Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

Part One of our New England Trip (Boston) can be found here.

Part Two of our New England Trip (Maine) can be found here.

I never thought I’d get through the photos I took while we were traveling in New England. I’m still working on Vermont, but have the New Hampshire photos ready to share. Now I just have to see if my old brain can recall some of the details and information regarding our New Hampshire trip!

Here’s a map of the route we took when we left Bethel, Maine:

We hugged the ME/NH border - even crossing in and out of NH once or twice. When we got to Fryeburg, we crossed the border for the last time - looking forward to our drive on the Kancamagus Highway. The Kancamagus Highway - better known as the “Kanc” - is a 34.5 mile scenic drive along NH’s Rt. 112 in Northern New Hampshire that is well known as one of the best Fall Foliage viewing areas in the country. It takes you through the White Mountain National Forest with breathtaking views of the White Mountains, the Swift River, Sabbaday Falls, Lower Falls and Rocky Gorge.

When we left the Briar Lea Inn, there was a low hanging fog in many places, and a soft mist settled between the rolling hills. It was really beautiful, and the colors of the foliage were just gorgeous! I love when nature creates a picture perfect landscape.

Look at these colors!:

We’ve never seen so many churches in one place, like those in New England. Each town - big or small - boasts several churches of different faiths. One thing they have in common are their tall steeples. The steeples can be seen poking up above the trees when you’re driving in some of the higher elevations. I thought this was a great representation of what we saw throughout our visit to New England:

We stopped many times along the *Kanc* to take photos, hike to scenic overlooks, explore trails and waterfalls, and soak in the sunshine. The weather was rather nice. The hot humid weather we experienced in Boston didn’t follow us NH. Instead I was quite comfortable wearing a light jacket or a fleece vest. This was the autumn we hoped for.

One of our favorite stops was at Sabbaday Falls in Grafton County. Hurricane Irene had closed the trail to the falls, but it was open again by the time we visited. I’m so glad, as it was a beautiful (short) hike.

Our lodging for the next two days was in a B&B in Sugar Hill NH, but since we had plenty of daylight left we decided to go past Sugar Hill and drive up to Littleton to check out the town, the Grist Mill, and the covered bridge before returning to the B&B.

Here are some of the things we saw on our drive from Bethel ME to Littleton NH:

We chose our lodging in Sugar Hill based on reviews on Tripadvisor. I can’t recommend Tripadvisor enough. There are forums where you can post questions about activities and things to see while you’re visiting. Your questions will be answered by people who live in or near your destination, as well as folks who have visited enough to know all the neat places. While it’s been a while since I’ve helped out in the Fairbanks forums, when I have free time I do enjoy corresponding with people planning a visit to the Interior.

I learned something new about using Tripadvisor. If you’re researching a place for lodging, and you see a lot of glowing reviews of the property, check and see if those people leaving the reviews have left reviews for other properties or activities. (The number of reviews is provided right under their name.) Now I’m not insinuating that someone who hasn’t left many reviews isn’t *real*, but it might give you reason to pause if an inn has glowing reviews from a dozen people who have only ever left ONE review - and that’s on the property you’re researching. It wouldn’t be hard for a proprietor to enlist the help of friends and family to boost the ratings of their establishment… just saying.

We chose the Hilltop Inn in Sugar Hill based on the reviews we read in Tripadvisor - which were all good. The home is historic and built in the 1800s. We knew, based on this information, that there could be low ceilings, creaky wood floors,  and other quirks representative of historic homes. We also knew, based on reading the reviews, that the B&B was dog friendly, and the proprietors owned a couple of dogs themselves. Again.. not a problem. We’re dog people and don’t have allergies.

The side entry, which is where the parking area is, opens into the dining area. Several smaller tables were in the room to accommodate guests. Meri and Mike came out of a back room to greet us. They were very friendly and welcoming, but Steve and I were still trying to take in our surroundings. The place was FILLED with Tchotchkes (knick-knacks). They covered every spare furniture top. They filled shelves and bookcases. All I kept thinking about was all the work that goes into to dusting all these objects. From appearances, my guess was that they weren’t dusted very often.

