September 9, 2009. Day 52 Trenton NJ.

On September 9th, we drove 285 miles from Boston to Trenton, New Jersey. We drove right thru NYC, on I95, and it was the first time Kevin felt a little nervous driving. We tried to park somewhere near the capitol in Trenton but couldn’t find a place so we drove back out a few miles to a Wal-Mart. After we got back downtown we found the capitol and tried to go in for a tour. When we entered the building the security guards asked us “What do you want?” We told them we were there for a tour and they said the next tour is in 20 minutes. They also said we would have to wait outside until 5 minutes before. Not so bad except that it was raining. I really wondered what threat they thought we were or what they’re so scared of. Their governor works in the building so maybe the citizens of NJ are not too happy with him. At the right time we went back in and took a tour of the capitol. It ended up being a good tour. The guide was much more friendly then the guards. Overall the kids are learning so much about the legislative process even through situations like this capitol. After leaving the capitol we went to see an old Barracks building that was used during the Revolutionary War by Washington and his troops and built way back during the French and Indian War.

September 8, 2009. Day 51 Boston Mass.

On September 8th, we drove to downtown Boston. We parked close to Fenway Park hoping to see a baseball game that night. The only tickets we could have gotten were $125.00 each so it would have cost us over $600 just for one game. We decided not to do that. Daniel was a little disappointed. The Boston Red Sox are his favorite team. All because when he was 3 Kevin bought him a Red Sox baseball hat he really wanted. He didn’t know it was a Sox hat he just liked the colors. We decided to walk to the capitol – which was almost 2 miles away. We thought we would ride the subway too if needed. We had already paid to park for the day and didn’t want to pay again. It became a great way to see the city. We enjoyed the walk, but the kids got a little tired. We made it to the capitol which was surrounded by buildings. It sits up on a hill overlooking The Boston Common, a beautiful park. You can tell how it looked so important when it sat there by itself. The Capitol building was impressive in and out. We always like when they have a gold dome like this one has. Inside there was an impressive rotunda, grand staircase and a unique Hall of Flags that used to be an open courtyard never used until a First Lady of Massachusetts decided to have it covered with glass, tile the floor and make it into a banquet hall. They also asked all the cities and towns of Massachusetts to send a replica of their town’s flag to be hung in the hall. It was really impressive. We walked all the way back to the Jeep taking a little different route. We saw so many beautiful buildings, mostly churches, and the kids are always impressed with the tall buildings.

September 7, 2009. Day 50 Cape Cod Mass.

On September 7th, we tried again to drive out to Cape Cod. It was now Labor Day and everyone was trying to get off Cape Cod so all the traffic was going the other way. We drove right out to the end of the Cape to Provincetown with no trouble. The only thing was we were going to have to stay all day because traffic was going to be bad until 6PM. That was fine with us. On the way to Provincetown we found a beach on the Atlantic and sat for a while. We didn’t bring any suits to get in the water because it was only getting up to 65 degrees that day. We drove on to Provincetown, as far as you can drive before you get to the tip. We parked and walked around. There were many, many tourists – restaurants and shops everywhere. It was very crowded. We ate lunch at a street side sandwich place and then walked along the pier. We stopped and watched a man make several clay pots, bowls and cups. The boys were fascinated with how fast he could do it. We had driven 102 miles one way from our CG so we started back about 3PM. On the way we stopped at the Cape Cod Highland Lighthouse and then we stopped in Hyannis Port for dinner and ate at Gringo’s. We had Lobster sandwiches and they were good. When we finally started driving back at 7 the traffic had all but died off so the drive went pretty good.

September 5-6, 2009. Days 48-49 Webster and Plymouth Mass.

On September 5th, we left our campground, Indian Ranch CG, in Webster Massachusetts and drove a little over an hour to Mansfield, Massachusetts to a new campground called Canoe River, just 30 minutes outside of Boston. It’s where we wanted stay all along but it was booked until the day we got in. Indian Ranch is probably a fine campground for most of the year but for us it was not. There was nothing for the kids to do, although they charged us an extra $6 a day for each of them. It was the most expensive CG we stayed at at $70 a day. We didn’t do anything else that day except set up camp. Kevin and Andrew then watched college football the rest of the day. On September 6th, we drove to Plymouth Mass to see the Plymouth Rock. We had actually tried to drive to Cape Cod but some 25 miles from the first bridge out onto the Cape and 60 miles from the mid way point we ran into bumper to bumper traffic so we went to Plymouth instead. We walked around a bit, sightseeing and touring the town where many original buildings and homes still stand. The Rock was cool to see too. We had lunch at Sam Diego's Mexican Cooker, a nice Mexican Restaurant in Plymouth.

September 4, 2009. Day 47 Providence RI.

On September 4th, we drove to Providence, Rhode Island to tour the state capitol. There was only a guard at the entrance, no one to welcome us, no one to give us a tour. We took a tour ourselves. It was a very small capitol. Not as grand as some of the other capitols we have seen. An interesting thing though was a tribute in the rotunda to Senator Edward Kennedy who died recently. They did this for his son who is a Senator in RI. After our self tour we drove down to Newport, Rhode Island and walked a path by the water called the Cliff Walk for about a mile. It’s a walk along the ocean with large mansions all along the way. The scenery and homes were amazing. We really enjoyed it all. We then went downtown Newport to shop and eat. They have quite a lot of shops and restaurants along the water. We walked around and saw a fish market with plenty of fish, lobster and all. There were several different types of boats to take tours on and we might have if it hadn’t been so late. We ate at the Wharf Pub and Restaurant which we really enjoyed. We had a 70 mile drive back to the campground so we left before sunset. It was a long but good day.

September 2, 2009. Day 45 Hartford CT.

On September 2nd, we left our campsite in Albany and drove through Massachusetts on our way to the capitol in Hartford, Connecticut. When we were outside the jeep, getting ready to go inside the building, a lady in a van stopped right there in the road to welcome us to Connecticut since she saw our license plate from NM. She talked to us for a while about our trip and suggested some things to go see. She was very friendly. It made us like Connecticut even more. We took a tour of the capitol building and we really liked it. The inside was good but the grounds surrounding the Capitol were even more impressive, It is so beautiful and filled with people using it as a park. The building sits up on a hill with sidewalks meandering all around with benches too so it made it very welcoming. Most other capitol grounds were not like that. We then walked a few blocks and took a tour of the Old State House – their first state capitol. It was quite impressive too. Maybe most impressive is that they never tore it down. Several other cities’s had an earlier building, or three, before their current one but each time the others had burned down or had been torn down.

September 1, 2009. Day 44 Albany NY.

On September 1st, we left Randolph Center, Vermont and drove northwest through Vermont to Grande Isle and took a ferry across Lake Champlain to Plattsburg New York. We thought that was the coolest thing - all of us on the ferry, even our motor home (Dora) and our Jeep. What a beautiful lake it was. We drove down through the Adirondack Park on to Albany, New York and toured the state capitol. It was a magnificent capitol. It reminds you inside of a castle. They have a staircase that is amazing. They call it the million dollar staircase. The tour guide said that many people who work in the Capitol believe it is haunted by a guard who died in a fire in the building about 100 years ago. They say he wanders the halls as if he’s still guarding it.