Every year Micah and I take a trip during the summer. Last year we did a mountain west (can I call it that?) road trip that involved Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Oregon. The year before we spent a few weeks in northern Italy visiting my sister. We were hoping Micah could join me on a trip to Zambia but that doesn’t appear to be in the cards. Instead, we’ve decided to take a trip through New England (ish). Micah is spending a few weeks at Ohio State University this summer studying Central Asia (don’t ask).
I’m actually really excited for him as I hope this means he’ll want to visit Central Asia. I’d love to go to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and currently he isn’t interested in any of those destinations. Anywho, Micah asked me if I wanted to come out to Columbus for a visit and I wasn’t entirely excited by the idea (no offense to those from Columbus). Then he suggested we turn it into a road trip and visit upstate New York, Vermont and Maine. We have friends who bought an old farm house and are slowly remodeling it. We could spend some time with them and also go to Acadia National Park. Once I started thinking about what we would see, I was sold.
Of course, it’s not that easy. We are playing with a few different routes, each with it’s own selling points.
Route 1 : Boston > Bangor (with side trip to Acadia) > Burlington > Montreal > Ithaca > Glen Falls > Boston
Route 2: Boston > Portland > Bangor > Acadia > Montreal > Burlington > Glen Falls > Boston
Route 3: Boston > Bangor (with side trip to Acadia) > Burlington > Niagara Falls > Ithaca > Glen Falls (or somewhere over there) > Boston
Route 4: Columbus > Niagara Falls > Ithaca > Glen Falls > Burlington > Bangor (with Acadia) > Boston
So here’s what we know we want and/or are working with:
1. We have between 12-14 days for this trip. We could probably make it 16 days but we feel bad leaving Izzy for that long. The 12-14 days include flying days. If we start and end from Boston, Micah would have to fly to Boston so we’d lose one whole day to air travel.
2. We definitely want to spend 2 or 3 days hanging with our friends at their farm which is somewhere around Bangor (I think).
3. Ben and Jerry’s factory tour is a must. I do LOVE a good factory tour. I know, it’s silly but I seriously do.
4. Acadia has to happen. Even better if we can camp there but that will depend on getting gear out there.
5. We want to spend some time in upstate New York – Glen Falls, Lake Placid – somewhere in the Adirondacks.
What We’d Like (if possible):
1. Hiking in and around Mt. Washington.
2. Maybe a visit to Cooperstown. We aren’t HUGE baseball fans but it seems like something worth doing. I did spent a majority of my teenage years working for an MLB team.
3. Montreal. I’ve wanted to visit for a while. Maybe even just a day trip.
What we may have to skip:
1. Niagara Fall. We’d love to go but the routes to that would take us here would either rush the trip or cost a lot. Rent a car one-way is twice as much as returning it to the same city.
2. Montreal. We may have to trade Montreal for more time in Maine.
3. Ithaca. We really want to check the area out but it could be a stretch.
4. Seeing Boston. Apart from Montreal, I think we want to stay out of big cities.
It’s likely that we’re picking between routes one and two but I’m not eliminating 3 and 4 quite yet. Any suggestions? Places we have to see? Places we can afford to miss given our time constraints?
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6 comments:
if you're going to burlington you can also hit up Magic Hat Brewery, Cabot Cheese and Lake Champlain chocolates.
Flatbread's in Burlington is amazing (i've heard) but they don't take reservations. A Single Pebble in Burlington is a good place for (allegedly, I've never been to China to know if this is true) authentic Chinese food.
This is so hard!! All of these routes look amazing. I think that at some point in your life, you could go back to the Ithaca/Niagara region because there really is a ton to do around there, so if you skip it, it wouldn't be a huge deal. I'm leaning toward route 2 because I LOVED portland so much when we went that I could see us living there in another life. I can't wait to see what you choose though!
I'm from Boston and sadly haven't been to half of these places and they are so close! Whatever route you go with sounds great. Mt. Washington is awesome. I climbed it a few years ago, if you aren't used to hiking I've been told to climb up and either take the cog railway or the van down, which is what I did when I went and I'm really glad I did. Have fun planning it! :)
Tardy to the party, but I can get Acadia recs forms my inlaws. They are big fans.
If you're driving around central VT, the King Arthur Flour store is AMAZING if you like to bake at all. Also, in Stowe VT we always do our little "food tour" when we're there: Ben and Jerry's, Cold Hollow cider mill (best cider donuts!), and the Cabot cheese store. The Cabot factory is further up in VT, past Burlington, that's fun too.
If you're driving up the coast from Boston, Salem is a fun stop. Portsmouth, NH is cool too, lots of shops/restaurants (Friendly Toast has awesome brunch/breakfast!). For Portland, ME restaurants, try Duck Fat or go to Grace even just for a drink, it's a beautiful restaurant in a renovated church.
If you come through Mass on your way back from NY, stop in Northampton in Western Massachusetts. A very arts-oriented city, lots of restaurants.
Can you tell I've lived in Massachusetts my whole life?
If you're driving around central VT, the King Arthur Flour store is AMAZING if you like to bake at all. Also, in Stowe VT we always do our little "food tour" when we're there: Ben and Jerry's, Cold Hollow cider mill (best cider donuts!), and the Cabot cheese store. The Cabot factory is further up in VT, past Burlington, that's fun too.
If you're driving up the coast from Boston, Salem is a fun stop. Portsmouth, NH is cool too, lots of shops/restaurants (Friendly Toast has awesome brunch/breakfast!). For Portland, ME restaurants, try Duck Fat or go to Grace even just for a drink, it's a beautiful restaurant in a renovated church.
If you come through Mass on your way back from NY, stop in Northampton in Western Massachusetts. A very arts-oriented city, lots of restaurants.
Can you tell I've lived in Massachusetts my whole life?
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