As I started sorting out my photos for September, I was amazed how fast this month went by and yet we covered so much territory and saw so many things!!! 

We started out the month in Bayfield, Wisconsin. We had a really nice site right on the edge of the water.  The highlight of our time there was the sailboat ride.  We didn't want to go on a group sail and chance being exposed to the virus, so we took a private cruise.  So glad we did!

It was so nice to watch the sunrise from the campsite.

From Bayfield we went to Munising to see the Pictured Rocks.  I had hoped to do some kayaking to get to them, but the water was just too rough for that.  The kayak rental shops were canceling.  So instead, we hiked into the falls that I wanted to see.  The first hike was to Cathedral Rock.  To be honest, I had not even heard of it, but I should have, it is pretty famous.  And it is pretty amazing too!

Each hike we did, the view was something I would have expected in the South Pacific.  The water color was so tropical.

One of the beaches I was on was full of round smooth rocks.  People had special scoops and were busy collecting.  I asked what they were after and they said that they were all agates.  I scooped up a few for myself.

Spray Falls is one I really wanted to see from the kayak, but it was pretty impressive from the shore too.  It was a really long day hiking,  Spray Falls, Sable Falls and the red dunes.

We left the Pictured Rocks and headed towards the Mackinac Bridge.  It is the 3rd longest suspension bridge in the world.  Due to high winds, there was a 2 hour wait to cross it!  When we first started the wait, we were told that we had to be escorted over, but by the time we were up in line, the winds had calmed and we were able to cross over unescorted.

We took a ferry over to Mackinac Island.  It was so unique. Hard to describe how this island is.  It is kind of stopped in time, mostly for tourists, but not in a touristy way.  No cars are allowed on the island. Only horse drawn carts and bicycles.  Everything is done with the horses.  Even the UPS deliveries and garbage. 

  We spent the day walking all over the island and climbed up a trillion stairs to an arch. 

 

Since we left home, amid the virus, we have noticed how much is being done to protect the public and still keep their businesses alive.  If we eat out, we try to go to non-chain restaurants in order to help keep them in business.  We eat outside.  We mask and sanitize.  A lot of the places are using paper and the utensils are packaged up.  We have had our temperatures taken to enter and there is always a bottle of sanitizer when you enter.  Tables and chairs are wiped down after one group leaves and before we are seated.  Restaurants wipe the menus down, menus are laminated.  Some places have the touchless method.  You scan the sign with your phone to get the menu and order online, then a waiter will bring you your food.  

Along the waterfront were so many beautiful mansions from the past.  They are now being used as bed and breakfasts or museums.

Here is the famous Grand Hotel.  It has been used for quite a few movies.

I heard about a little German town called Frankenmuth, so it was the next stop.  We spent a day walking around and then I went to the hugest Christmas shop ever.  It had everything you could ever think of for Christmas.  I walked around part of it, but there was no way that I could have covered the whole store.

When we made our reservations for a site in New York, we were told that depending on where we were traveling from, we might have to quarantine for 14 days upon entering New York.  I went online to their website and found the list of good and bad states.  It is updated each week.  I kept my eyes on it and the day before we were to go to Ohio, Ohio was added to the list!  So we canceled our reservations at a site in Ohio and drove right on through to Erie, Pennsylvania.  Jimmy was born there, I had it on our list already, so it worked out just fine. He was pretty tickled when I called and told him where I was.   From there we did a day trip up to New York to Niagara Falls.  Then we were booked at two different camps in Pennsylvania to make sure we had enough days out of the bad states we have visited in order to enter.  The day before we planned on entering NY, I had to go online and fill out a form to enter.  We were given the green light.  

Niagara Falls was nothing like I had imagined.  It was more than one falls and they were not all together, but in sections.  It was massive and huge and powerful.  Way better than I expected.

We moved on to Morris, Pennsylvania before heading into NY.  I really liked the rolling hills.  The fall colors were just beginning to touch the hills, which was a good sight to see hoping that we weren't too late for the colors up in New England. It also made me a little nervous that we might not make it in time.  It was so nice to drive around in the countryside so full of farms and small homey towns.  

Most little churches are painted white, this one really stood out.  Like for miles, haha.

