New England And New York

Bill & Grant's
2008 trip to

NEW ENGLAND & NEW YORK CITY

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This page covers our 11-day trip in September 2008. We flew into Boston, drove a lot, and flew back from Newark.

We left on 9/11 !!! No worries... and no fingernails left after those flights.

This area of the world was all new for Grant. I lived in Boston and New York City two different summers, but I haven't been back for decades. But our trip included places I have not been to before like Nantucket, Newport, Mystic and other parts of Connecticut.

In the Boston area we stayed four days in the northern suburbs (Danvers) so it would be convenient for our two day trips north, one to coastal New Hampshire and Maine, and the second to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Day One:

Flights to Boston

Even though we left at 7am, our flights took all day. We didn't arrive at the hotel until 10:30pm.

Day Two:

Cape Ann (MA)
Portsmouth (NH)
Kennebunkport (ME)

CAPE ANN, MASSACHUSETTS (Gloucester, Manchester, Rockport)

Cape Ann lighthouse

Fort Stage Park - with its gazebo and giant rock with a plaque imbedded in it commemorating the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony on this site in 1623. (This preceeded the founding of Boston which later became part of the colony.)

PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE

In New Hampshire, we found out were
NOT driving 'north toward Portsmouth'....

we were driving
'NOTH TWOD 'POTSmuth'.

It has been raining off and on, but in Portsmouth, NH the rain stopped, so we stopped and walked around the oldest area of town, Strawberry Banke.

MAINE (KENNEBUNKPORT, OGUNQUIT, WELLS)

In Maine we drove along the coast as far north as Kennebunkport, where we saw the Bush compound (Bush Sr) and other large summer homes.

NE08 ME001 Bush compound Kennebunkport.jpg

For a snack we had a lobster roll on the bridge in Kennebunkport at the top rated place for them (no joke), the Clam Shack:

And later we had a fantastic dinner (the best of the trip for me) of giant, juicy steamed lobsters further south in Wells, Maine at Fisherman's Catch.

Day Three:

The covered bridges and White Mountains of New Hampshire, and a little bit of Vermont

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS

The weather forecast was for rain in Boston, so we took off north for New Hampshire. It poured until we got to the first stop and that was it for rain! It kept threatening to rain, but never did, and we even had some nice sunshine once in a while. For September it was very warm.

The terrain only felt 'mountainous' in a few places. Rocky Gorge was one of them.

Upper Falls in Rocky Gorge

When planning the trip, we decided to collect covered bridges. Here are the first ones of the trip, and the first ones Grant ever saw. They seem to come in bunches. The 4 different bridges shown below were all quite close, two in the same town.

Albany bridge (active roadway), Albany-Conway area

Saco RIver bridge (active roadway) in Conway

Swift River bridge (pedestrian only) in Conway

Honeymoon Bridge (active roadway) in Jackson

Glen House looking toward the higher White Mountains. Since clouds shrouded the tops of the mountains all day,
there was no point in going up to the top of Mount Washington.

A huge surprise... an 'extended family' of wild avian dinosaurs calmly walking alongside the busy road

THE CONNECTICUT RIVER AREA in NEW HAMPSHIRE and VERMONT

We had time to check another cluster of 4 covered bridges before dark. We crossed the Connecticut River into Vermont (that's our 4th New England state so far on this trip) before coming back over the longest covered bridge in the USA. It's so long I had to splice two photos together. Despite that support in the middle, the bridge is still wonky looking.

Crossing the wide Connecticut River, Cornish-Windsor covered bridge connects
Windsor, Vermont and Cornish, New Hampshire.
This composite photo includes all of the bridge's signs.

These are the other 3 covered bridges in and around Cornish...

Dingleton Bridge in Cornish Mills

Blacksmith Shop Bridge in Cornish

Blow-Me-Down Bridge is north of Cornish about 10 miles

middle falls of the cascades under Blow-Me-Down Bridge

Day Four:

BOSTON and SALEM (MA)

FREEDOM TRAIL in BOSTON

This is a walking tour of almost all the historic sites in Boston. We almost completed it, finishing up to #21:

1. Boston Common 2. Shaw Memorial 3. State House 4. Park Street Church 5. Granary Burying Ground 6. Kings Chapel 7. Kings Chapel Burying Ground 8. Old City Hall 9. Old Corner Bookstore 10. Old South Meeting House 11. Old State House 12. Faneuil Hall 13. Quincy Market 14. Union Oyster House 15. Ebenezer Hancock House 16. The Haymarket 17. Paul Revere House 18. St. Stephens Church 19. Paul Revere Mall 20. Old North Church 21. Copps Hill Burying Ground 22. U.S.S. Constitution 23. Bunker Hill Monument

It was a very nice day, but we did not take many still pictures. And the video clips taken were good but did not produce a lot of good snaps.

the Freedom Trail in Boston

Old State House in Boston

THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES in SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

The House of the Seven Gables

Bill at House of the Seven Gables

side house in the House of the Seven Gables compound

House of the Seven Gables courtyard

Nathaniel Hawthorne house in House of the Seven Gables compound

Day Five:

Plymouth and Cape Cod (Truro and Provincetown)

PLYMOUTH

The Mayflower II

This overly large temple enshrines such a undistinguished little rock called "Plymouth Rock".
It was good for a laugh anyway; thereafter we called it "Plymouth Pebble".
Which rock did the Pilgrims first set foot on?
Dunno, but it was not here... it was in Provincetown. (Remember that. There will be quiz later.)

Walking around the town of Plymouth and the harbor was worthwhile. Very nice town.

Plymouth's old grist mill

CAPE COD

After touring Plymouth, we found our hotel on Cape Cod (in Eastham) and after settling in our room, got going again just in time for watching the sunset from Truro beach. Because of the hook at the end of Cape Cod, Provincetown was west of us, so we saw the sun setting behind Provincetown.

Sun setting behind P'town towers (full zoom)

P'town sunset

Sunset on Truro Beach

Day Six:

Nantucket

Nantucket Island is the former whaling center off the coast of Massachusetts south of Cape Cod

"Sailing" into Nantucket town via the ferry

Sperm whale skeleton in the whaling museum.
Hard to tell the scale here, but the head is over 10 feet long.

Weathervane of whaling ship in Nantucket

There are some beautiful houses in Nantucket. We toured one historic house.

Day Seven:

Newport, RI and Mystic, CN

Newport, Rhode Island was the summer getaway of New York's multimillionaires who built their over-the-top summer "cottages" here.

'The Oaks' street side facade

'The Oaks' garden facade

'The Breakers' water side facade

Mystic, Connecticut was a major shipbuilding center during the 19th century and height of the whaling sailing ships. There are well-preserved examples of the ships and buildings at "Mystic Seaport" which is a well-done historical preservation/re-creation of the old town and life in it.

Mystic Seaport Houses

Mystic Seaport Sailing Ships

Mystic Seaport lighthouse

Boating on The Mystic River

Day Eight:

Connecticut

Gillette Castle is a totally unique home on a promontory overlooking the lower Connecticut River. It was the home of, and self-designed by, an actor famous in his day for playing Sherlock Holmes. It was worth seeing for just the door latches he