Tue 12th Sep

We set off early this morning and headed for Lockport, NY. It was an easy drive, about 2 and a half hours. Once there we booked ourselves on an Erie Canal boat ride, going through a couple of the locks. It was another lovely sunny day (25C), and perfect for a slow sail, nice scenery, the locks were right in town.

We were only about 2 and a half hours from home so decided to set off. The border crossing wasn't busy and the traffic was good so we made good time. Get to sleep in tomorrow, in our own bed!

Mon. 11th Sep

We set off on our return journey this morning. We did almost two hours on the Interstate and decided to turn off at York Harbour and have one last walk on the beach. We had stopped there several days ago and knew it had everything we needed - easy parking, good coffee and restrooms! Being a Monday morning it was quieter, and was a nice break. Ian had a paddle in the sea, it will likely be six months before his next opportunity.

Next was about 5 hours driving to our stop for the night at Liverpool in New York State. Good road, very scenic, part was through the Berkshires (mountains?), no fall colour change here yet. We plugged in the iPad and listened to some old 60's music for a change - radio reception is pretty bad here. Liverpool is a small place near Syracuse, nowhere near as nice as the 'real' Liverpool I'm more familiar with. The best restaurant in town was a pizza place so that had to do for dinner. The Best Western Plus we'd booked wasn't that great either, it was being refurbished.

Sun. 10th Sep.

Woke up to another sunny day . . . shorts again.

We set off in a north west direction and made our first stop at Fort Edgecomb SHS, near Wiscasett. It was quiet, we were the only ones there. There are quite a few of these forts around, leftover from the early 1800's. We then headed overland to Owl's Head Lighthouse where we walked through a wooded park and up steps to the light. It is in a pretty spot, and had a small gift shop. We then headed further up and made a stop at Rockland for a coffee and a walk around town. We then headed further up the coast to Camden, a small town with a picturesque harbour. We sat overlooking the harbour and had a picnic lunch in the sunshine. There were several schooners and lots of smaller boats, even a couple of boys fishing who became quite excited when a seagull swooped down and stole one of their fish. We wandered around and went in some of the shops before moving on. We had about an hour's drive to our hotel just outside Augusta, it will be our furthest point from home. We need to get the maps out tonight and decide our return route. There is a Texas Roadhouse within walking distance of the hotel so that is dinner sorted!

Sat. 9th Sept.

We set off this morning  and our first stop was York Harbour where we parked the car and went for a walk on the beach. We got a nice coffee and watched the surfers for a while. Nice and sunny, both in shorts today! We went and had a look at several lighthouses, Ian wanted photos for his camera club group. It is a Saturday and the traffic is busy on the coast . . at a crawl in some places, we put up with it for a while then turned off and took the faster highway to our next stop, Freeport.

Freeport is famous for LL Bean and there are three of their stores here - Outlet, Home, and the Flagship store. We bought items in all three! The whole town is outlet shopping, lots of free parking to make it easy.

We had another fish dinner before checking into the hotel and putting our feet up for the evening.

Friday 8th Sep

We got through our night at the Salem Inn with no problems - there were some comments on the web that some rooms had ghosts, but didn't see any, thank goodness. We had a good breakfast in the old kitchen (basement), before checking out and moving on.

Our first stop was Gloucester, one of the oldest fishing ports in the US. It was a lovely sunny morning and it was nice to linger. Next was Portsmouth in New Hampshire, where we had lunch and another walk by the water. We did a slight detour to New Castle and visited Fort Constitution, then drove across the river into Maine and stopped at Fort McClary on the opposite side. Both forts were on the water, the breeze was nice and there were lots of boats around.

We then checked out the outlet mall not far from our hotel, as usual Ian found a few items to buy but not me - maybe I will have more luck later. Our hotel is an old fashioned motel that is very nice. The guy just bought it and moved here from Etobicoke, near Toronto - small world. Tonight we had a lovely haddock dinner, two big pieces and we could barely eat the chips! Delicious, we're being spoiled.

Thursday 7 Sept.

After listening to rain on the windows most of the night, it was nice to see it had stopped by morning. It was cloudy but the sun was trying to get through. We had a 30 minute drive to get to Marblehead, a small place on the coast. We had a walk around, Ian was happy taking photos of all the boats, some of them actually sailed by. We also walked up to Burial Hill, one of the oldest cemeteries in New England, where there were great views of the town and the coast.

We then moved on to Salem where the National Park Service does a 40 minute movie on the Witch Trials, and another one on Salem's history as (at one time) the biggest seaport in this area. We went to the Customs House, which in its heyday had 212 ships a year, and everything on board was taxed, the Derby Wharf is still here, one of 3, in it's heyday there were 50 wharves. Must have been a very busy place, now it is mostly restaurants and shops. 

We checked into our hotel for the night - The Salem Inn, a historic property. We had a rest before going out for dinner, our first 'fish and chips' this trip, which were very good.

Wed. 6th Sep

Started our day with a fairly decent breakfast at the hotel. Should last us until at least lunchtime!

We had a 3 hr drive to Lexington, Mass. this morning. It was raining, ranging from light to torrential - better in the car than walking around. First stop was the visitor centre where we watched a movie "The Road to Revolution". It had finally stopped raining when we came out so we went into town and got some lunch and a nice coffee and walk-about. Nice place but we have been here before so didn't do all the touristy stuff. 

We continued on to the Saugus Iron Works, which was only about 30 minutes away. We got there in time for the ranger-led tour of the site at 2:15, we were the only people on it so as well as being very interesting we also got picked on to answer questions- no hiding at the back 😀

The Ironworks were the first in the US and were built in 1646 but closed about 24 years later. Ian especially enjoyed it due to his steel industry background, it was only a 10 minute drive from there to our hotel - another Hampton Inn so we knew what to expect. It is on a one-way highway so we decided we were best to walk to a restaurant for dinner tonight. There is a pizza parlour nearby and a Wendy's so I guess it will be pizza!

Tue Sep 5

Tue. 5 Sep

Set off at 8:40 this morning, it was a little foggy, which isn't unusual for this time of year. It soon burnt off and the sun started peeking through. The border crossing at Lewiston wasn't too bad - only about 10 minutes. The border guard seemed very bored!

We decided to have a little break from the Interstate and took a detour south to Geneva, at the top end of the Finger Lakes region. We had a walk around and went in for a bite to eat. We continued on to Seneca Falls and came across the Women's Rights National Historic Park. We went into the museum and watched a short film which educated us on the beginnings of suffrage in the US. I must admit my knowledge on this subject tends to be more UK based. An interesting place, and not hard to see that equality issues continue even today.

We got back on the Interstate for a couple more hours to our first nights stop at East Greenbush which is just past Albany. There was a Cracker Barrel restaurant not far from the hotel, so we decided to have dinner there before checking in and putting our feet up. Hampton Inn - nice room, king size bed and huge shower - all we need.