Osten Family Blog: New England Fall Vacation

Sunday, October 18, 2020

New England Fall Vacation

As vacation plans get changed weekly, Jyoti was able to put together a New England trip for us and Kevin and Robyn.

We first flew to Portland, Maine. Portland is a nice small city, bigger than I expected but not crowded. It had some great restaurants as well. I highly recommend BlueFin, they had the best lobster dishes of the trip. We visited Fort Williams Park and took the obligatory photo at Portland Head lighthouse. Later in the day, we took a ferry to Peaks Island and rented a golf cart to take a tour around the island.

The next day, we headed up the coast. Along the way we stopped in Bath to visit the Maine Maritime Museum. The museum had great indoor exhibits as well as outdoor ones. After a few hours driving through some rain, we made it to Bar Harbor.

At Bar Harbor, we spent two days exploring Acadia National Park. We did a few hikes and drove the loop (after figuring out the experimental reservation system). Hikes included the Beehive, Jordan Pond, Wild Gardens, and South Bubble. We drove up to Cadillac Mt. but it was super foggy and we couldn't see anything. Acadia is beautiful but feels more like a big city park than the massive open spaces of the western parks.

Leaving Bar Harbor, we drove south. We stopped at several attractions, small towns and lighthouses along the way to Bailey Island. The island is way off the beaten path but is very nice. We stayed at a small motel, the Bailey Island Motel. It was very quaint and had the best homemade muffins! Since it was pretty much the end of the season all the restaurants were closed and there weren't many people there. We did a nice short hike to Giant's Steps and visited Land's End. I would love to visit the island again and spend more time there.

Next stop was Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We were able to tour the USS Albacore which was really cool. Strawbery Banke was great even though the houses were not open to walk through. We had a great dinner at Black Trumpet overlooking the river.

Last stop was Boston. We spent a day here to visit relatives but got in some sights as well. We hiked the Freedom Trail from the Commons to Bunker Hill. Many things were closed but we got into the Paul Revere House. The Charlestown Navy Yard was closing when got there which was a bummer. However, our flight the next morning was canceled. So with an extra day, we headed back to the shipyard to visit the museums, USS Constitution and the USS Cassin Young.