Leaf Peeping in New England - September 2024

We finally made it to New England! This was a vacation we were most excited about, and we had an incredible time. When I planned this vacation, I researched when to visit for the best chance for peak leaf change, and it paid off with gorgeous drives through the White Mountains.

Matthew was getting over a respiratory illness as we started our vacation, and Whitney started feeling sick within the first couple of days, but both were troopers, and it didn't disrupt our plans too much.

Day 1: Boston

We flew into Boston, early on a Wednesday, landing around 10am. I booked a room close to Boston Common at The Revere Hotel Boston Common, and check-in wasn't until 4pm. So, we rented our car and went to visit a few historical sites prior to going into downtown Boston.

Our first stop was Minute Man National Historic Park in Lincoln, MA. We detoured into the town for lunch at Town Meeting Bistro in Lexington before going to the site. This restaurant is located inside the Inn at Hastings Park. I am not a seafood fan, but Matthew had clam chowder which he said was incredible, and the rest of the food was good as well. It was a little fancier than we expected, but I would recommend it as a decent place to eat.

After lunch, we made our way to the Minute Man National Historic Park Visitor Center. We parked and walked a path to reach the building and explored the small display areas and found a map of the park. Our objective was to see the actual Minute Man Statue and after looking at the trails realized it would be quite the walk to reach it. The ranger on site gave us an address to map our drive to the statue. I was surprised that it wasn't in the Historic Park, but in the town.

This site is where the American Revolution began, and it is incredible to realize the first "skirmish", as the signs state, happened on the same grounds we were standing on.

Our next destination was to Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. They offer tours of the house, but they weren't open when we visited so we walked the grounds and garden and then headed to stop three, John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, the birthplace of John F Kennedy. Again, it was closed so we snapped a picture and moved on.

The last stop before we drove into Boston was the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. This looked to be a really cool tour, but again was closed so we just walked where we could and took a few pictures from outside.

We parked at the hotel ramp for $42/night, which was on the cheaper side for parking in Boston. We checked into our room and Whitney decided to stay back and do homework, while Matthew and I walked the Public Garden and Boston Common.

Whitney is the pickiest eater to ever exist, so I checked out menus of restaurants in the area and found a place with grilled cheese. I called her and she met us in the lobby of our hotel, and we walked to the Back Deck for dinner. Once we were seated and looked at the menus, we saw that there was no grilled cheese option and were told they only offer it for lunch. So, Whitney didn't eat, and Matthew and I both ordered the Andouille Mac & Cheese. It was good, but the portions were very small for the price we paid. I had a Snicker Sundae for dessert, which they put walnuts in instead of peanuts, but it was still good, and Matthew ordered a Boston Cream Pie which was delicious.

After we ate, we tried to find something for Whitney, but she was stubborn and insisted she wasn't hungry, so we went back to our room and to bed.

Day 2: Boston

Thursday morning, we woke up much later than normal, likely because of the time change. We got up around 8am, and my girlfriend Kim, who lives about an hour outside of Boston, was meeting us at 9am. We got ready, and after Kim arrived walked to The Friendly Toast for breakfast.

Once we were fueled for the day we walked toward the start of The Freedom Trail. There was light rain on and off in the morning, but not enough to completely ruin our day.

We stopped by Cheers, snapped a picture of the iconic sign and visited the gift shop.

Then we made our way to the first stop of The Freedom Trail, walking through Boston Common.

Our goal was to complete the entire trail, which isn't terribly far of a walk, but Kim was a little less optimistic than we were. The trail itself is only around 2.5 miles. I had a map printed out and was worried we would lose our way, but there is a red brick trail the entire way, which made it so much easier than I expected.

We didn't start at the "starting point" marker but walked through Boston Common to The Massachusetts State House. Many of the sites had tours you could join to walk through the buildings, but we chose not to do so, other than the cemeteries where you could walk through for free, instead just admiring the buildings.

Our next stop was Park Street Church, followed by the Granary Burial Ground and Kings Chapel. We walked through the burial grounds.

