Category: States

Hampton Falls Area

Hampton Falls Area

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We used Hampton Falls, NH as our base camp to explore the area. We spent two weeks in NH bouncing around between Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. I usually break these kinds of posts up, but I’m going to smash it all into one this time!

We spent a day in Salem, MA. Salem is a place I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. The whole witch trial thing always fascinated me. Salem is kind of what you would expect. It’s filled with all things witchy…new and old.

There’s so much history in the North East. We made it by the Lyceum Hall where Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call. Extra points if you know what he said!

The Old Town Hall was in a movie you might have seen…Hocus Pocus! I geeked out just a bit here as we walked by. It’s always fun to walk by places that you’ve seen on the big screen…or small screen!

We stopped by the oldest grave yard in Salem. The Witch Trails are such a sad part of our history. It bothered us how touristy Salem is…we feel like they’re being a little disrespectful to what really happened there. I’m not going to go into a history lesson here…we all know what happened. Real people died in some horrific ways here…maybe tone down the touristy vibes a bit.

We made it to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site where the boys earned another Junior Ranger badge! And that was the end of our time in Salem!

We spent a day in Boston, MA walking the Freedom Trail! I love Boston! I’m just going to throw that out there right from the start. I loved it way more than I thought I would…you know, since it’s a big urban area!

Let’s start with the Capitol Building. It’s gorgeous! Look at that golden dome! The inside didn’t disappoint either. We did a guided tour at this SCB and on it we met a lovely family from England! It was interesting to hear their take on the building and America.  When we got to the inside of the dome, we stood there with our mouths open for a minute. Look at that stained glass!! All thirteen original colonies are represented in this stained glass. Love it! I couldn’t leave out the tile floor. It’s so pretty! This Capitol Building is high up on our favorites list. It didn’t disappoint at all. I could do an entire post about it, but we’re leaving the Hampton Falls area tomorrow and I’m not sure I’ll have cell service at our next spot so I’m trying to get all caught up on my posts. If you’re in the area though…make time to visit this SCB!

We found our way to the Paul Revere House and strolled through. It’s a self-guided tour with interpreters around to answer any questions you might have. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside. I think it’s kind of weird not to allow photos of this place as long as you don’t use flash…but, it is what it is. The Paul Revere House is the oldest house in Boston. Looks pretty good for its age.

Another stop on the Freedom Trail is the Old North Church where the two lanterns were hung on April 18, 1775. You can go in and look around. We’d never been to a church where the pews were boxed off like this. Apparently, back when the church was first built, you would purchase your own box. I guess people were very particular about who that sat next to.

 We stopped by one of the graveyards on the Freedom Trail. The one in the pictures above is called Copp’s Hill Burying Ground. One of the things we noticed about the gravestones in both Salem and Boston are that they’re a lot thinner than what we’re used to seeing. Quite a few of the headstones were decorated with the skull and cross bone symbols or a skull with wings. The symbols were supposed to be a reminder to the Puritans of the mortality of the body.

I love the mixture of old and new buildings in Boston!

I may have geeked out a bit here too. I mean, it’s Cheers! Where everybody knows your name! We went in and had some burgers. No, the inside doesn’t look like it does on the show. I was a little disappointed with that. It was a long hot day of walking though and that air conditioned seat felt wonderful! It might not have looked like the Cheers on the television, but there was a wall dedicated to the show!

I had to stop by the Make Way For The Ducks sculpture. Nicholas helped me by standing next to the duck so we could get a size comparison. Super cute! (the duck and the kiddo)

Ok. One more picture of Boston. This is Swan Pond. How lovely is it? We didn’t stick around long here because we were all so tired and ready to be back in the car. I have to take a minute to brag about the boys. It was so hot while we were in Boston and we walked so so many miles…the boys didn’t complain or whine at all They were such troopers!

We snuck out one afternoon to explore Halibut Point State Park. This state park used to be a quarry and you can see the “pond” mining the area made in the bottom right picture above. We saw this pretty little bird while we were heading back to our car. It let me get really close!

Not far from where we stayed was a farm where you can pick your own blueberries! I’m pretty sure some of us (I’m sure you can guess which of us) ate more blueberries than what they put in the baskets. Ha!

We explored the ruins of Fort Constitution. There wasn’t much there. Most of it looked like the picture on the left. I’m not sure the tunnel on the right was part of the original Fort…it was right next to it.

We went to see the Nubble Lighthouse! It was a gorgeous day! We checked out some of the tidal pools at the lighthouse…but there wasn’t too much in them. The boys still had fun looking in them though!

Best of all…we got to meet up with one of my friends! Hey Anne Marie!! One of the things I like the most about our nomadic lifestyle is that I get to go visit friends!

Are you ready for some flowers? I loved seeing the purple and blue ones all over the place…so pretty! I don’t think the purple flowers in the bottom middle picture is fireweed, but it’s really close. There’s sumac all over the place here! The flower in the bottom left picture is called Queen Anne’s Lace and when it’s all bloomed out it’s a really pretty white flower. I know it’s a weed, but it’s so pretty I wanted to include it.

These were in our RV Park! You can’t tell from the picture on the right, but this bush was well over six feet tall!

I think that’s it! We fit quite a bit into the two weeks we had in this area!

