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| From New England Trip |
I guess I'm a bit late getting this up, but I figure better late than never. A few weeks back Kim and I headed out to New England to visit Meaghan and Nick and see the sites. Neither of us had really explored much of New England, so this was a great opportunity. We went to Boston, Newport, Providence, Southern New Hampshire, and the Portland area in Maine.
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| From New England Trip |
We started out in Boston, which I'd never been to before. We made our way around town pretty well, hitting most of the Freedom Trail, the financial district, the Harvard campus, and more. All, of course, while speaking with the heaviest Boston accents we could possibly produce. I don't think an "R" sound was heard that whole first day... To make our first night in Boston even better, we lucked out with a travel site deal at an amazingly high-end hotel right on the water in the financial district. It might be the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. Definitely beats the hostels!
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| From New England Trip |
From Boston we rented a car and headed West to Worcester (aka Wustah) to visit Meaghan and Nick, who were kind enough to let us stay with them for a couple nights. They really treated us to a great time, including taking us through the whole process of picking out, buying, and cooking a live lobster and some other seafood. It was great fun and made for a delicious meal.
We got a bit of a surprise the first night, when we were woken up at 4am to a car horn blaring. I was the first up, and when I looked out the window at the parking lot I saw a Camry Hybrid with a small fire in the passenger compartment. No one was in or near it, so I went and told Meaghan and Nick what was going on and they called 911. While we were waiting for the fire crew to arrive, we watched the flames grow with surprising speed. Within minutes the fire had consumed the interior of the car and had flames towering over the car. The heat caused the various airbags in the car to explode randomly, adding some sound effects to the flames. When the firemen got the flames put out, a brand new Camry Hybrid was charred and we'd all lost a good bit of sleep.
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| From New England Trip |
That morning, Meaghan and Nick took us down to Rhode Island to see the sights. We started off in Newport, which is a surreal town filled with little shops and seafood restaurants. It was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed wandering the city and watching the fisherman unloading lobsters from their boats. We also drove out to see the old Mansions along the coast, including a tour of The Breakers, a huge and elaborately decorated mansion that was built by the Vanderbilt family. After the tour we resolved to build our own ultra-luxurious 70 bedroom home... Maybe next year.
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| From New England Trip |
On our way back to Massachussets, we stopped in Providence to check out FireWater, a large-scale art exhibit set out on the canal running through downtown. It consisted of hundreds of floating baskets arranged throughout the river, filled with wood, and lit on fire. These floating bonfires were stoked by boats sliding along in the dark and adding wood to each basket. There were also Gondolas navigating the water with tourists and other clients while a variety of music played. We didn't walk the entire route, but we covered at least 4 blocks and both ends eluded us. We did stumble upon some fire-dancing performers, though, who put on quite a show. The scent of woodsmoke, sound of music, and sight of twirling flames made the whole experience surreal. It was a very neat surprise and a heck of a way to end our time in Rhode Island.
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| From New England Trip |
From Providence, we made our way back to Massachusetts for another night at Meaghan and Nick's. The next day Kim and I drove up to Maine, stopping at a couple of New Hampshire wineries along the way. Our first stop in Maine was the Nubble Lighthouse, which is tougher to find than one would expect since GPS systems take you to a random dead-end street. The lighthouse was cool, though, and made a fitting start to our time in Maine.
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| From New England Trip |
After the lighthouse, we stopped by the LL Bean mega-store, then made our way to Portland. Portland is a small, seaside city that is great for exploring on foot. We took a harbor cruise, a brewery tour, and checked out lots of local shops and restaurants.
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| From New England Trip |
The highlight of Portland for me, though, was our lobstering cruise with Lucky Catch Cruises. Kim and I each got to go out on a working lobster boat and try our hand at opening and emptying traps, measuring lobsters to determine if they can be kept, rubber-banding the claws, and more. We also got to learn about how the fisherman mark their bouys to distinguish their traps from the others, how to tell male and female lobsters, and all about the regulations that protect breeding lobsters. We even caught (and released) a female that was loaded with thousands of eggs. As a bonus, the trip made for a great harbor cruise and took us past several lighthouses.
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| From New England Trip |
At the end, we got to buy the lobsters we caught for $5 and carry them up the pier to one of the waterfront restaurants that prepared them for us.
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| From New England Trip |
After Portland, we made our way back for one more night in Boston, then headed home. It was a really fun week and we were both surprised by how easy it is to see so many different places in such a short time. Now to plan the next trip...
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