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Home » Travel » Fun Northeast Family Road Trip – Week 2

Fun Northeast Family Road Trip – Week 2

July 15, 2019 by KC Coake 12 Comments

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Last summer, my girls and I took our 4th road trip together. This Northeast family road trip took us through the entire Northeast in 4 weeks. 

picture from New Hampshire and Maine with northeast road trip map

Our Northeast family road trip means my daughters, and I have seen 42 of the 50 states together!

In this post, I’m going to tell you all about our 2nd week on the road. In week 2 we spent time in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. You can read about week 1 and week 3 of our trip as well. 

I want to make sure these posts are not only an account of our trip, and that they are helpful to you in planning your own travel. So, I’ll keep the format of sharing about the trip with the pictures and at the bottom of the post look for the tips section. It’ll have all kinds of tips, things we learned, things we’d do again or wouldn’t do again. I hope it’ll help plan your own trip. 

Northeast Family Road Trip – Week 2 – Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine

Vermont

King Arthur Flour

King Arthur Flour Store in Vermont

While we were right in the area, we stopped by King Arthur Flour. 

It’s a fun little store if you enjoy baking. We picked up a few mixes that we figured we could make at some of our VRBO rentals along our route. 

We also picked up turkey sandwiches for the road. Yummy!

Flume Gorge, New Hampshire

river at flume gorge New Hampshire

When planning our trip, one of my daughters found information about Flume Gorge in the National Geographic Kids Ultimate US Road Trip Atlas(affiliate link). Which is how we’ve found a lot of great things to see and do. It’s a great book.

3 people at Flume Gorge New Hampshire

We added it to our list of ideas of things we wanted to do in our road trip planner. 

Flume Gorge New Hampshire

There is a fee to enter the state park. 

In our opinion, it’s worth every penny. It’s a beautiful area, a beautiful park, and a great hike. 

View of lake from hike at Flume Gorge in New Hampshire

We chose to do the 2 mile flume hike. It’s a loop that takes you through the full Flume Gorge and through some other beautiful scenery as well. 

River at Flume Gorge in New Hampshire

If you prefer not to hike that far, there is a shorter hike you can do, and I think I remember there were buses that could take you some of the way. 

wooden foot bridge over waterfall at Flume Gorge in New Hamshire

It is a great place to have a little photography fun if you enjoy that. ? ? 

After leaving the Gorge, we headed toward our VRBO rental in Pittsburg, New Hampshire.

Pittsburg is only 12 miles from the Canadian border and is only 3 miles from Moose Alley – another thing we found in the Kids Road Trip Atlas. 

We had no cell signal…and the route that I had texted to use all that morning (in case we lost cell signal) had a road closure!! 

That was a moment to take a deep breath and thank goodness for the Universe looking out for us.

The closed road had no detour, so I continued on the freeway we had been on. Only one mile past the road closure was a visitor center. 

paper map of New Hampshire with wording road closed, no signal

Thankfully the ranger working the visitor center was familiar with where we were going and could give us a paper map and directions. Not only that, he was able to tell me which city along the way would have a grocery store for us to stock up. I knew that Pittsburg likely didn’t have a grocery store and we planned to stay a few days, so food was a must.

The girls and I planned our meals using my meal planning system(which is part of the Real Organized Mom Class) and made a grocery list while I drove. We arrived at the IGA in Cole Brook, New Hampshire at 6:30. They closed at 6:30! Thankfully, they let us in, and in 13 minutes we got everything we needed. Whew! I’m not used to small towns and things not being open late!

Pittsburg, New Hampshire

sunset at 1st Connecticut lake in New Hampshire

I found this rental on VRBO, and they had a picture like this in the listing. I was hooked. The VRBO listing is for Loon Cove Lodge.
 
It was much larger than we needed and more than I would have preferred to spend, but there are those times when you are on a once in a lifetime trip, that you say, screw it and go for it. This was one of those times. 

King Arthur Flour Scone Mix and fresh made scones with tea

The downside to the gorgeous views is the bright morning sun… which many will not find a disadvantage, but since we tend to be night owls, the bright sun in my eyes at 6 am is not very welcome.