Meri showed us to our room. It appeared to be one of the original bedrooms in the home, as the en-suite bath was not only large, but had a claw foot tub, very old tile work on the floors and wainscoting on the bottom half of the walls. The bedroom itself left a lot to be desired. The wallpaper was coming down in places and held up by thumbtacks. There was a small refrigerator in the room that had seen better days. While there were several nice pieces of antique furniture in the room, we found it to be in need of redecorating. We also didn’t think it was worth what we paid. However, we were thankful to find a room available as it was peak foliage season and everything else in the area was booked solid.

Here’s a pano photo of our room at the Hilltop Inn in Sugar Hill (it’s several photos stitched, which is why the bottom rail of the bed looks messed up):

After unloading our luggage, we went back downstairs to talk to Meri and Mike. We really did enjoy chatting with them. Mike is a Vietnam Vet, so he and Steve had a lot to talk about. Meri showed me binders she had put together which included maps, tourist information, and brochures for local restaurants. Their two dogs (rescues) were a little skittish as they had been found abandoned and feral and Meri was doing her best to get them acclimated to living with humans in a safe environment.

Our first night in Sugar Hill - after driving all day long - Steve decided he wanted to just stay in and watch baseball. There aren’t TVs in the rooms, but they didn’t mind him watching the game in the living room. We re-heated our leftovers from our meal the night before (Briar Lea Inn in Bethel). While Steve watched TV, I downloaded photos to my laptop.

The bed in our room was quite firm, and Steve slept fitfully, if at all. He woke with a very sore back. I slept OK despite the uncomfortable bed. We were up fairly early the next morning and Steve went downstairs and brought back coffee to the room while I got dressed for breakfast.

Breakfast was served buffet style for an hour and a half each morning (8:30-10:00) with coffee and tea available at 8am. The food was pretty good. Meri used to be a full-time caterer, and still caters events, so she whipped up quiche and muffins with bacon or ham on the side. There was also fresh fruit, yogurt, cereals, breads and spreads, and fruit juice. Each evening, Meri would hang the next morning’s breakfast menu on the wall.

At breakfast, Steve and I socialized with the other guests staying at the Inn. The first morning, we chatted with a couple from California who were leaving that morning. The second morning we chatted with a couple visiting from England.

After breakfast, we loaded up the car and headed out for a second day of exploration. We drove a huge loop from Sugar Hill, out to Gorham, down to Jackson, and then back to Bethel - with short deviations along the way to check out covered bridges and other scenic areas.

It was overcast most of the morning, but that just made the scenery more beautiful. By the time we made it to Jackson, we were hungry, so we decided to have lunch at the Wildcat Inn and Tavern. The food was OK. Nothing to rave about, but it filled our hungry bellies. What was cool about Jackson was that they were having a gourd contest of sorts called “Return of the Pumpkin People”. This is an annual event and the creations throughout town were so clever! My favorite of all we saw was this one (which also happened to be the winner). This is a perfect Gullivers Travels!

Here are photos from our scenic drive in the White Mountain National Forest area:

In the group above, is a photo of the Mount Washington Hotel. It was truly amazing to see this huge structure in the middle of such a wide expanse of land. The Mount Washington Hotel was completed in 1902 as one of the largest, most modern hotels in the White Mountains. Served by as many as 57 trains per day, the Mount Washington Hotel became known as one of the most luxurious summer resorts in the United States. I wish we could have checked out the inside.

After our drive (and our filling lunch), Steve and I stopped a local grocery store to pick up some easy to prepare meals to eat later at the B&B if we got hungry. Meri was nice enough to prepare the food for us and brought it to us in the living area, where we were watching TV and catching up with emails on our laptops. We went to bed early, and I was asleep in no time. Steve, again, had a hard time sleeping because of the hard bed.

The next morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and interesting conversation with the couple from England, before loading up the car and making our way north to North Stratford, which is where we crossed the Connecticut River and entered Vermont.

As soon as we crossed the river, Steve pulled into a gas station and we kissed each other in celebration of achieving our goal to visit all 50 states. I can’t think of anyone else to have these adventures with!

Stay tuned for the next installment: Vermont (when I get to it!)

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