One week road trip along East Coast

Hi all,
Me and four of my friends are plannning a road trip along the East Coast (around July-August). We would like to visit as many major attractions as possible. Our interest is more towards nature, beaches, rafting, camping, seeing big cities like New York, etc rather than visiting historical monuments and museums. Could some one help me out on this one?

Thanks,
Shashank.

I'm not overly experienced in touring along the eastern seaboard, but I HAVE visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina -- and loved it -- especially the area around Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke Island (the area frequented by Edward Teach -- aka "Blackbeard!" Bob

Here are a few ideas :

Nature/Camping : Bar Harbor and Acadia areas (ME), Mount Katahdin (ME), White Mountains area (NH) (Mt Lafayette, Mt Washington, etc)(+++), Country Bumpkins in Lincoln is a nice campground,Adirondacks region (Mt White Face)(NY), Everglades (FL)

Beaches : Ogunquit (ME), Hampton Beach (NH), Cape Cod (MA)(+++), Martha's Vineyard (MA), Wildwood (NJ), Atlantic City (NJ), Virginia Beach (VA), Cape Hatteras (NC), Myrtle Beach (SC), Miami (FL)

Cities : Portland (ME), Concord (NH), Boston (MA), Providence (RI), Newport (RI), Baltimore (MD), Philly (PA), NYC, Washington (DC), Norfolk (VA), Richmond (VA), Atlanta (GA), Miami (FL) (+++), Key West (FL)(+++)

Have a nice trip!
Gen:-)

You might try visiting the DelMarVa Peninsula. That is specifically an area called Chincoteague, VA which is on the island of Assateague. It has become a favorite spot of mine. Since I live in NJ with its own beaches you could try them out but they are really crowded & usually charge to go on beach & pay for parking. If you are a birder, thats the flight path. If you go in September, Cape May has the Monarch butterfly migration, which we found by accident. But traveling down Garden State Parkway to end you can get ferry, Cape May/Lewes Ferry into Delaware & travel Rt 13 down to Chinocteague or there are other beaches in Ocean City, MD.

Chincoteage has alot of camping, beautiful clean beaches with wildlife tours. They have wild ponies there which makes it a unique areaand they have clams. I love seafood.

Not too far from that area is Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. It is also a unique experience. Very long bridge that also tunnels under the ocean where ships cross over. There is a souvenir shop with luncheonette & viewing points on the way.

There is the Norfolk Va area along with Williamsburg, historical Williamsburg as well as Busch Gardens which is an amusement park featuring different countries. Beautiful & clean.

If you decide to go north into New England, then Gloucester, MA has whale cruises, Cape Code in Provincetown also has them & beautiful sand dune beaches. Rockport MA is a quaint town with lots of shops. Gloucester area (just outside) we also found a river cruise that was just beautiful. If you go that close York Beach in Me has my favorite lighthouse which I alway have to visit--Nubble Light. Ogunquit just up from York Beach is a quaint but crowded area. You might also enjoy Bar Harbor ME which has mountains were the pine trees meet the ocean.

You can tell most of my travels have been in this area (I live in NJ) so have done most of my traveling on East Coast.

Diane,

How do you pronounce that word? I'm a western boy so the ways (and language) of you easterners are foreign to me! :)

Nubble Light? How does that stack up against Cape Hatteras Light? Why is Nubble your favorite? What is it that you like about it? I LOVE lighthouses. I think in a former life I must have been a crab that lived near one.

Great post -- lots of information. Don't forget Yorktown, though, where George Washington finally helped the British see the light. I visited there last year and it was awesome to stand under Washington's tent. Bob

[I just looked up Nubble Light on the Internet -- no wonder you like it. It reminds me a little of the Point Loma Lighthouse in San Diego (also very picturesque).]

That is Chink-a-Teeg. Assateague is also Ass-a-Teeg. Don't worry I have done my share of mispronunciations. When visiting Calais ME, I called it Calais like the French word. But the locals call it Callous. I like to talk to the locals to pick their brains so get the names & suggestions that way. Also, sometimes put on the radio or TV & hear the pronunciation in their commercials.

Sorry, forgot to add what I love about Nubble Light is that it is on its own island. You cannot visit it. It is still manned. The only way on that island is a little chair on a cable that runs across the crashing waves beneath it.

Everyone is always trying to paint it. I have tried but I'm not that good. I can't quite capture the picket fence that comes down the slope. Many just go to photo it. They now have a small gift shop there which is only a couple of years old. There is a small loop road that you can park on & walk around. But it gets crowded.

I have seen people scuba diving a little to the left of the lighthouse closer to the beach. I believe they were classes for the handicapped. So the water can't be that bad there. I just love the smell of the ocean there & always feel like I've come home when there. In York Beach there is a great little luncheonette where I first had whole belly clams. Most places here it is only clam strips but they serve deep fried whole belly clams there by the ocean. Wonderful. If you stick to Rt 1A after leaving Nubble Light you will get some beautiful views of the ocean and it will bring you to Ogunquit. Just love the backroads.

I also visited Point Loma when I was in San Diego. I guess I have a draw to lighthouses too. My Aunt once told me that one of my great great grandpas was a lighthouse keeper. So that must be it.

I'd have made that same mistake, for sure!

After that post last evening, I looked up the Point Loma light as well, and on their website it says it was done in the "Cape Cod style." No wonder it has a similarity to the Nubble Light -- they were probably both modeled in the same style -- which was the standard in those times for that size of lighthouse. Even so, you can see the differences between California and New England architecture between them. There are some differences!

Your description of the clams is making me very HUNGRY! I think I may have to stop at the "Knock-Kneed Lobster" on the way home! The clams'll be strips, no doubt, but they'll have to do! Bob

One of the features that we have talked about adding to this site for a while, would be a pronouncing gazateer with taped pronounciations of place names from around the continent, spoken by locals. Sounds like it is one of your avocations as well to "get it right". One of these days...

mark

Yes, that would be great Mark...I'd have some tough ones for you, english people** hehe:o)) By the way, I never understood the Tucson thing (two-sun instead of Tuck-son)?:-), does anyone know about that?

The French Frog:o)

**also known as têtes carrées (square heads) around here

I don't know how it morphed into Too-sawn, but the original pronunciation supposedly was more like Took-shown. It was an Indian name (perhaps To'hono Oodham) that possibly described a spring and a black rock (that was present on the original site of the village, or near it).

The already existing Indian village was re-settled by the Spanish back in 1776. Also, the original settlers that founded the village that became San Francisco mostly came from Tucson (led to the bay area by Juan Bautista de Anza). Bob