We spent some time in Williamsport.  It is an older town, with huge, really huge mansions.  There is a whole street of them that go on and on.  The street is even called Millionaires Road.  And cathedrals.  Every street has one, with a steeple high in the sky.

We headed on into New York to the Finger Lakes and stayed at Watkins Glen.  I had seen photos of this place online, but they didn't do justice to this place. My photos don't either.  There are falls after falls as you walk along a paved trail, mostly uphill.  So beautiful.  It had more people there than we have seen on our hike/walks so far.  Even more than Niagara Falls.  

Even for hiking there are COVID rules that have been put into place.  If the trail is a loop trail, they have one way signs.  People are told to step aside if somebody wants to pass and wearing a mask is recommended. 

We drove around the lake, stopped in at a vineyard and sampled some wine.  I loved the vineyards and farms that went to the edge of the lake.

One of my favorite things here has been the homes, they all seem so huge, but I guess you needed huge houses for the large sized families they had. 

And then two months after we left Oregon, here we were...from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast,

Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine.

I can't believe how far we came and how fast it all went.  There were times I really thought about going right on back and giving up the whole thing.  We have learned so much!  We used to take forever to set up the trailer and I just never knew how it was going to go.  But now, it just all happens without a glitch, well, even when there is a glitch, I don't get tense trying to figure it out.

I really enjoyed time in Kennebunkport.  A little harbor town.  The Bush family has a summer home somewhere here that has been passed down in the family.  It is a popular place, we drove through on a weekend and it was packed like Disneyland.  We didn't even try to find a place to park, just kept on driving and came back on Monday.  It was deserted then.

I 

I really liked the style of the homes along the water.

And of course churches everywhere.

These three little boats are kind of an iconic sight here.  The giftshops have photos of them for sale.

I know about the RED carpet, but have never thought that the BLUE carpet would be rolled out for me.

This house is called the Wedding Cake house.  

John has no opinion on where we go as we travel along.  He says it doesn't matter. Whatever it is I find to see, he goes along with it.  Well, once we arrived at the coast, he announced he was there to see the old seaport towns, especially the port of Glouchester where the TV show WICKED TUNA is filmed.  So off we went to seek out the ports.  As we arrived in Glouchester, we drove around, not knowing exactly where to go.  Finally, I said, 'lets just park and walk around...the water is right over there'  and there in front of us was a parking place.  As I got out to pay the meter, I looked up and there was the sign for the port!!!  Absolutely nothing was going on there, no people, no action, no fish.  We walked all over looking at boats and drove on.

Fall colors along the highways!  This is all natural.

I was trying to avoid large cities.  It is so hard to drive and find what you want and then when you do, there is the parking bit. Well, here we were so close to Boston, a place I have always wanted to see, so we bit the bullet and went for it.  I am so glad we did.  First off, I found out that if we went to a certain lot, it was a National Park lot and we would be able to park for only $7.50 with our Golden Park Pass.  The GPS got us right there without any traffic problems.  But then the truck would not fit under the little height bar.  bummer...we backed on out, happy the street was deserted and right across the road was an outdoor lot!  Hooray!  We pulled in...took the ticket and found out it was going to cost $38!  Oh well, we were there and we were in and now we were going to enjoy the city! When we got back and left the lot, it only charged us $22.  So funny how that would have been so much to park, but after thinking it was going to be $38, we felt we got a bargain. 

We went on the Freedom Trail.  It is such a great idea!  A red brick trail takes you all over Boston to all the old historical sights.  It is a 2.5 mile trail.  Then we walked back to our truck.  It was so good to see all those places I have heard of.  

Since we were so close, I wanted to see the Vanderbilt mansion.  It was in Rhode Island, just south of Boston.  It is called the Breakers.  It was their summer home.  Unbelievable!!!  It was huge and so elaborate.  It really made me wonder what their winter home looked like!

John did not want to go inside.  So instead I pointed him the way to the Cliffs Walk.  It is along the water and goes right in front of the mansions.  I wanted to hike along there too, but there wasn't time to do both. Until I arrived, I didn't know that there would be more mansions than the Breakers to visit.  But since we had spent the day in Boston, there wasn't time to see more than the Breakers.  Anyway, he dropped me in front of the Breakers and went to park and find the trail.  I went on inside the mansion.  I took my time and then went out to the grounds and saw the ocean.  The trail was right there and I thought it would be funny if I saw John.  I started back up the lawn towards the mansion when I heard him call my name!  Unreal!  I could not believe the odds that he would walk up at the exact moment!

