For a little state, it takes for-freaking-ever to drive through New Hampshire diagonally. Don't get me wrong, it's really pretty, and full of trees and lakes, and state liquor stores. (Which I thought maybe New Hampshire was small enough or had some kind of weird law that there was just one liquor store for the state, and then I kept seeing them and getting confused.) But it seemed like it took several more hours than it should to get anywhere. We also saw a moose crossing sign. I didn't know there were moose up there. At first it was a novelty, something cool for the area. Then we saw another one, and I decided to get the camera out to take a picture. It took too long and I figured we'd seen the last one, so I put the camera away... and missed it when another sign came up. So I got the camera out again, only when I managed to snap a picture it was too late and I only got the highway in the shot. I'd wait for the next one, and it'd take so long that I'd put the camera down, or check Instagram or whatever, and then I'd miss the sign.
It went on like this for hours.
Our next step was Cape Elizabeth, Maine, which we went to specifically because I wanted to see a lighthouse. In my head I'd never seen one in person before, though people pointed out that I lived near one in Long Beach, CA, and that they had them on Lake Michigan. That was not the point. I wanted to see a real lighthouse, which I guess meant the one in Maine at Portland Head Light. It started raining as we were getting close, and by the time we got out of the car there was a good light rain going. I think because of the weather the lighthouse itself was closed that day, but we could still wander around, and there weren't many other people around. This place was everything I wanted it to be, and the rain made it perfect. It made the waters around us choppy, and there was just enough fog and mist that it looked like the perfect New England day at the perfect place for it. We took pictures of the monuments and cliffs, and I started a little ways down a trail to get different pictures, and it's one of the highlights of the trip. It also stopped raining and cleared up more or less as we got to the car to leave, because the weather was looking out for us that day.
We stopped for lunch at Becky's Diner, which turned out to be a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives location, and it's located in an area that I looked at and thought "This is so Maine that it hurts," even though I had never been to Maine before. Then we had to turn right around and go back the way we came through the neverending roads of New Hampshire, where I continued to be teased by the existence of moose signs, and finally by the existence of moose themselves. Years later when at a bar with some friends, I would declare them fictional.
We also stopped in Vermont, which was a state that posed some challenges. Mainly, we couldn't find much to do. We'd see things like "stop at this general store," which is great but that doesn't take long, as it's a long way to go to pick up snacks. There's Ben and Jerry's, but that's much farther north than we were and we didn't have the time to make that drive. So we found Molly Stark Trail, which things online told us was a leisurely drive that would take us about an hour to drive through, and we could stop often and take pictures. Well, the address we found took us to Molly Stark State Park, which was a) not the right thing, and b) closed. After searching online we found where the trail was supposed to go, and it was not a leisurely drive. It was pretty much a two-lane highway, and maybe it was because a lot of the road was under construction, but we didn't find any real places to stop. It was gorgeous, and I was snapping pictures like a crazy person, but the most memorable parts of it were spent whizzing downhill through construction while having to keep speeding up because the cars in back of us were tailgating us to make it happen while Nick had a white-knuckle deathgrip on the wheel.
So, 10/10, would recommend, unless you're Nick in which case you probably have a different opinion.
On our way to the next location, we got our moose. Sort of. We had stopped in a town for gas or coffee or something, and as we're driving through the streets, I saw a giant statue, screamed "MOOSE!" and Nick immediately pulled over. We got out of the car, went over to the moose, and took pictures with it. I still claim they're fictional until I see a real one.
Our last stop for the day was back in Williamsburg, MA. We got a room at the Willows Motel, which was adorable. The room's fine, nothing to write home about, but I liked the feel of it. Our room overlooked a cute patio, and there were seats outside where people would sit outside. We could hear people from the room with the windows open, but it wasn't anything bothersome. The staff was very friendly and gave us all the necessary information right up front, and I think they live in the front house? When we checked out the next day they had a breakfast where you could sit and eat at little tables by the front desk, but when someone called for someone to come to the unattended front desk, someone came out in their pajamas. There was just something really charming about the place and I loved it. It was also in a neat little neighborhood, where we decided rather than getting dinner we'd just get ice cream at a place down the street (I got maple, because that's what happens when you spend time in Vermont). There were mountains pretty close on the right, and I kept marveling at what it must be like to live in one of the houses on that side of the street, with nothing behind you but a view of those mountains. We ate ice cream and looked out at them, and it was a great way to close out our last night of the trip.
One more day to go...
Fuck Vermont and its stupid green mountains.
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