I spent the past ten days traveling with my mother and stepfather, Stanley, through New England. It all started because I needed to go Vermont to find a place to live for school, but it became a great excuse to take a family vacation to Boston and up the coast of Maine.
Please check out some photos from the trip here: Mass & Maine Photos
I owe a great deal of thanks to my mom & Stan for their overwhelming generosity and assistance in finding an apartment and a car. As usual, their hospitality went above and beyond anything I could have anticipated. Thank you very much!
We flew into Boston, rented a car, and immediately drove over to Plymouth to eat lunch and check out Plymouth Rock. Afterwards, we drove back into Boston and checked into a hotel located in Cambridge, a couple blocks away from the Charles River and next to MIT's campus.
(If you're interested in reading more about the Pilgrims, check out this article: Puritans to Prohibition)
The first couple days we spent sightseeing around Boston. We went to the JFK Museum, which was politically inspiring, went to the famous Bull & Fitch Pub, which was the inspiration of the '80s TV show Cheers, and we braved a heat wave to do a portion of the Freedom Walk; checking out Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church, where the famous "Two if by Sea" lanterns were hung.
The next day we walked around Harvard's campus and spent some time in an outdoor cafe at Harvard Square watching a ten year old boy Chinese boy whip a line of adults in speed Chess.
We drove into Vermont listening to Willie Nelson's Whiskey River on the radio and spent an intense few days apartment shopping. There was no time to take any photos of Brattleboro, but I will say, I'm getting very excited about starting school.
SIT is a very small school, the campus consists of only a few old white columned houses renovated into classrooms and offices, located on top of a hill overlooking rolling mountains. There're maybe 300 students. I think it’s gonna be a phenomenal experience that will light a few creative sparks and get the good wheel of fortune turning.
By sheer luck, there was a Subaru dealership located next to our hotel in Brattleboro, so I bought a used Outback wagon. I'm now mobile!
With my mission accomplished in Brattleboro, we headed into Maine to travel up the rocky coast and eat lobsters! Our first stop was the small town of Ogunquit where we went to Perkins Cove to eat stuffed lobster at Barnacle Billy's.
As we continued up the coast, driving from meal to meal, we made a sightseeing stop just north of Portland around Cape Elizabeth to see the Portland Head Light, the most photographed lighthouse in the world.
Our next meal was on Bailey's Island at place called Cook's Restaurant, which became world famous in '98 when it was featured on a string of Visa commercials. We all ate our first lobster rolls.
For dinner the same night we drove around Rockland to a small community called Camden where we ate boiled lobster at a place called Bay View Lobster. Stan made friends with a guy from Louisiana whose reason for moving to Maine was Shreveport.
Stanley's goal for the whole trip, aside from eating well, was to make it to Bar Harbor. We had an afternoon driving around Acadia National Park, where we saw some breathtaking views of the jagged coastline before checking into a B&B called Lucerne.
Last, but not least, we drove back to Boston, stopping at some outlets malls for my mother to do some shopping, and had our last supper at one of Boston's oldest family run Italian eatery called Jevelis Restaurant. Evidentially, Bill Clinton ate here a few years ago, so they styled one room after the White House and it has presidential paraphernalia everywhere.
This was the first extended trip I've ever taken where so much emphasis was placed on food, but I must say, it was really, really, good food! My hat's off to Stanley for being a knowledgeable guide, and my belt's one notch looser in anticipation for my next trip with him.
Thank you.
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