New England Fall Foliage

 

Eartha - 3 storeys high

After dropping our sister off at the airport we headed slightly north of Portland to Freeport where we parked up at a campground for a few days to go exploring southern Maine.  Once we were all settled we went cruising around Portland and found Eartha, the world’s largest revolving/rotating globe.  It has had that honour since 1999 and they have a certificate from the good people at Guinness Book of Records saying so.  Didn’t get to see Eartha rotating as it was being repaired but we can confirm it is huge.

There's tiny ol' New Zealand - more down under than the land down under

Our next visit was to a cryptozoology museum.  It’s the type of place where you have to leave all your pre-conceived notions of reality at the door as it is filled with evidence, movies, models and stories about creatures that may or may not be real.  After reading lots about abominable snowmen (even had an article about Sir Ed finding large footprints on Mt Everest), sasquatch, giant fish, Feejee mermen and more we are still both sceptics.

Thylacine - Real

Fur-covered trout - not real
... or is it?

Enough with the fantasy creatures, we were off to find something real – a

Lenny, the life-sized
chocolate moose

chocolate moose.  This moose is so real he has a name – Lenny.  Gotta say, he looked delicious as did his bear friends.  We settled for purchasing some assorted chocolates and some Halloween candy just in case some scary kids come visiting at the end of the month – and if they don’t, well, I’m sure we’ll find a way to get rid of them.

Did a day trip to Bangor.  Stopped some locals to find a good place to eat nearby – turned out we were right outside author Stephen King’s house.  It’s hard to tell

Stephen King's home with the
awesome gate ... actually the
house isn't bad either

from the photo but there are bats on the gate along with the spider web pattern – should have been a giveaway.  The lunch recommendation was bang on too.  Delicious seafood chowder and lobster roll all in a diner that was nothing to look at from the outside but was full of 50’s & 60’s memorabilia in the room out back.

Jean on the outside of Nicky's Cruisin' Diner

Sue on the inside of Nicky's Cruisin' Diner

Dropped down to Deer Isle and paid a visit to Nervous Nellies Jams and Jellies.  Apart from the delicious jams we tasted there is also a lot of sculptures to see.  The town, castle and everything within is straight out of sculptor, Peter Beerits, imagination.  My kinda place and the tea and scones were delicious.

There's something about a magpie,
There's something about a magpie ...
... actually this one's probably a crow but we can imagine
the white stripes and pretend

Despite popular opinion, this IS tea and scones

The next day was a public holiday, Columbus Day and was a beautiful, warm sunny day.  This of course brought the multitudes out and scuppered our plan to drive up Mt Washington.  At the visitors centre we were told there was a 3 hour wait to drive the 8 miles up to the summit.  We didn’t fancy the wait even for a spectacular drive so we settled for taking the gondola up Wildcat Mountain and looking across at Mt Washington.  Sigh!  Another time.

How we got to see Mt Washington

Heading south again, we crossed back into New Hampshire.  Paid a visit to the USS Albacore, an experimental submarine which had the honour of being the first boat built specifically to operate underwater. 

Fish out of water - USS Albacore

All submarines prior to the Albacore were merely surface vessels that could submerge.  The Albacore also set a speed record for submarines back in 1966 reaching nearly 40 miles per hour (we don’t go much faster than that when we are towing).  Okay, so we do but if you are a traffic cop reading this, we don’t.

Didn’t spend very long in New Hampshire before dropping into Massachusetts.  Was driving through the various Hamptons  admiring the beach mansions when eventually the penny dropped that this was THE Hamptons that is written about in so many of the books that I’ve read.  Beautiful buildings to be sure but I think I’d prefer a beach that was less crowded.

No photos of the flash beach houses so here's some of the Fall Foliage instead

Paine House from 1694

First stop in Massachusetts was to visit one of the First Period homes in the salt marshes of Ipswich.  There are a number of houses from the 1600’s and 1700’s in the area and it’s lovely to see them beautifully restored.  The downside to travelling this time of year though, is that a number of places we want to visit are now closed until summer or only operating on weekends.  The Paine House was no exception however you can still walk around the grounds of the old farm which we did.  Interesting to note that Robert

The Witch House in Salem

Paine, the first owner of the house, was on the jury at the Salem Witch Trials.

So of course that lead us to Salem itself and a visit to the Salem Witch House.  This is based in Jonathan Corwin’s old house at 310½ Essex

Interior of The Witch House -
all decked out 17C style

Street (do you realise how difficult it is to put ½ into a GPS?).  Corwin was one of the judges in the Witch Trials where 19 people were sent to the gallows.  The house itself was restored in the 1940’s and is full of period furniture and information pertaining to the trials. 

Not far from Salem is the Paper House.  Yep, a house made out of paper.  It began as an experiment to see if paper would be strong enough.  Turns out it was and served as a summer house for 5 years.  Still standing over 80 years later.  All the furniture is made from rolls of paper as well. Over 100,000 newspapers were used and it’s quite interesting reading the headlines of the day.

Even the exterior walls are made out of newspaper

Grandfather clock made out of newspapers (one from each state capital),
newspaper interior walls ... pretty much newspaper everything

After driving through downtown Boston we came to the conclusion that Boston drivers were crazy.  All throughout America on this trip, we’ve mostly found other drivers to be courteous and considerate.  Not so Boston – it’s like being back in Australia and New Zealand.  Took some getting used to after all this time.  Will be doing our best not to adopt their bad habits.  Traffic didn’t improve much as we were heading out of Boston so we stopped at the British Brewing Company to escape it for a couple of hours.  Nuff said.

Sue with a Spitfire ale

Jean with a Pumpkin beer (see Mum, one of us is having vegetables)