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park

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Acadia National Park is one of the country’s smallest National Parks, but it’s also one of the most visited National Parks. More than 2 million people explore Acadia each year and I think they were all there with us. While we loved the park, we didn’t love the crowds. We spent two weeks in Acadia trying to find our own little piece of Down East.

 The first thing we did was drive up Cadillac Mountain to take in the views. It was breath taking! One of the other hikers there offered to take a picture of us! She did a great job! But really, with that view…I’m not sure there could be a bad picture.

The boys got to take their time with the Junior Ranger books since we were there for two weeks. We went to a Ranger Talk where they were introduced to the different sea creatures that could be found in the area tide pools. In the photo above, Alex is holding a sea star and Nicholas is hoping he’s not asked to hold it. Ha! Nicholas isn’t the most adventurist when it comes to holding gross things that come out of the ocean.

Speaking of tidal pools…we found tons of them…but no sea stars anywhere! Bummer!! All of the pools we found had plenty of muscles and periwinkles along with seaweed and sometimes…a few crabs. But, no sea stars. The search continues…

We absolutely loved Maine’s rugged coast line!

We made it to Thunder Hole…I think we must have been there at the wrong time though, because it wasn’t very active. The tide was coming in and it was making a little bit of a thunder noise…nothing big and no water swelling up. Oh well, something to try and catch next time!

The majority of Acadia National Park is on Mount Desert Island. We drove around looking at all of the harbors. I love all of the bobbers on the buildings. The tides play a huge role in the daily lives of the Mount Desert Island inhabitants. Most of them have a boat. One of the things we noticed is that because the tides are so big, they have to anchor their boats pretty far out from the coast. So, they all have these smaller boats to get out to their bigger boat.

We went to see the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. You can’t get to a place where you can get a decent shot of it from the coast line. I guess this light house is better viewed from a boat. The lighthouse was built in 1858 and is still fully functional. Right now someone lives in it, but allows people to come take pictures with it. Which I think is really generous. Can you imagine living in a place that thousands of tourist flock to every year? There would be zero privacy.

My favorite hike in Acadia is the Bubble Rock hike. It was short, but strenuous up to the summit of Bubble Rock where you get to see a huge boulder left over from when the glaciers moved through the area.

The boys tried their hardest to push it off. It didn’t budge. Not really…we just posed for a picture. Can you imagine if that boulder actually fell? It would be devastating for everyone below it.

Look at that view! We actually managed to get this spot to ourselves for a good twenty minutes! It was amazing!! When we were leaving about ten or so people were meandering their way up. One of them was nice enough to snap a picture of the five of us at the summit sign. It was appreciated since we don’t get many shots of all of us.

One of the cool things…and something we hadn’t seen before…is the way Acadia does their trail signs by re-purposing fallen trees.

The Acadia Bridges. There are 16 or 17 of them. I guess a lot of people will spend years getting pictures of all of them. We hiked to three…I hate to say it, but I was over it after the first one. If I’m going to hike, I need the payoff. I need some amazing view at the end. An old bridge in the middle of a forest just didn’t do it for me. The Carriage Roads…sigh. Again, if I’m going to hike…I need something to look at besides a road and trees. There are close to 60 miles worth of Carriage Roads to walk on. You can’t drive on them, but you can walk, bike, or ride in a carriage. And a lot of people come back year after year to experience every one of the Carriage Roads.

I think we were expecting more. Everyone I spoke to…all of the books I read…they all made such a big to do about the Carriage Roads and the bridges. But, guys…they’re just nicely graveled paths and old (albeit neat) bridges. I don’t know… To each his own.

We drove an hour to go visit the Schoodic Peninsula area of Acadia NP and boy howdy, it was totally worth it! We found the top-secret location of the Raven’s Nest. Don’t ask the Rangers about it, they won’t tell you. I guess it’s deemed too dangerous. We went on a Sunday afternoon and had the place to ourselves as we took our time here and really soaked up the views. I bet you’re wanting to know where this magical place is. We might…just maybe…have the GPS coordinates for it. I don’t know if we should give them to y’all. I mean, what if we give them to you and y’all go and fall off the cliff? I would feel terrible! But, if you promise not to go and be boneheads and fall of the cliff, I’ll give you the coordinates.

Promise?

Ok, good. Here are the coordinates 44.352005, -68.074934.

Now go forth and enjoy the splendor that is known as the Raven’s Nest! Ha! Just please be careful and if you have little kids hold their hands.

We made it all the way out to the peninsula and played around on the rocks by the shore where we found tons of muscles and more periwinkles…but still no sea stars.

Nicholas and I had fun trying to get pictures of the waves splashing up on the rocks. It took us a few tries, but we eventually got the timing just right!

As we were leaving the Schoodic Peninsula we spotted some sea otters playing! We sat in our car by the road watching them for a few minutes. We were losing the light and the otters were moving on when we spotted a porpoise! We had such an amazing day filled with nature and wild animals! It happens to be our favorite way to spend a Sunday.

On our last night in the area we met up with another full-time RV family. They showed the boys how to go crabbing. The boys loved it! They had such a great time hanging out with kids their own age. They would catch a bucket full of crabs and then take them back to the beach to have crab races with them. When they were done all the crabs were released back into the water.

It’s so rare to find other full-time RV families that have kids the same age as ours. You can imagine how different their perspective on daily life is compared to non nomad families. So when we find another family with kiddos…it’s a treat for all of us.

