New England Vacation, abridged

I'm leaving the detailed travel posts up to Daniel. These are a few of my favorite things...

We arrived in Providence, Rhode Island on Friday, August 11th (thanks, in part, to a Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards FREE roundtrip ticket!) and began our New England adventures with a two-day stay in Boston with family friends Polly and Frank Smith.

Our main focus on Saturday was a walking tour of Boston which included a ride on a Swan Boat
in Boston's Public Garden. Also located in the Public Garden are statues of the feathered characters from the children's book Make Way for Ducklings which is sure to be one of Mather's favorite stories!

Our other big task for the day was the acquisition of lobsters and mussels for our evening feast - gotta love the lobsters!

On Sunday morning we headed out of Massachusetts to Vermont. We stopped at Copp's Hill on our way out of town to visit Mather Tomb. In the afternoon, we arrived at the Kedron Valley Inn in South Woodstock, VT to meet up with the Ransom clan (Daniel has the details for you in his Flock of Ransoms post). We had a fabulous dinner at the Inn and some of us stayed up late playing a convoluted version of Trival Pursuit with a box of questions from the Silver Screen edition.

Monday's highlights included the tour of Green Mountain Academy, the Ransom-Kendall Cemetery, a walk around downtown Woodstock (Vermont Maple Walnut Ice Cream, yum!) and a swim in the pond.
We checked out of the Inn on Tuesday morning and headed up north to the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, VT. Free samples of American Apple Pie ice cream kept everyone smiling.

We parted ways with the extended family and David, Julie, Elsa, Chris, Dan and I headed back south in the afternoon and arrived just in time for David to make the opera performance in Lebanon, NH. The rest of us proceeded on to the funky Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction, VT to make our arrangements for the night and sit down for a delicious dinner at the Tip Top Cafe.

We kept busy on Wednesday with a walk around White River Junction, a visit to Quechee Gorge, glass blowing and pottery demonstrations at Simon Pearce and a tour of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Historical Park where we learned about one of the first conservationists. My favorite part of the day was our visit to Sugarbush Farm. Daniel and Elsa hand-fed a calf and several goats. We tasted many of the Farm's cheeses, four grades of maple syrup and a plethora of mustards, jams and other assorted spreads. After a highly competitive round of miniature golf, we had dinner in Woodstock, VT and bid adieu to Chris and Elsa who were heading back to New York the next morning.

Thursday took us north into New Hampshire via highway, byway, and backroad. We stopped at Saint-Gaudens Historic Site and saw beautiful sculpture. Then we drove through the White Mountains, past what was once the Old Man in the Mountain formation (the formation fell in 2003). Our highlight destination of the day was the Cog Railway at Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast.
Daniel and I embarked upon the steep climb, the locomotive engine burning literally a TON of coal on the way up. The views from the top were well worth the 1 hour and 20 minute ascent. Our seasoned brakesman got us down safe and sound. We spent the night at a charming little housekeeping cabin in the ski resort town of Bartlett, New Hampshire.

We headed back down into Boston on Friday, stopping in the town of Plymouth, NH for breakfast and window shopping. The town is home to Plymouth State University, whose women's rugby team was handily defeated by the U.C. Santa Cruz Banana Slugs in the Division II National Championship this year! We traveled south through New Hampshire down scenic highways through the Lake District. None of the lakes can hold a candle to Lake Tahoe.

The evening found us back at Polly and Frank's house where Daniel made his famous roast chicken and potatoes for dinner. We're headed back home tomorrow afternoon... enough fooling around, gotta get ready for baby!