Washington Slept Here

The weather started out a little questionable this morning.  A light drizzle, that from the looks of things, could have gone either way.  The iffyness in the weather helped us decide where to explore today. 

Mount Vernon was George Washington's casa, back in the day.  Quite a nice spread he had there.  About 8000 acres.   The dude had some $$$...  Besides walking the grounds, we had a tour through the house.  Grand place.  He was apparently a rather clever guy that had a lot of varied interests including horticulture, whisky and being president.  

Actually it was a very enjoyable experience Ina beautiful and well preserved estate. 

 

  Mount Vernon 

The rest of the day was pretty low key.  We found ourselves back in the historic Old Town Alexandria in the late afternoon.  This gave us enough time to walk around the area and look at the little shops; also to pick out just the right spot for dinner. 

 

    

It'll be a little bit of an early night tonight as we'll spend all day tomorrow in Washington DC.  You know: tour busses, walking the mall, museums. All of the touristy stuff. 

Capitol Idea!

Not a whole lot of action today.  Up, packed and ready, we managed to cajole our GPS into directing us to Alexandria Virginia with a stop at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to see the Civil War museum and battlefield.  

We seemed to be on the road early enough, but by the time we saw the Gettysburg Museum, it was already approaching 4:00.  There is a self-driving tour around the actual battlefields from the northernmost encroachment of the Confederate Army into Northern Territory, that we had intended to take.  The signs said that was an additional 3 hours.  If we had toured the battlefields, it would have been well past dark by the time we arrived at our ultimate day's destination. 

Unfortunately while driving through Gettysburg, we didn't take any pictures.  Along the wooded, scenic lane, there are a number of houses and buildings that date back to the Civil War period.  A very pretty drive. 

It was around 6:00PM when we landed at our hotel for the next two or three days.  A quick dump the luggage off and potty break and we were on a hotel shuttle for the Alexandria Historic District.  A couple of drinks and amediocre dinner later, we found our way back to the hotel on the commuter train. 

Our plans for tomorrow are weather dependent, so we'll have to see where we end up. 

A day in the Big Apple

At our arrival at the hotel in Jersey last night, we purchased tickets for a complete Grayline Hop-on-hop-off bus tour of New York.  What we purchased was good from 8:00AM to 8PM for two nights, although we only planned on using one day's worth.  

We also had the foresight to use shuttles and/or public transport exclusively so we could avoid driving and trying to find parking in downtown Manhattan.  From the looks of the traffic we encountered while walking around, it was a good call. 

 Saturday was overcast and about 60 degrees for the high.  A sharp contrast to the weather for the past couple of days.  Quite pleasant for us northwesterners, although a little chilly on the open top deck of the tour bus. 

 The shuttle on Saturday had us at the tour bus terminal a few minutes before the tour began. That gave us enough time to grab a little breakfast from a nearby deli. 

With the time we had to see New York we could only take the Downtown tour, the Brooklyn tour and the Hop on/off Ferry Tour.  I guess we'll save the Uptown and Bronx tours for another time.  

 

 The water tour went out to the Statue of Liberty and to several stops around Manhatten Island. We hopped off in Brooklyn to take on the bus tour there. 

Interesting place, Brooklyn. Interesting to hear the history and of the rivalry between itself and Manhatten.  

We walked back from the Brooklyn tour across the bridge rather than taking the water tour boat.  It seems we weren't the only people in the neighborhood doing that.  The walkway was packed with people and bikes and strollers.  Dodging them all kept us on out toes.  Once back in the big borough, we walked over to see the 9/11 memorial. 

  Both the walk and the memorial were well worth it. 

There are two fountains depicting the missing towers.  Water cascades down the sides and down a hole.  Quite a solemn place.

We continued the tour a short time later, to see the remainder of the downtown area. That finished around 5:30.  It just so happened that we had become weary from our all day touring by now and virtually simultaneously, we decided it was time for a libation or two which would lead us into the dinner hour. 

 A lovely little Irish pub with a friendly staff, fit our requirements perfectly.  

We had a little time before the shuttle was scheduled to pick us up.  All day long, everyone was talking about how good Juniors Cheesecake is.   I'll be darned if we weren't able to find the famous place. Not too hard to pick out; people were lined up, down the street, waiting for their chance to enjoy the highly touted desert.  Not something we normally do, but we had to try a slice too. 

 

The shuttle back to our hotel in New Jersey was a little more troublesome than we had expected.  It was supposed to pick us up at 8:00 PM.  We made our way back to our starting place with about 15 - 20 minutes to spare.  Just so everything went smoothly, we went into the tour/ticket building to find out exactly where to catch our ride.  That's when we learned that: "oh, he's already been here and has left" (on the last run of the evening).  What to do!?

In a semi panic, we hailed a cab only to learn it would be around $70 to take us all the way across the George Washington Bridge to our hotel.  Probably reasonably for the cabby, but far from the cost of the included ride we were expecting.  Fortunately I had the name and number of our booking agent, who also happens to drive a different shuttle in his off time.  After an appropriate amount of expressing our disappointment with his booking our trip, he ended up shuttling us back, only an hour and a half later.  

Good day.  Off tomorrow for more sights. 

