Tuesday Oct. 8, 2013 - Last Day

We meandered down back roads along the coast to Boston.  A nice sunny day with a few clouds.  The trees are shedding their leaves pretty fast now.  The rain and the wind from the last couple of days left a good portion of the color on the ground.   The lasting memories from the trip will all be bright with shades of orange, yellow, red and green.  Of course, the history of the area and the roots of our ancestors going back to the 1600's have added immensely to the richness of our adventure. We were able to visit many of the areas that our ancestors immigrated to, lived, raised their families, and died.

Check a few more things off our bucket list.  Plane leaves in a while.

 Final count on the New England miles was a tad over 1700.

One of our last stops was at the Fisherman's  Memorial on the bay front in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Does this statue look familiar? 

  

Monday Sept. 7 - Dover, NH - found some relatives

We went digging in the antiquity section of the Dover, New Hampshire library and confirmed one branch of my mother's family that dated back to 1608.  We also found  two generations of  of my ancestors that were buried in the Dover area on Varney Road and in the Varney Cemetery.  The cemetery was very small (40' wide and 75' long) and grown over.  Only four headstones were visible, but in very good shape compared to others we found in more exposed areas. 

View from the edge of the road and relative size of the burying ground.

Varney Cemetery established 1850

If you gotten this far down the page, please note.  We are flying home on the 8th.  The blog will be off line for a while.  Hope you enjoyed the narrative, we sure had a great of fun.  Final mileage for Missouri was about 400 miles and New England was about 1400 plus miles.  The only regrets was that several of the Nation Park sites we wanted to tour were shut down, because of the little children in DC.

Sunday, Oct. 6 - Down the Eastern sea coast

Today was a cloudy day - and then it rained!  Perfect day to travel south toward Boston.  The coast of Maine was so beautiful, we spent all morning driving down the southern coast highway.  A highlight was our stop at Fort McClary State Historic Site.  This site features an old blockhouse, an unusual building in a fort built after 1800.

Block House

View from the block house looking north.

After lunch at Lamie's Inn in Hampton, NH we drove through Salem, MA, heading for the town of Marblehead.  Nancy has some ancestors buried in the Old Burial Hill Cemetery.  This cemetery has graves of about 600 Revolutionary soldiers as well as fishermen and seamen.  The area overlooks Marblehead's historic district, the harbor, and the sea.

View to the south from the old burying ground.

Graves from the mid 1700's and early 1800's

See the granite rocks - they are all around the burying ground.

We checked in to our hotel, then headed to Portsmouth for dinner.  We ate at Portsmouth Brewing Co., a local micro-brewery and restaurant.  The fresh mussels were delicious!  Another great travel day - even in the rain.

Beaches near Kennebunkport looking north.

Beaches near Kennebunkport looking south.

Beaches in Oregon are all open to the public.

Saturday, Oct. 5 - Portland tour

Today we headed for the "other" Portland - Portland, Maine.  We took a side trip to Cape Elizabeth, a headland a few miles south of Portland.  At Fort Williams Park we toured the Portland Head Light, one of the oldest lighthouses in continuous use in the country. Commissioned by George Washington in 1791.  Pictures below---

We did some shopping in the harbor area of Portland, and enjoyed a late lunch at DiMillo's Restaurant.  DiMillo's is a family-owned restaurant on a converted car ferry floating at Long Wharf.  We had a delightful lunch overlooking the boat basin and enjoyed watching the boats sail by in the harbor.  We also saw Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's childhood home.  It is open in conjunction with the Maine Historical Society Museum and Library.  In a Portland neighborhood we drove around one of the main headlands overlooking the harbor.  Nancy commented that the houses were gorgeous and I agreed that they were grand.  In the back of my mind I was saying, "I am sure glad I don't have to paint these 4 story mansions."  Luckily, we left our checkbook at home. 

Then it was back to Freeport for some more shopping. The town of Freeport is essentially a giant mall, with the flagship L.L. Bean store at its center ( I think two Cabala stores would fit in this behemoth).  People come from as far away as Canada and Oregon to shop here.  We had dinner at Gritty McDuff's Brew Pub and Restaurant.  It's fun to visit the micro-breweries in this area, and taste the different types of beer.  