Maine is famous for lobster.  I was told that I had to try a lobster roll.  But I didn't know that there were different kinds.  My first one was just cold lobster on a roll with a pkt of mayonaise.  It was good, but I didn't really see why everyone raved about them.  I checked it out and found out that I should try one with mayo and celery added.  Oh man!  Yes!  It was served on a toasted roll and it was a hit.  I loved it.  Then we tried lobster, just plain lobster.  I have had it before, but not a whole one and not a Maine one.  John bought one for himself too.  Ok, so maybe I am not a fan of having a whole dead thing on my plate.  And then I have to pull it apart and dig out the meat.  Nope. 

It tasted good, but next time, I will tear it all apart before it goes on my plate and I sit down to eat it. John took one bite and the rest went into the fridge for me to make myself a lobster roll the next day.

One day, I decided to bake a chicken pot pie for dinner.  But it wasn't until I had the crust made that I remembered I left my rolling pin in storage.  Oh well, I figured out another way...

After 10 days in Maine, we headed for the quickly changing fall leaves in New Hampshire.  I was told that they call us 'leafers'.  I don't mind that at all.  The leaves are amazing.  Oregon has beautiful fall leaves.  But from photos that I have seen, I thought I should see these too.  In comparison, the leaves here are more naturally orange and red, in Oregon, they are gold and yellow.

We spent most of our time driving around to see the leaves. We drove all the way around Squam Lake that day. I was pretty stoked when we found this little church.  Most of the churches are on streets with power lines in front. And the trees by them don't have much color yet. This one was just what I was looking for.

Beside it is an old old cemetery with fall colors to make it even more photogenic. 

Our campsite is on Moore Pond.  It was just a tiny walk to see it.

We decided to climb/hike Mt Chocoura.  I think it is the very most hardest hike I have ever done.  Instead of a trail, it was a riverbed.  But instead of river rocks, it was mountain boulders.  You could not lift your eyes up from the spot where you were going to step next, all the while planning where to step next.  Then came the final stretch, going up slabs of granite.  Oh how it was worth that climb!  You could see all the surrounding lakes along with the changing colors.  Tough but so worth it!

Well, I found out there was something else on John's goal list.  To see a wild moose.  He talked to a few people and figured out the best place to find moose.  Funny thing... the place is called 'Moose Alley'. It was positive that you would not only see a moose, you would see many! We drove up 130 miles to Moose Alley.  We drove to the Canadian border.  We drove on old logging roads, sat by ponds, and wallows, and creeks.  We saw wild turkeys, we saw loons, we saw moose horns, we saw leaves and covered bridges. We waited and waited.  And Waited!  But nothing.  No Moose!  All day.

Our campsite was surrounded by trees. Oak trees.  Oak trees with falling acorns.  I could not believe the rain of acorns falling constantly and how hard they hit when they fall.  One night, it rained and down came even more acorns.  The next day, I discovered one had hit the windshield and it cracked.  We had to have a window replacer come to our campsite and replace it. 

This is what I wanted to capture the most on this trip to New Hampshire.  I have seen so many beautiful photos and was so excited when we found this little church.  It had some power lines, but I was able to edit them out and get the shot I wanted.  

It is named Union Church.

Another church that I really wanted to see, but was sure would not, ended up being only 10 miles from our site!  When we drove there something just didn't look the same.  And then I realized...NO STEEPLE!  There was a woman there shooting and I asked her about it, she said it was down for repairs.  So sad, but oh well, I was able to get some great reflections anyway.

So here we are at the first of October.  Leaves are at their peak, I got the shots I was hoping for and even more.  We made it to the Atlantic and saw so many amazing things along the way.  It is time to turn around and head back to Oregon.  I need a grandkid hug or two and time to be off vacation.  

I didn't realize that my good friend Frankie from the CASS program lived so close to where we were staying.  Well, 2 hours away close.  We were going to meet up half way, but to my amazement, Frankie decided to take the drive and meet up with me.  It was like stepping back in time at the same time as we caught up on the past years!  What a great ending to my time in New England!