I used the time before my girls woke up to make scones from one of the mixes we had bought the day before at King Arthur Flour. I tried to get some work done, and it was the one time on the trip that I used the Canon Selphy Wireless Printer. I wrote about the printer in my post on our favorite travel accessories. 

2 girls having picnic at 1st Connecticut Lake

Right in this area are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Connecticut lakes. The house we rented is right on the 1st Connecticut lake, and we spent some time exploring and having a picnic on the lake and later coming back to swim in the lake.

1st Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire

It’s a beautiful area and a peaceful place to be. 

There was no cell signal pretty much anywhere. 

It was a little unnerving at first but was also relaxing and nice to just be without all the noise and notifications. 

Caution active moose crossing sign in New Hampshire

One of the main reasons we wanted to come to this area was to see Moose and go to Moose Alley.

One day we drove Moose Alley. We love the road signs!

Road Trip New Hampshire State line picture

We drove all the way to the Canadian border (about 12-13 miles). This picture is on our way back. 

We couldn’t go into Canada because we didn’t have passports, but the owner of our rental told us that a few miles over the border is a magnetic hill that you can go up backward with your car in neutral because of the magnetic pull. It sounded neat, and we’re sad we couldn’t go give it a try. This is a video from another magnetic hill in Canada.

Brake for Moose sign in New Hampshire

If you go to this area, you’ll see plenty of signs like this one. 

The best time to go see a Moose is at dusk. From what we learned, they’re most active at that time. 

Moose by side of road in Moose Alley in New Hampshire

Our final night in Pittsburg, we drove Moose Alley right at dusk. We made it a long way out, and on our way back not too far before Moose Alley ends, we finally spotted a Moose! I was so dorkily excited! Of course, photographing one in the near dark is pretty hard, so the picture quality isn’t that great, but we got to see a Moose in Moose Alley!

family road trip Maine state line picture

The next day, it was time to head to Maine and our next VRBO rental.

giant Paul Bunyan statue in Maine

En route, we stopped to see this giant Paul Bunyan statue. 

It was Meh. But at least it was something to break up the drive. 

The better way to break up the drive was to stop by an ice cream place that I found in Roadtrippers. It had great ratings, and we’re big ice cream fans. 

Morton’s Moo was amazing! I read that the waffle cones were the best, so I made sure we each got one. Yum! We have sampled ice cream across the country, and this ranks #1 or #2. It’s too tough to decide. Definitely worth stopping by!

We arrived our rental….and it turns out it was a 3rd floor condo. Either I didn’t read the listing well, or it didn’t give that info. 

It’s not that big of a deal, but for us staying for a few nights means we bring everything in from the car…and a 3rd floor walk up means that’s a lot of lifting up those stairs. I’ve got some more tips at the bottom of this post about looking for rentals based on our experience on this trip. 

Acadia, Maine

Acadia National Park

Ocean Path Trail Marker at Acadia National Park

If you plan to visit Acadia National Park, I’d recommend that you spend at least a few days. 

It is a large park with so much beauty and so many things to see and do. 

Our first day, we drove Park Loop Road to get an idea of what the park had to offer. 

We stopped and walked some of Ocean Path. 

Sand Beach at Acadia National Park

We saw Sand Beach.

pink flowers growing in rocks at Acadia National Park

Some of the beautiful flowers growing right in the rocks. 

thunder hole at Acadia National Park

We also saw Thunder hole, which gets its name because about 2 hours before high tide the waves roll in and slap in this area and it can be so loud that it sounds like thunder. We heard that you can sometimes hear it in the village of Bar Harbor.

thunder hole at Acadia National Park

That’s thunder hole behind us with the railing.

seagull at Acadia National park

On our drive around Park Loop Rd, this seagull sat right by the road, just begging to be photographed. Mission accomplished little seagull, you even made it onto the web! ? 

Sand bar at low tide at Acadia national park

Between our drive on Park Loop Road and talking with park rangers, we made a game plan for what we wanted to see and do. 

On our 2nd day, we headed out to see the sand bar. There is a 3 hour window during low tide that you can access this sand bar. 

