Thursday, October 10, 2019

NE Day 5....New Record

Tuesday, Oct 6 2019

New record for us, we made it till day five on a road trip without stopping at Walmart for anything. Sweetling tried to argue this one with me to say that we did need to buy her a raincoat yesterday, to which my reply was, yes, but that wasn't at Wal-Mart. So.

Today was the day that we left Acadia. And really, the turning point of the trip. Yes, we still have a lot planned, but Acadia was the furthest point from home on the trip. We had more blueberry baked goods for breakfast.

We quickly picked up US 1 south. Driving down the coast along US 1 was something the Jedi wanted to do, and it was a happy coincidence that much of our driving today was along US 1. In the past couple of days alone, the autumn foliage has intensified in color and many bed and breakfasts and small inns had no vacancy signs up.

Our first stop of the day was the Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine. Sweetling loves lighthouses and took many photos. I took photos too, because as I was reading about the lighthouses and looking at the models, I decided it would be neat to do a single session Outschool Minecraft class on lighthouses for the 6-9 age group.

We probably spent longer than we should have in the two room museum because we didn't hit our lunch stop until 2 pm. Lunch was at the Great Lost Bear in Portland Maine. Bruno the Bear had come with Sweetling from Cincinnati to get his picture taken in front of the sign. The photo op was cool and the fried haddock sandwiches the Jedi and I got were all right. (Though after the blackened grouper in Florida, other local seafood just falls short of that high bar). The fries were super bland, but Young Chef liked the philly cheese steak he got with mushrooms and onions. The server had set the table with two kids menus/coloring mats and boxes of crayons, and both kids did indeed color instead of getting out their phones. That made my heart happy.

The Portland Head Light was another wonderful, picturesque, quintessential New England vista. (Yes, it was all those adjectives. Don't scoff; I have the pictures to prove my points). Young Chef promptly disappeared to scale up a rocky cliff. I took a gamillion photos of the waves trying to catch the perfect shot. The lighthouse, still in operation, was just beautiful and the sound of its horn echoing across the bay ....well, I would say it hit just the right note, but that pun would be a little too sappy, even for me.

The second lighthouse for the day was....well bother, I don't remember the name of the light. We had to go to New Castle New Hampshire to view it. After Portland, it wasn't that impressive and the shore was a bit blah. Young Chef caught Pokémon and Sweetling ran a little bit.

We needed quarters for laundry, and there was a bank in the same shopping strip as a Walmart so....we got quarters and I went into Walmart for more Lactaide and Gas-X, because I have been so naughty I have nearly depleted my supply. I also picked up a new sketchbook for Sweetling.

Our hotel outside of Boston was a Roadhouse Inn, chosen for its proximity to a commuter train station. It was pretty dumpy, at least by the standards we have become accustomed too, and the room was small. Still, the beds were clean (I always check), I got laundry done, and got to bed around 1. 

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