This is a popular tourist stop for people on cruise ships. 6 bus loads in 40 minutes while we were there.

A very picturesque light house.  Lobster pot buoys were about 150' from the rocks on the left side of the picture.

I took this picture looking away from the light house.  Lots of rocks and shoals just under water.  Not fun for the early ships. 

Friday Oct. 4 Heading to Bailey Island and Freeport

After leaving the lodge, we headed to the coast of Maine.
More back roads and colorful leaves.  As we dropped out of the White Mountains into the lower altitudes towards the coast, more leaves were on the trees and the colors turned back to the deep oranges and reds.  The shore pines started to become more abundant as we drove closer to the ocean.  I was still able to make a few good images. I will know more when I can work on the photos at home.

This is our dinner place.

The Lobster House is just behind the red building.  On the other side of the spit of land were hundreds of lobster traps in the channel.

The absolute highlight of the day was our trip to Bailey Island.  Our friends, Bruce and Sharon, suggested that we go to Cook's Lobster House. I had 3 1/2 lb. lobster for about half of what I would have paid for a 2 pounder in Boston.

Check Maine lobster off our bucket list.  I guess that would be my wheelbarrow list for this fellow.

The coast is so convoluted that this picture seems to be the norm in many spots.

You can also find long coarse sand beaches.

 Bare rocks run down to the water - inhospitable to much vegetation.

Thursday, Oct. 3 - New Hampshire

We got off to a sweet start today.  First we drove to Waterbury, VT, where one of Ben & Jerry's ice cream factories is located.  The tour was fun, interesting, and delicious.

 Next we went to the state capital, Montpelier.  After a quick tour, we went to Morse Farm Maple Sugar Works.  Another sweet treat!

Then the real driving began - we traveled on highway 32 through Woodsville and Littleton to the White Mountain National Forest.  This is the highest mountain range in New England, with Mt. Washington towering at over 6000 feet.  The scenery was beautiful, and the day was picture perfect.

We settled in North Conway for the night, in a bed & breakfast close to the ski resort area.

We did visit a graveyard and found some old friends, see if you remember anyone of them..

 I am not sure anyone has registered these on Find-A-Grave.  Be the first.

 

Wednesday, Oct. 2 - Fort Ticonderoga

We left our hotel early this morning to drive up the west side of Vermont toward Burlington.  The scenery was beautiful, so we traveled mostly on highway 7 and the adjacent country roads to get the best view of the foliage.

Photo by Nancy

 At the village of Hampton we crossed into New York state and followed the through small villages and on back roads to Fort Ticonderoga.

Inside the reconstructed fort.

View from the front ramparts of the fort.

Our guided tour at Fort Ticonderoga was the highlight of today, well worth the time.



After our visit, we boarded the cable ferry operating on  Lake Champlain and returned to VT.  We drove north on highway 7 again to Burlington, where we spent the night.

The ferry is just like the one crossing the Willamette at the Canby crossing.

We had an excellent dinner had at The Ice House restaurant.  The weather is unseasonably warm for this time of year, so we ate on the outside deck that overlooks the lake and watched the sun set.

Tuesday, Oct. 1 -Three States in one day - CT,MA & VT

Today we drove across two states (CT and MA) and into a third (VT).  Know that sounds like a long way, but our route was only about 170 miles.  It does take all day, though, with many stops and slow traffic.

After a quick stop at another cemetery in East Haddam, CT, we headed north through Hartford to Springfield.  We had planned to stop at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, but it was closed due to the government partial shut-down.

We chose to travel on the side roads, so took highway 7 on the western edge of MA.  We enjoyed lunch at the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, and visited Stockbridge to see the Norman Rockwell Museum. This museum sits on over 30 acres and has beautiful views of the autumn countryside. 

Norman Rockwell's studio

We also drove through Lennox, Pittsfield, and Williamstown.  These are revolutionary war sites, as well as being charming New England towns.

One of numerous panoramas along the roads we traveled today