Sand bar at low tide at Acadia National Park

In this area, you can find tide pools and all kinds of creatures. 

3 people standing in Sand Bar at Acadia National Park

We enjoyed every second of our time. Eventually taking off our shoes and getting in the water. We did feel a little bad that it seemed like all the humans were crushing some of the little creatures. We tried our best to be careful, but there are SO many, it’s impossible to step on some of them. ? 

View of Sand Bar looking toward Bar Harbor Maine

While the tide is low, you can access an island via the sand bar. There is a hike on the island up to the top where you can see a great view of the sand bar as well as Bar Harbor.

Sand Bar Acadia National Park

A few of the things we found in the sand bar tide pools. 

Seagull eating crab at Sand Bar in Acadia National Park

Feeding time…and the beauty of a telephoto lens! Love that I caught this seagull grabbing lunch.

Sand Bar Acadian National Park

I don’t know what all this is, but it’s so pretty!

pink flowers in Bar Harbor Maine

As the tide began to come in, we headed to the town of Bar Harbor to explore.

Bar Harbor Maine street view

And of course, find some ice cream. 

There are plenty of little touristy shops and cute things to explore in Bar Harbor. 

Views from Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park

Following that, we drove up Cadillac Mountain. There is a little hike you can do near the top.

The views are spectacular. 

View of Sand Bar at Acadia National Park from Cadillac Mountain

The view of the sand bar area from Cadillac Mountain.

Sunset view from Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park

Sunset at Cadillac Mountain did not disappoint! 

ocean at Acadia National Park

We tried our best to get to Thunder hole 2 hours before high tide to hear the thunder, but as usual, we were a bit late and never got to hear that thunder noise. 

waves crashing into rocks at Acadia National Park

The area is so unbelievably gorgeous it didn’t matter. 

tree with unique bark pattern at Jordan pond at Acadia National park

From there we headed to Jordan Pond for a picnic. 

Jordan pond at Acadia National park

There was a hike I found in All Trails that we wanted to try. The one I had read about started from a different location, but I saw signs for it from Jordan Pond, so we decided to go for it.

Jordan Pond at acadia national park

The way we went up Bubble Rock starts at the end of Jordan Pond. 

tadpole in Jordan Pond at Acadia National Park

We saw tadpoles along our route.

sign post showing Bubbles Trail at Acadia National Park

At this point, we had no idea what we were in for with this hike. 

rocks on path leading to top of bubble rock at acadia national park

By this point in the ‘trail,’ we realized this was going to be a hard hike. I kept asking the kids if they wanted to keep going. They did. 

To follow the trail, it was looking for those little blue spray painted markers on the rocks. view from top of bubble rock at acadia national park

We didn’t actually make it to the summit. There was a narrow crevis type rock you had to shimmy up, and it was a big up through the crevis to make it to the official summit. We probably could have made it up, with a lot of work, but I have no idea how we would have made it down. 

This is as far as we made it. 

View from Bubble Rock at Acadia National Park

Amazing views and feeling amazing about ourselves for completing that hike made it worth it!

Jordan Pond at Acadia National Park

We slowly made our way down and back to our car. That rocky bit at the top of that mountain is near the summit of bubble rock.  

people in water at Sand Beach in Acadia National Park

The girls wanted to put their feet in the ocean at sand beach. They enjoyed some time in the cold water. 

Sand dollar in sand

I spent the time finding fun things in the sand.

picture of odometer at 2000 miles

The following day, after spending almost a week between only 2 locations, we headed to Boston, Massachusetts. We hit 2,000 miles for this road trip.

Garmin, Yarmouth, Maine

2 story spinning globe inside a building

This is another thing I found in Roadtrippers. Garmin has some offices in Yarmouth, Maine. The lobby of their building has this ginormous globe that rotates.

We were driving through on a Saturday, so sadly, it was closed.

Scarborough, Maine

life size moose made out of chocolate

We also found that we could see a life sized moose made out of chocolate at Lin Libby Chocolatier and stopped to see that in Scarborough, ME. 

