Road Trip Summer 2017 - part 2

Back in the United States after our little day trip excursion to Canada we headed north east.
* I'll spare you the amateur movie clips of our road trip karaoke music videos... completely obnoxious for anyone else to endure; but so much fun for us at the time.
Family bonding at its' finest. For real.

So, in this post we will venture through upstate New York, trek across Vermont, stop for our extended stay #3 in the breathtaking White Mountains of New Hampshire, take a day trip exploring the picturesque coastal villages of Maine, continue travels through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and finally, have a quick visit with Lady Liberty in the Big Apple.


In my mind I paint a picture of the scenery and tuck it away in the gallery of my treasured memories.


Mountain views, a surprise ferry boat ride, ice cream, serene country churches with tall white steeples, romantic wooden covered bridges.

Iconic lighthouses, rocky seashores, sailboats. I've dreamed of visiting Maine since I was a young girl and it did not disappoint. I'm adding it to the list of places from this trip that we hope to be able to return to someday to spend more time.

mmmm....melt in your mouth fresh buttery lobster rolls, locally brewed root beer. yum.

I wanted to stop and sit for hours, to linger for weeks in these places without a care in the world. To soak it all in and draw or paint it in my sketchbook. Alas, I had to settle for snapping as many photographs as I could, content to savor the time we had in each location.

And maybe paint or draw something later in my studio at home. Like this garden rock.
(roughly 6" across and probably 2" thick, semi-smooth and flat) Primed white. Painted with acrylics.

Side Note:
A neighbor of mine started the hobby of painting decorative garden rocks and planting them as little surprises for family and friends. We decided to make a party of it one evening and invited neighborhood ladies to come to the studio to paint rocks. There were only a hand-full of us but we had a good ole time painting together on our garden rocks, and plan to do it again sometime.


The place we were staying in New Hampshire was a resort in the White Mountains. We were constantly on the lookout for moose and there were hundreds of places to stop and hike to scenic overlooks or hidden waterfalls. There were ski resorts, rafting, zip lining, camping and excursions of every kind to keep visitors busy year round. The scenery. Oh the scenery our eyes did feast upon.

Here are some photos from when we hiked  (just under 1 mile up) part of Franconia Notch State Park in White Mountain National Forest following a rocky stream up to Georgiana Falls. There was a nice path when we started out but as we climbed higher it became a more rocky "find your own path" kind of experience. With the mossy, wet rocks I was glad to have Jeremy to give me a steady hand so I didn't break my camera, yikes. It was the best hike of our trip! The girls navigated those rocks and trees like little spider monkeys! When we reached the waterfall there was a swimming hole....would have been neat to bring swimsuits and pack a picnic. So many other trails and falls to explore if we make it back here one day.

Then this hot guy took me and his girls out for a fancy dinner train ride! Date night!

Vintage train cars, 5 course meal, waiters serving us as we listen to dinner club music from bygone eras and watch views of the mountains and forest pass by our window.

There were actually several other couples on the train with us, no other kids. I just snapped a photo when the train was still empty (photo above ours). There was also an upper deck dining room and we got to tour the train cars and meet the owner, the chef , and the staff after we pulled back into the station at the end of the evening. 

We all think it would be great fun to travel by train somewhere and stay in the sleeper cars. 

I got to do that years ago for my high school senior trip and it was such a neat experience.

Over the course of our epic road trip, the girls filled several long driving hours watching a DVD series called America: The Story of Us (a 12 part TV documentary/drama miniseries all about the founding and building of our nation). I think we all learned some cool stuff from it and they really enjoyed it. Don't mind their faces in these photos, lol. They really did. And they had a few other non-educational movies too.....ones they picked themselves (National Treasure, Night at the Museum....do you sense a theme here, or is it just me)

Hello there Lady Liberty!

One thing we discovered pretty quickly is that we much prefer the back roads and slower pace of life to the big city hustle and bustle....and traffic!

After we made it out of the jam packed metropolis and away from the crazy toll roads we were quite well and ready to spend some time away from it all.

next stop - our Air B&B getaway on a 100 year old dairy farm in the heart of Lancaster County, PA amongst the Amish community.

Stay tuned for the next trip post. It's gonna be a good one.

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