Then we got a little confused. We saw the Old State House, and Old South Meeting House, but couldn't find the Old Corner Bookstore. We did find a placard on the sidewalk marking the Freedom Trail, but no sign anywhere for the bookstore. We found a Chipotle where it appeared it should be. We later asked someone at Faneuil Hall, and they said that it is now a Chipotle, so not sure if it is or not, but we count that as good enough!

We found the Boston Massacre site and then made our way to Faneil Hall and Quincy Market. Here we stopped for a while, walking through quickly then finding restrooms, and we sat for a bit while Whitney had ice cream.

After we felt adequately rested, we made our way back on the trail to the Paul Rever House, Paul Revere Mall and Old North Church.

The last stop before we crossed the Charlestown Bridge was Copp's Hill Burying Ground, which has the narrowest house I've ever seen right across the street.

The walk across the bridge was pretty cool, with decent views of the Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge and the Charles River. We were getting tired by this time, but we only had two more stops. The area across the bridge was much hillier than in downtown, so that did make it a little less enjoyable walking, and the last two sites weren't very close to each other. I felt they were the best sites to see on the trail, so I am glad we decided to cross the bridge. If we weren't going to finish the trail, those would have been the ones we would have skipped.

We chose to go to the Bunker Hill Monument first. I had no idea how large this monument was going to be, and it was incredible to see up close. You can climb to the top of it up 295 steps on a spiral staircase. Had we started our walk here, we likely would have climbed to the top, but my legs weren't feeling it at this point. Kim promised to go back sometime and head to the top, so we will see if she makes good on her word.

The last stop on the Freedom Trail was the USS Constitution. We didn't walk through the visitor center, but we did walk through the ship, which is free to tour. Matthew and I visited the USS Kidd in Baton Rouge when we were there, and we were surprised how different the two ships are. The USS Constitution is the oldest war ship still afloat. It was built and launched in 1797. There were several Navy Officers on board answering questions. When you go below deck, the ceilings are extremely low, and Matthew had to walk hunched over so he didn't hit his head.

We completed the Freedom Trail! And we were tired and hungry, so we walked back across the bridge to the North End to find an Italian restaurant for an early dinner.

The North End is unofficially known as Boston's "Little Italy" and has so many restaurants to choose from. After browsing menus, we decided on Beneventos. It was still early for dinner, but we skipped lunch, and eating early meant we were the only party in the restaurant. The food was excellent, service was ok, but they did forget to put Matthew's meal in, so he had to wait for his well after the rest of us had our food.

When we finished eating, we walked down the block to Bova's Bakery for some dessert. We bought a variety of specialty cannoli and made our way back to our hotel, swinging by the African American National Historical Site on the way. We walked through Boston Common and saw the Embrace Memorial on our walk through.

Kim broke off and went to her car, and we went to our hotel room. It started pouring as soon as we were back, so the timing worked out well. The skyline looked eerie with the rain shadowing the tops of buildings.

As I said, The Freedom Tail is only 2.5 miles, but our fitness apps logged over 10 miles walked this day, which is a lot for our sedentary bodies. We went to bed early after the long day.

Day 3: Salem, MA and Portland, ME

We woke up fairly early and started our drive north. We stopped at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, and walked through the buildings, before finding breakfast. Saugus Iron Works is a reconstruction of the first successful iron works in the United States.

Next, we went to Salem. We didn't want to miss the opportunity to visit since we were so close, but we didn't plan to spend a lot of time here. Salem was pretty packed and I'm guessing not even a fraction of as busy as it gets closer to Halloween. We found a place to park and walked to the house of Seven Gables and then to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site.

Then we walked to Essex Street and enjoyed people watching and checking out a few shops. We managed to find a few souvenirs, snapped some pictures with Pennywise, located the Bewitched Statue and then had lunch at The Tavern.

We walked to the Witch Trials Memorial and saw the gravestones of executed "witches" and their judges.

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While in Salem, I realized that I didn't have my credit card. I typically use only credit cards while on vacation, so I don't have to worry about my bank account being compromised. I did have several other cards with me just in case, but the one I had planned to use for the trip was missing. I went back and forth on if I should just call it in and cancel it. I ended up calling the restaurant from the night before in Boston, and they confirmed I had left it. So, we detoured back to Boston to pick it up before driving north to Portland, ME.