It was neat, but not something we’d stop to see again. 

Map of Unites States painted on the ground

But, by their restrooms, they had a picnic area with this neat map painted on the ground. We had some fun making up dumb games to play and ‘walking’ through all the states we’ve been to. Lol! ? 

The Holy Donut donuts in box

What interested me most was a place I saw across the street from Lin Libby. I noticed a place called The Holy Donut, and I thought I noticed as we drove by that they sell mashed potato donuts. 

I used to make mashed potato donuts with my Aunt when I was growing up. I’ve never seen them for sale anywhere. So, naturally, we had to buy a dozen in honor and memory of my Aunt.

Cape Neddick Lighthouse, Maine

Cape Neddick Lighthouse

Next, we stopped for a short stop to see the Cape Neddick Lighthouse. 

The East Coast has tons of lighthouses, and we figured we should at least see one on our journey.

It’s a pretty lighthouse and supposed to be one of the most photographed. If you go see this one, it’s parking and looking. You could play in the rocks some like my girls did or take a picnic, but there isn’t much to do. 

lift used to get across to Cape Neddick Lighthouse

This is how you get off and on the little island with the lighthouse. Oof! Not sure I’d want that leading to my home. Lol!

state line picture at New Hampshire

We passed back into New Hampshire…and the kids were totally into each other at that point. Lol!

Keeping it real that not every moment is perfect and awesome. We’re a normal family.

We ended this week of our Northeast family road trip getting to our hotel in Boston, Massachusetts.

Road Trip Tips:

General Tips:

  • If the listed address for an attraction doesn’t lead you to where it should, try reading comments. Often there are comments, especially on Roadtrippers, that’ll give you better directions.
  • Find the things your family enjoys doing on road trips. If it’s visiting ice cream shops or geocaching across the country, then do more of that. 
  • Finding small little stops that appeal to your family helps break up longer driving days and makes a road trip more entertaining.

Rental Tips:

  • Read the rental description well. 
  • Look for details, such as stairs or wifi access, etc.
  • We tend to cook when we use a rental. If you cook as well, look in the pictures to see if the kitchen has what you need. Most listings will also tell you if it has an oven, stove, microwave, etc.  What’s hard is knowing how well equipped the kitchen is….or isn’t. I’ve found that I know what kinds of meals I can make in a less than well equipped kitchen.
  • Look at reviews. They’ll tell you things like how responsive the owner is and how well equipped the kitchen is. Sometimes they’ll help you know if the unit is on a busy street, etc. 
  • Look at the unit on Google Maps – this is the best to figure out what’s in the area and can give you an idea if your unit is on a busy or noisy street. 
  • Look carefully at the pictures of the unit. We had two places we rented on our trip that didn’t have adequate blinds. That was not OK with me. I don’t want windows with no curtains when I’m traveling with 3 girls, and in a place, I’m unfamiliar with. Had I looked closely, I could have seen the blinds issue on one of the rentals. The other location didn’t have an adequate blind in the bathroom!! There were no pictures of the bathroom, so there was no way to know. 
  • If you have issues, bring them up to the owner of the unit. Usually, when you book the listing, it’ll give you a way to contact the owner. If you have an issue, like inadequate blinds, first bring up your problem with the owner. In most cases, they’ll remedy the situation. Their business runs on reviews, and they want to make you happy. If they won’t resolve your issue, then leaving that in an honest review (not mean) is great for others to know about the place. In our case, I had to fight a little bit with both owners who had inadequate blinds, but in the end, they both brought over curtains or installed blinds to fix the issue for us. Honestly, in those cases, I was shocked they hadn’t gotten bad reviews or heard anything from other people and appalled that I had to fight a little bit to get some adequate coverage. Not to sound too sexist, but both owners were men, and I think had they been women, it wouldn’t have even been a fight

Map Tips:

I learned on this Northeast family road trip that you won’t always have a cell signal. We had so much time on this trip that we didn’t have a signal. “I need data” became one of our buzz phrases from this trip. 

