new england
so i spent ten days scuttling around new england...leaving boston to go to portsmouth, kittery, olgonquit, kennebunkport, north conway, lincoln, st johnsbury, stowe, burlington, montreal, ottawa, belleville, richmond, toronto, niagara, buffalo, albany, then back to boston for commencement. it was an absolute blast.
From: Jessica Hui
Date: May 30, 2006 9:58 PM
Subject: Hello from New Hampshire!
Hey all,
We're in North Conway, New Hampshire, for the night, where we came from Maine (through Kittery, Olgunquit, and Kennebunkport) this morning. The trip to Maine was incredibly quick (only 90min from my dorm). Yesterday we had lots of lobster (rolls at lunch and whole at dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall in Kennebunkport) and stopped at a bunch of rundown antique shops. Stayed at a little inn in Olgunquit. This morning we saw another antique place, run by one R. Jorgensen and his family, on a gorgeous 57-acre estate...it was mad fab, and all their stuff was restored very very well. We passed Sanford and the Lakes Region on our way out of Maine (one of the lakes, Winnipisaukee, means "Smiling Waters" in whichever Native Am. language it originated in...I'm extrapolating from this name and "Milwaukee" that the -aukee suffix must mean some sort of water or lake), and the lakes were amazing: deep, cold, clear water with high high pines to the very edge. Often little houses were also built on the very edge of the shore (and also on little islands on the lake), and though there were many boats docked it was incredibly quiet...we didn't see a soul out there. The weather is beautiful ... crisp and cool, with bright sun and constant breezes that yield against you. I think it's probably too cool for swimming, though, as cold as the water is, though it's perfect otherwise.
North Conway's at the foot of White Mountain and home to famous outlet malls, and the hotel we're staying at tonight (called the North Conway Grand Hotel) is not only really really pretty but it is about 10 feet from the first outlet stores. We're essentially attached to the outlet mall...which is, by the way, the quietest outlet mall ever, with parking spaces galore. A rare find indeed, and no tax. Otherwise, North Conway is tiny and deserted. At 6:30pm all the stores were closed, and only a handful of restaurants to be found (literally a handful). Apparently everything closes at 5pm. They have a sort of commons, where kids were playing softball (complete with uniforms), and I really think the entire population was there in attendance. The commons also contains the playground, the fire station, and rail station. There are two stoplights, and one movie theatre with one screen (actually there were two but only one movie, the Da Vinci Code, is showing).
My internet usage will be spotty, and my cell phone coverage, though less so, is also less than reliable. Can't blame anyone, though, when you're not even around houses. =) Tomorrow we drive the Kancamagus Highway through to Lincoln, and on into Vermont!
Love,
Jess
From: Jessica Hui
Date: May 31, 2006 11:01 PM
Subject: From Vermont!
Dear all,
We left New Hampshire via the Kancamagus (an Indian chief's name meaning "fearless one") Highway, stopping at scenic points Lower Falls, Rocky Gorge, and a Divide which diverts water two ways down to the Atlantic. No swimming allowed at Rocky Gorge due to an accident in the last century where a girl diving in the pool was trapped for hours beneath a waterfall before people found her, barely alive. We saw cyclers very much deserving of the highway name, as they were going uphill in those high mountains (I think the highest elevation was 3000 feet). Highway ended in sleepy and unremarkable town of Lincoln.
Continued on through Franconia to see the Flume Gorge, an incredibly deep cut in the land that was discovered at the end of the 19th century by a 93-year-old woman who was out fishing. None of her family would believe her until they eventually saw it with their own eyes. We took a 2-mile hike through the gorge, past a waterfall, through another Liberty Gorge, and over deep (40-feet) glacier pool. Near after was Echo Lake, a huge wide thing at the opening of the valleys, with strong breezes, very cold clear water, and an incredibly quiet white sandy beach. All these places are neat and clean; nothing littered, nothing broken. After that we visited the Robert Frost house (the poem Oven Bird is placard-ed in his backyard clearing) before going on to Littleton and its Littleton Grist Mill (some 200 years old, restored lately to begin grinding its own flour and such again).
From Littleton we drove into Vermont in the face of a newly arrived thunderstorm, which sent lightning bolts down around us and drove Mom nuts! Our hotel is five minutes from St Johnsbury proper, where we had dinner at a place called Elements Foods (certainly on my list of world favorites, serving Vermont-fresh foods rather inventively) and roamed around town afterwards looking at various old churches (dating back to 1870s) and the St Johnsbury Athenaeum, whose double-decker bookshelves complete with half-level walkways are tempting.
Have yet to find fresh lemonade.
Love, Jess
beginning in montreal, we lived in a few adorable little bed'n'breakfasts, so the internet access (and email updates) came to a screeching halt. what we did thereafter...