The East Coast

As we barreled past our half way mark of our trip we wrapped up our East Coast tour. Ohio was filled with family and friend visits. Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Maine… friends and family. As a matter of fact, the last few weeks we’ve been treated like royalty arriving. The weather has been more than ideal, (with the exception of the white out storm from Cleveland to Jamestown!) staying above 50 degrees during the day. The nights had been very cold, too cold to sleep in the car or camp, but that hasn’t been a problem because every where we have stayed we have been invited into homes.

Northern New York (before the accident, BTA) we spent time with friends from Church. Spoiled with hot chocolate and coffee from a Keurig (one of those single cup coffee makers) which I am in love with! Adrian spent one day helping at church and we got to know the Barreto’s. We also explored Jamestown, where Lucy (think I love Lucy) was from! That was really cool. Opportunities to learn about different churches and the way they operate has been one awesome thing God has been sharing with us.

After the weekend there, we made our way up to Niagara Falls and managed to get a flat tire in Amish Country due to one of the horse shoe nails. We didn’t pay a dime and were able to have the trip to Buffalo with a ‘tour guide’ of the area on the way up, which is why I highly recommend having AAA and a tire warranty. When we got the flat tire it was really easy to be upset about the circumstances. We were racing to Niagara Falls, wanting to spend a bit of time there before we made our way to the coast. Then, for whatever God’s reasons we hit a nail in the road. It took two hours for the tow truck to get there, so we read some devotionals and tried to keep our spirits up; I specifically tried to keep our spirits up. When the tow truck driver arrived he pulled our car onto the truck bed and offered to take us through a McDonald’s for a restroom break and so we could grab lunch. After we got our lunch I looked at Adrian, and in attempt to keep spirits high, I said “It’s like we got a free tour guide!” Then when we got back to the tow truck, crawled in the cab, the truck driver said to us, “Well at least it will be like you guys got a tour guide, I am a local to the area.”  So after the tire warranty fiasco and everything was said and done we arrived at Niagara Falls. Our time there was short, we got some pictures and headed out. It was beautiful, just too cold. We decided not to go to Canada there, although I regret that. If we have learned one thing on this trip so far it was that we need to slow down!

After Niagara we planned to make our way to MA, but those plans were wrecked (literally). We had a nice ‘vacation’ in Cooperstown, NY and visited the Baseball Hall of Fame (after the accident, ATA). The hotel we stayed at was so cute! Tunicliff Bed and Breakfast, and I highly recommend it. The owner runs a special during the off-season, so it’s only $50 a night! Everyone in Cooperstown was so friendly and helpful, and all of them started as strangers that became friends. We ate at so many different restaurants, but the restaurant in the hotel and Danny’s Cafe next door were our favorites. The weather was perfect so we explored the town when we were feeling up to it. Mostly though we slept because the accident had taken so much energy out of us.

Once we finally were put in a rental car we made our way to MA, lots of family time there. Then we made our way to Boston and used a strayboots.com tour. It was pretty fun, Adrian had a hard time getting into it. It helped us learn little places that we probably would have overlooked. One place we went into was Johnny’s Cupcakes. It’s not what you think. No cupcakes! They actually sell really cool shirts, which they only make so many of before discontinuing the print! The day before we had seen Boston’s Burger Company on TV, as they are said to have Boston’s best burger! Lucky for us there was a Groupon for the Boston Burger Company, so we ate way more food than we should have. The burgers were pretty good, but the BEST burger is in NYC (at least so far) at the Luncheonette in Brooklyn. Before we left Boston we HAD to stop at Fenway Park. When the games are back on I will have to bring Adrian up for a game! It would be the least I could do since he agreed to go on this crazy adventure with me.

We were blessed with the opportunity to stay with friends of family in Maine. The first thing we had to do was get fresh Maine lobster! We each got lobster dinners for  $9.95 each! Acadia National Forest was gorgeous and worth the trip!  Only two roads were open because of the winter season, but we still got to see beautiful sights. A lobster roll cost us a pretty penny and was not worth it. Maybe because we didn’t ask locals where the best was, but I wouldn’t waste my money on it again until I know where the best actually is. We stayed another night in Maine with our new friends of family’s family and then made our way over to New Hampshire. Before we left Maine we stopped at Selah Cafe, delicious coffee and beautifully decorated! Make sure you stop at the local shop. Mount Washington was also mostly closed off but we still got a lot of great photos. Even though we kept hoping and praying to see a moose (off to the side of the road, happily grazing, with no intent to run in front of cars) we did not have that opportunity! Maine was lovely, and the weather was really good. No snow, but still a little cold.

After making our way back to MA, we spent two more nights (one full day for recovery) and started back on the trip down the East Coast. The best burger (so far) is served in Brooklyn at the Luncheonette. Adrian really wanted to take me to the Museum of Moving Images since my recent obsession with film, and we were blessed enough to arrive on Friday when it is free to enter (from 4-8)! NYC we were blessed with a last-minute opportunity to stay with another friend from Church. To top that off we parked right next to their apartment that was directly off Broadway/Union Square! For the whole weekend! For FREE! It was such a huge blessing because we expected NYC to break the bank. We had a delicious NY style pizza right out of a coal oven. Our official decision on favorite pizza was Chicago Style (only next time I think we will throw on toppings). We even got to go to a free comedy show featuring Collin Quinn. The subway was really interesting to navigate. Rather than get lost I just asked people who looked like they knew what they were doing how to get where we were going. Our time spent in Chinatown was not pleasant. However at Little Italy we stopped and got a really good Canolli. The Green Market was really cool, fresh produce from all the local farms. We bought two apples and goat cheese, best snack ever. You can’t leave New York without seeing the Statue Liberty and of course a street show. The last night we were there we spent it at two different churches. One of those churches was Hillsong Church. It was cool to see a church that’s primary focus was worshiping God.

When we were finished exploring NYC we made our way to Philly for a Philly Cheesesteak. We got the best cheesesteak according to the locals from Jim’s in downtown Philly. Took a tour of Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell, of course. The tour guide seemed very bleh, probably because she’d given the same tour every two hours.

After Philly we made our way we started making our way to the WEST!

Look for updates for the trip out west.