This was our last sunset in Acadia. Not a bad way to end our time there. We shared a campfire with some new friends and got to swap stories about living the full-time RV life with kids.

I know y’all are wondering…yup, we had lobstah!!! And we had to have a piece of blueberry pie. I mean, we were in Maine. It would’ve been a crime against nature to not have some blueberry pie. We also had to have a whoopie pie. When in Maine, right?!

There were wild flowers everywhere! I was in flower heaven! This post is already so long though so I’ll just leave you with these two pictures!

Alright! That’s our time in the Acadia area! We already want to go back, but we want to go back when there aren’t 2 million other people getting in the way.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Lobstah Rolls

Lobstah Rolls

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Are y’all ready for another recipe?!

We fell in love with Lobster Rolls while we were in Maine, but they were on the pricey side at around $16 a piece for only ¼ pound of lobster meat. Instead of paying those prices we decided to make our own. I looked on the interwebs and found several recipes, but in the end we did our own thing. Lobster rolls aren’t hard to make. There are very few ingredients because the star of the show is the mild flavor of the lobster meat. If you’re not careful you can cover up the taste of the lobster and you’ll miss the whole reason you’re making lobster rolls to begin with.

I’ve actually got a few pictures to share with you for this recipe. Nope, I’m still not going to do step by step pictures for you (I’m not Pioneer Woman), but I would like to show you a few things.

There aren’t many ingredients to this recipe. It comes together really quickly.

I found this on a place mat at a restaurant. I thought it might give you a nice visual on how to pick apart a lobster. We used leftover lobster meat we had from our Lubec, ME lobster feast. You can use whatever you can find, in fact, if you can’t find good lobster, this recipe would be just as good with crab or shrimp.

We started seeing these weird looking hot dog buns once we got to the Pennsylvania area. I think it must be a North Eastern thing. They don’t even call them hot dog buns, they call them frankfurter buns. Can you see the differences in the pictures above? Lets take a closer look.  Y’all know what hot dog buns are. We’ve all eaten way more of them than we should. There’s nothing really special about them. The frankfurter buns are a bit different. Notice how they look like slices of thick cut Texas toast? The sides are flat and cut. There’s a reason for this. These buns have changed our lives. If you can’t find these buns for this recipe, I suggest you try to cut your hot dog buns to look like them. Trust me on this.

Now do you see why frankfurter buns are essential to this recipe? You toast them! With plenty of butter…I mean, really slather that butter on! Y’all aren’t on a diet, right?

This lobster roll ruined all other lobster rolls for us. We stopped eating them out because we were always disappointed with what we got.

If you can believe it, we had leftovers.  Not much…just enough for a couple of us to enjoy it at lunch the next day. This stuff rocks on a salad!

Ok! There y’all go!! I hope you make these and love them as much as we do!

Disclaimer…we’re not professional chefs or photographers, but we’re doing our best to share our lives with you.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

The Easternmost Point in the US!

The Easternmost Point in the US!

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We only spent one weekend in Lubec, Maine, but we wish we’d spent a couple of weeks.

Lubec was founded in 1811 and was once the home of fishing fleets and smugglers, but is now known for being the easternmost point in the US. The area has 20 foot tides and has 96 miles of coastline…so it should come as no surprise that there were quite a few lighthouses.

Right across the International Bridge is Campobello Island, New Brunswick where you can spend time exploring Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Franklin D. Roosevelt grew up spending summers on Campobello Island and later when he had a family of his own, he took them to spend summers there. You can wander through the 34 room Roosevelt summer home. There are interpreters there to answer any questions. The boys were curious about the huge megaphone you can see in the photo on the right. When the Roosevelt’s were staying at the cottage, the megaphone would be hanging up on the porch right outside the door in the photo on the left. Eleanor would use it to call the children home. We were told her voice could be heard over a mile away.

The first thing we did when we got to Lubec was find a place to eat. We ended up at Fisherman’s Wharf. It was fantastic! The food was amazing and the service was spot on! They talked us into trying some periwinkles. We tried them and guess what…we liked them! Except Nicholas. He stalwartly refused to try one. In his defense, they do look gross.

You can’t come to Maine and not get some lobster…or lobstah!

The RV park we stayed at told us where we could go get some lobstah right from the boat! We drove half an hour to get to Little River Lobster Co in Cutler, ME and let me tell you…it was soooo worth it! We walked right out onto the dock and had our pick of lobsters that had just come in that morning. Talk about fresh seafood! We loaded our cooler up with almost 15 pounds of lobster and then put some seaweed on top of them to get them home. Did you know you can pack lobsters in seaweed? It worked beautifully! And because I know you’re curious…we got all of that lobster for around $80. Lobstah for days!!! Remember that lobster roll in one of the pics above? That one lobster roll cost around $16. We found that price to be pretty consistent throughout the area.

The lobsters were all alive and well when we made it back home and were talking to each other when we opened the cooler. Magnus was not amused. He didn’t like the noises they were making and he wasn’t fond of the smell either. He sat guarding the cooler until we took it outside. Magnus is always certain that his death is imminent. He’s also afraid of his own shadow.

Sunset RV Park has lobster gear to loan out to anyone who stays there. For free. They even came down and told us how long the lobsters needed to cook! We cooked our lobster in sea water. Jerl braved the cold weather and cold water to wade out and fill the pot. He made a few hoops and hollers while doing it. I might have had a good laugh at his expense… The day we did this it was a balmy 57° outside so you know the water was cold.

