Bettina had been dreaming about a New England road trip for quite some time, excited to see the quaint villages and picturesque houses dotting the countryside. When dreaming of vacations though we typically always picture blue skies and warm summer days. This was generally not the case for this trip. We ran into some snow, a fair amount of rain, a lot more snow, and a bit more rain, with patches of blue skies and sunshine (which is when we tried to take all the pictures!).
Arriving in Boston late at night, you can find our full itinerary here, we quickly picked up our rental car and headed off to Nashua, New Hampshire, our first overnight.
There was nothing we really wanted to see here, but were just trying to get outside of Boston while there was little traffic late at night. We spent the next two days traversing New England (not actually a state, but a region comprised of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut). Early the next morning, after a mandatory coffee stop, we started heading east, with an aim to pick up Vermont State Route 100, supposedly one of the more picturesque routes in the state. The ground was mostly covered in snow, but that didn’t hamper the beauty of some of the small towns we found along the way.
We stopped in Woodstock, VT, for a caffeine injection and wandered around the cute little town...
Shop Bettina's Travel Look
without missing out on the main attraction - the Woodstock covered bridge.
If you ever find yourself in Woodstock, maybe also on a New England road trip, we can highly recommend Mon Vert Café. Their coffee and treats are delicious and made with locally sourced organic ingredients. Even in winter, this place was bustling. I can imagine it would be very busy in the summer!
We made it to Burlington, VT, just in time for sunset. It's the most populous city in the state, famous as the birthplace of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream! The city is small, and more of a college town, with impressive fraternity and sorority houses.
The downtown area was just as pretty as we had hoped. After a long drive, we enjoyed walking up and down Church Street, even though it was really cold.
After a long day on the road, we hit the pillows. The next morning, we awoke to sun and blue skies and stopped by the waterfront of Lake Champlain for a quick stroll before making our run for the coast.
Our first stop for a few quick pictures was Montpelier, VT, the state capital. There was no a lot going on here on a Sunday morning and with a tight driving schedule, Bettina's working schedule (she ended up getting work requests and managed to work on the road using a phone hotspot while Kyle was driving), we kept going.
We met some locals on the way and made a mandatory stop at a local maple syrup farm.
Being Canadian, there is no substitute to pure Canadian maple syrup, however, I must admit that the Vermont maple syrup is pretty tasty as well. We sampled all the grades maple syrup at Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks and couldn’t resist some maple syrup flavoured ice cream!
Running on a sugar high we drove all the way through Vermont and into Maine. We came across some beautiful cabins and were surprised by the legitimate-looking ski hills through the White Mountains.
Before we knew it we were in Portland, Maine, half-way through our New England road trip hungry and ready for seafood!
