Connecticut and Cuyahoga Valley National Park

After we left Plymouth we headed to Uncasville, CT so we could pay a visit to the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Casinos. We rarely take a vacation without a stop at at least one casino.

The hotel we stayed at had a wonderful window seat in the room that I could have sat in for hours. I need a window seat in my next house!

Anyway, Mohegan Sun was a beautiful casino. We only took a few pictures.

Foxwoods was huge and had this pretty cool sand sculpture.

Unfortunately we didn't get our vacation paid for if you know what I mean!

The next day we headed toward home again and spent one more night in Youngstown Ohio. They had a wonderful swimming pool that we decided to take a dip in. There was no one else there so we just floated around and relaxed for a few hours.

In the morning we left and headed to our next and final destination, Cuyohoga Valley National Park.

I wanted to visit a waterfall! And it was very pretty.

And we say practically the only wildlife (other than whales) we saw on the whole trip! If you look close behind the tree on the left there is a deer looking back at you!

Then in less than 2 hours we were home!

It was a wonderful vacation and although we did a lot of driving, it was worth every mile of it!

Next big vacation on my radar is Tennessee in the fall of 2016!

Until the next time!

Whale Watching and A Rock

So we left Bar Harbor and our next destination was Plymouth, Massachusetts.

My plan was to go whale watching, something I've been wanting to do for a long time!

Anyway, before we got to Plymouth, we had a the worst drive of our trip.

Our route was supposed to take us around Boston, but due to some construction, we got detoured through Boston, which only served to confirm my thought that I would never want to live in a big city!

Over this bridge

And then through this long tunnel

The traffic was horrible and like every where else, people drove like idiots, with no patience for out-of towners that barely knew what lane to be in!

By the time we reached out hotel in Plymouth Rich was fit to be tied!

After we rested a while we drove into the town proper to have dinner.

The next day we went whale watching!

 While we were riding out to the area to watch for whales I was talking to a lady who was from the local area. As soon as I told her we were from Michigan she said, "Oh, I love Dr. Pol"! She was pretty impressed when we told her we drove by his clinic a few years ago!

They drive an hour to get to the spot where they feed the whales and then hang around for a couple hours waiting to see them. We saw probably 6 whales and it was so exciting every time one showed up! Some times you could only see the water from their blow holes! It was a blast!

Pointing it out just in case you missed it!

After we got off the boat, we were just a few blocks from Plymouth Rock so we went over to see it. It's in a protected area.

That is the actual rock that they pilgrims landed by, in the original spot. However, the rock is only about 1/4 of the original size. It used to be as large as the closed off area it's in now. It was moved around a lot and people were taking pieces of it for various reasons and souvenirs.

There was a guide we were talking to who told us a bunch of history on the rock which  I pretty much forgot the minute he was done talking! Hey, just like my history lessons in school!!!

Then we were on our way to our next adventure!

Coming up: Connecticut and another National Park

Acadia National Park

One of the reasons I wanted to go to the East Coast was to visit Acadia National Park.

We had never been to a national park before so this was a good one for a first time visit.

It was only a 5 minute drive from where we were staying in Bar Harbor.

We got there fairly early in the morning so it was pretty foggy.

First stop was Sugar Beach where you could hear the waves, but barely see them.

We hung out there for quite a while. The fog lifted a little but it was still misty.

Next stop was Thunder Hole

The waves come down this long groove and when they hit the end they make a booming sound. Thus the name Thunder Hole.

That was very cool.

Here we saw the mother of the year (in white) taking pictures while her son pranced around on top of the rock, with a plummet of about 30 feet into Thunder Hole to his right probably less than 6 feet away!

We decided to leave before we possibly witnessed a tragedy!

The weather finally cleared up a little and we drove up Cadillac Mountain.

The views were breathtaking.

We spent the majority of the day just driving around and stopping at particular scenic spots.

The next day we were leaving but we decided to get up very early and see the sun rise from Cadillac Mountain. After all it is the first view of the sunrise in the United States.

I was a little worried about driving up there in the dark and I was hoping other people would be there so we wouldn't be alone.

Ha! By the time we got to the top of the mountain there was nowhere to park! There was at least 200 people there! Some had their breakfasts and blankets and you could tell the had been there for a while! Oh well, sometimes its nice to fantasize that there is not that many people in the world!

Anyway, it was such a glorious sight. The pictures really don't do it justice!