Let’s talk lobstah. Did you know that lobster used to be so plentiful that they would wash up on the shores of Maine? They could be plucked up right of the shores. In the mid-1800s lobster was selling for 8¢ apiece. The big boy you see in the photo above is on a 16 inch tray. He’s what they call a Select. He was hard shelled while the rest of the ones we got were called Chixs and they were all soft shell.

Vocabulary time!

A Chix lobster is the yougest and weigh 1 pound.

A Quarter lobster weighs 1¼ pounds.

A Select lobster is a choice lobster and weighs at least 1½ pounds.

The one we got was close to 4 pounds! What’s the difference between hard shell and soft shell? A lobster will molt about 14 times before it reaches maturity. Every time it molts it sheds its hard shell and is left with a softer shell until the shell has time to harden.

While lobster was a definite highlight of our time spent in Lubec, we also did a couple of awesome hikes!

Thanks to an Instagram friend we found out about the Bold Coast Trail. I highly recommend it! The trail wasn’t difficult and it spits you out with the view in the left photo above. We had the place to ourselves so we spent quite a bit of time taking in the scenery.

On the way to Eastport, Maine we made a little side trip to a place called Reversing Falls. There’s not a waterfall. It’s called that because you can stand there and watch the current reverse its direction with the tide. Remember those 20 foot tides I told you about? We didn’t get to see it reverse, but we did enjoy another small hike and had the place to ourselves!

Eastport, Maine is the easternmost town in the United States. We spent an afternoon there where we found another lobster roll to try. I mean…we were in Maine…we had to eat lobster, right?

We stopped by Raye’s Mustard Mill. You could try all 20 or so flavors of mustard. I think we tried them all. And then we bought more mustard than one family really needs. Looks like we’re set for a while!

The only thing we didn’t love about the Lubec, Maine area was the road getting there. It was sooo bad. It might have bumped the ALCAN out of our worst road ever spot. It was that bad! Now, having said that…we made it there fine. And we would travel that road again to go back.

There were a few flowers. The wild roses were everywhere and smelled so good! And Guys….we found fireweed!! In Maine! It’s official…Maine is a mini-Alaska!!!

We loved the Lubec area so much we’ve decided that once we’re done with the fifty state tour we could easily spend one or two months there…someday!

#easterloop2016

NH and ME State Capitol Buildings

NH and ME State Capitol Buildings

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I’m combining the New Hampshire and Maine State Capitol Building posts.

We only spent a night in New Hampshire on our way through to Maine, but don’t worry…we’re going to be doing some more things in New Hampshire on our way back down the coast.

The New Hampshire SCB was under some construction so the dome was covered. Dang. I’m sure it’s a lovely dome. I heard that it’s covered in gold leaf.

The inside was very utilitarian, but everything that was there had a meaning or purpose. There were over 200 paintings throughout the building. We didn’t take the tour at the Concord, New Hampshire State Capitol Building so unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of information on it. The door to the Senate Gallery was open so we went in to have a look. You can take a look at it in the bottom left photo. The New Hampshire Senate is the fourth smallest state Senate with only 24 members. So far, each of the New England states has had a Hall of Flags in their State Capitol Buildings. You can see some of the flags in the bottom right photo above. The flags were all in a display case.

I spotted these flowers on the corner across from the State Capitol Building and had to snap a picture. We did manage to squeeze in a pizza place in New Hampshire before we headed on down the road. I’ll let Nicholas give you all the details about that though!

 Next stop was the Maine State Capitol Building! The Maine State House was in line with the other New England Houses. Very basic, clean lines, utilitarian. We saw another Hall of Flags, but all of these flags were replicas. The real ones were at a museum.

This was the first time we saw a porch at a State Capitol Building. According to the tour guide, it’s used often when the Senate and House are in session.

There was a dome and we actually got to see it! It’s…cream colored. As the guide was walking us to the Senate Gallery, she warned us that we couldn’t touch the Senate chairs. That even the Senators weren’t allowed to touch another Senator’s chair. And she watched us like a hawk while we were in there. Jerl dared me to touch one on our way out. I may or may not have accidentally brushed against one of them. Maybe. Maybe not…

The RV park we stayed at while we were visiting Augusta, ME was right by the Kennebec River. It was beautiful and calm while we were there!

Charles had been looking forward to the seafood offered in the North Eastern states. We stopped in at a local favorite called The Red Barn where your meal comes out and is all one color. Ha! You get the three Fs at The Red Barn…fried, fresh and fast! Guys…it was so good! We got the Mixed Seafood Baskets to share. Except Nicholas who opted for a burger. And then Jerl and I got a cup of the Seafood Stew to share. Oh! And I had to try the onion rings! We thoroughly enjoyed everything we got!

We’ll be in Maine for about a month so we’ll definitely get a chance to experience more of what Maine has to offer.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Montpelier, VT

Montpelier, VT

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Remember back in the Albany post how I told you I had several State Capitol Building posts to do? Montpelier is number two of four.

Vermont has the smallest State Capitol City. It’s tiny. The dome you see on the building is covered with 23.7 carat gold leaf. I had high hopes for this building. It looked so promising from the outside.

