Summer travel trip | Nova Scotia

Bay of Fundy, Ingonish Beach & Bay Saint Lawrence 

Nova Scotia 

We left Saint John, New Brunswick & drove in to Nova Scotia with plans of staying in Sydney. It ended up being a really long day of driving to get us there. The highlight from our full day of driving was definitely the Bay of Fundy! The boys absolutely loved throwing rocks in the water for over an hour. Mike and I were amazed at the colorful rocks and how the mist rolled in and out over the mountains. 

 From Sydney we drove the Cabot Trail, which is a scenic roadway that takes you around the greater part of Cape Breton (Northern Nova Scotia), swam at Ingonish beach and did a 3.5 hour whale tour (or "whale bust" as Amos calls it) in the Bay Saint Lawrence. We didn't see any whales but the boat ride and country side that we saw from the ocean were insanely beautiful. From Sydney we headed South to Halifax! (: 

Summer travel trip | Mt. Washington & New Brunswick

We left Lake Winnipesaukee, NH on Friday and headed to Mt. Washington. Mikey and Brock were on Mt. Washington almost six years ago to the day, on foot, headed North. Isn't it magical when life comes full circle like that? This time we took the Mt. Washington Auto Road & made it up in less than an hour. It's honestly other-wordly on top. We tooled around at the summit for a little while, snapping photos & enjoying the view .... Mikey reminiscing and telling me stories of when he and Brock were there. We hopped back in the car and headed into Maine for the night. We didn't have big plans for Maine on the way through, so we stayed in the dinky town of Ellsworth for the night before pushing on to the US / Canadian border. 

On Saturday we made our way to the border for stamps in our passports! Solomon & Ez got their first stamps & Amos received his 4th! Whooohoooo! We made it into Saint John, New Brunswick in time to snag a hotel and find dinner before the rain started. Saint John somehow had the big city feel but was still a quaint town. We had dinner at a pub and found the local candy store...(the boys had spending money from Honey and Pop & Ria) needless to say, we walked away with a huge brown paper sack of candy! We didn't get to explore Saint John very much because we had over a 6+ hour drive the next day to make it to Sydney, Nova Scotia, so after breakfast we loaded up and hit the road again! 

Summer travel trip | Lake Winnipesaukee, NH

We made it to Lake Winnipesaukee, NH on Wednesday and stayed in the quaint little town of Wolfeboro, thanks to Alexa & Chris' recommendation. Lake Winnipesaukee will forever be one of my favorite spots now. We stayed at the Wolfeboro Inn and cannot recommend it enough. We were within walking distance of Main Street and the inn has it's own private beach on the water, which was perfect.

I had researched the area a little and found a drive-in movie theater at Weirs Beach which is only about a 30 minute drive from the Wolfeboro Inn. So, the second night we were in town we loaded up the boys & went to see Despicable Me 3 on the big screen! This is one of my favorite memories from our trip! Mike and I haven't seen a movie at a drive-in since we were freshmen at Clemson & to get to take the boys was such a treat!

The next morning we had cinnamon rolls & egg sandwiches at a local bakery before heading to the summit of Mt. Washington!

Summer travel trip | NYC & Boston

We woke up in NYC on Sunday & strolled around until we found Kirsh, a Jewish bakery, where we sampled their amazing home made pastries (we highly recommend the "bread basket") & decided on a course for the day. We knew we had limited time and since Mikey & I were just in the city in May, we wanted the boys to see Central Park & the Natural History Museum. Needless to say, they loved Central Park! Mosie & Solly especially loved rock climbing and throwing rocks into the reservoir. After melting for a few hours, we decided to take it to the Natural History Museum. Solomon & Ezra's favorite part was the African animal exhibit and Amos' favorite thing was the Blue Whale (it is pretty amazing)! After the museum, we had a (super) late lunch of pizza at Motorino, where our sweet friend Tori met us with treats! *Thank you!!* 

From NYC we headed on to Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts where we got to stay with DP, Mere & May for the next couple of days. We loved seeing their home and getting to just be with them for a few days. On the 4th week went into Boston and stayed at the Constitution Inn right at the head of the Freedom Trail in the historic Charlestown Navy Yard. We walked about a mile or so on the Freedom Trail into town, scored (more) yummy pizza for lunch, found post cards at I Am Books (a super cute Italian book store) and got to go to the New England Aquarium. We even had time for a short play on the splash pad right near our inn before getting cleaned up for the fireworks show. We opted to watch the fireworks from a pier right near our inn (instead of trying to wrangle four monkeys in a ginormous crowd close to midnight) and while the view wasn't spectacular (read: there was a skyscraper blocking our view initially), I really enjoyed getting to see the show (and other fireworks from the pier) and being able to walk back to the inn and crawl right into bed afterwards.

We shared a breaky of donuts in our room with DP, Mere & May before they headed home to pack for a few days away with DP's family and we headed North. Before heading on to Lake Winnipesaukee, Mike, the boys & I walked back down to the water for a few pictures and to let the boys throw rocks in one more time. Boston is one of my favorite places and I'm so glad that I got to share it with my special people!