MA-VT-NH-ME Girl's Trip: Leaving Vermont, Lighthouses, Caching, Kennebunkport and Mindy's House (Day 7)

We set our alarms again for around 7-7:30 that morning.  I woke up without a sore throat but instead a runny nose.  Great.  I hope we have enough tissue on us.  It didn't take as long for everyone to get ready because we had two bathrooms which meant two showers could be used at the same time.  I spent my time getting my suitcase all packed up and making sure we didn't leave anything behind.  We did use some dishes in our kitchenette, so I loaded up the mini dishwasher with our items and started it.

Once everyone was ready to go, we all hauled our suitcases down the stairs and tetris'd everything back into Amy's Jeep.  It was very chilly that morning and I was glad I was bundled up.  I also noticed that it was going to be a nice day again in New England. Mom and Mindy went back up just to make sure we got everything and locked the door behind them.  I took a picture of the area we were staying at.  Sadly, this was the only hotel we stayed at that didn't offer a free breakfast.  They did have a restaurant on site, but we didn't really want to eat there.  We just wanted to go.

We piled into the Jeep again and drove to the main lobby "pod" and we all got out.  Mom checked us out and some of us used the restrooms one more time because we'd be on the road for a couple hours that morning driving east to Maine.  I wasn't sure what Mindy had on our itinerary once we got to Maine.

We left Vermont and crossed back into New Hampshire and followed Route 103.  We had some discussions on where we should stop for breakfast.  Did we want to do a sit-down restaurant, or did we want to grab something through a drive thru?  The way we chose didn't really have a lot of large towns with choices to pick from.  Because we were on the east coast there were hundreds of thousands of Dunkin Donuts to stop at, so we kept our eyes peeled for one of those.  We rolled into Newport, NH, and we finally saw one, so we stopped and went through the drive thru. 

Apparently, we chose the lamest Dunkin Donuts to stop at because they were out of a bunch of stuff, they burnt Rhonda's bagel and put cream cheese all over it, when she told them not to, and they forgot to put my donut in the bag.  Before we left, we stopped and let Rhonda go inside to grab my donut.  She scrapped as much of the cream cheese off of it as she could and ate around the burnt parts.  It was our first bad experience at a Dunkin Donuts.  At least my donut tasted good, and it was Halloweenie!

We ate our food as we drove to State Route 11 to make our way over to Interstate 89.  Once on I-89, we cruised for a while as Mindy told us a little bit about her house, the town she lives in and some of the stuff we would be doing over the next couple days.  We got to Manchester, merged onto HN 101 and then I-95 towards the Kittery area.  Before we crossed over into Maine, we stopped in the Portsmouth/New Castle area to go visit Fort Constitution Historic Site.  Mindy said she enjoyed coming here in the past and wanted to take us since we were in the area. 

We arrived and discovered that it was all fenced off with construction and warning signs to not enter, well that sucks.  At least I was able to log the virtual cache, C's at Ft. Constitution (Again) (GC794D), plus it was an older one from September 3, 2001.  I literally just took a few pictures of the area and one with me in it.  We all went back to the Jeep and Mindy steered us to the next place we were going to go explore.

We finally crossed the state line into Maine and got onto the US Route 1.  We drove through Kittery and got onto Route 103.  I wasn't sure where Mindy was directing us, but I was excited to start seeing sites on the unique Maine coastline.  Our first stop in Maine was at Fort McClary.  Fort McClary is a former defensive fortification of the US military located along the southern coast at Kittery Point, Maine, at the mouth of the Piscataqua River.  It was used throughout the 19th century to protect approaches to the harbor of Portsmouth, NH and the Naval Shipyard.  The property and its surviving structures are now owned and operated by the State of Maine as Fort McClary State Historic Site, including a blockhouse dating from 1844.  

We parked at the lot down below and walked up to where the blockhouse was.  Mom, Rhonda, Mindy and Amy walked over to the other side of the fort, and I walked down to where the coordinates were taking me.  It took me a while to zero in on the spot.  In fact, I was looking in the wrong spot and eventually was led more over towards the tree line in a pile of rocks.  I moved a couple of obvious rocks and there it was, my first Maine geocache!  Fort McClary Cache (GC11D9) was another oldie from July 21, 2001.  It's crazy that this cache has been here since the summer of my senior year of high school and before the world changed drastically. That part of life sure seems like a distant memory.