We actually stayed in Scarborough, just outside of Portland at the Residence Inn. The hotel wasn't fancy but was clean, and we had a room with a bedroom and a pull-out couch, so Whitney had some privacy. Once we were checked in, we went into Portland for dinner.

Portland is a really cute city. We went to the Old Port Area as a recommendation from the hotel staff and ate at Rosies Restaurant & Pub. We sat outside and enjoyed the fall weather. Our food was good and when we finished, we walked to Beal's Old Fashioned Ice Cream and we each got a cone.

We walked down by the harbor enjoying the fresh air while we finished our ice cream before going back to our hotel for the night.

Day 4: Bar Harbor

We got up relatively early again with a decent drive planned for the day. We started our day at Tandem Coffee Roosters for breakfast and a latte. We were actually here before they opened, so we had to wait for around 15 minutes. They had unique breakfast items which we enjoyed very much, and the coffee hit the spot.

We drove Hwy 1 the entire day and saw several cute little coastal towns on our drive. Our first stop was at the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in New Harbor, ME. They do allow tours inside to the top of the lighthouse, but we were too early and didn't want to wait the hour and a half. We did walk through their museum and the grounds and enjoyed walking on the rocky shoreline.

We stopped for at Moody's Diner for lunch. It is a cute diner, packed with customers and the food was good. The rest of our drive was uneventful. We saw a ton of porcupine roadkill on our drive, and all through Maine. This wasn't something we expected, it was like racoons back home.

We enjoyed watching for leaves that were just starting to turn, cute coastal towns and the occasional peak of the ocean. We stopped to admire The Fort Knox State Historic Site bridge, but didn't go to the actual site.

I booked a cabin for two nights at Bar Harbor Cottages. We absolutely loved our cabin. It had a small kitchenette area, a little living area, two bedrooms and a bathroom, and a screened in porch. It was small, but nice. Check in was a breeze, we didn't even have to see anyone, they called and gave us the instructions earlier that day. There wasn't any access to the water from our cabin, but we could see the ocean across the street right outside our front door.

After we unloaded our bags, we drove into the town of Bar Harbor. This was an extremely busy area and a very walkable town. You have to pay for parking everywhere here, but they do have kiosks pretty frequently along the sidewalks, so it is fairly easy to do. We were on a mission here to find souvenirs, so we went into quite a few shops looking for Bar Harbor, Acadia or Maine gear. Then we walked to Agamont Park and watched sailboats and enjoyed the ocean views.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Langosta, a Mexican restaurant with amazing burrito bowls, then back to our cabin for an early night.

Day 5: Acadia National Park

Our morning started at 4:30am so we could watch sunrise on Cadillac Mountain. This is supposed to be the first place to see the sunrise in the United States, but I have found other sites in Maine that also claim to be the first to see the sun rise, so I'm not completely sure. Regardless, we wanted the experience.

You have to reserve a vehicle pass to drive the Cadillac Summit Rd, in addition to paying the park pass. They only issue so many vehicle passes and we were lucky enough to get one for sunrise. The drive up to Cadillac Mountain was in the dark, but we did see a couple of deer. Once you park you basically follow the crowd to find a place to sit and wait for sunrise. We were pretty early so we were able to find a nice place on the rocks and set up our camera. It was chilly as we waited but once the sky started to light up, it was worth it. We stayed until the sun was completely above the horizon and the color changes as it rose was mesmerizing.

The plan for the day was to drive through Acadia National Park, but Whitney was cold and tired and wanted to nap a while first. She wasn't feeling the best, so Matthew and I dropped her back off at our cabin and we went to breakfast at The Looking Glass. This restaurant has phenomenal views of the ocean, and the food and service were good as well.

We drove to Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. It was all closed up, but we were able to walk up to the lighthouse and snap a few pictures and we saw a couple of sealions just off shore swimming in the ocean!

After we saw the actual lighthouse, we walked a trail that led to a rock cliff area where we could walk out and sit and enjoy the ocean for a bit, then we went back to collect Whitney.

