Category: Road Tripping in New England

Post by Grubb. That’s right, it happened while we were walking along a trail in the Boothbay Botanical Gardens (which, given its size and woodsy paths, should be called a Botanical Forest). The rock to my right had an opening that, according to a kindly lady in a golf cart, was designed by an artist…

Post by Ella. In Copenhagen just a few months ago, we found 7 gentle giants. Woodland trolls created by Thomas Dambo (who labels himself a “recycle art activist”), each tucked into a different parkland niche outside of Copenhagen. Made of wood, these woodland creatures were enthralling. Here are the first two stanzas of a poem…

Post by Ella. Wednesday, our last stop before our destination, Boothbay Harbor, was Freeport. Freeport’s claim to fame: the headquarters of LL Bean. We had to take a gander at this, along with a million other baby boomers. The big boot with reinforced toe signaled we were at the right place. We took pictures of…

Post by Grubb. Wednesday morning we left the magnificent house where Joey and Elaine live in Sudbury. (The place has a basement theater off the ping-pong room which is off the pool table room. It has a 100-inch screen and electric recliner seats. It’s lucky I don’t live in such a house or else I…

Post by Ella. Whew! What a whirlwind of activity with Joe and Elaine, the amazing dynamic duo. We loved every minute of it. Reveling in Boston’s history, stuffing ourselves with cannoli, and having great conversations. Thank you so much for opening your home to us and letting us have a peek at your lives. One…

Wednesday, we reluctantly took our leave of Joe and Elaine after a home cooked 3 course breakfast (would we ever being able to eat again?) and headed up the Maine coast. The weather was on our side. Blue sky, no wind. Beautiful. Our destination was Boothbay Harbor with two stops along the way: Ogunquit (a…

Post by Ella. Tuesday, after walking the Freedom Trail and riding/floating the DUKW, what better than a stroll to Boston’s north end, crammed with Italian eateries and bakeries. The area was hopping. You want Italian?. We got Italian.  We dined at Trattoria Il Panino. My choice of pasta, the penne arrabbiata, had a light, spicy…

Post by Ella. After a living history tour of the Freedom Trail (see Grubb’s post “The city that gobbled the revolution “), we headed towards the harbor for our Duck experience.  If it waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a DUKW.  Okay, so it bumps and shakes instead of waddling, but it…

Post by Grubb. When I visited Boston in the early 1980s I went to the top of the Hancock Building for the panoramic view. I remember the green swath of Beacon Hill, historic church steeples poking out of brick neighborhoods, and the embracing bend of the Charles River. There was also a nifty topo map…

Post by Ella. Once again we owe a hearty thanks to kin. So thank you Sharen and Tom, our Connecticut cousins, for showing us so much. The Mark Twain house, Gillette’s Castle and all mom’s old haunts. We very much appreciated your generosity of time and opening your home to us. And thanks to Ben…

Post by Ella. Onward. On Monday, after the trip down mom’s memory lane in Norwich and Preston with our able guides Sharen and Tom, we said adios to Connecticut and headed to Massachusetts for a Break-Fast dinner at Michelle and Joe’s with Elaine and Joe in Natick (Massachusetts). The rain never let up. The good…

My mom has vivid memories of her rock. She grew up on a farm in Preston, Ct., her parents and older siblings working from sun up to sun down when not in school. Mom would sometimes escape from chores and walk up the hill behind her house to a large rock where she could perch,…

Post by Grubb. Sunday was spent in the rain, a continuous drizzle that drove us indoors. Connecticut has some famous houses and we visited a couple. First, the Mark Twain house which is next to the Harriet Beecher Stowe house. Both dwellings are large and magnificent, but between these two 19th century heavy hitters, Twain…

Over the quiet first months of the pandemic, when gyms were shut down and I began taking long rambling walks, I grew to enjoy listening to podcasts. Freakonomics is one of my regulars and not long ago, there was a fascinating three part series on the whaling industry. From the beginnings in Nantucket, the sociology…

Post by Grubb. Saturday morning it was raining when we hit New Bedford. At one time, this Massachusetts shipping town was the center of the American whaling industry. Now it just sticks with fish. Downtown by the docks the cobblestone streets were slippery, the weathered brick buildings damp and dripping, giving the area a 19th…