We spent the next half hour exploring the fort.  It had a great view of the harbor, a few cannons, and a bunker to go down inside of.  It was similar to when we explored Fort Flagler, Fort Warden up north near Port Townsend and Fort Stevens in near Astoria, Oregon but on a much smaller scale.  We figured it was about time to go back to the Jeep and move on to our next location.  

We got onto Hwy 1A and followed it north along the coastline up to Cape Neddick.  Because it was such a nice day there were a lot of people enjoying the Cape Neddick Lighthouse, we just pulled into the parking lot for.  We found a place to park, and I immediately got out to find the traditional cache, Nubble Trouble (GC1YKB1).  It was an easy grab, but questioned how long it was going to stay in this spot since it was so vulnerable.  I imagine that it went missing frequently.  I met up with the girls over by the rocks to get a better view of the lighthouse.

I saw there was another cache, an earthcache, called ME - Cape Neddick Geology (and a lighthouse too!) (GC3VYNW), that one required a little bit more brain power to complete.  I took a bunch of pictures and tried to answer them while I was at the location.  I'm sure I could figure this out and work on it more when we returned home from our trip.  I got what I needed and enjoyed the fact that I was on the Maine coastline enjoying one of the many lighthouses.  We took a bunch of pictures and then Mindy said it was time to head to our next location, Kennebunkport.

We got back onto Hwy 1 and drove north and then got onto Route 9 until we saw the Welcome to Kennebunkport sign.  From the looks of it, this little harbor town was pretty popular.  There were lots of people enjoying their autumn afternoon walking around, shopping and exploring what the town had to offer.  We found a place to park up the street and walked down.  

I wanted to go into a couple shops before they closed but they wanted to go find some dinner.  They walked to the restaurant while I went into a souvenir shop really quick.  I wanted to make sure I got into one before they closed for the evening since I didn't know how long dinner was going to last.  I got what I needed and called Mom to see which restaurant they went into.  

They went into The Boathouse and got seated outside on the dock. I just had water and ordered fish and chips.  I was excited to try fish and chips from Maine...since they are well known for their seafood, especially their lobster.  I am more of a fish eater rather than shellfish.  The waitress brought us our food and I was impressed with how good it looked, even before I ate any of it.  That first bite was delicious.  I ate everything except for the slaw since I am not a fan and Ben isn't here to eat mine.

We enjoyed the evening and the ambiance of a harbor town, paid our bill and thanked them for a nice meal.  We actually had some time to walk around some of the shops, so we did for about an hour or so.  I went inside of an expensive sports memorabilia shop for a few minutes and then met up with the girls at a gift shop that also had groceries, medicines, drinks and snacks.  I found a cute lobster keychain, a couple postcards and a box of Sudafed hoping that it would take away some of my runny nose symptoms I was suffering from.  I was going through Kleenex like crazy!  

I went back out to the small-town square and saw there was a traditional cache, Oh the Places You'll Go! (GC8WYGR) and you knew where it was going to be hidden reading the title of the cache.  I could also see that this particular hide would be hard to find when town was busier.  After looking at several places it could be, I finally found the darn nano cache.  I hate these kinds of hides even though I have a nano hide in Yelm.  I mostly hate unrolling the log to write my name and then attempting to roll it back up for it to fit back inside the tiny container.  I got our name inside and put it back where I found it. 

We ended up going back inside the sports memorabilia store and talked to the owner for longer than we should have...he was kind of a creepy guy but has gotten to go to a lot of cool places to get the photos that he had inside the shop.  We walked back to the Jeep and made our way to I-95 north.  We had about an hour-long drive to get to Mindy's house in Auburn. 

We got to her house around 7:00 p.m.  The outside of her house was amazing!  It literally looked just like a haunted house.  It is a Gothic Revival built in 1874, it is called the William A. Robinson House and it is on the National Historic Registry.  