I’ve got three pictures to show you of the Vermont State Capitol Building and one of them is a picture of the floor. In the lobby, the floor is made of marble. The white tiles are from Danby, Vt and the black tiles are from Isle La Motte on Lake Champlain. All throughout the building you can see fossils from the Chazy Fossil Reef. We loved that! The boys kept watch for more fossils while we took the tour.

We took the guided tour and saw the Senate Chamber, Representatives’ Hall, and even the Governor’s Office. It was all nice and tidy…and needing some work. There wasn’t anything opulent. It was, in fact, all very modest. In the Reception Room we saw two stained glass skylights. They were both lovely.

I’m afraid that’s all I have to tell you about the Vermont State Capitol Building. After seeing the grandeur of the New York State Capitol Building…the Vermont SCB was a little disappointing. I was looking forward to the dome, but we didn’t get to see it because it’s been deemed unsafe. What a bummer.

When you think of Vermont, what comes to mind? Maple syrup and dairy, right? We found a place called Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks to explore the maple syrup making process.

You can walk around and look at where they get their maple. It all starts with the trees. They call early spring “sugarin’ time”. One tap hole can produce up to fifteen gallons of sap each season. Since it takes forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, it takes up to three trees to make a gallon of finished syrup. Once they’ve collected the sap they run it through a reverse osmosis then it goes into the machine you see above. The whole point is to get as much of the water out of the syrup as possible and bring it to a specific temperature. Interesting fact…way back when Vermonters started working with maple, they actually cooked it longer and made a sugar out of it. When the white cane sugar we all know became popular, the people of Vermont decided to start making maple syrup instead of maple sugar.

Think that stuff you pour over your pancakes every morning is maple syrup? You should check the ingredients. More often than not it’s actually corn syrup flavored to taste like maple syrup.

It’s known as creemee in Vermont, but the rest of the country knows it as soft serve ice cream. At Morse Farm they add maple syrup to their creemee and it is magical! We all got treats. Nicholas had the Maple Popcorn Sundae. He wasn’t mad about it. *wink wink*

We found the Ben & Jerry’s Factory to take care of the dairy part of what Vermont is known for. There’s a guided tour that takes you right by the factory where they’re making the ice cream. Be prepared…I snuck a shot just for y’all…

Oh dang…you can’t really see anything. *giggle* We weren’t supposed to take photos of the factory. The guide said something about corporate secrets…honestly, you can see everything you would want to see in the right picture above. I’m not sure what secrets they were worried about leaking. It looked amazingly like any other food factory floor.

They took us down to the original flavor lab. You can see it in the left photo above. This is the place where Ben & Jerry used to make all of their flavors. And yes, they said it was ok for me to grab photo of it.

At the end of the tour they give you a free scoop of the flavor of the day. For us it was Triple Caramel Chunk. Yummo! And…of course, we had to visit the scoop shop on our way out even though we’d just had some free ice cream!

I forgot to tell you about the Flavor Graveyard where you can stroll through the “graves” of the flavors that have been discontinued. It was a fun tour with a tasty ending!

We only spent a week in Vermont, but we will definitely go back! Vermont turned out to have a beautiful countryside, and is definitely a foodie’s paradise…we found some not so hidden treasures.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Albany, NY

Albany, NY

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Hey Guys! I’m behind on getting posts ready for you. I prefer to write the posts right after we have the experience so everything is fresh in my mind. Especially when it’s a State Capitol Building. We try to take the guided tours because they’re so interesting and informative…the problem with that is…well, right now I am four State Capitol Buildings behind. SO…bear with me while I try to keep my facts straight.

We’ve been struggling with decent cell service/wifi at the RV parks we’re staying at. Right now, we’re actually in Main and while I have zero cell service (Come on Sprint! What’s up with the shoddy service up here?!) the park we’re staying at has excellent wifi! Thank goodness!

The New York State Capitol Building is in a tie for our top State Capitol Building! We loved it! Right off the bat you can see that it’s going to be different. It looks more like a big estate home or maybe a small castle. I love all of the different angles and lines here. There’s so much attention to detail in every aspect of this building.

Five floors and five architects. They kept firing their architect which drew out the construction. There are so many things I love about this building, but come on…pick a style and stick with it. I feel like someone should have told the architects to stay with the style that was already started. Since we had a small tour group (us and another couple) the guide took us all the way up to the 5th floor! You can see our view in the photo above. The Assembly Staircase (fifth floor) is done in Moorish and Gothic styles and was finished in 1879.

The skylight you can see in the right photo was removed in 1949 and restored in 2011. Construction lasted for more than a quarter of a century. In 1899 Governor Theodore Roosevelt declared the building done. It wasn’t actually done but, the cost had exceeded twenty-five million dollars which made the New York State Capitol Building more expensive than the U.S. Capitol. When construction halted, there was still carving that needed to be finished. So, when you walk through the building, you can see where they stopped. In the picture on the left, you can see the line of edging left unfinished.

It’s officially called the Great Western Staircase, but everyone knows it as the Million Dollar Staircase. And yes, it really did cost a million dollars to build it. This staircase is made of sandstone and was carved after it was built. There were hundreds of carvers employed, working ten hour days carving the inside of the building. Not just this particular staircase, but all over the building.

Corsehill sandstone was imported from Scotland because of the specific qualities it has which make it excellent for carving. In 1911 a huge fire discolored the sandstone. You can see the difference in colors in the photo above. In 2000 they started restoration work on the building. Because most of the interior is made from sandstone it took a long time getting it clean. I don’t remember what year they finally finished it, but it wasn’t too long ago.

