Flasback post: Best trip ever, part two: NJ to MA

On day three of the best trip ever, it meant that we had to leave New York. It also meant that we got to check out of the worst hotel ever, so, plus. This was also the day we did five states in one day, driving out of New Jersey and up through New York, which is really pretty when you get further upstate. About an hour north we started passing signs for Westchester and joking that we should find the Xavier School from X-Men because we are huge nerds. The city was gone, leaving us driving through wooded areas and occasionally taking little backroads into areas with roller coaster hills. We'd pass little lakes and farm houses, and then stopped when we got into Connecticut.

After getting breakfast at a little roadside diner, we stopped in Stanford because we'd been attempting to use Nick's iPad to listen to music and podcasts, but there was some issue with the cord/port, so we found a Target where we could get a new cord and stock up on stuff while we were there. The new cord didn't really work. I know we got to listen to some podcasts on the way, but I want to say it was actually on my phone, because we had to keep flipping to the radio when we could get a clear station. And somehow, we only heard about four songs for the entire road trip, because that's all that was playing in every single state in New England. If it wasn't "Clarity," "Blurred Lines," "Mirrors" or that duet with Pink and the lead singer of Fun, we didn't hear it. But I have a special love for all those songs now, because it's impossible for me to hear them and not think of this trip. There are worse things.

We were supposed to visit our cousin and her family while we were in the state, but that fell through not long before the trip and so Nick managed to find a backup plan, which was Essex Steam Train and Riverboat. For $30 it's exactly what it sounds like, and I found it pretty cool. We got there a little before our 2:00 departure time, and that meant we could go around and check out the old train cars they had there. I think the gift shop was in a caboose. When they announced boarding, we got on the train, which seemed to be filled with families, which makes sense since this would be great for kids. The train ride itself wasn't really anything special, though we got to see a lot of greenery, and some of the houses on the way. It stopped at a dock, where we got out and then loaded ourselves onto a steamboat that went around the Connecticut River. It takes you past Gillette Castle and a gorgeous old opera house, towards a bridge, and then brings you back. By now the sunny day we'd left in New York was over, and it was starting to get cold and gray. The waters were a little choppy, so when we went out onto the top deck to take pictures, I couldn't leave my hair down without it constantly ending up in my face, and people were a little surprised when another boat would come by and we'd get the wake on top of already rougher waves. You could stand at the top and watch people hiking or walking their dogs at Gilette Castle State Park, or you could watch speedboats race past you, and there were all these little islands that got me all excited because I read the Babysitters Club books, dammit, and all of a sudden it made sense that there could be an island where Dawn and Claudia would get shipwrecked, and if it happened to us I knew what to do because I had read that super special.

If you were unaware that I'm a giant dork, hi, I'm Natalie. Nice to meet you.

After the boat ride, the train took us back the same way and dropped us off at the station, where we got Diego and started back up to our next state, Rhode Island. It's somewhere I wish I had more time to spend, because from what I understand it's great, but we wanted a full day in Boston and had already decided on the boat that we would end up stopping for the night in Cape Cod, so we didn't have a lot of time and not a lot of ideas on what to do. We stopped for dinner at a pizza place at a mall, which had outdoor seating so you could look up at the capitol building. And that same mall houses a PF Chang's that Nick actually worked on, so we got to go there and take pictures.

State capitol, yo.

Aaaaand that was it for Rhode Island. It was cloudy and going to be rainy, so there were some great clouds but no sunset on the drive to Massachusetts, and by the time we got to Cape Cod it was dark. But five states in one day is an Accomplishment, and part three means getting to one of the many highlights.