We decided to drive Park Loop Road and see what we could find to do. We started at Hulls Cove Visitor Center. You have to walk up quite a few steps to reach the actual building and there really isn't much there.

We left the visitor center and just started driving. We pulled off at a few scenic pull offs and then turned into Jordan Pond. There was absolutely no parking here, so we just drove through and back onto Park Loop Road. We found a parking area with trails, so we decided to walk it. It was the Bubble Rock Trail. This was a nice hike, with some pretty steep areas as you walk to the summit. The trail markers are a little hard to follow and we never actually made it to the Bubble Rock but found amazing views of Jordan Pond as well as a few areas where the colors were peeking out in the leaves.

We continued to drive and ended up completing the loop without seeing much. Whitney did not want to walk any more trails, and the park was so incredibly busy, we decided to drive a bit outside of the loop and stopped to walk a couple beaches as we made our way back to Bar Harbor.

We parked and walked Bar Harbor again and bought a few more souvenirs and then had dinner at the Thirsty Whale.

When we got back to our car, we had a parking ticket! We looked at the ticket and our parking receipt and saw that we literally got a ticket as we were walking to a kiosk to pay! I was super annoyed and since it was Sunday, we had to wait until the morning to figure out what to do about it.

We went back to our cabin and relaxed a while before going to bed.

Day 6: Gorham, New Hampshire

Monday morning, we packed up our stuff and drove into Bar Harbor for coffee and to fight a parking ticket. Whitney stayed back at the cabin so she could get ready, but we were at the Municipal Building before they opened at 8am. Once we were there, we were told that they can take a payment, but we couldn't fight the ticket there. They did direct us on how to file a dispute online. It was actually really easy, and my ticket was dismissed within a couple of hours.

We found coffee and then went back to pick Whitney up and start the next leg of our journey.

Once we checked out, we started toward our first stop, The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Stephen King's former home, in Bangor, ME. The house itself is incredible. You can't actually go on the grounds, but it is a Victorian mansion with wrought-iron fence and gate around it. There are spiders and bats on the actual gate.

Our next stop was The Sunday River Bridge in Newry, ME. We got out and walked in the covered bridge and admired the river for a bit, then went to our hotel in Gorham, NH.

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We stayed at The Top Notch Inn in Gorham, and as soon as we checked in, we ran back out the door.

We realized that the Mt. Washington Auto Road stops letting vehicle in at 4pm, which changed from 5pm on the day we visited. We arrived at the gates at 3:50pm, with strict instructions that we had to be on our way back down no later than 4:45, and if we didn't make it down before the gates closed there would be a $50 fee to open them.

The drive up was a little sketchy in places but overall, not terrible. It was 6 miles to the summit, and it did take us a good 20 minutes or so to reach the top. Once we arrived the views were magical. There was decent cloud coverage when we first got to the top, that changed to full blankets of clouds right before we left making it impossible to see anything at all in certain directions. You could see different mountainous hills in the distance, and the leaves were much closer to peak here than they had been in Maine. We enjoyed the views for a while, then walked through a gift shop before making our way back down the mountain.

The way down was pretty intense. There are pull offs all over to cool your brakes and you are supposed to put your vehicle in low gear. We did put it in low gear, but it didn't help slow us down at all, and when we pulled off a couple of times the brakes were literally smoking. When we finally made it to the bottom, the check engine light was on in our rental, luckily it did go off a few days later.

Day 7: Kancamagus Highway and Stowe, VT

We were taking the scenic route today. The leaves were gorgeous, with bright red, orange and yellow popping though the greens. We were on high alert looking for Moose, with Moose Crossing signs prominent, but we weren't lucky enough to see any on our trip.

We started our day with breakfast at Sweet Maple Cafe in Conway, NH. This was a really cute cafe, and the food and coffee were excellent.

Our hope for New Hampshire and Vermont was to see gorgeous leaf colors and we were not disappointed. The Kancamagus Highway is a highly recommended drive during the fall foliage change and it is clear as to why. The highway runs from Conway to Lincoln along the Swift River, with many pull offs to walk trails and enjoy the scenery. I do not know what the individual pull offs are called, but we did stop at several.