The Capitol stone carvers created hundreds maybe even thousands of faces all throughout the building. There are famous faces like Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, and Susan B. Anthony, but there are also many unidentified faces. Our guide told us they believe the carvers used everyone and anyone in their daily lives as a model for a face.

Look closely to the photo on the right! Can you see it? If you look close enough, you’ll see the smallest carving in the entire building. It took them years to find it. Apparently, one of the carvers was fired and snuck back into the building one night and carved this little devil.

So, what do you think? It’s a gorgeous building. We could have wandered around for hours looking at everything. Are you wondering where the dome picture is? There’s not one. There’s not a rotunda either. And it’s still sitting firmly in a top slot on our list. They were actually going to have a rotunda and a “dome”, but they ran out of time or maybe I should say, they ran out of money. I’m not going to tell you how many pictures I took of this building. Don’t even ask. If you ever get a chance to visit the New York State Capitol Building, do it. You won’t regret it.

We didn’t really do anything else at this stop.

We did find a Five Guys that offers shakes! Mind…blown… That was a new thing for us. I guess this particular location has had shakes for a year or so.

The boys took over our room and played some board games. I just realized, y’all haven’t seen our home…I should do a photo tour for you.

And…we made some new friends. We’ll be stopping in Alabama to visit our new friends toward the end of this loop. *waves at the Level Family*

See y’all down the road!!

#easternloop2016

The Niagara Falls Area

The Niagara Falls Area

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We spent a week in the Niagara Falls area of New York. The weather was hit and miss…a few days it was more like summer, but mostly it was cool, windy, and rainy.

Our RV park was only half an hour away from Buffalo…and since Jerl and the boys love Buffalo wings so much…we had to have some Buffalo Wings in Buffalo. We found Anchor Bar which claims to be the creator of the Buffalo chicken wings and we couldn’t pass up the chance to try the originals. I kind of wish we’d passed. The place was a dive and was super expensive. Our waitress…I’m pretty sure she was high on life (or something). My friend (hey Dawn!) suggested Duff’s Famous Wings. We gave them a try the next night. I didn’t get any photos…but it was a much better experience! The wings were great, the service was great and best of all…the place was clean!!

While we were in Buffalo, we took a small side trip to the Erie Basin Marina and Gardens so we could poke Erie Lake. We have to touch the water or I can’t put the sticker on our map. 

I’m conflicted about the Junior Ranger book here. It’s the Niagara State Park, but there’s a National Park Junior Ranger booklet…but it’s for the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area. This is the first time in almost fifty badges that we’ve encounter a Junior Ranger booklet that required us to travel so far from the park and pay admission to several different places in order to complete the booklet. Sure, they give you the nifty lanyard…and they’re supposed to give you the pins as you visit the places (not every place gave us one)…but, this was the hardest, most involved booklet the boys have done so far. Now, having said my piece about all of that…the booklet pointed us to a few places we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Hence, the conflicted feelings…

Old Fort Niagara is a place you could easily spend an entire day exploring. We got there right before a storm blew in across Lake Ontario and toward the end of the day so we rushed our visit. The building above is the French Castle built in 1726.

Old Fort Niagara has a history that spans more than 300 years. The area was originally used by Native Americans. Most of the buildings are open and you can freely explore the grounds. The site has been occupied by the French, British, and American forces through the years.

Old Fort Niagara was restored between 1926 and 1934. The rooms have been made to look like they might have during the time when Old Fort Niagara was in use. They fire off the canons and guns at certain times throughout the day. Unfortunately, because due to the downpours of rain and the timing we missed seeing all of the firing times. We did hear it though. The boys just about came unglued the first time. Ha! They’d been chattering and joking around and when the canon fired they stopped and looked around. We chuckled. They chuckled…but continued to look around for threats. I wish I’d gotten a shot of all of their faces that first time. Jerl and I will never forget it!

We made our way to Lockport where the Erie Canal Locks 34 & 35 are. We shimmied in to the Erie Canal Discovery Center about half an hour before they closed. There was a great little museum that explained the history, the building, and the local life of the Erie Canal. Right across the street from the Discovery Center is the actual Erie Canal. We were able to walk up and down some of the locks and really get a good look at them.

We would have completely missed the New York Power Vista if it hadn’t been in the Junior Ranger booklet. Which would have been a huge bummer…it was such a cool place! When you walk in they issue you a Power Portal ID. You have to register it in their computer and then you head to the museum to earn points by completing tasks. When you’re done with everything you can print out your avatar and the amount of points (watts) you earned (generated). Not everything earned you points. Some things were just for exploration and learning. We were geeking out hard here. We love experiments and places that let our inner nerd shine through.

 Some of the displays were more high tech. The one above really made the boys problem solve and think outside the box while they put together everything they’d learned about electricity and circuits. I want to point out the adult lady watching Charles in the left photo. This wasn’t an easy activity. Several of the adults couldn’t figure it out. The object of this exercise was to make a stable electrical grid. There were different pieces you could put on the digital table that would react with the other pieces as well as the environmental elements represented. Get it wrong and your grid blows up. Get it right and you get your points for this activity! We played with this one for a while. One of the coolest things about our nomadic lifestyle is the hands on learning. We don’t have to just read about things in books…and the boys learn so much better by seeing and doing these things.

