Hello! Sorry it has taken awhile to get the post up I have been busy ever since we got back from our New England road trip! Last month me and Chris continued our conquest to visit every state capitol and ventured on a road trip around New England out of Boston! Our adventure included a lot of driving but it was well worth it! Here’s how we saw 6 state capitals and another country in less than a week!
We took a red eye flight into Boston Logan the first night and arrived around 2:00 am, we then hopped in an uber to our hotel in Cambridge, which is the area of Boston that Harvard is located in. The first night we got checked in and enjoyed our night time view of the Boston Harbor from our hotel.
Day 1 - On our first real day, we woke up grabbed some breakfast and headed straight to the Boston capitol building. We rented our car from Enterprise, which was located right near the Freedom Trail so we didn’t have to pay for parking! The Freedom Trail was a nice walk through the park with the last of our stop being the capitol. This area has a lot of cool historical markers and memorials. After the building, we made our way to our car and drove on in to Hartford, Connecticut which was only about an hour and a half drive with traffic. We went straight to the capitol since we were squeezing in three in one day!
Connecticut’s building really reminded me of a castle and was such a beautiful building After this building, we drove straight on into Providence, Rhode Island which was about an hour from Hartford. We barely made it to the capitol with walking through security at 4:45 with a 5:00 closure! The staff was very nice and allowed us to tour the building so close to closing time. After all the running around, we were starving! All I heard in planning this trip was “eat as much Italian food as possible” so of course we had to eat at the Little Italy of Providence! We had the best chicken parmigiana ever at a small place called Andinos. This was a bad idea on my part because it ruined the Italian restaurants at home. We didn’t know what we were missing! Once our bellies were fully we made the drive back to Boston and called it an early night.
Day 2 - We woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and made our way to Salem, Massachusetts which is only about an hour car drive from Boston, they also offer a ferry from Boston if you are doing just a Boston trip and do not want to rent a car! I have always wanted to go to Salem after reading The Crucible. This little town did not have a lack of charm! Our first stop was the cutest diner called “The Ugly Mug”.
They pride themselves in serving everyone a different mug and the décor is really cute! The food did not disappoint either! We then walked over to The Witch House which is the only standing building from the Salem Witch Trial era. The house is where the actual judge of the trials! I researched and found this was the most historical of the Witch Museums of the town. I really enjoyed the house and the information about the Witch Trials. They have really turned the whole towns focal point towards Witches. There are wikka shops everywhere and tons of Tarot Card readers if that’s your jam. The house is also only a block away from the Bewitched statue. There are also a lot of Hocus Pocus filming locations around the town. On our way, out of town we stopped by the house that The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne was based on.
They only allow guided tours through the house and they are a little pricey, but the staff is nice and let us go in to go to the gift shop and snap a pic of the outside. After Salem, we made the 3.5-hour trek to Augusta, Maine. When we got to Augusta we made our way straight to the capitol building. Then we of course had to get a Lobster Roll while in Maine! We got ours at The Red Barn; you can tell a lot of locals flock here and the ambiance of it being on the water is nice. On the road again after dinner, we headed to our Bed & Breakfast in Glen, New Hampshire. We stayed at the Bergendhoff. This is one of my favorite places I have ever stayed. It is ADORABLE and the concierge was awesome. They have a cute bar with craft Vermont beers and you really felt at home. We ate a late dinner at a Red Fox Barn and Grille and the pizza and Brussel sprouts were amazing. The Brussel sprouts had a hint of maple (as do most things in this part of the country).
Day 3-The next morning, we woke up and had our breakfast by the window and then took a morning walk around the nature trail of the Bed & Breakfast, then it was time to say good bye to the adorable cottage. Up next on the itinerary was Montpelier, Vermont for the capitol building. This town is very quaint and is the only capital city without a McDonalds. They were very proud about this and their efforts to support small businesses. We then made the drive to Montreal, Canada. O Canada! When we were planning this trip I saw we’d only be 3 hours from Canada so why not? We arrived in Canada around 7, and the border crossing process was surprisingly simple. The currency exchange rate is currently in our favor as well! We parked our car at our hotel and went walking around Montreal. Wandering around was pretty fun and we got to see a lot of cool buildings. We then enjoyed our rooftop bar at our hotel and tried maple cocktails.
Day 4- The next morning, we went to the Notre Dame cathedral of Montreal it is 600 years newer than its Paris counterpart but was beautiful as well.
This is a hot spot for tourists so arrive early if you do not want to wait in line. We then made our way to The Montreal Botanical Gardens which was very impressive. I enjoyed the insectarium and these branch art structures they had. Then we made our way to Poutine Centrale, because did you even go to Canada if you didn’t eat Poutine? Poutine is basically Canadas twist on chili cheese fries with gravy and curds.
It was amazinngggg. But I guess anything with cheese usually is. On our way, out of Montreal we stopped at their new casino! We played a few games then trucked our way to Stowe Vermont, about a three-hour drive for our stay at The Von Trapp Lodge. This resort is owned and operated by the family The Sound of Music was based on. I was excited to stay here however left disappointed. It is way too gimickey, the staff wasn’t impressive and the place had a strange smell to it. All the tours and things I wanted to do there were only offered 2 days a week so the scheduling was inconvenient. The scenery in the White Mountains is beautiful though and we got to see a fox in the wild!
Day 5- The road trip continues! For brunch, we stopped at the Old Cider Mill and tried some ciders and I had one of the best grilled cheeses of my life. The next stop which was 15 minutes away was the Ben & Jerry Factory’s discontinued flavors graveyard. We did not want to go into the factory but we stopped and read the funny grave stones. Onward to the last capital of the trip, Concord New Hampshire which was about a 2.5-hour drive from the area of Vermont we were in. We stopped in at Concord and toured the building then headed back to Boston on our last leg of about 1.5 hrs. We checked into a different Boston hotel that had a view of the skyline near the airport. From the Boston airport there are two ways to get to downtown by ferry or by subway. Both are cheap and convenient so you can’t go wrong! We arrived around seven and headed out for dinner in Little Italy. We ate dinner at Trattoria II Panino and had the best pasta ever! After dinner, we walked around and walked to Johnny Cupcakes, which is a very cool designers retail store where the entire theme is a bakery. You get to walk through a big oven door!
Day 6- On our last day, we visited Boston’s Tea Party Museum.
It is important to know this is more of an interactive experience than museum and to allocate about two hours here. The tour takes you through the events of the night of the Boston Tea Party and you get to throw “tea” into the harbor. I would definitely recommend for kids. Our last stop was at the Mapparium in the Christian Science Library. This also a guided experience. The mapparium is a huge stained- glass globe you can stand in that has the world map frozen in 1935. The experience last about 20 minutes,
Our Boston trip was another busy, successful trip where planning made it super easy to cross everything off our lists!
