Out of Gas??

Day 20

States Traveled Through Today: Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont

Capitols Visited: Concord, New Hampshire

States Traveled Through This Trip: 19 out of 24

Capitols This Trip: 13 out of 15

This morning we said goodbye to Maine. We were sad to leave this beautiful state but we have so much more to see! We had a driving day today with minimal stops. To get from Bar Harbor to Concord it took about 6 hours with stops. Maine and New Hampshire are so beautiful to drive through! There are so many beautiful lakes and we are in the mountains now. We avoided all tolls so that meant we had to be on county roads and little highways. It is the most scenic way to travel! At one point we needed bathrooms so we stopped at this gas station/ General Store. It was right out of an old western TV show! 

After eating a wonderful lunch at Subway we made it to Concord! This is a very small capitol building!! The Senate and the House are right next to each other. 

Concord, New Hampshire #40!!!! 

Never a dull moment with us! We found a child's lawn mower... so we were put to work! LOL!! 

Found this beauty inside! Do you know how the phrase "it costs and arm and a leg" got started? When portraits are made the arms and legs are hard to capture so the artists charged extra. Only the wealthy could afford to have their arms and legs painted! 

I found my love, George Washington! We have 2 more capitols this trip! I hope he is at both places!! 

After taking our own tour we decided to go to the visitor center. The woman in there was very nice, but also very interesting. We asked if she had a stamp for the capitol and she asked if it was for our "passport." Unfortunately we didn't discover the passports until we were at #25 and by then it was too late for us. After telling her that we had been to 40 capitols she was not impressed. If I had one word to sum up her enthusiasm it would be "Meh." LOL! We did get a little excitement when we described our postcard challenge game. She started giving us fun facts we could ask questions about. One interesting fact was that New Hampshire has had 3 women governors but only 2 were elected.

The visitor center lady was most excited when we inquired about the Granite State Candy Shoppe. She told us they had the best ice cream and to only get a small because they give you so much. She told us it was only 2 blocks away so it wouldn't take long to walk there. Here is what it looks like from the outside

They have won best candy shoppe for the past 3 years! 

This place only serves ice cream from Easter till Halloween. Thank goodness we visited in the summer! It was so great and the people were incredible! They gave us samples of the ice cream and helped us make our selections. 

I got the scooby doo ice cream which is chocolate with peanut butter. 

One last picture of the capitol! 

We left the capitol and headed for Vermont. We are staying in Rutland, Vermont tonight. Before heading to our hotel we needed to get gas in our car. We pulled up to the station and started to pump the gas. About .50 cents of gas went in before the pump stopped. I went inside to see what was wrong... they were out of gas! OMG! We needed it and did not know where else to go for gas. Thank goodness the truck was pulling up to refill the tanks. We had to wait about 20 minutes before we could pump. It was the first time that has ever happened to me. 

Well, we are safely in our hotel room and enjoyed a nice dinner at Taco Bell. Check back tomorrow to see where the next adventure takes place!

Nature is All Around Me

Day 19
Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park

Today we explored Acadia National Park. We left our hotel around 9:00 and were only a mile away from the entrance to the park. There weren't too many people at the visitors center when we arrived. After buying our postcards and paying our entrance fees we ventured to the park loop road. This would take us around the entire park.

 We decided to stop at Jordan Pond and do a little hiking! This walk is about 2.3 miles long and most of it is on a gravel path. When you get to the east side you have to climb some rocks and then you are on wooden planks for almost a mile. I'm not the best in nature or with hiking so I am so proud of myself for doing it! I was going to turn around and walk the easy path back but at the last minute I decided to brave the rocks. It wasn't too bad. Here are some pictures from the Jordan Pond path!

 North and South Bubble

 I'm in nature!! 

 I made it! I'm on a wooden bridge :) 

 Here comes the rocky part... Not too bad yet! 

 Wooden Planks

 Woodpeckers made this hole. 

 On the other side of Acadia National Park, the ocean side, it was very foggy! 

 Getting brave! I don't like heights and I don't like unstable surfaces so venturing down this took everything in me! 

 Natalie and Celeste were way braver than I was! 

 For our last stop we went to Cadillac Mountain. This is the first point in the United States where you can see the sun rise. We did not wake up super early to see the sun rise at 5:15 but this is about 2:00 in the afternoon. 

 Look at that sky! I hope my mom was next to me looking out. She would have loved how beautiful it was! 

 We were above some of the clouds. 

 After our fill of nature we went to "downtown" Bar Harbor. I found a Puffin! 

 We ate at this cute restaurant called Route 66. It was decorated like an old 50's diner. The food was pretty good (burgers and fries) and we had milkshakes. The milkshakes were not big enough! We wanted more!!

 After dinner we strolled around the town to get back to our car. The shops are all really cute. I wanted to go into each shop but alas, there is no money in the budget for shopping. 

 Look! A moose!! 

Maine is a beautiful state and I will definitely be back someday in my life! If you have never been make sure to add Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park to your list of must dos. Check back tomorrow to see where we end up!