The Adventure of us: October 2011

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Minnesota bound!

10/8

This morning we got up with just about the best feeling in the world… we were in a home! It was so wonderful to wake up in the Fisher’s home rather than a hotel. Ben said it felt like a holiday or something special being there. We couldn’t pick up our Uhaul until 10, so we hung around in the morning with the Fishers, made eggs, played some cards and then loaded our stuff into the cars and headed for the Uhaul around 10am. We got the focus hooked on the tow dolley, headed out and drove about 13 hours. We hit 2 new states, Ohio and Indiana and stayed overnight at a hotel in Indiana. Who knew that Notre Dame would be playing and all the hotels right in that area would be completely booked? So we had to drive a little further to find a place to stay. We got in around 11:30pm and in the morning we will head for Minnesota with just a few hours left to our journey! And who knows, we may even get a break from driving for a few days while in Minnesota??

New York, New York!

October 6

Today we woke up early in order to beat the heavy traffic and spend the day touring New York city. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is really a possibility, so we sat in some traffic and arrived in New York around 11am. We hopped on the Staten Island Fairy (which was free) saw the Statue of Liberty on the way over, and headed into the city. Once we arrived, we met a friend of Ben’s from Azusa Pacific University, Laura Jane. We met her on her lunch break in between class and work. She gave us a quick tour and told us all the inside secrets and things to see while in New York and then headed off to work leaving Ben and I to fend for ourselves in crazy New York City! Luckily we did pretty well navigating around and we were able to see all that we had planned to see. We saw the Empire State Building, Times Square, walked along fifth avenue, sat and ate lunch in Central Park, walked around the Yankee Stadium (and dreamt about going to the playoff game), walked through Rockefeller Center and tried to visit the new World Trade Center museum but found out that you had to call ahead to get tickets. So we ended up walking around the outside of the site and unfortunately couldn’t see much beyond the gates that were put up.

We felt like we had seen all that we wanted to see so we headed out around 6:30 and began our trip South back to Maryland to pick up the Focus. Tonight we are staying at the Fisher’s house and in the morning we will pick up the tow dolly from Uhaul and head West towards Minnesota for my sister Brianna’s wedding!

Central Park

Walking through Central Park

Rockefeller Center

In front of Time Square

The World Trade Center site

On the ferry with the Statue of Liberty behind us

In front of New York City

The Empire State building

Ben and Laura Jane in front of the Empire State building

Ben in front of the Yankee Stadium

Friday, October 7, 2011

Ogunquit, Maine

October 5

Today we decided to head out of Portland and explore some of Maine’s smaller cities along the coast. We were extremely happy that we did because the smaller cities had a completely different feel and we ended up loving them! We stopped off at a place called Ogunquit, and this was probably our favorite place that we stopped. There was a magnificent beach that we stopped at and we walked on a path called the Marginal Way Walkway that went for about a mile and a half along the rocks and beach and gave beautiful scenery of the Atlantic. This place seems to be the place to go and apparently in the summertime it is completely packed. But going there in the fall was perfect because there weren’t many people and it was a beautiful day!

Once we finished our walk we decided to head out and try for a second time to get some of Maine’s delicious fresh fish. This time we tried a little place called Beach Plum Farm and it was everything we were hoping it would be! Thank goodnessJ There are no frills or fancy things, but the lobster we got was delicious and for a VERY good price! The restaurant was owned by a man and his wife they run it out of the back side of their own home. They gave us paper plates to eat on, a tour map as a placemat, the lobsters that we ordered and that was it. We sat out on a picnic table outside, which was all the seating there was, and enjoyed our fresh seafood. It was well worth it and we finally got the fish from Maine that we were hoping for, so that was great.

We headed back down South and spent the night in Connecticut.

The beach in Ogunquit

Ben chasing the birds:)

Me chasing Ben trying to get the camera to take a picture of him chasing the birds

The view all along Marginal Way Walkway

Beach Plum Farm restaurant where we got our lobster

Before.. they had no idea what was coming to them

AND after...

Yummm, there's lunch!

The famous Nubble Lighthouse. We were surprised to find out that we couldnt actually walk out to it; it is on it's own little island!

Maine seafood gone bad...

October 4

Today we woke up and headed out to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Apparently the thing to do when in New Hampshire is go to the Gorge and hike around in it. We didn’t actually stop there to hike because it was rainy, but we did stop at a bunch of different places along the way through the White Mountains and it was absolutely beautiful! The leaves were changing colors and the scenery was magnificent driving through the hills, mountains and through all the beautiful trees. We loved the White Mountains and would love to go back through some time to go hiking along the streams! This is another place I would highly recommend!

We continued on our way and headed to Portland, Maine. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating very well so we didn’t walk around the town much but we did drive through quite a bit of it. We ended up stopping off at a restaurant called Susan’s Fish and Chips to get some of Maine’s best seafood. AND… if that is what you are looking for, I would not suggest going there. The reviews raved about this place, and it was good, but it was all fried and not fresh and didn’t leave our stomachs feeling very happy; so we didn’t quite get the local “best” that we were expecting.

The stream that flowed throughout the woods where we walked

Ben tried to throw me into the water well as I was holding the camera. He told me to take a picture before I got wet and this is what was shot!

Yea, he's a stud:)

Hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire

We were so close, so we decided to stop in Vermont and add another state to our list!

Our first attempt at eating Maine's fresh fish was at this restaurant

Not quite the fresh we were expecting! :)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Boston, Massachusetts

October 3

Today we woke up, sat in a bit of traffic and headed out to tour Boston, Massachusetts. We arrived around 10am and bought a Trolley ticket to hop on and off for the day. We toured the city with our tour guide for about an hour and then started to just walk around to see the city. Ben and I REALLY liked Boston. It was a completely different feel after being in D.C., the people were friendly and the city was clean and fun to just walk around in. Around 1pm we met Matt Johnson (who we met while studying abroad in Australia) and hung out with him for the rest of the day. He played tour guide for us as we walked around and caught up. Then we went to a Mongolian restaurant called Fire and Ice and got the all you can eat buffet. After dinner, we headed out, said goodbye to Matt and headed over to Fenway Park. Apparently you can get a tour of the stadium, but you have to set it up in advanced so we just walked around the stadium to see the outside. We headed out of Boston and stopped in Lincoln, New Hampshire at a nice little hotel/cabin that had a stream flowing right behind it in the woods. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to enjoy that since we got in late and left early, but it was a great place to stop for the night!