Road Trip 2009 - Northeast

Friday, September 18, 2009

Amazing Acadia!! (Day 10) 9/18.09

Well I woke up *this* morning (Friday, September 18th 2009 AD), and I had the frozen nose blues! Haha, well you've probably had enough of that, eh?

We ate breakfast, which for me was a Vanilla 'Hot Cereal' by Kashi. Unfortunately, though, it had a whole bunch of healthy stuff, which pretty much ruined the taste in my opinion.

After our 'Hot Cereals' we decided to leave for the main part of Acadia National Park. At first, Dad doubted that we could spend two whole days there. Well, he was in for a surprise.

As it was cloudless and a nice comfortable 65 degrees, the tour guide at the visitors center told us that we should hurry up to Cadillac Mountain (Sorry, Jon, no nice cars up there =P) We did as he bid, and were soon driving up probably the most beautiful mountain in my life. All the way up were better and better views, each one of either the Maine seaside with conifer islands specking the coast, or masterfully carved glacial mountains with the perfect mixture of forest and rocky outcrops. It was stunning (Dad said it looked as beautiful as Switzerland)

We made it up to the top, and climbed around the relatively flat rocks that covered it. In the distance, we saw a cruise ship that looked like a matchbox car, with smaller vessles for transporting passengers from the ship which were like tiny needleheads. I'd bet that we could see clearly out for 20-30 miles (Dad agreed).

After this stunning moment, we decided to take the Island Circle Road, a 2-lane one way road that circled the main attractions around the island. We went to Thunder Bay, which definitely made some noise as it dazed me with it's blue and frothy-white color. We then left for several other places like Otter Cliffs and Sandy Beach (apparently the only one with sand in Acadia.) They were all quite beautiful. Acadia will hold quite some memories with me.

We then decided to head to Bar Harbor for lunch. We went to a high-quality american food where I ordered a big juicy burger, Greta got fried shrimp and Dad got seafood quesadillas. Filled up to the brim (and maybe past it) I toddled away with my clique to go and explore some of the local shops. Mostly, the typical tourist stuff. There we a couple funny sayings on T-Shirts like [picture of golf ball in sand pit] 'Life is Crap' or a picture of a squirrell 'I'm so old I forgot where my nuts are!' and a license plate that said 'BAA HA BAH' (Get it).

We went back to the camp, did a bit of work, made dinner and now I am writing this blog from the pretty nice interenet that our campsite has! Cya tomorrow!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Maple Candy!! (Day 9) 9/17/09

I woke up this mornin'..... and took a jog....

*durr durr, dirr dirr, durr durr, dirr dirr*
But the emergency turnoff key kept falling off of me....

*durr durr, dirr dirr, durr durr, dirr dirr*

So now I've got the Treadmill bah-luuuues...

*durr dirr dirr darr darr durr durr:*

And they ain't gonna go away....

*durr durr dirr dirr doodaadaa doodadaa*

Thank you, thank you.

So that pretty much sums up my early morning routine. I ate breakfast and worked on blog settings, and finally at 9:30 Greta roused from the dead to eat hers. We then packed up to leave St. Johnsbury Vermont and stopped on our way out at the Maple Grove Farms factory.

The tour there started out with a ~10 minute video about making syrup and the history of Maple Grove Farms (which started out as a simple maple candy factory in the 1800s, and has expanded into syrup and salad dressings.) The tour guide then took us through the factory line, which essentially is a bottling and candy-forming facility. On the way down between facilities, we walked down a staircase which had a low ceiling with a stuffed duck overhead. Get it? Hahaha!!

Dad bought a syrup grade-sampler (from light colored fancy grade to almost opaque Grade B) and we left for Maine. We crossed through New Hampshire and into a roadside construction zone where they were blasting out rock, and then into Maine.

In Maine, we made it to Acadia National park, and set up shop in a campsite just outside of the boundary. I am now writing this blog on the amazinglyWiFi that the park has. I could hardly believe it, but it's true.

We're going to spend 3 nights (including tonight) in Acadia, and then we will begin heading southward towards Boston. If you're following us on the map, we're at point I:

http://tinyurl.com/mvk459

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Ben & Jerry's!! (Day 8) 9/16/09

Today started off with a hotel breakfast in probably the best hotel we've been to on our trip. It was clean, friendly, modern, etc.
We left for Vermont at around 11:30. The drive out was very scenic and beautifull. Dad even took a couple pics of us, but like many things on this trip, you really have to go there to appreciate their full grandeur.

We then headed for Lake Champlain, and ultimately Vermont. We ended up taking a ferry across, as Nancy (Our GPS) decided that it was faster than driving to a bridge.

Ducks FTW

We drove about an hour into Vermont and stopped for the Ben & Jerry's factory. It was a lot of fun. There was an introduction movie about how the reason Ben & Jerry's makes ice cream is because it was cheaper than a bagel machine at the time they founded it. We then got to see the factory where it's made, and then got free samples of Mint Choco Chunk. You should see it if you ever go through Waterbury.