 The New York Vista isn’t just a museum, it’s a working facility that produces clean energy.

On our first night in the Niagara Falls area we went to see the falls all lit up on the American side. It was our first time seeing the falls and we were all extremely underwhelmed by the view. There were a few hundred people there all trying to cram into the one small area where you could actually see anything of the falls.

On our last day in the area we crossed the border into Ontario. We, of course, had to find a burger place. And I wanted to try poutine. We found a place called The Works where we were able to get both burgers and poutine! We were able to walk there from the American side of Niagara. Guys, this place…it’s officially on our top ten. Everything we had was amazing. Everyone there was super nice. We’re already wanting to go back!!

I told you how underwhelmed we were with the view from the American side of Niagara…well, the view got incredibly better as we were walking across the bridge to the Canadian side of Niagara. The shot above is from the bridge.

All of my Canadian friends told me the view of the falls is better from the Canadian side. They were right. We’d walked over to Luna Island a few days before to try and get a better look at things. It was something altogether different seeing the falls from the other side of the river. There’s a wonderful park with nice walkways all along the river on the Canadian side of Niagara. This was our first good view of Horseshoe Falls. Each side of the river has their own touristy things. On the American side you’ve got The Maid of the Mist boats and while on the Canadian side you’ve got The Hornblower boats. In the bottom left pic above you can see one of the Hornblower boats as it got close to the falls. The Maid of the Mist boats stop giving rides by 5PM but the Hornblower boats continue to give rides well after dark. The rainbows changed shape, size, and number depending on where you were standing.

I know, I know…I usually save the flowers for the end…but I wanted to end with a surprise. These purple flowers were on both sides of the Niagara River. I couldn’t get enough of them! There were some wildflowers here and there too on both sides of Niagara.

On the Canadian side you can walk right up to the side of Horseshoe Falls. The American side was under construction so we couldn’t get close at all. We got a slight sense of vertigo as we stood and watched the water pour over the edge. It was trippy.

We stopped at a Tim Horton’s while we waited for the sun to completely set. The temps dropped quickly outside so we welcomed the opportunity to get out of the cold breeze and mist from the falls.

When it got closer to 10PM we made our way back to the Rainbow Bridge to watch the fireworks. We wanted to get out of the press of people and wanted to be a little farther away from the show so we could get some better pics. There weren’t very many people on the bridge. We had our choice of places to stand…and the view was gorgeous! We ooo-ed and ahhh-ed along with everyone else on the bridge.

Because, who doesn’t love a good fireworks show?

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

Pizza Roundup New York City

Pizza Roundup New York City

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For my fellow pizza lovers I give to you a double pizza post for New York City!!

The first pizza place is Bleecker Street pizza in Little Italy section of New York City. My mom was told that we had to have pizza from Bleecker Street if we wanted a true NYC pizza experience.

Bleecker Street pizza is pretty tasty, but you would expect that in the Little Italy section of New York City.  We did not sit down at Bleecker Street pizza so I can’t tell you how the staff is but the bathrooms are nice.

Now I will review Famous Original Ray’s pizza!

Ray’s has super big slices of pizza that are really good. I do not remember if their bathrooms were clean or not so this review is based just on pizza and décor. The décor was sparse but the pizza was excellent so that is good.

I give both Bleecker Street and Ray’s 5 star reviews.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

NYC Times Two

NYC Times Two

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It took us two full days and walking over twenty miles to see what we wanted to see in New York City. And…as you might guess…we still didn’t see it all, but I wasn’t going to talk Jerl into going back any time soon. Big cities aren’t really our thing and New York City is about as big as they come. I’m not into big cities either, but I do enjoy NYC so I could have easily gone back for a third or fourth day to do some more exploring, but I think I would’ve had to go it alone.

On day one we spent over half the day at Ellis Island and Liberty Island so we didn’t even reach NYC until around one in the afternoon. We used the Statue Cruises ferry to hop from the New Jersey side to the NYC side so we wouldn’t have to drive in NYC at all. We landed in NYC in Battery Park and started our trek north through the city.

The 9/11 Memorial was our first stop.  A few things about NYC stood out for me. One of them was the sheer number of NYPD Officers out and about at certain locations. At the 9/11 Memorial, there were quite a few officers keeping watch. Staying vigilant. The 9/11 Memorial was beautiful. Simple and clean.

Our next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge…along with about a million other people. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 and was the first bridge to link Manhattan and Brooklyn. We walked part way across the bridge, but we were pressed for time and watching the weather which was calling for rain. I would love to go back and go to DUMBO to get a good shot of the whole bridge. I’m hoping that one of these days…in a far off future…I’ll be able to talk Jerl into going back to NYC.

Our next stop was Chinatown. The boys were starving so we grabbed some dumplings from Fried Dumpling to eat on our way to our next destination. I’d been to Chinatown before when I took a trip to NYC with a bestie of mine way back when I was in Junior High…so I knew what we were in for. The boys…I think they had a bit of culture shock. One of the reasons I wanted us all to go to the big cities and explore them was to expand the boys’ bubble. Traveling changes your view on things…what you see…who you meat… I wanted the boys to step (safely) outside their comfort zone and expand their views.