The first stop was at the Lower Falls area. We walked on rocks along and over the river and enjoyed the amazing colors. The rocks here were low enough you could walk pretty far into the river.

I believe the next pull off was the Rocky Gorge. We climbed on the rocks and walked across a trail bridge.

As we continued, we found the Upper Falls area, where Matthew and I walked a short trail to see the waterfall. Whitney was feeling pretty sick, and was exhausted, so she chose to stay in the car for this trail.

We continued on the highway absorbing the beauty of the colorful hills and stopped again at a few overlooks as we made our way to Lincoln.

Once in Lincoln, we decided to check out Franconia Notch State Park. We pulled into a lot and found many trailheads, but with Whitney not feeling well, decided to drive to Old Man of the Mountain, rather than doing multiple trails.

We pulled into the New England Ski Museum parking area and found a souvenir store that we explored for a few minutes, and then drove down to the Old Man of the Mountains parking lot. Again, Whitney decided not to join us, but Matthew and I walked this easy, paved trail with lovely views of the hills around us, a lake and found the rocky protrusion that is where Old Man of the Mountains profile could be seen. Over time, weather impact had caused the formation to collapse, so we were disappointed to not actually see anything, but the walk itself was still really pretty.

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We then started toward our hotel, the Commodores Inn in Stowe, VT.

The drive was all backroad highways and an absolutely incredible drive. Once we got into Stowe it was crazy with how many cars and people were enjoying this tiny mountain town. We didn't actually spend time in the town, but I do wish I would have booked more time here. If we ever go back, we will stay at least two nights and explore Stowe more thoroughly.

We checked into our hotel and then we drove to The Ben and Jerry's Factory. We saw 3 bear cubs on the side of the road on the drive!

We weren't able to do a tour of the factory because they had sold out of tickets, but we walked the flavor graveyard and enjoyed some ice cream.

We skipped lunch this day, so we were all pretty hungry once we finished at Ben and Jerry's. Because Stowe was so busy we went to Waterbury Village Historic District, and had dinner at McGillicuddy's Pub.

Day 8: Lenox, MA

We let ourselves sleep in a little this day but were still on the road by 9am. We stopped to see Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park first. We walked into the visitor center first, and bought some souvenirs, then walked up to the Rockefeller House. Whitney isn't a fan of museums, but I do think walking the museum and touring the farm would have been fun.

There are trails that will take you to lookout points where you can see Woodstock below, but because Whitney was still not feeling well, we didn't take any trails, but instead just walked the areas right by the parking lot and then drove to Woodstock.

Woodstock is another cute little mountain town, with various shops and a covered bridge. We found some Vermont souvenirs at the General Store and walked the streets enjoying the small town.

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We stopped at Mass MoCA next. This is a really cool complex. There are several buildings, and it looks like it was converted from old warehouses or something. I read that they have great food here, so we planned to have lunch and walk through the museum. Our food was terrible! It was bland and heavy, and we didn't feel great after eating. We decided not to walk through the museum because Whitney was not feeling it, so we admired everything from outside and then drove to Lenox.

Lenox is a town in Western Massachusetts in the Berkshires area. We stayed at the Yankee. You can access your rooms from inside like a typical hotel, but they also have doors that lead straight outside which was a nice feature, but we did manage to lock ourselves out within the first 10 minutes. The rooms were large and comfortable.

Whitney decided to nap while Matthew and I drove to Old Lenox. We walked the town looking at old mansions converted to B&Bs and resorts, and then drove to The Mount.

The Mount itself was closed, but the grounds stay open until sunset, so we walked the property and saw the mansion. There are all kinds of quirky sculptures along the yard as you walk to the house.

Day 9: Mystic, CT, Newport, RI and Cape Cod

This was our longest drive of our vacation. We visited Connecticut and Rhode Island on our way to Cape Cod.

I didn't do the best job of researching what to do in Connecticut, so our only plan was to have lunch at Mystic Pizza. I wanted to just see what we found, but I find it really hard to explore without having a plan, and this stop proved it.

We arrived just after they opened, and we had an enjoyable meal here. The restaurant is filled with pictures of celebrities and a lot of memorabilia from the movie Mystic Pizza.

