Warner M.D.: November 2011

Day 8 in NewElgland

Day 8 lake w
We woke up at packed the van at a descent hour. Drove around Portland one last time and got on the road south. Last minute we remembered that several people told us to go to Lake Winnipesaukee and Wolfeboro. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE! What a cute little town! What I saw there was the climax of the whole trip. That was the perfect fall view I had been waiting for. Oh my gosh... Stunning and amazing! Cute shops and really no time to stay long. We headed directly for the airport. And here I am writing the my last words on a 7 hour travel home! The more places I travel the more time I am reassured that God is good, no GREAT! He knows all of his people and I see his hand everywhere I look! We headed to the Airport just as our internet ran out. My mom and dad picked us up from the airport and you should have seen all of us crammed in that vehicle with all of our luggage. We were ready to be home!

A few interesting facts

4000 miles in the air

1240 miles driven

160 miles on train

for a grand total of 5400 miles in 8 days!

This was a grand trip and I look forward to our next one over Spring Break! Any guesses of where we are planning on going? Maybe Ill find a surprise if anyone can guess it correctly!

Day 7 in NewEngland

Day 7 Portland
We woke up a little bit later then normal.. Although I think I have found many excuses to sleep in. And when I say we, I mean me. I have a hard time getting up early, in my defense i was always up to eat breakfast and that was before 9. In all honesty, Jenn and Derrick got to take many cat-naps along the road... ME? I drove the whole time! Today we stopped and took beautiful pictures of many light houses, walked down-town Portland or what they call Old Port. It was fun to shop and see the sights. There is something about the way this town felt. I loved it and told Derrick I wanted to move there! Oh my gosh do I want to move there! We drove to Freeport, Me where the famous LL Bean in located. This little town is a resort shopping town and that was pretty fun. Once the street was full of Halloween kids we decided to leave and go back to our hotel. We were suppose to drive up and stay with Derrick's aunt but something happened and we went back to the same hotel. It was really nice and a great price! What a day, I love, seriously love it here! Derrick and I talked about how we could move here, even if he finished his degree here or something! We brought everything out of the car and needed to pack all of the things we bought (Jenn bought). Oh my gosh I was so embarrassed to how much stuff we had, two carts full. Where in the world would we find room to fly this stuff home.

I wanted to go here sooo bad, no ferry over there any more. LONG drive

mid air!

Yes, a real piece of the Berlin Wall

No idea what this is suppose to say! lol

old fort, still owned by military

Freeport Maine! AWESOM!

Lots of shopping!

This seemed like a problem.... how to get it all home!

Master Packers! We figured it all out!

Day 6 NewEngland

Day 6 Salem
We slept in the next morning because with all the snow they advised people to stay off the streets so they could clear them. I think by morning they had 14-16 inches on the ground, probably more. They are totally equipped for snow, just not this early and it was really wet. The weight had broken many trees which broke many power lines. Not much for breakfast in the hotel with no power, just bagels. We packed up and sent Derrick out to clear all the snow off the van. Derrick went outside with the hotels broom and removed the snow. We headed to Walmart for warm things. Derrick brought a hat, I brought ear warmers..... Not enough for this weather. The parking lot was ridiculously full. Once inside we found the whole city wrapped in a single file line circling the store. I didn't think we would ever be able to check out! Lucky for me, everybody needed their morning coffee. With no power and Walmart somehow did, they were standing in line at Dunken Donuts for their morning coffee.... Only one person working on a Sunday morning. Lol We needed gas and soon realized only one place in town had pumps working for whatever reason. I sent Derrick to get a windshield scraper, Jenn to get hot coco in 7/11 and I in the van sat in a line around the block for gas. If you ever need hot coco in New England, look for a 7/11, Reasonably priced and milk chocolate. Never a coffee shop, it is yucky bitter stuff. Once fueled we headed to Salem, Ma. Yes, Halloween Capitol of the world! This is where the Salem Witch Trials were located. Once on the wet freeway we encountered a car that flipped slush on my windshield. I was surprised to find out my wipers did not work, I said a few choice words when I no longer could see anything on a busy snowy road. Derrick reached out the window and manually moved them for me, but due to his arm length, he could only clear the bottom six inches. That would be fine if I were an old grandma and could see no higher then that. I hunched over the rest of the drive to Salem and was determined to get to the bottom of it once there. I dropped Jenn and Derrick in town to walk around while I called for help. Non of our phones got charged with the nonexistant power and none of us thought to bring a car charger. I called on one til it died, drove around with no visibility to find someone to fix the problem. It was a Sunday and no one had a technician working. Finally enterprise suggested a tow exchange, they would have a tow truck bring me a new van and take the broken one. They said do what we want in town and when you are somewhere for a while call us and we will send it on the way. We had a fun time in Salem! A little creepy and not a place I would take kids near Halloween. The history I would want them to know but definitely a different time of year. The history was fasinating, I somewhere bypassed that these 4 girls had lied about people being witches and 18 people were hung, many people never got their lives back once it was all over. So sad. We took a tour that I would not suggest, info pretty good, just not my favorite. We walked back to the car and called the car rental and went to dinner and waited and waited.bI called several times asking the eta and if the tow truck had even left. All in all, from the time we called and walked into dinner, it was 5 hours before a new van. It was midnight and we still had 90miles to drive north to Portland, Maine. Gosh that was a long tiring drive, but it was a brand new van, only 3 miles on it when we got it!

Puppy of my DREAMS!

Creepiest house EVER!

Yep, new van has only 3 miles on it!

Day 5 of NewEngland

Day five
I could not ask for a better day!.... Minus the rain and snow. We got up really early to drive into Boston, stopped in Provindece, RI for Derrick. HP Lovecraft was buried at a cemetery there. We were going to stop in River Falls for Jenn, I guess Lizzy Bordem's house is there. We drove past way too early in the morning to take a tour. We were thinking we would hit morning commute traffic and thought it was amazing that we didn't. Once in Boston we realized it was Saturday! On vacation I always loose track of days. We parked down by Boston Commons and waited there for the walking tour guild to open. Had we had different resources we would have walked the freedom tour self-guided but not so much this time! Boston is really an amazing city, easily walked in a day lots to do in several. Compared to NYC, Boston is a clean city. I just loved how much it is rich in history! Our tour guild was awesome. On the northside we had canolles, pastries stuffed with typically creamy, sweet riccatta cheese! This place was amazing, Modern Pastries! Before we drove out of town we stopped there for another one. I would fly into Boston just to have those! We took two tours back to back and learned so much. As the tour was finished it started to rain, and when it rains, it pours. We hurried back to Quincy Market to find refuge. We spent about an hour plus trying to find something to do for the evening. All of our options for haunted houses were cancelled because of the supposing snowstorm. We opted to drive north to our hotel and find something to do in Salem tomorrow. We got on the freeway as it started to snow.... 30ish minute drove became a scary, snowy drive. I am totally comfortable driving in snow. I am not so comfortable with the stupid drivers on the rode. I actually prefer to drive because I am an anxious passenger! At one point I was forced to take an exit off the freeway, luckily I could get back on quickly. An hour and half maybe two hours later we made it to our hotel. By that time there was already a foot of snow on the ground. I was so exhausted, I crawled right into bed. About 10pm I heard an annoying fire alarm chirp, I told Derrick to have Jenn help him figure it out.... And I rolled back over. I guess the power was out in the hotel and most of New England.