is a fabulous blog and looking forward to next instalment- the Fall colours just take your breath away and I was surprised how early they are so beautiful. Loved all of the photos so much and loving hearing of all the great people you met. Rachel you are excellent at this travel writing stuff!!!