I saw several people taking selfies with the wall above. It’s pretty and I probably would have had one of the boys take a pic of me and Jerl there…but we couldn’t make it across the street and we didn’t want to walk all the way back to it. I know…sounds lazy…but our feet were starting to scream at us… so we walked on. We made it all the way up to Washington Square (which was packed with people) where we grabbed a slice of pizza on Bleecker Street and some tacos from Otto’s.

It was close to five-ish at this point and we were all tired so we called it a day and made our way back to our ferry to head home.

Day two was actually a couple of weeks later. The plan was to ferry up to the 39th street pier. When I glanced online it looked like the ferry we were using went there. It doesn’t. So, we walked. We headed back up to Washington Square.

We were in the city by 9AM this time and the walk wasn’t too bad. We also went during the week which, I think, helped. Washington Square wasn’t nearly as crowded this time and I got a decent shot of the fountain and the arch without a thousand people milling around it.

On the north side of Washington Square is “The Row”. Greek Revival homes where some of the elite in New York City of the 19th century lived. Looks so pretty! You’d never know that right next to where I snapped this shot was a huge smelly pile of trash.

We didn’t go up into the Empire State Building. I’m sure the panoramas are enviable. But the line was insane and the price was worse. I refuse to pay that much just for a view. We did walk right by it and look waaayyy up…it is a long way up there. And I did snap this great shot on the way to our next stop!

The Flatiron Building is a 1902 skyscraper. The 22 story triangular building is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper.

We wanted the full NYC experience so, obviously, we had to try a hotdog from a food cart!

We were walking along to the next spot on our list when I noticed a few people taking pics of something behind us. I turned around to see a great shot of the Chrysler Building! When it was completed in 1931 it held the title of “world’s tallest building”.

I didn’t take the picture at the top above because it’s a digital American flag. I took it because of all of the police officers guarding it. It saddens me that they have to guard it. I don’t know if you can see it, but one of the guards is heavily armed. Don’t ask me what kind of gun it was…I don’t know guns…it was really big and looked like it would shoot a missile. Can’t we just get along?

We crossed Broadway (bottom left photo) on our way to somewhere and I had to snap a quick pic as we passed by. Rockefeller Center can be seen in the bottom right photo. We’re fans of Jimmy Fallon so we stood there for a few moments hoping to have a chance sighting. It didn’t happen, but it was fun to see the building!

We made it all the way to the famous Times Square! It was packed with people and the all of the signs were flashing up ads non-stop. We stuck around just long enough to snap some pictures and then we were off again. Times Square was…a lot…of everything.

We grabbed a slice from Ray’s Original as we made our way up to Central Park. I think this is the biggest slice of pizza I’ve seen. Nicholas didn’t mind having another slice of NYC pizza!

Junior’s Most Fabulous Cheesecake was definitley on our list of NYC foodies we had on our must try list. I mean, we had to have some New York Cheesecake while we were in NYC! Right?! We spotted the Junior’s Bakery and grabbed a slice to share. Junior’s has been around since 1950 and apparently, it’s the place to go for great cheesecake. It really was fabulous. It was so good that when we saw a frozen Junior’s at the grocery store, we bought it!

You see it in movies, you hear about it on shows, but the number of yellow taxis was astounding! They really were everywhere!! It was kind of neat to see them all lined up and waiting like that.

I didn’t know this was here. We were walking by and I spotted it so…I had to have a picture of the boys with it. I’m not sure how many LOVE statues this one makes…I should count those up.

I don’t know why…but for some reason my goal was to reach Central Park. I needed to see it. It was so odd to walk out of this huge urban setting and into a forest like setting. It was even weirder to look up and see all of the skyscrapers through the trees! I also really wanted to find the bridge you can see in the top picture. This particular bridge was on an episode of Doctor Who. If you’re a true Whovian then you’ll recognize it. If not…well, you can still appreciate the beauty in the picture. It was a really wonderful place in the park. check out all of the row boats in the bottom right photo! There were tons of people out and about enjoying the green spaces! By this point our feet were absolutely screaming at us. And they weren’t screaming nice things. So, we headed back toward the ferry terminal. It was about a four and a half mile walk from Central Park to the ferry terminal we needed.

There’s a great park all along the NYC side of the Hudson so we headed to the river and then started the walk south. The Intrepid was on our way. We were way too tired to go explore it, but we did sit on some benches and admire it for a bit. We met a guy at the RV park we were staying at during this time who served on the Intrepid. He told us a few stories so we thought about what it was like for him on that big ship while we sat there listening to our feet scream some very unflattering things at us.

One World Trade Center is presently America’s tallest building coming in at 1,792′ to the tip.

Don’t worry…I’m not leaving out the flowers! Yes! There were tons of flowers in New York City! I was pleasantly surprised by all of the gardens and flowers throughout the city. The park along the Hudson had a skate park, playgrounds for kids, playgrounds for furry four-legged kids, basketball courts, tennis courts, splash pads…and it had open green spaces for people to hang out in. We saw people doing anything and everything you would normally do in your backyard…I guess because they were in their backyard.

It was somewhere around 6PM when we finally dragged ourselves onto the World Financial Ferry Terminal. Some of us (Alex) didn’t even wait to get back to the car before they fell asleep. I think we wore them out!

And there you have it. Our NYC times two experience. I loved it! All of it! The rest of us…well, they liked the ferry ride and the food. 😉 I might need to find someone else to go back to NYC with. Any volunteers?

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016