New England Fall Road Trip
We went back and forth with our decision a lot in the beginning.
And then we were like…
Fuck it. Money comes and goes, but your time won’t.
So we started planning (finally!) our New England road trip to see the fall foliage.
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Loaded up the car and left the house at exactly 6am. A tad bit later than we had initially planned, but even with a 25 hour drive ahead of us, we were still leaving the early for our 3pm check-in for Sunday.
Sunday, October 6
Surprisingly didn’t read a single moment of the 34 hours we spent on the road - but we made it, a little after 4pm, which was just an hour after our check-in time. The colors on the drive in….when the sun started rising again, we were driving across New York State, but the colors were much more vibrant once we got into Vermont and New Hampshire.
The boys did SO GOOD the whole ride, staying cozied up in their little enclosed car seat. Every time we stopped for gas, we would take them out to potty and get water.
We can not wait to explore New England in the fall!
Monday, October 7
Day one! We slept in since it was raining - and we really needed the sleep, then it was on the road again!
First things first, fresh apple cider donuts and apple cider, before driving up to Conway to start the famous Kancamagus Highway. The moods though, since it was a rainy day! It was cold and super cloudy, making for great photo conditions.
We got pizza for dinner at Vinnie’s in Concord, bringing it back to our cabin to eat there since we have the dogs.
Tuesday, October 8
Day two! Once again, we drove the Kancamagus Highway, since the weather was beautiful and clear, then headed for Artist’s Bluff for a hike! Dixville Notch was also on my list of things to do, but by the time that we completed the hike, we weren’t going to have time to drive the remainder of the way and do that hike as well before the sun-dropped.
Wednesday, October 9
Vermont day!! I was highly excited for this day in particular, because we would be visiting the quaint town of Woodstock for the first time - as well as returning to the little northern town of Stowe. The weather was spectacular once again, after that first rainy day. Leaves were falling everywhere and it was a chilly 50 degrees.
Every day we tried to start as early as possible, hitting the road from our Getaway cabin right before 8am. The drive to Woodstock was supposed to be about an hour and a half.
We found street parking easily, getting the boys out and into their stroller, and walking around the quintessential fall town.
We visited the covered bridge in the middle of town, did a bit of light shopping at the book store and then got a late breakfast at Mon Vert Cafe, which was so busy! Luckily we were able to grab outside seating with the boys.
On our way out of town, we stopped at a farmers market on the outskirts, where Austin picked up a few different pumpkins and a local craft beer for me to try later on.
After taking mostly beautiful backroads up to Stowe, we first stopped at the famous Cold Hollow Cider Mill. Their cider? Absolutely delicious. But their apple cider donuts were mid; plain instead of coated in the usual sugar. We loved the cider so much though, that we stopped by again on the way back home from driving around Stowe and then up to Smuggler’s Notch.
We couldn’t get over the colors from this particular day!
Thursday, October 10
Maine bound! I packed us an overnight bag because our plan was to stay the night in Bar Harbor to give us plenty of time driving up the coast of Maine.
Our first stop was in York, to visit the Nubble Lighthouse and get our first lobster rolls of the trip from Fox’s Lobster House which is literally in the parking lot right in front of the lighthouse. We walked the boys around, ate our lobster rolls with a view and then it was back on the road.
We drove through a very busy Kennebunkport, before stopping at the Portland Head Light, our favorite lighthouse that we had visited almost exactly five years ago to the day. It was much busier this time around, since the first time that we had visited was close to 8am. The wind and waves were much calmer on this visit as well.
Then it was on to Bar Harbor, another three hours in the car, but so worth it; we always have the best conversations on the road and love getting to sightsee together.
As we finally drove on to Bar Harbor island, we noticed a bunch of people pulling over on the side of the road and looking up. Austin looked up from the drivers seat, saying that the sky looked pink.
I gasped and immediately had him pull over as well. Scrambling to my small camera bag at my feet, I began hastily removing my smaller prime lens, replacing it with my “big boy” lens, a 70-300mm lens, my 1.4x teleconverter connected to it. I was in such a hurry it capture them before they disappeared, that I didn’t have the right settings on my camera to capture them at their best, so instead I whipped out my handy-dandy iPhone 16 pro max, which captured them beautifully. How the heck?!
I still can not believe that we managed to see them! Nonetheless that my iPhone was capable of capturing them so effortlessly.
After we decided to get back on the way, we checked into the West Street Hotel, ordering lobster rolls and a lobster grilled cheese to go from a nearby restaurant called Testa’s, eating it in the hotel room with the boys. Such is the life of bringing your dogs with you on vacation!
Friday, October 11
Our 7 Year Anniversary! Seven years of dating, two engaged, and one more year remaining until we get married. We always make a big deal of our anniversary, and why not?! We love love and our love for each other will always come first.
We started our morning at Otter Cliff not too long after sunrise, soaking in the beautiful view of the
Atlantic stretching out before us. We checked out of our hotel, walking around the town of Bar Harbor and along the Shore Path, before we headed to the Bass Head Light.
Afterwards, it was our mission to get to Red’s Eats in Wiscasset for our next lobster roll. We got in the lengthy line at 3pm, waiting two hours and 20 minutes for a very much worth it gigantic lobster roll. They are supposedly the best lobster roll in Maine! We definitely loved it, that is for sure.
Maine is a state that we know for a fact we will certainly return to, so anything we didn't get to do, we will be back to do it!
Saturday, October 12
I made the mistake of choosing this day for us to visit Salem. We had been before — on that trip from five years ago, actually visiting on a rainy Halloween. It was utterly packed, the traffic awful even long before we made it into town. So never again! Although I was glad that this wasn't our first experience.
But ending the day at Orchard House in Concord, was the redeeming point of the day. Little Women is one of my top five favorite books (and I absolutely adore the movies). This was the house where Louisa May Alcott wrote the famous novel and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to finally visit.
Sunday, October 13
We packed up the car and checked out of our Getaway cabin, heading straight to Boston for a nice chunk of the day. From 10am-5pm, we walked around the park, Newbury Street, and Beacon Hill with the boys, soaking up the time walking them in the Public Garden, which has always been our dream! We would have loved to visit Contessa, but having the boys made that impossible; we instead got our favorite place for lobster rolls in the city: Lobstah On A Roll. Stopping in Boston was the perfect ending to the road trip, although I wish we would have been able to stay longer.
I hope you enjoyed my journal-style brief retelling of our trip. I tried to keep it up-to-date daily — and still have so many photos to edit from the trip. We weren't even supposed to go on this road trip this year, but decided almost last minute that we couldn’t possibly wait at least two years before getting the opportunity again. Next October we will be out of the country on our honeymoon, so it certainly couldn’t be then.
So, where to (next), Meg? Most likely nowhere until our honeymoon, but who knows!