After lunch we walked for a while, then had ice cream at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream, before leaving Mystic.

We had hoped to drive the coast a bit and find a gift shop to buy a magnet of Connecticut but ended up in Rhode Island faster than expected. So, Matthew wanted to buy a magnet online, but I didn't think that counted, so we routed ourselves back to Connecticut and found a small town and bought a pretty lame magnet to represent Connecticut.

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Our only plan for Rhode Island was to walk the Cliff Walk Trail. Whitney was still feeling pretty awful, so she was not overly thrilled about the walk. We parked at Easton's Beach and walked the first part of the trail, seeing the Chanler and Forty Steps, and great views of the ocean and cliffs. There was a detour at Forty Steps, and we walked around the block to start the next section, and Whitney had had enough by the time we reached Vinland Estate, so we turned around and went back to our car.

As we were driving out of Newport, we saw a car museum, and Whitney said she wanted to go, so we pulled off and walked through the museum. There were 7 areas with classic cars, new cars, foreign and domestic. The museum is the owner's personal collection, and it is incredible how many he owns. We enjoyed this unexpected stop quite a bit.

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The drive from Newport to Cape Cod was fairly quick. We made one more stop in New Bedford to see the New Bedford Whaling Historic Site, which was closed.

We stayed in Truro, just before you reach Provincetown, and I had no idea how far that is down the cape. When we crossed the bridge to Cape Cod, we still had almost two hours to get to our cabin. We found a rest area just off the highway to use the bathroom.

We stayed at Truro Cabins and had another cute little 2-bedroom cabin for the next two nights. The check in here was very similar to Bar Harbor, where we received a code for the keys and just let ourselves in. The resort had a community deck with BBQ grills and a walkway down to the beach. We dropped our stuff and drove into Provincetown to find dinner.

We were here in the off-season, so most of the restaurants closed earlier than normal. We realized this when we walked to a restaurant we had looked up, to find their hours weren't updated online, and they were closed when we arrived. We found a bar/restaurant called The Squealing Pig that was open, and we ate here.

It was after 8pm, and Provincetown after dark is pretty wild. Many groups of men dressed very risqué and overly sexualized. It wasn't exactly our scene, but during the day it is much more family friendly.

By the time we finished eating it was late, and we had a long day, so we went back to our cabin and to bed.

Day 10: Provincetown

Whitney was exhausted and sick, so she had no desire to wake up and explore with Matthew and me. She stayed in bed while Matthew and I went in search of breakfast. Parking in Provincetown is horrible. The roads are narrow and packed, and there are very limited public parking lots. We went to Liz's Cafe, which has a parking lot adjoined, but you can't actually park there as it is owned by the gym across the street. It sounds like there is some friction between the restaurant and the gym over this. We had to move our car but were able to find parking on a side street luckily.

We had coffee and breakfast, and the staff here was great, and the food was excellent.

Next, we drove to Pilgrim Monument. We found a public parking area a block from the elevator to the monument. When we walked up, we saw that they were not open until 10am, so we walked down toward the Warf to kill about 45 minutes. We found a huge parking area at the Warf, which alleviated that as a concern later in the day.

There are a bunch of little stands on the dock, but only about half were open. There were whale watching tours and we considered going on one, but they only had 2 tours, one at 10am and one at 2pm. The 2pm was sold out, and we wouldn't have had time to get Whitney before the 10am, so we just walked the area and people watched and saw the interesting art choices around the city.

We walked back to Pilgrim Monument and rode the incline elevator up to the monument. Our tickets gave us access to walk up to the top of the monument, the museum and to the elevator for the day. We were the first visitors of the day, so Matthew and I had the luxury of walking up to the top of the monument without anyone around to worry about. The climb up with intense, but it was ramps with a step up at each corner, so not as bad as just steps.

The sights from the top were worth the climb.

We went to the museum to get our sticker for making it to the top and started to walk through. There was no airflow, and it was hot and stuffy, so we bought some water and a magnet and skipped the museum.

We decided to head back to our cabin and check on Whitney. She was still sleeping when we got there, but she got up and Matthew and I walked down to the beach to relax while she got ready.

