East Coast

Washington D.C. 1120 miles

We left for this one at night after Phil got home from work! The car was packed up and ready to go, so we left around 6pm (coffee in tow) and we were on our way! Phil started driving, then we switched somewhere in Wisconsin. We passed through Chicago somewhere between 2-3am, and while I don't generally feel overwhelmed with traffic, I remember thinking that there were WAY too many cars on the road. Once we were past the city, our GPS had us take some weird exit off the interstate and we ended up driving through Gary, Indiana on a remote street - it was eerie.

The weather wasn't the greatest this day, so we didn't make any specific stops other than to get gas and snacks along the way. We were feeling pretty tired!

Since we're always on the hunt for places that we can't find at home, we stopped quick at Sheetz where we tried "the big mozz" - a chicken sandwich made with mozzarella sticks. I mean, who could pass something like that up??

As we got closer to DC, the rain got heavier and heavier - making us long for our first hotel stay to get some shuteye. We finally arrived in DC and did some expedited sightseeing before going to our hotel to pass out.

Weehawken, New Jersey 430 miles

The best part about this particular trip is that our destinations weren't near as far away from each other compared to our west coast trips. We were able to sleep in a little, then we drove over and walked around Georgetown to do some sightseeing before making our way to Philadelphia.

We didn't have a lot of time to spend in Philly, but I had a very special destination in mind - Philadelphia's Magic Gardens!

We couldn't leave without getting a philly cheese steak (obviously) - so after some quick research, we decided on Geno's Steaks. There's a reason why people go here!

As the rain moved in again, we made our way to New Jersey to our city-view hotel room - unfortunately, the weather didn't give us a great view of the skyline so that was a little disappointing. We were still relieved to be settled in after a day of traveling.

New Haven, Connecticut 80 miles

Waking up to a view of the NYC skyline was pretty cool! It was cloudy, so still not as impressive as I had imagined. Our reservation came with two round-trip ferry tickets, so before checking out we decided to go into the city for a bit. The ferries move FAST.

As usual, we didn't have a lot of time to explore, so we looked around for a bit and took the ferry back, went back to our hotel, and drove into Manhattan. This is the most stressed I've ever seen Phil while driving - I don't think either of us were prepared. We decided to park nearby Radio City to walk through a small food fair. Phil got something smothered in onions (ew!) and I opted for some basic roasted corn.

We walked to times square and back, only to find a parking ticket on our car. We're convinced that we had the only car with MN plates! At this point, we were anxious to get to our next destination, knowing that in order to have a real New York experience, we'd have to come back with more time to spare. We drove around Manhattan a little more to catch a glimpse of a few landmarks - One World Trade Center, Madison Square Garden, and the brooklyn bridge.

Next up was Yale University in New Haven. We walked around and admired the scenery - and appreciated the quietness! We were in the mood for breakfast food and decided to go to Pantry restaurant and try one of their famous cinnamon rolls.

Boston, Massachusetts 140 miles

We had some extra time on this day so we chose to sleep in and catch up on some much-needed rest! We continued on our journey and stopped in Providence and walked around the RISD area. We tried to make it in time so I could browse through the RISD store but we were just a little too late.

For some reason we hadn't booked our next hotel in Boston, so we ended up trying hotwire and got the Bostonian for our stay! We were feeling Italian so we decided to check in and go out to explore the north end "Little Italy" area and had dinner at Mother Anna's.

Rockport, Massachusetts 50 miles

We had another short day of driving, so we got a little extra rest and took the opportunity to walk around Boston. We finally started to see the sun at this point on the trip, so I think some of our energy was coming from that! We first walked to Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park where we took in the sunrise. Next up was breakfast at Theo's Cozy Corner - an excellent find by Phil. This must be a local hotspot because we definitely got some looks when we I walked in with my camera - it was obvious that we were tourists.

After that, we made our way to the back bay area, passing through Boston Common Boston Public Garden along the way. We picked up coffee at Wired Puppy (now closed) to enjoy on our stroll. I absolutely loved back bay, I can't believe how many beautiful brownstones and greystone homes there are! The cool weather and falling leaves all added to the experience.

Once we got back on the road, we made our way to our next destination, stopping in Salem, Mass along the way. No visit to Salem would be complete without stopping to see the Hocus Pocus house! We were a little overwhelmed by all of the "touristy" stuff in Salem so we opted to leave early and continue on our drive.

We made it to our destination and brought in all our stuff, then spent some more time walking around. Everything looked kind of familiar - we later found out that Rockport was one of the primary filming locations for the movie "The Proposal". Our motel was actually the location of the internet cafe!

