The Grand Finale of our Road Trip

Hello again! Here is the whirlwind explanation of our final two stops. We woke up at Mt. Washington with two more adventures on the list before we left for Maine. We went ATV riding first through the trails at the base of Mt. Washington! So fun! Peter drove and I held on for dear life. Peter hopped off at the end of the tour and started calculating monthly payments for an ATV at our cabin. Oh bother. We also took a ride up one of the ski lifts to take in one last view of Mount Washington in the sunshine.  Petey was quite sad to leave but we still had two more locations to go.

On the way out, we stopped at the Moat Mountain Brewery and restaurant because Peter wants to pick up some locally brewed beer. We had lunch: cheeseburger sliders with Chipotle mayo and a pepperoni pizza. Typical Brewery food, nothing outrageously amazing but not bad either. The drive to Kennebunkport, Maine was about an hour and ½. I fell asleep. We drove right into the town of Kennebunkport and it was bustling with tourists! Our hotel was right on the main strip with a gorgeous interior. We were upgraded to a room with a balcony which was AWESOME. So, we set off to wander the shops. All of the shops were similar, lots of nautical decorations and jewelry. The souvenirs here are quite pricey. We then drove to find the Bush residence. So cool! We saw Barbara and George Bush leave their home to go out to dinner in their mini entourage. I waved and took several photos.

We picked up dinner at a deli and I had a fresh turkey sandwich on wheat bread with Swiss and Thousand Island dressing. I also tried a fresh bowl of Clam Chowdah. This was one of my favorite meals on the trip. We watched the sun on the water from our deck. That night there was a crazy summer thunderstorm too! We went to bed early to get ready for our final destination of Boston.

The next morning, we had breakfast at the general store across the street. I had a famous wrap full of eggs, cheese, shredded hash browns, and bacon. Petey was sad because his bagel was burned. Oh well, you can’t win them all… so then we packed up and got in the car to drive to Boston. On our way to Boston, we took a quick detour to Salem, Massachusetts... home of those infamous Witch Trials.

This town is intense, to say the least. We got parked and lined right up to see the Wax Museum Show about the Witch Trials... creepy! Then, we walked the streets and saw all of the crazy Witch stores. It's a bit overdone. We finished our visit by speeding past the House of Seven Gables, the setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne's book. We refused to pay the entry fee so we appeased ourselves with pictures and some homemade ice cream before jumping into the car and speeding off to Boston. I am pleased with our decision to not spend the night here and move on to Boston. It's a much better day trip.

Boston was not far from Salem at all so we arrived fairly quickly. We found immediately that traffic was out of control. Bostonians stop at random places, sit across three lanes of traffic, and frequently run red lights. So, we circled round and round until we found a parking garage near our hotel. The hotel was ultra modern, so modern that they included a cannabis candle in the items you could take from the mini bar. Bizarre? We set out immediately in the Boston heat and just wandered. We found the ducks from Make Way For Ducklings and all of the historically famous graves like Paul Revere. We had lunch at a little deli and then tried the cupcake shop Isabelle's Curly Cakes owned by Chef Todd English's daughter. I was not impressed with these cupcakes in the slightest. Icing was entirely too abrasive.

We ended the evening at a little bar across the street from Sam Adams' grave. Peter wanted to have a Sam Adams across from Sam Adams so that is precisely what we did. I tried some Clam Chowdah. It was not very exciting... nothing to rave about.

The next morning, we woke up and got Dunkin' Donuts Coffee and jumped in the car. We had one last important stop of Northeast Roadtrip 2013... the Sam Adams Brewery Tour. We arrived  and got tickets but guess what? The tour was going through renovations so we basically went into a room and got more free samples instead of walking around. Peter was THRILLED.

We ended in the gift shop in which Peter bought a bottle opener to mount at the cabin. Then, we set off to drive all the way home. After a quick lunch stop at Boston Market (right outside of Boston, how clever), we hit New York City traffic at approximately 3:30 pm on a Friday afternoon. We sat for hours in the same spot and I almost had a panic attack because I wanted to get home so badly.

We arrived safely after a massive thunderstorm in Delaware and we crashed as soon as we walked into our house. Thus concludes the longest road trip we have ever taken so far... about 80 miles short of 2,000 miles in all.

Amen.