We grabbed our luggage out of the Jeep and brought it into the house and kept it on the landing until we knew where we were supposed to take it.  First off, every single room was plastered with Halloween decorations. She showed us each of the many rooms downstairs, where the bathrooms were, the pantry, the kitchen, the coffee bar, the basement, all the nooks and crannies before we went up the stairs to the second floor. 

She showed us where Mom and I would be sleeping...in her sewing and craft room, with all the Bernie Sanders, lol.  She pulled down the tiny ladder to show us her reading nook.  We walked down the hall and around the corner is where Rhonda and Amy would be sleeping...with the creepy Halloween dolls inside.  She showed us our bathroom, the laundry room, her and her husband's room and the really cool TV room.  Seriously, this place had so many rooms!

She took us outside to the shop and "man cave" behind the house.  This is a shop of dreams!  I would love to have something like this someday.  The bottom portion was a workshop/storage room/tools and the upper portion was a wonderful man cave.  It had a fireplace, a functional kitchen, TV, games, tables...basically the perfect place to watch the big game or host friends for a game night.  I played a couple rounds of PacMan on their arcade game before going back inside the main house. 

We hauled our luggage upstairs to our rooms, I got in a shower, took some Sudafed and went into her giant pantry to use the microwave for my popcorn.  I sat in the downstairs living room area and used Mindy's TV to watch the Penguins and the Sabres while I ate popcorn and caught up on my computer stuff.  The Penguins lost to the Sabres 6-3 and I was mad again.  Why do they keep on losing games they should win?!  Why can't I watch the Kraken on TV?!!  This is dumb!

We turned in around 11 p.m.  It was hard to get comfortable on that blow up mattress with a runny nose, but I eventually found the perfect spot and fell asleep.

MA-VT-NH-ME Girl's Trip:  Maine Coast, Lighthouses, Geocaching and Shopping (Day 8)

MA-VT-NH-ME Girl's Trip: Leaving Peabody, NH, VT, Covered Bridges and Woodstock (Day 6)

We all got up around 7:30 a.m. again and when I finally decided to get out of bed my nose and throat hurt, uh oh!  Did I catch Amy's cold?  We got ready, put on our Girl's Weekend shirts, people took showers, we started packing up our suitcases and a few of us went downstairs to see what they had for breakfast. I grabbed some toast, bacon, a potato triangle and orange juice.  I ate with Mom and Mindy.  Rhonda and Amy stayed upstairs, and it seemed that Amy was feeling a bit better today.  When we finished, we brought a few things upstairs for them to eat, oatmeal, apples, oranges and coffee.  We all continued getting our suitcases packed up and ready to go.

We made one more sweep through the room to make sure we didn't leave anything behind, got into the elevator and went to check out.  We tetris'd our luggage back into Amy's Jeep and noticed a turkey running around the parking lot.  The family nearby were trying to feed it extra popcorn they had in their vehicle.   The turkey didn't seem to mind people.  Our next leg of the trip is to drive northwest towards New Hampshire and Vermont.  Places I never thought I'd ever go to.

We got on I-93 and worked our way up to the border of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  We chatted about various things as we breached the border into New Hampshire, the "Live Free or Die" Granite State.  We spent time looking out the windows of the different colors of leaves that were still on the trees.  Mindy said there were tons of pretty colors in the New England area about a week before we got there but they had a storm and most of the leaves fell. 

I asked if everyone was ready for a pit stop and they all said they could use one.  I looked up ahead and there was a rest area a few miles from us.  I checked my geocache app and sadly, there wasn't a cache at this rest stop.  I think every single rest stop that I've been to since I started geocaching (back in August 2010) has at least one cache.  This was super odd to me.  We saw the sign for the Springfield Rest Area and pulled over, parked and we all got out.  It was a really nice rest stop and doubled as a welcome center as well. We all used the restroom, and I made jokes about peeing for the first time in New Hampshire, while we looked at the free travel literature. We hopped back into the Jeep and merged back onto the freeway.

We approached Concord and took the I-89 junction and headed northwest towards Lebanon and the state line.  When we got closer, I noticed signs for Dartmouth College.  It was located just north of Lebanon, in Hanover, New Hampshire.  I didn't realize it was out this way.  I thought it was in one of the bigger cities in New Hampshire.  My brother had a friend growing up that went and graduated from Dartmouth.

