Saturday, October 6, 2012

Leaves, Lobsters, and Lighthouses

Last September, Mom and I decided to head to the New England states for a long weekend. Mom has a goal of being in all 50 states. We were able to knock out three in one weekend-Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Since I am her trusty (and favorite) travel companion, I accompanied her on her adventures.

When we got to Vermont, we got our rental car and sought out some food.  We ate dinner at The Skinny Pancake.  The crepe we shared was delicious!  We checked into the hotel and planned our escapades for the following day.

The next day, we checked out of the hotel and hit the road.  We drove to the Bragg Sugar House near Montpelier, VT.  We learned how maple syrup was made.  It was a very labor intensive process.  I would never choose that as a career!  We sampled and bought some genuine, totally authentic Vermont maple syrup.  It tasted delicious!


We drove to a covered bridge and took some pictures.  It was a good thing we did a photo shoot at the covered bridge because our path never crossed another on our journey.



We drove through Vermont to New Hampshire.  We ate lunch at Truants Taverne in Woodstock, NH. The food was great!  We drove through White Mountain National Forest.  Even though we were about a week early, there were plenty of colorful leaves through the forest-red, gold, orange.  It was beautiful.  The pictures don't do it justice!



We stopped at a place near the end of the forest and did a mini photo shoot.  We got some great pictures.  The only problem was there wasn't any one there to take our picture together!



After leaving Vermont seven and a half hours earlier and making quite a few scenic stops, we arrived in Portland, ME. We drove to the waterfront and parked the car.  We walked to the Portland Lobster Company and ordered two whole lobsters.  We then tied on our bibs and got cracking!  We used our nutcracker to the max and got all the meat we possibly could out of our lobsters.  The lobster meat was delicious!  I enjoyed working for my dinner! :)



Mom and I started out the day by attending church. After church, we drove to the Portland Head Lighthouse.  It was the oldest and most photographed lighthouse in the United States.  
From the Portland Head Lighthouse, we could see Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse and Ram Island Lighthouse.




Then we drove to Two Lights State Park which was also in Maine.


We drove through New Hampshire to Sharon, Vermont to Joseph Smith's birthplace.  We walked around the sight where Joseph Smith's house once stood where he was born.  It just added to my testimony of Joseph Smith's prophetic mission of restoring the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth.  We also drove to the remains of the other houses on the property belonging to relatives, Solomon Mack and Daniel Mack.  



The next day, Mom and I drove to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory and took the tour.  The free sample of ice cream was vanilla with strawberries and chocolate chunks.  Mom and I also bought a cup of ice cream.



Since we had a few hours until our flight left, Mom and I decided to go shopping. We had a great time in New England.