Free Range traveling begins

Now that our vehicle has finally been acquired, we can officially begin the travel and sight seeing portion of our trip. And, begin, we did. 

After a nice breakfast at our lovely B&B in Marblehead, we hit the road.  Rather than taking the fast roads, if there really is such a thing around New England, we elected to take the byway that meandered along the sea coast, passing through all of the towns and bergs along its path.  Hundreds of quaint and charming places hug the roadside. 

Gloucester, Rockport, Essex, Ipswich, Newbury, Newburyport, Salisbury, Seabrook, Hampton, Portsmouth, Kittery, York, Ogunquit, Kennybunk and we finally stopped in Portland Maine (I believe I missed a couple of towns in there somewhere).   

They were all cute and undoubtedly had lots of history attached to each of them.  It seems that most of the houses and buildings dated back to the 1600's.  If you had unlimited time, it'd be fun to see them all.  Practability dictated that we keep moving.  We did stop at a few interesting places along the way however.

 

      

 

It was in the mid to upper 90's today. Near record. With the tree lined roadway and air conditioning, we hardly noticed. 

 We went in search of the real-life Stratford Inn from the Bob Newhart show some years ago.  We found that he Waybury Inn http://wayburyinn.com/about-the-waybury-inn/the-bob-newhart-connection/ was the location that doubled as the famous inn.  Unfortunately  it is located in western Vermont and it would be an extra day's travel to see that alone.  

Portland Maine is a nice but modern looking town that lacks the New England charm that we had been enjoying.  It does have a nice waterfront area with lots of shops and restaurants.  Perhaps Janet's suggestion that we stay in Kennybunk Port would have been more interesting?

A stop at one of the waterfront restaurants was next.  A lobster roll and a lobster salad along with the appropriate libations provided us with sustenance for the evening. 

Next, we'll be heading south to spend a day or so in the New York/ New Jersey area.  We don't have too much on our agenda there before Washington DC.