Vacation #2 Part 1

I decided it would probably be best if I split this one in two. Our second vacation had a lot more pictures to it than our first one so this could get pretty long if I made it one post. Although, I don't even have half the pictures I took with my phone, but I'll get to that later. Our second big vacation this summer was back to back with our first one. We got home and literally 5 days later left again. This one, however, was by car. And I am so grateful for that. Flying is just an all around pain with a kid. Even without a kid, you have worry about how much your luggage weighs and if you have small enough liquids to go through security. Anyway, we started this journey on the 21st of July by driving up to Sharon, VT. We actually stayed in a town called White River Junction but our first stop was about a half hour before that in Sharon. Sharon, Vermont is the location for the birthplace of Joseph Smith. This was especially awesome because it is one of the only (if not the only) church site I hadn't visited in person. And it did not disappoint. I wasn't sure what to expect because he only lived there for two years and it's a site that's not really near anything else. And by "not really near", I mean middle of nowhere in a forest. But the site itself was incredible. You turn down this winding road and pass their church building on your left and then as you come up the hill you see this huge monument poking out above the trees. Absolutely breathtaking.

This monument is 38 1/2 feet tall, one foot for every year Joseph Smith was alive. There's also a really amazing visitor's center and this beautifully landscaped clearing with benches and a flag pole.

The next day we drove up to a cheese farm in Vermont to sample cheese and maple syrup. Then headed up to Maine where we ate lobster on this gorgeous little pier on a river right next to the ocean.

Hands down BEST lobster I've ever had. It was seriously amazing.

View up the river from the pier. If you looked the other direction you could see the ocean.

Lynlee on the pier

After lunch we started to head out of Maine when we passed an old army fort that had been made a state park so we decided to stop and check it out.

Lynlee at the old fort. She was just excited to be out of the car I think

The rocky shore of Maine. Beautiful

Lynlee's first time seeing the ocean. It was really windy

Outside the fort. Markham is in side it

After Maine we headed south through New Hampshire and into Massachusetts. Our first stop there was Salem. We wanted to see the Salem Witch Museum before stopping at our hotel in Danvers.

The building was awesome. It looked like a huge castle. The museum itself was pretty lame. And they wouldn't let you take pictures inside, but honestly there wasn't much to take pictures of. 

Lynlee was seriously cracking us up. She could see that there was a sticker on her face but she couldn't figure out where it was to pull it off. So funny

The next day was Boston. We went to Boston University and parked and then took the train into downtown and went to the aquarium. Then we rode the train back to our car and drove around downtown looking at the Red Sox ballpark and the Garden Center, where the Celtics play. After downtown we drove out and found the temple.

Boston Temple

The Aquarium in Boston

Red Sox!

That night we went to the mall next to our hotel just to walk around and wear Lynlee out and they had a little kids play place there so we took her in there for about a half hour and she definitely wore herself out. They had this little Dora car that she pushed around and used as a walker almost the entire time we were there. It was so cute.

this is kind of far away but you can see the little pink car she pushed around

There was also this bouncy house full of balls there and she thought that was the coolest thing ever

Bed Head Baby!

The next morning we went to see the Friendship of Salem pirate boat at the Maritime Historical Area in Salem.

Captain Lynner Pants!

Boston Skyline

From Salem we drove south to Newport, Rhode Island. This, honestly, was the most amazing city I have ever been to in my life. The entire city (which really isn't that big) is this gorgeous little touristy town on the Ocean and is full of mansions. You literally cannot build a house that costs less than $2 million there. It was awesome! But one of the coolest things is that there's this Historical Society there that bought all of these old mansions that belonged to families like the Vanderbilt's and the Rockefeller's and turned them into museums that you can tour. They don't let you take pictures inside, but the two we toured were literally solid marble on the inside with immaculate chandeliers and velvet chairs and just incredible rooms. There are 12 mansions total that you can tour but it's like $24 per tour so we just did two.

The Chateau House and its gardens in the backyard

The Vanderbilt's "Summer Cottage" 

The back of the Vanderbilt home and their backyard with ocean access

Another mansion. We didn't tour this one. I had a picture of every single one of the 12 mansions on my phone but those are gone. 

The second really awesome part of Newport, RI is Ocean Drive. It's a 10 mile stretch of road that runs right along the Ocean. SO beautiful!

After Newport, we continued south through Connecticut and on to New York. We got in to White Planes pretty late so we just went straight to the hotel. And that's where I'm going to stop for now. This is already a really long post, and Olympic beach volleyball is on so I keep watching that and only typing a couple words every few minutes. If I don't stop now I'll never be done. Ok the day we arrived in New York was Tuesday the 24th. For my next post we'll pick up on Wednesday the 25th and I just might make it through the rest of the vacation. We'll see. This might be a three-parter.