New England Road Trip: Part 1

What do you get when you combine a big wedding anniversary, a mutual feeling of wanderlust, and a desire to visit all 50 states together? A New England road trip vacation, of course! And a big vacation like this one needs more than one post to fit it all in- so up first is part 1 of 3.

We threw around many different ideas both in the states and abroad, but mutually agreed that a visit to the Northeastern United States was the right fit for us. I researched and planned and drove Eric crazy with questions about different travel stops and activities to do. I procrastinated on the actual booking of the activities until a little too late and didn't get around to actually planning anything past when we were in Acadia National Park (aside from accommodations and tickets to the Red Sox game), so we had to wing the last few days of vacation. But that didn't bother us one bit!

Our travels started in Boston, Massachusetts. We had flown in the previous evening, so we had the entire day to explore Boston. First up was a walking tour on the Freedom Trail. 

We really enjoyed getting a deeper insight into history of not only Boston, but of America, and to be able to visit many important sites in the city.

At the Granary Burying Ground, we saw the grave markers of Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. 

One thing that I thought was so interesting about the cemeteries out here was how thin the grave markers were. Many of the markers had worn down and were almost blank. And our guide told us that most of the markers were not in their original locations due to being moved to add in the walking paths throughout the cemetery. 

The site of the Boston Massacre.

Our guided tour of the first 11 stops on the trail ended around lunch, so we opted to find a spot for lunch in the North End. We ended up at the original Regina Pizzeria, and it was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. If you would have told me that artichokes belonged on pizza I would have told you that you were crazy. But here we were, eating artichokes on a pizza and wanting them to be on every pizza I eat from here on out. 

After our yummy lunch, we walked over to Modern Pastry for some delicious cannoli's. I couldn't pass up a stop in the North End without trying one out!

We finished up the last stops on the Freedom Trail on our own. Here's the Old North Church where Paul Revere hung his lanterns. 

Copp's Hill Burying Ground was very similar to the Granary Burying Ground. What was so interesting to me is that since most of the people buried here were Puritans, they did not believe in religious symbolism. Many of the tombstones had some variation of a skull with wings that symbolized their soul flying to Heaven after their death. 

We were able to tour the USS Constitution and see how the sailors on this ship lived. A sailor's life would definitely not be for me ha!

And the last stop on the trail was the Bunker Hill Monument. 

Then we hit up the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. Somehow we ended up on a school's private tour, but it wasn't bad at all. There is a "skit" before the tour starts and the kids did a great job getting into their roles. It was interesting to get a closer look at that moment in history. 

When that was done, we headed on down to Rhode Island for the evening to unwind and get ready for our next day of adventure. That next morning we drove down to Point Judith and hopped on the Block Island Ferry. 

Once there, we picked up our moped and were off to explore!

Our first stop was the South East Lighthouse. We both agreed that this was our favorite lighthouse from the whole trip. 

Up next was the Mohegan Bluffs. We got in views from the top before walking down the 100 some steps to the bottom, where we were greeted with another breathtaking view of the bluffs. The not so beautiful hike back up those 100 steps came next ha!

We drove past Rodman's Hollow. If we had more time it would have been fun to hike down in there. Fun fact- when we were in Vermont, one of the couples staying at our bed and breakfast told us that her dad made the Rodman's Hollow sign- so crazy!

Our last stops were the North Lighthouse and I believe Crescent Beach. Envision it 20 degrees warmer and abundant sunshine, ha! 

The North Lighthouse was another unique lighthouse. We were able to drive to a parking lot, but then had to walk a long ways down the beach to reach the actual lighthouse. We saw many seagulls on this beach, and even found some nests of the gulls while we were walking closer to the lighthouse.

After lunch, it was back on to the ferry to return to the main land. We headed towards Newport to do the Cliff Walk and admire all the mansions. We started the walk at the Forty Steps. It was a beautiful location. 

We were able to walk past the famous Breakers mansion, but also so many other extravagant houses along the coast line. 

As we walked past the famous mansions, we also found many more moderate (though still elaborate) homes. We noticed that while all of these homes had the huge windows that faced the coast- as they should because their view is stellar- almost all of those homes had closed blinds on every window. It's easy to forget that people still live in a lot of those homes and have to deal with strangers trying to get a peak at what it's like to be wealthy. It made me gracious for our much more simple way of life.

The next day we drove a little over an hour to get to Mystic, Connecticut. We started our morning at the Mystic Seaport Museum. This is an outdoor museum full of a working boat restoration facility, as well as many different old buildings depicting a the whaling industry, lobster and clam trapping, and other various boats and businesses from the past. 

We were able to tour an old whaling ship- the Charles W Morgan. I know one thing is for sure, I would NOT want to be on this ship and try to get a whale. I have to imagine that some whales would have been bigger than the ship. Overall, it was a really cool museum, and if you are interested in boats at all it would be worth a stop to visit if you are in the area. 

I had wanted to walk around Mystic for a bit, but holey moley it was a little too crowded for our taste. Here's a quick picture I snapped driving over the bascule bridge in town. 

We made a pit stop a little bit past town at Abbott's Lobster in the Rough for our very first lobster roll-yum! I do have to laugh though, because I thought a lobster roll would be a little more involved. It was literally just lobster pieces inside of a bun with melted butter. Still good, just not what I expected. 

The place was super cute though, and gave me that authentic coastal town vibe. 

We spent the rest of the day driving the coast of Connecticut. We drove on every road that bordered the ocean that we could - we did respect privacy if the road was labeled as private. We enjoyed picking out our favorite houses, admiring all the boats in the harbors, and taking life a little more slow. 

A brewery was our last stop on the coast before we headed to central Connecticut for bed. We said goodbye to the water and were excited to welcome on the mountains that would take up our next few days. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our trip- our time in Vermont and New Hampshire!