Roadtrip #5: Washington, D.C. and the New England states

===== Day 5 =====

It was nice to wake up to blue skies and temps above 50°F for once. Today wasn't as hectic as days past, which was nice because the foot blisters have been mounting.

We got a late start due to trying to catch up on some morning errands, but used the turnpikes to quickly get to our destination for the day. I decided to drive into Staten Island and then Brooklyn, in preparation for the crossing of the Brooklyn Bridge, but even at 11:30am the construction (and traffic) was so massive that I made a last minute veer into the Brooklyn Tunnel instead, which got me to a parking garage within 5 minutes.

We kept it simple. First stop was the construction of the World Trade Center. Not much to see, really. There has been progress since the last visit here in 2005, but the red tape has obviously hindered the advance. We headed east from this area.

The company I work for opened up an East Coast satellite office a few months ago in the old Trinity building on Broadway, so I made a brief stop on the 19th floor to check out the digs. Very impressive (the offices and the views)! They were located right next to the Trinity Church, which was of course our next stop. Amazing cathedral and ancient burial grounds. Wall Street was a quick glance here as well.

Farther south we walked to Battery Park, enjoying a $2.00 hot dog from one of the stands, and also checked off another National Monument on the list, Clinton Castle. This is where immigrants were processed prior to Ellis Island starting in the mid-1800s. It even used to be a fort to defend from any possible British invasion.

We figured that was enough for today, since it was already getting late. Unfortunately I didn't learn of our "oversize" vehicle until I had to pay the $48 parking fee. I think I came to the wrong garage. Vultures, they are...

We're back in Red Bank, NJ for the last night. We'll keep trekking north tomorrow after our visit to the upside of Manhattan. It only gets colder (and hopefully more colorful) from here.

===== Day 6 =====

No sleeping in this time. We were all packed, on the road and out of Red Bank, NJ by 8:00am EDT. The plan was to get to the immediate vicinity of the Empire State Building in Upper Manhattan. Unfortunately my GPS seems to think that because a route is 30 seconds shorter, then it's the better way. It led me off the freeway and onto side streets that backed up for miles and delayed us for almost 30 minutes. *sigh* Someone please remind me to ignore what the GPS says and follow my own instincts.

We found a parking garage on 6th Ave and 36th Street, our starting point for the Upper Manhattan walk-around. We headed to the ESB and shot up 1,050 feet for our observatory views, although it was somewhat hazy and they closed off part of the walkway to allow space for some movie star I didn't even recognize. OK yeah... time to go back down.

We headed over from 5th Ave to Broadway and started walking north, keeping my intended destination secret until the folks saw it for themselves. We reached Times Square and they quickly became overwhelmed with all the hullabaloo going on. We hit up the 3-story Toys'R'Us (with ferris wheel) and gazed at all the news tickers scrolling away. So much to see in so little time.

We continued north on 7th Ave, stair-stepping over a few blocks until we reached 5th Ave and 59th Street, which is home to the famous "Glass House" Apple Store. I had to check this out myself, since I missed it on the last trip in 2005. Loved going down the glass elevator to the underground floor.

It was now after 3pm so we didn't get to do any of Central Park, which was fine. Our feet were once again giving out on us. We stayed on 5th Avenue and headed back south but gawked at all the stores of the Fashion District as well as the old churches lining the street as we went.

Time to get out of here. We finished our loop around Upper Manhattan and decided to call it a day. We paid another $45 for the garage parole and headed north and out of Manhattan via FDR Drive. There were a few highways to navigate, but eventually found I-95 and crossed into Connecticut. We found a nice bit of amenities by our hotel in West Haven, CT and will overnight here before exploring the 2 small states.

We're tired. Time for bed!

I encountered my first experience with a Sat Nav on our recent trip and although a good back up tool I always worked out my route and used a paper map.

I am enjoying reading your report and it's nice to see the sun finally made an appearance !

===== Day 7 =====

This was Mom's day. Her mom and dad were from Connecticut and Rhode Island, respectively. So it was time to explore these two states as fully possible.

We left West Haven, CT and went past Yale University for a quick gawk, although a plethora of road construction, one way streets, and inaccurate GPS garbage made us waste more time than we needed. After we escaped that mess, we shot straight up to the capital, Hartford.

First stop here was one of the old cemeteries where my great grandparents are buried. The family plot is under a huge oak tree, which made a nice setting for some marker pics. After 30 minutes here, we plopped over to the state house, and actually went inside this time. Old relics, including actual flags dating back to the civil war, were on display.

We picked up souvenirs and then headed southeast via Hwy 1, nearing the border of Rhode Island. I wanted to stay off the major highway so we could actually stop and take pictures of border signs instead of attempting to get them while zipping along at 70MPH. But as is always with our luck, they were just town signs.