We got off of the interstate just as we crossed over into Vermont over the Connecticut River. We got onto US Route 5 and headed south to Windsor.  Mindy wanted to take us to a few covered bridges while we were in the area.  About twenty minutes later we were in the small town of Winsor, Vermont, known as the "birthplace of Vermont."  This town is where the Constitution of Vermont was adopted in 1777, thus marking the founding of the Vermont Republic, a sovereign state until 1791, when it joined the US.

We crossed the Cornish-Winsor Covered Bridge over the Connecticut River again and back into New Hampshire.  We found the pullout, parked the Jeep and got out.  I immediately looked for the cache, Or Pay Two Dollars Fine Covered Bridge Cache (GC6TJ08), which was an easy grab out of the guard rail.  This was my first New Hampshire cache!  I took a couple pictures of it and then put it back.  I joined up with everyone else and admired the long and historical covered bridge.  This bridge is the longest wooden covered bridge in the US and has the longest single covered span to carry automobile traffic.

We piled back into the Jeep and drove back through the bridge into Windsor.  We stopped and parked on the street just in front of the old cemetery.  It's crazy to think this town has been here since the Revolutionary War and George Washington.  We explored the cemetery, looked at some of the old buildings nearby and admired the nice day we had once again.  The weather sure has been kind to us on this trip.  I checked to see if there were any more caches nearby and there weren't.

We did notice that there were two more covered bridges just north of where we were but south of where the interstate hits the state line in Hartland, Vermont.  Let's go!  We got back in the Jeep and followed US Route 5 up to Hartland.  We stopped on the side of the road, for a few minutes, so Mindy and Mom could get a few pictures of some old rustic-looking buildings.   

We drove the 5 miles to our next covered bridge, Martin's Mill Covered Bridge.  It is one of two surviving 19th-century covered bridges in town.   It was off of a side road away from the main highway.  We found a placed to pull over.  It was hard for me to get in and out, so I stayed in the Jeep while the four of them got out really quick to admire it.  There was no cache here so that was another reason to stay inside. They were out there for about fifteen minutes and then all got back into the Jeep to head to the next one, which was just up the road.

Willard Twin Covered Brides is a historic covered bridge carrying Mill Street across the Ottauquechee River with a small island in the middle that connects both bridges.  The western bridge was built in 2001.  We pulled into the pullout and parked.  We all got out and explored this unique bridge.  The views of the river from there were awesome!  I spent a couple minutes looking for This Is Vermont:  Hartland (GC3762T) which was hidden inside of one of the many guardrails at this location.  There was actually a TB inside and it was an HQ tag from Seattle. I retrieved it to move along on its journey, signed the logbook, took a picture and put it back for the next cacher. 

We got back into the Jeep and drove towards our next destination, Woodstock, Vermont.  We took Clay Hill Road up to where it connects with Route 4 just east of Woodstock.  We drove past a lot of pretty Vermont countryside and saw a bunch of sugar shacks.  The months of March and April (roughly) are when the farmers across the state harvest maple sap, boil it down, bottle it up and sell it to its consumers.  We were there at the wrong time of the year to be able to experience that.  In 2022, the state of Vermont produced over 2.5 million gallons of maple syrup, making it the top producer of maple syrup in the US. 

We drove across Route 4 into Quechee.  Mindy wanted to take us to fourth covered bridge of the day, Quechee Covered Bridge.  We parked on the other side of the river and walked down the small trail to get a great view of the bridge and the small man-made waterfall in the background. The restaurant nearby reminded me of Falls Terrace in Tumwater. We got our pictures and got back in the Jeep.

We turned west onto Route 4 and saw there was a sign for another covered bridge.  We pulled over in Taftsville but only Mindy, Mom and I got out.  There was a cache here, but I didn't have enough time to look very well.  Instead, I got a waypoint for an Adventure Lab called Covered Bridges of Vermont.  I knew I wasn't going to finish that Adventure Lab, but I was okay with that.  We got a few pictures the Taftsville Covered Bridge before we left.

We all got back into the Jeep and stopped at a grocery store just outside of Woodstock so Amy and Rhonda could use the restroom.  Mom, Mindy and I stayed.  They also bought some sodas while they were in there.   