The beach here was quiet, with sandy shoreline as far as you can see. You could look out and see the lighthouse at the very tip of Provincetown, and the city as well. The water was very cold and there was a ton of seaweed in the water and on the shoreline. The sun was shining, and we enjoyed sitting and listening to the waves for an hour.

Once Whitney was ready, we went back to Provincetown and parked at the Warf. We walked the docks again and went into the Shark Museum. The museum was very educational and a quick walk through. After, we walked the streets and found shops to purchase souvenirs. Then we went to have a late lunch/early dinner at The Mayflower. Matthew finally got a full lobster here, and Whitney and I also enjoyed a great meal.

We went back to our cabin after we ate so we could watch the sunset on the beach. We still had a couple of hours, but we grabbed chairs and went to sit on the beach. It was much cooler as the sun crept lower in the sky, so Whitney didn't last long, and we went in the cabin to warm up and then back out once.

When the sun finally made its way toward the horizon the colors in the sky were the best I've ever seen. Bright yellows and pink completely illuminated the clouds. We watched seagulls splashing on the shore, dropping shellfish and digging out the meat within. It was an incredible evening.

Once it was dark, we went back to the cabin and finished packing our stuff for our flight out the next day. Then Matthew and Whitney decided they were hungry again, so we went back to Provincetown and to the Grilled Cheese Gallery for a sandwich. This is a quirky diner with a unicorn theme, and every kind of grilled cheese you can imagine. Whitney stuck with the classic, I had a Cowgirl Grilled Cheese which had chicken and macaroni on it, and Matthew had the Cowboy with brisket and macaroni. All of the sandwiches came with a small cup of tomato soup, and we ordered fries to share. It was really good, and the staff here was great.

Day 11: Airport

We left our cabin at 7:30am, to drive to the airport. We had a 2.5-hour drive and an 11:40 flight, plus we had to drop our car off at the rental center and a quick stop for coffee. Once we exited the cape, it was quick. We had a late breakfast at the airport, and our vacation was officially over. We added 6 new states, and a hundred new memories

Day 1: Boston

Minute Man National Historic Park

Town Meeting Bistro

Minute Man Statue

Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site

John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site

Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

The Revere Hotel Boston Common

Public Garden

Boston Common

The Back Deck

Day 2: Boston

The Friendly Toast

Cheers

Boston Common

The Freedom Trail

Beneventos

Bova's Bakery

Day 3: Salem, MA and Portland, ME

Saugus Iron Works

Salem

The Residence Inn

Old Port

Portland, ME

Rosie's Restaurant & Pub

Beal's Old Fashioned Ice Cream

Day 4: Bar Harbor

Tandem Coffee Roosters

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse

Moody's Diner

Fort Knox State Historic Site bridge

Bar Harbor Cottages

Bar Harbor

Agamont Park

Langosta

Day 5: Acadia National Park

Cadillac Mountain Summit

The Looking Glass

Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

Bass Harbor Head

Hulls Cove Visitor Center

Park Loop Road

Bubble Rock Rail

Jordon Pond

Bar Harbor

Thirsty Whale

Day 6: Gorham, New Hampshire

Bar Harbor Municipal Building

The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation

Sunday River Bridge

The Top Notch Inn

Mt. Washington Auto Road

Mt. Washington Summit

Day 7: Stowe, VT

Sweet Maple Cafe

Kancamagus Highway

Franconia Notch

Old Man of the Mountains

Commodores Inn

The Ben and Jerry's Factory

Waterbury Village Historic District

McGillicuddy's Pub

Day 8: Lenox, MA

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park

Woodstock, VT

Mass MoCA

The Yankee

Old Lenox

The Mount

Day 9: Cape Cod

Mystic, CT

Mystic Pizza

Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream

Newport, RI

Cliff Walk Trail

Newport Car Museum

New Bedford

New Bedford Whaling Historic Site

Cape Cod

Truro Cabins

Provincetown

The Squealing Pig

Day 10: Cape Cod

Provincetown

Liz's Cafe

Pilgrim Monument

Provincetown Warf

The Shark Museum

The Mayflower

Grilled Cheese Factory

Day 11: Travel Day