Heading to Jersey

Most hotels, now days, offer breakfast to their guests.  Hard boiled egg, processed yogurt, cereal and day old sweet rolls just didn't appeal to us this morning.  We walked a short distance to a Denny's.  Grand slammed it!

Our original intent was to continue north toward Halifax, Nova Scotia.  We thought about visiting there for no particular reason, other that to just see it.  During the course of purchasing the car, we learned that there was sometimes problems bringing new vehicles, less that 3 days old, across the border.  There is a suspicion that you might try to sell it.  We have had enough struggles just buying the car, so we instead opted to continue our travels in the other direction. 

 

We didn't explore Kennybunk Port as much as we wanted to while we were heading north toward Portland. We had seen so many charming places yesterday that we just ran out of need at that point, to see any more.  We made up for that today.  As we were passing close by, we detoured off of the turnpike to see it.  Another cute little place settled into the coastal marshlands.  Different from the more rugged coast of Massachusetts, this must have historically provided more farming and ranching opportunities. 

Back to the turnpikes, we had one additional stop to make, back to the Honda dealer that we had just bought the car from.  There was one more accessory to install. 

About an hour later we were back, burning up pavement.  Our destination is New Jersey, strategically located so we can park the car and catch transit in to see New York.  It should have been about a 5 hour trip. After Kennybunk Port and Manchester New Hampshire, we hit some startlingly heavy traffic as we approached New York.   Our little 5 hour trip took us 10-1/2 hours.  Wow!

 Driving has been interesting.  In New England, people were very friendly and allowed merging and lane changes with an actual smile on their face. The closer we got to New York, the bigger the scowl and the more intense the game of chicken you play.  It makes traveling interesting; you have to adapt to survive. 

 People watching is a scream!  Back in Marblehead, Massachusetts, there was an English couple that had to  have just arrived from Faulty Towers. Every English cliche perfectly portrayed. Tonight at the hotel in New Jersey, we sat next to the perfect double of Fran from The Nanny TV show.  We're sure there's more out there… we'll keep looking. 

Tomorrow, we tour New York. 

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. 

New car time?

We got up early so we didn't miss breakfast at our B&B.  It's only served until 9:00AM (6:00am left coast time.).  Lots to do today so it was a good idea to get going early, anyway. 

We took a little time to walk around town.  An amazing amount of history took place here.  Most of the houses were built while this was still a British colony,  The Marines started here. They were originally called the Mariners.  The Brownies even started here… who knew?

   

It took a little over an hour to drive to Manchester New Hampshire.  We met with our salesperson and he was as genuine as he sounded on the phone.  

 

Purchase FINALLY made, we set sail for some long overdue tourist activities.  

First stop, Salem Massachusetts.  Witches still seem to have a large influence in this area… obviously they didn't get them all!

    

We were able to make our way back to Marblehead for one more night, just as the stores closed and the pubs opened… gotta roll with the punches!

  

A little pub hopping and we found ourselves at "The Barnicle" where we had a lesson in dissecting a lobster.  It is highly recommended!

Arrived in Boston

May 17, 2017

The flight across the country was uneventful except for a little turbulence here and there.  We dozed off a couple of times which helped make the crossing seem faster. 

I had found instructions for traveling from the airport to Cambridge via the local transit system.  Through a combination of busses and trains and subways, we hit the pavement a mere couple of blocks from the dealership.  

 

We walked into the dealership, luggage in tow, and met with one of the salesmen we had been dealing with.  It was about 5:30 by now and we were anxious to finish this thing up. 

It soon became evident that the salesperson's enthusiasm to sell a car, and the actual facts of the matter, regarding the time it would take to get a Washington state plate on a Massachusetts car, had parted company.  

We were eventually taken to see "the finance guy" (aka, the guy who does the paperwork) to finalize the transaction.  As soon as we sat down, he asked: "How are we going to get plates on this car?"  We explained that, according to the sales department, a broker could expedite the process of Washington state title application and overnight the plates, and voala, we'd be set to go in a day or so.  The finance guy countered by saying it would take 2-3 weeks to get all of the paperwork exchanged between the two states and plates finally delivered.  Don't think that's going to work. 

Due to the scheduling disagreement between Cambridge Honda sales and accounting departments, and by this time it was too late to do much of anything, we rented a car to head to our hotel.  (Got to Enterprise Rental just moments before they closed.)  The plan was to continue this process in the morning. 

Traffic was an absolute zoo by this time.  One good suggestion from the sales staff was to stop for dinner at some place close buy and wait for the traffic to die down. 

While discussing our situation and our disappointment, Janet suggested just buying a car in New Hampshire and forgetting Massachusetts all together.  Capitol idea!  A quick search and we were texting back and forth to a dealer in NH.  We thoroughly confused the person we were talking to once we explained our story.  Before long, we were speaking to a salesperson on the phone.  Even though he was questioning our sanity, he had the car, made the deal and we agreed to head there the next day.  

 

Well, maybe the 4th time is the charm…?  We finished dinner and traffic died down enough to be able to make it to our night's accommodations in Marblehead Mass.  Beautiful although too dark to really appreciate.  We'll see more in the morning.