After the sun was up and we headed back to our hotel,  had breakfast and then packed up to head out to our next destination.

Next stop Plymouth Mass and Whale Watching!

Bar Harbor

 We arrived at our first and main destination, Bar Harbor, Maine at about 5:00 on Monday. We had reservations for two nights at this hotel.

It was nice enough. It was also the most expensive of all the places we stayed in due to the fact that is was right in town. Location means everything!

We got there, got settled and then went to dinner at a little bar called the Thirsty Whale.

I ate my very first lobster roll! It was good but seeing as I'm not a lobster fan, really, I only ate two the whole vacation!

It was only about a 4 block walk down to the water.

Bar Harbor is a cute little seaside town. Exactly what I was expecting the East Coast to look like!

We didn't spend a whole lot of time in the actual town because we wanted to spend some time at Acacia National Park.

That's the next post coming up!

Knock Knock...Is This Thing Still On?

Well , I think this has been the longest stretch that I have gone without blogging yet!

Part of the reason is my laptop quit connecting to the internet yet again. Last time that happened it took my son-in-law (yay!) Brad two days to fix it which is a lot for  him cuz hes a computer  genius! Anyway, I'm not going to bother with it anymore.  It's too old and been a lemon from day one. And our old desktop is such a dinosaur and so slow it drives me crazy! I am getting a new computer next month for sure. I'm posting this from my phone now but I hate typing on my phone with my fat fingers!

So let's see what has been going on in the last few months.....

When last I left you, Shauna and Brad had just gotten married. Now they have been married for 3 months and very happy!

Rich and I took a great road trip to the East Coast at the beginning of August.  

We did some serious traveling which was tough and I'm not sure we would do it again but it was worth it this time!!

Our first destination was Bar Harbor Maine and we stopped in Bangor to stalk Stephen Kings house. 

That seriously was a highlight of the trip for me! I have been a fan of his books practically since he started writing them! I could have stayed there all day but I heard he doesn't even live there anymore anyway. It was beautiful though! The grounds were immaculate and landscaped so beautiful. Plus it's HUGE! You can tell a bazillionair owns it!

Next: Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park

Backing up....

OK Before I go any further on our East Coast Vacation, I want to back up to before we got to Bar Harbor, Maine.

On the Saturday before we left home, Rich and I, along with my brother Jim and his wife Helen and my brother Tom and his wife Debbie took the class we had to take to get our CPL (Concealed Pistol License). It was an all-day class, part in the classroom and part in the range. By the time we got home I had to do some laundry, go to the grocery store and pack! We didn't get to sleep until after midnight and we wanted to be on the road early, at the butt-crack of dawn as we like to say!

On Sunday we drove a little over 500 miles through Canada into New York.

We made a brief stop in Niagara Falls, NY for lunch and to walk around a little. Big mistake because it was hot, and crowded and expensive! I think I'm done with that place now! The falls are cool, though!

This is the Horseshoe Falls from the American side. They are building a new viewing area and it's going to be pretty awesome when its done!

We only stayed a hour or so and then back on the road to our first stop at a hotel in Schenectady. I chose that place because I like to say the name! Anyway, we stayed at a very nice hotel with a great restaurant across the street for dinner. We did not go exploring because we needed rest and had to get on the road again early the next morning.

We finally reached Maine in the early afternoon and had a picnic lunch in the welcome center.

As a side note: In all the states we traveled through, no one does rest stops and picnic areas as good as Michigan! We always pack a cooler full of food and snacks so we don't spend a lot of  money eating out. Trying to find somewhere pull over and have a picnic lunch was a nightmare! There were no places like that anywhere! A few times we just ate in a parking lot of a store!  The picnic area at the welcome center in Maine was literally the only picnic table we saw!

Anyway, a few hours after we had lunch we were at Stephen Kings house in Bangor. I mentioned it again because I want to show you a aerial picture I took off the web.

When I said his house was huge, I meant really huge! Its the size of at least four more houses behind the original house! Plus the out building you see to the right I read is his writing studio. I also read that the white house in the upper right corner belongs to him, too, and sometimes he goes there and watches the people that come to look at his house! This is just stuff I read!

Here's the best shot I could get of his house without stepping onto the property. If you look carefully toward the back there is two men carrying a long white box up the driveway toward the out building.  I couldn't say for sure because I couldn't see them well enough but the one on the right could possibly be the man himself!!!!

Anyway, next post I promise will be all about Bar Harbor!

Until then.....