That said, I learned to download the map for the next day to my phone when I had wifi at a hotel or rental. Google maps was funny about letting me download a route. Sometimes it would offer the option to download the route and sometimes I had to finagle things to get it to download, or resort to texting the step by step directions to our phones. 

It doesn’t matter which way you do it, but I recommend that you have a backup system for your route for each day. If your experience is like ours, you will have lots of time with no cell signal. 

I prefer the downloaded route option over the text version because then I don’t have to rely on my kids to give the turn by turn directions, but I’m sure like us, you’ll make whatever you have work. 

collage with map of Northeast family road trip

Yay! As I write this, we took this week of our Northeast family road trip a year ago. I’m glad a lot of you follow me on Instagram because clearly, it has taken me forever to write about this trip. 

I was talking with my neighbor about that the other day. These posts are monster posts and take me a ton of time to put together. It takes lots of time to sort through all the pictures and edit them. Then writing, editing, adding links, and finally putting together the video….whew….it’s an easy 15 hours for each of these posts.

I enjoy putting them together because they serve as a scrapbook for my girls and I of what we’ve done. So many of you have also told me how you love seeing our adventures. I’ll keep writing them, I just wanted you to know why they take me forever to get done. 

See you in the next post (about a month from now) about week 3! 

Don’t forget to get your Road Trip Planner to make planning your next road trip easy and organized and to follow me on Instagram to see what we’re up to now. 

Continue the fun! Read about week 1 and week 3 of our trip! 

More to Enjoy! 😍

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Hi! I'm KC. I'm a single mom of 2 girls who loves all things creative. Whether it's making something crafty or tackling that DIY project, I'm gonna have some fun and stay organized in the process. 😊 Read More…

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Comments

  1. Mother of 3 says

    July 22, 2019 at 3:56 pm

    We just toured the Flume Gorge ourselves this spring and LOVED it! There is an ice cream place right near the York lighthouse that serves the largest servings of ice cream I have ever seen and I think that might be why that lighthouse is my favorite in Maine. Sounds like you had a wonderful trip!

    Reply
    • KC Coake says

      July 25, 2019 at 1:39 pm

      We did have a great trip. We also loved Flume Gorge, so pretty and a great hike! ? always makes things better!

      Reply
  2. Michele Morin says

    July 23, 2019 at 6:36 am

    I love that you visited Maine! And you hit some of our Family’s favorite spots!

    Reply
    • KC Coake says

      July 25, 2019 at 1:40 pm

      What are your favorite spots in Maine? Such a gorgeous state!

      Reply
  3. Kippi says

    July 23, 2019 at 7:18 pm

    You are making priceless memories with your girls. I am jealous I was not on this trip too. I have never seen a moose.
    Have a great summer,
    Kippi
    Ps. I live in Florida,

    Reply
    • KC Coake says

      July 25, 2019 at 1:42 pm

      Thanks! I have made great memories with them. I’m so glad I’ve taken the time to go and do with them…and it’s been great for me, too! I hope one day you get to see a Moose, at least if it will make you as dorkily excited as it made me. ?

      Reply
  4. Kim at Life in a House says

    July 24, 2019 at 12:34 pm

    I loved checking out all these great spots through your family’s eyes! Thank you for sharing on Sunday’s Best as well!

    Reply
    • KC Coake says

      July 25, 2019 at 1:43 pm

      Thanks! and thanks for hosting!

      Reply
  5. Catherine Sokolowski says

    July 26, 2019 at 8:36 am

    Thanks for this post. I made a few notes. I really need to see Flume Gorge in New Hampshire now that I have seen your pictures. We have been to Arcadia and loved it!

    Reply
    • KC Coake says

      July 26, 2019 at 3:44 pm

      Yay! Glad that you found a new place to visit. I think you’ll love the Gorge. Acadia is one of our top favorites from all our travels through this country. So pretty and unique!

      Reply
  6. Julia says

    July 27, 2019 at 12:02 pm

    We moved to New England last year and are looking for places to visit this summer, these places look great, will add them to the list. Thanks!

    Reply
    • KC Coake says

      July 29, 2019 at 3:54 pm

      Great! So glad I could help! Hope your move has gone well.

      Reply

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