We had dinner at Roy Moore's Fish Shack and walked out on the rocks to enjoy the sunset before settling in the for the night.

Brunswick, Maine 140 miles

We woke up early to watch the sun come up over the harbor and explore while the streets were quiet (at least more quiet than usual!) I believe this was the last weekend that most of the shops were open before closing up for the season.

We had an early lunch at Roy Moore Lobster Co and did some souvenir shopping before getting back on the road. We had to be up in Portland Maine within a few hours for lobster fishing!

We booked our lobster fishing tour with Lucky Catch and set out with a group of other people - including a mother & dauther who were also from Minnesota (what are the odds?) It was the perfect day to be out on the water!

As you can see, Phil was really in his element here - I think he'd be perfectly fine moving out to a lighthouse and doing this for a living. He also looooves it when I film him 🤣

After our fishing tour, we walked around Portland for a bit, then took a drive to visit Portland Head Lighthouse. This is when we started having car trouble! With how closely we had our reservations made, we didn't have a lot of options. We could either return to Portland (back from our next hotel in Brunswick), or we could rush to the next destination to the closest dealership that could do some auto work - bypassing a lot of what we wanted to see along the way.

Phil made a bunch of calls and spoke to different people, our best best was to fast-track our trip to our next destination - Burlington, Vermont. The silver lining is since all of the east coast states are so close together, we planned to get the car fixed and drive back to see what we missed. So with all of this, we decided to get some sleep and get a head start on our drive the next day.

Burlington, Vermont 280 miles

We got on the road early and made our way to Burlington without stopping to sightsee as much as we had planned - which was frustrating because I wanted to stop EVERYWHERE. The fall foliage was really starting to shine on this stretch of the trip.

Next attraction: the lobby at Shearer Chevrolet for a few hours (yay). Fortunately, they fixed it up and we were able to get back on track.

Feeling kind of bummed about rushing our day, we wanted some comfort food. We found Our House Bistro which has a build-your-own macaroni and cheese menu... so it was the obvious choice! The walls were lined with retro lunch boxes and it just had a really fun feel, plus... mac & cheese.

We stayed at the Starlight Inn motel where we enjoyed an Elvis-themed room. The hotel is right next to the Sunset Drive-in movie theater. The theater was closed for the season, but I bet it's so much fun here in the summer!

Saranac Lake, NY 350 miles

Because of the little car snafu, we ended up adding a lot of extra driving in on this day. Logical people may have just kept going, but I had to see more of the fall foliage. We started our day off with breakfast at Polly's Pancake Parlor and bought a few fall-themed souvenirs, my favorite! After that we headed over to White Mountain National Forest where we saw some of the brightest maples I've ever seen!

Since we had to change up our route a bit, we decided to drive south and visit Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock, VT. Our GPS had a really hard time in this area and kept trying to get us to drive on non-roads or private property, so this turned into quite the adventure!

Once we got back on the road, the sun was already starting to go down and we ended up driving in the dark - unless we are specifically planning on driving overnight, we really try to avoid this so we don't miss out on scenery! We arrived pretty late, but that's OK because I was happy we backtracked for the fall foliage.

Niagara Falls, NY 360 miles

I was in need of some great coffee to start the day, so we stopped at Origin Coffee in Saranac Lake before hitting the road- what a cute shop! Loved the logo too!

We stopped at a few places driving through the Adirondack mountains to admire the colors, then made our way to Rochester and had lunch at Dinosaur BBQ before hitting the road again. The close-to-the-end-of-the-trip sadness was starting to kick in at this point!

We arrived in Niagara Falls late afternoon so we were able to check in and relax for a bit before going out to explore. We didn't have passports at the time, so we stayed on the US side. I was hoping to see a rainbow over the falls, but I hear it's more common to see from Canada.

Still, the falls were quite impressive! We stayed out to see the fireworks show before returning back to our room for the night.

St. Ignace, MI 660 miles

We got up extra early to make sure we didn't get to our next destination too late. Our GPS tried to get us to cross into Canada, it was so early that we almost didn't realize it! Since we didn't have our passports, we had to take the long way south through the US.

This day felt long, but we eventually arrived in St. Ignace where we picked up some fudge and hung out at our lake view room for the evening - ordering pizza in.

Home 515 miles

We didn't really do anything out of the way or "fun" on our drive back from Michigan, we were just excited to get home and see the boys! If I remember correctly, I think we got Chipotle at some point! 🤣