We got into Woodstock, found a place to park and started walking around the town exploring.  Mom and I decided to do the Adventure Lab around town while Mindy, Amy and Rhonda did their own walking around.  The Adventure Lab was called The Bells of Paul Revere and it took us to five different locations around town, three churches, a hotel and a Masonic Temple.  While Paul Revere is best known for his famous Midnight Ride, in 1792, he agreed to re-cast the cracked bell from what is now known as the Old North Church in Boston.  From this beginning, the Paul Revere & Sons foundry went on to cast a total of 398 bells between 1792 and 1828.  Woodstock is the only town to have six of these church bells.  

Mom and I definitely put some walking in.  We started at the west side of town and finished in the eastern part of town.  We did a waypoint at the Middle Bridge and ended up talking to some ladies from California who were here visiting their niece who was at one of the nearby colleges. 

Once we were done, I looked for the No More Cryin' (GC90JKE) in the middle of town.  I thought the difficulty should have been higher because it was literally right in the middle of town to where everyone could see you.  Luckily, we were here when it wasn't that busy, so I had no trouble finding it.

We met up with the girls at the mercantile.  We went inside and I looked around for some Vermont stickers, magnets and postcards.  I didn't find too many stickers that I liked which was a bummer.  I did grab some maple candy, syrup and some cookies to bring home as souvenirs.  We were in there for about 45 minutes or so.

We walked across the street into the Vermont Flannel Company just to browse.  We stayed in there for a long time looking at all of the different kinds, types and styles of flannel.  The lady enjoyed our company since we were the only people in there the entire time, and we were from out of town.  Mom asked me if she should get Dad and Doug flannel pants for Christmas.  I told her if that's something she wanted to do, then to do it.  She ended up getting the two pairs of flannel pants and a flannel sweater thing for herself.  I didn't get anything because I had plenty of warm clothes. 

We continued walking around for about another hour or so because the shops started closing up around 5 p.m. for the night, like most small towns.  We all agreed that we should find some dinner before leaving Woodstock and checking into our hotel in Brownsville, just about a half hour south of where we were currently.  The only place that was open was Coburn's.

We walked in and were seated right away.  Rhonda and I went upstairs to use the restroom and wash our hands.  That bathroom wallpaper had lips on it, and you bet I took a picture of it.  I sent it to Erika because I knew she would appreciate it.  I ordered a beer, a Switchback Ale from Burlington and a grilled chicken burger with fries.  We ate, drank and visited the entire time we were there.  Our waiter was entertaining which was a bonus.  

We finished up, paid and walked back to the Jeep.  We got onto Route 106 and followed it down to Brownsville, near Mt. Ascutney State Park. On the way to Brownsville, I spoke softly to Mom, who was sitting next to me in the back, that the Penguins were on TNT tonight and that simple sentence quickly turned into an inside joke.  Mindy was in the front seat, and she thought I said that the penguins are in heat.  We all laughed really hard and almost couldn't stop.  We were seriously crying.  I told everyone what I really said but there was no coming back from it.  It was an inside joke forever. 

We got into Brownsville and followed the GPS to Hotel Road.  Mom had booked us a suite at the Holiday Inn Club Vacations Mount Ascutney Resort, and it was the cheapest hotel on our entire vacation stay.  Mom ran in really quickly and checked us in.  She hopped back in the Jeep, and we drove to our "pod" of suites.  We were in the Bennington "pod" room 2421 and we had to lug our suitcases up the stairs.  We went inside and the place was probably the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at in my life.  You could tell this hotel was for people who came and skied during the winter season. 

We got settled in, picked which bed everyone was going to sleep in, and I got comfortable and ate some popcorn while I watched my hockey game on TV.  Since it was on TNT, it was easy to find and watch.  It was a great game until the Penguins gave up a large lead only to lose to Boston 6-5 in OT.  I was so upset!

I got cleaned up, talked to Ben for a little bit, wrote some notes in my journal and we all soon went to bed.  We actually went to bed before midnight this time.  The bed was comfy, and I slept really well. 

MA-VT-NH-ME Girl's Trip:  Leaving Vermont, Lighthouses, Caching, Kennebunkport and Mindy's House (Day 7)