The first stops in RI were Kingston and Peace Dale where my grandfather was born and raised, but there wasn't really much to do here besides drive around. We really couldn't find anything enticing. East was the direction we traveled and went over to the old town of Newport. We didn't have time to tour any mansions, but we did pass by a few, as well as the Ocean Drive. Nice area. The last stop for the day was the capitol building in downtown Providence, capturing its gaze during the sunset. Over the border to Massachusetts we went.

It took forever to find the hotel in Quincy. The frontage roads here are major suckage if you don't know your way around. I kept getting forced back on the highway, or getting stuck in a one-way loop. I was cursing out whoever decided to build the roads this way. They should take lessons from the west side.

Boston and the Freedom Trail is on deck. Our last major city should be a good one.

===== Day 8 =====

Our final major city comes today. It only took a few minutes to launch ourselves into downtown Boston, MA. We parked under the Boston Common and began our 2.5-mile walk on the Freedom Trail, taking in historic sites, old graveyards, churches, and anything having to do with Paul Revere. We even went inside his renovated 350-year-old house to check out the 4 rooms still on display.

After we crossed the bridge to get to "Old Ironsides," our feet had once again reached their practical limits. We were going to do the final stop for the day and board the USS Constitution, but we were all put off by the new security line in place (which was not there in 2005). I'm sorry, but after all the crap on the airports, in DC, Philly, and New York, we weren't going to drop half our load and go through yet another security line. Seriously... for a ship? It was half dismantled for renovations anyway so we ended up skipping it, and the Bunker Hill monument.

We took the ferry back to the main area, and in turn switched on a few subways until we got back to the Boston Common. It was 1:30pm EDT so it was a chance to get a good head start for the rest of the trip.

We left Boston and used I-95 to make the final route north, crossing New Hampshire for a bit, and then crossed into Maine. We refilled gas in York and kept going until reaching the capital Augusta. Here I took yet another pic of a capitol building, and then did a quick pit stop at the Wal-mart nearby.

The rest of the drive was quite murky. It was foggy and rainy all the way up, which I guess I should expect for this area during this season. The sun is also setting earlier due to our advancing latitude. We arrived in Bar Harbor in pitch dark after 7:30pm.

There's a few restaurants open in Bar Harbor for eating, although most of them (and our hotel) will close for the season October 31st. We made it inside the closing bell.

Next up is our first National Park for this trip, and it's supposed to be sunny and cold. Keep it tuned here.

===== Day 9 =====

OK, so I admit I may have underestimated the distances between Acadia National Park and Niagara Falls. I think my "speed run" tendencies are running a little rampant this time. I should have added a day to this road trip. Now why didn't I? Someone please ask me that.

We left the hotel in Bar Harbor, ME shortly after 8:00am EDT and entered into Acadia NP a few minutes later. I'll remind you that the temps are in the mid 30s. Brrrrr. The first stop was the visitor center with the usual souvenir and 15-minute presentation deal.

I decided the first official order of business in the park was to scale Cadillac Mountain, 1530 feet up. The sights up there were wondrous to behold. We stopped at almost all the lookout points, which was a good thing because when we reached the peak, the wind was howling. The wind chill was pushing the temps down into the low 20s and my poor unprotected hands were burning as I was trying to sweep panoramas with the camera. My folks didn't last long here at all and headed back to the heated car.

All right, so now we're doing the loop. There's many places to stop and look, even halting on the 2-lane one-way road to take pics of the foliage. (We could only do that due to the late season and bare roads.) The best was going to the Sand Beach and taking in the serenity there. We also caught Thunder Hole but the sea was calm, so no exciting shows here.

We finished the loop and headed to the Bass Harbor Head Light, although it was a little smaller than I had hoped for. Maybe I'm just used to seeing the ones on the West Coast. Oh well, we need to book it. We used Hwy 3 west to get back to Augusta and fill up the tank.

We raced back down I-95 and went as far as we could go. The sun keeps setting before 6pm up in this area and we didn't want to drive in the dark for too long, so we made it as far as Concord, NH. This will be nice because I can shoot a pic of the capitol building and then book it out of here, crossing Vermont and back into New York.

Nothing besides the New Hampshire and Albany capitols are on our plate, so it'll be a long driving day. The plan is to reach Niagara Falls by late afternoon. It's supposed to rain, so we may have another day ruined by the weather, but once again we'll attempt to make the most of it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kinless

I should have added a day to this road trip. Now why didn't I? Someone please ask me that.

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Um, I think every piece of advice we gave you -- was that you were pushing way too hard on this trip. You and your folks are experienced road trippers, but seriously this is a faster pace than a professional driver would ever attempt.

But I enjoying the tale!

