Two Towns (and everything in between)

This trip anticipated a lot of contrast, and we’ve spent nearly a week moving from the mountains and forests of New England to the flat farming expanse of Ohio. We’ve seen tranquil stretches of largely car-free roads through dense woods (Route 201 in Maine), gentle misty rain winding around the edge of the lush Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge, the scenic rapids of Kennebec and Dead rivers, steep beautiful notches and some spectacular waterfalls and swimming holes. We have passed through the Erie Canal corridor – a great opportunity to learn about the amazing feat of building this 363 mile link that opened the vast north of the country around the Great Lakes by linking them to the Hudson River, and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean via New York City. This engineering feat with 36 locks and aqueducts was even more remarkable as it was built by men with no experience (apparently there were no civil engineers in America in 1825 when it opened)!

Ohio

Goats at the barn

Orchard House sheep

Tractors at Hartford Fair

Ohio landscape

Girls at the Fair

1959 Dodge

We have stayed largely rural during this leg of the trip – Stowe mountain village in Vermont (think where the Von Trapp family settled after leaving Austria) and Granville, Ohio, a small but charming rural University town. Both are lovely and very different – Stowe is a cute sophisticated tourist town with wine bars and gourmet offerings; Granville echoes an earlier period with immaculately manicured streets, kids riding their bikes on the footpaths, deer wandering the streets at dusk, and a local and very popular homemade frozen custard store that seems to serve as the hub of the village. Oh so delicious and so much better than ice cream….mmm.

We biked the pretty Recreation Trail along the river in Vermont – Amelie managed a spectacular high speed slide (racing Mummy??) replete with some impressive grazes; first injury on the trip (if you exclude Daddy’s broken toe the evening before we headed out). We also got to experience a true Ohio country fair. The girls loved the old-style fairground rides and games, we inspected the hogs and other livestock, and watched local trot racing. Our rural experience was rounded off with our stay at Orchard House, a (gourmet!) farmstay with chickens sheep, goats and even an alpaca. We wanted to visit the Newark Earthworks – the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures in the world, but simply ran out of time! Next time…..

Vermont

Authentic fondue at Heinz’s restaurant

New England houses

Biking the Recreation Path

Stowe Church

Injured racing!

The next leg becomes a lot more urban as we hug Lake Michigan and hang out in the Windy City, Chicago.

All photos from Stowe, Granville and the many roads in between are here:

Posted by mtottenh

Mellowing out in Maine

How quickly 7 days rushes by! We are definitely sorry to see the end of this week.

The aim was to spend our first leg relatively isolated without any ‘must do’ attractions, so that we could collectively de-stress from the city. And we succeeded.

We have spent valuable time reconnecting with each other, ditching the electronics (well not entirely, but at least for the most part) and just spending quality time in general. We spent every day in the lake; either swimming, fishing, canoeing or just hanging out. Amelie partly overcame her fear of swimming with lake fish, Ana rediscovered fishing and a certain lack of squeamishness for baiting the hook with worms. Both basically insisted on sleeping in the tent every night by themselves which is impressive given how remote we are, the complete lack of light, and the many critters they know surround around us.

We chartered a gracefully ageing DeHavilland DHC-2 seaplane to fly over Moosehead Lake – a first for everyone. Such a beautiful way to travel and a great (and historic) way to appreciate the vastness of the North Woods of Maine; made up of 3.5 million acres of forestland and dotted with many of the 3400 lakes across the State. We searched vainly for Moose, but to no avail. Whilst there are apparently 3 Moose for every person here, they remained incognito for us, despite a uncivilized early start to try and spot some! Unperturbed, our girls have coined a new plural for these iconic animals – “Meese”.

After some Daddy encouragement (more or less threats), we also hiked to the summit of Borehead Mountain which was a real challenge – 4 miles of tough climb up to 1947 feet, a sudden thunderstorm and some hair-raising clambering at the summit. But spectacular views! The girls were amazing especially given the difficulty level, and were on both an adrenaline and achievement high. After a particularly nerve-wracking section, the iPad generation’s metaphor:

Amelie: It’s so intense
Ana: Yeah, it’s just like you’re playing a video game!

We are now off to Vermont, a quick stopover in northern New York State’s Finger Lakes, then a few days in Ohio en-route to the Midwest!