Mark

===== Day 10 =====

So it hasn't gone too badly. We've been able to keep mostly on schedule without sacrificing anything.

We left Concord, NH in the pouring rain before 8:00am EDT, snapped the pic of the capitol a few blocks down, then traversed westward on Hwy 9. Since nothing was open early in Concord, we stopped in Keene in order to get the souvenir stuff.

It was still raining buckets when we crossed into Vermont, and continued on Hwy 9 all through the state. The peak fall colors were spectacular in these areas. We did stop in Bennington to get the postcard and magnet, and also take a picture of their battle monument. Would have loved to stick around and see what that was all about, but it was almost noon and there was no time to lose. We hit the New York border a few minutes after leaving the town.

The last brief stop was in Albany, NY, where I got a picture of the last capitol building of the trip, and filled up on fuel once more before taking the I-90 New York Expressway the entire leg. Over 4 hours passed before we transitioned north to the Niagara Falls area.

After checking into the hotel, we headed out after sunset and decided to be adventurous and cross over into the territory of our friends to the north. It took 55 minutes to go over Rainbow Bridge into Canada. There were only 3 lanes open and the bridge was under construction, causing a 1-lane bottleneck. Umm... why? Why would you do that??

We drove up into Niagara Falls, ON and found ourselves in the middle of a mini Las-Vegas style community, with a whole bunch of family/youth restaurants, clubs and hang-outs. It was pretty hoppin'. We ate at the Dave & Busters, but they decided to inflate their prices from what was on the menu. We thought the $30.00 extra was just the Canadian dollar rate, but since our dollars are almost parity right now, they used the 'ol "Menu prices are subject to change" routine to soak us good. Hmph... see if we ever do that again. At least the souvenir shop across the way didn't rip us off like that.

We took a stroll down to the walkway and I got in some decent night shots of the falls and the Skylon Tower overlooking the city. The wind was still prevalent, so we cut our walk short, and headed back over to our hotel.

If the line to get back into Canada is small, we may go over once more (first thing in the morning) to see some daytime views of the falls, otherwise, it's south we head for the last of our destinations.

The good times are almost over...

===== Day 11 =====

It was decided that we would cross over the border again to get some morning (daytime) shots of Niagara Falls, and it was worth it. There was no line at all to get into Canada, and no line at all to get back into the US. I figured that would be the case for early Sunday morning. Dad dropped us off and drove around while we spent 15 minutes taking pictures of the Canadian Falls, since the parking and traffic was affected by some special marathon taking place. Good enough...

We left Niagara Falls and took more of the I-90 west until we departed New York, then transitioned to I-76 and flew across Pennsylvania. Since we missed our souvenirs in Maryland, we detoured to I-68 east and had a heck of a time trying to find a stupid magnet that said Maryland (took 4 tries!). Once that goal was achieved, we headed south once again on Hwy 219.

We then turned off to State Route 50 into West Virginia. The colors in this area were at their peak, so it was quite the enjoyable ride in the countryside, practically the textbook roadtrip that everyone is always clamoring for. We turned off onto Route 42 and finally Route 28 to get us to Cabins, WV. Here we stayed at the Harman North Fork Cottages. Their cabins are right next to a rock cliff formation with a small park and a running stream right out front. And of course, all the trees around us were at peak color.

After unpacking, I went straight for the hot tub and put in a good 30 minutes. *happy sigh* We didn't think to bring things to cook (since we had a range) so we had to go back to nearby Petersburg, WV to get some food.

We wish we could stay here a week.

===== Day 12 =====

We maximized our cabin time and moseyed on out around 9:30am EDT. The first stop of the day was just 12 miles south... Seneca Rocks. Here we just took a few quick pics and got our souvenirs here. Time to go!

Our main road for the day was Hwy 33, which led us back into our originating state of Virginia. We've seen so many Dunkin' Donuts on this trip, that it would have been a crime had we not stopped to eat there just once. Harrisonburg, VA provided us with one and we had a late breakfast (at noon).

We continued on until we reached the border of Shenandoah National Park. Here we turned north onto Skyline Drive and covered 2/3rds of the park. It was mostly overlook points and the visitor center, but the colors in the lower elevations caught our attention. We even came across a legion of people and cars as they were trying to capture pics of a black bear that was up in the tree looking for food. It was apparently there for 6 hours and rangers were trying to control the traffic flow. I switched to my 300mm telephoto lens and got some close-ups for that one.

After 2.5 hours we descended out of the park and used I-66 to get back to Arlington, VA (and the original hotel we started in). We're now organizing to take all our belongings home (including the extra weight of our souvenirs). Think we can keep it contained to 50 lbs per suitcase?

I will probably combine Day 13 (Flight day) with the Conclusion, Stats and Pics. It's been a great trip, and we hope for a trouble-free flight home.