Travel Talk: New England Vacation Continued

Thursday (after we picked up D from the airport), we hit the highway, headed to Maine. We drove through Massachusetts and a tiny bit of New Hampshire.

My dad is a huge fan of driving. He loves to drive, especially the scenic route (just ask him about HWY 1 in California...you'll quickly see what I mean). So, we ditched I-95 for Hwy 1. Sure, it took us longer to get there, but we got to see a lot more. We had to wait until we were on the Maine side of Hwy 1 because the bridge in New Hampshire was out. There is a really nice Welcome Center that is accessible from both Hwy 1 and the interstate. The welcome center is chock full of information, books, and smiling helpers.

They also had this cool sign that listed cities in Maine. Who knew that Maine had such diversity! =)

This was our first glance of the bay as we drove along scenic Hwy 1.

I'm a big fan of sleeping in the car. =) I love to sleep on roadtrips. I also read books like crazy. My brother, on the other hand, spends his time in the car like this...Phone service on Hwy 1 is a little sketchy so the poor guy kept losing internet service.

We spent the night in Scarborough, a small little town before Portland. We stayed at Comfort Inns (or their partners) for the entire vacation. They had a stay 3 nights and get a $50 gas card promotion. Mom also has one of their member point cards so we were racking up the points. The Comfort Inn in Scarborough is extremely nice. It had been open for only 2 weeks.

We quickly discovered that Maine is a popular destination for July 4th. We got stuck in parade traffic in almost ever town we drove through the entire weekend. Sheesh, these little towns completely shut down for the parade! Because we kept having to take detours, it took us forever to get to Bar Harbor! I think I've probably seen more of Maine than half of the people who live there. We took all kinds of country back roads - wow! Maine is absolutely gorgeous! I wouldn't mind living there in one of the beautiful New England style houses that I love so much if it wasn't for the 10 feet of snow and -40 temperatures in the winter. That's not my style. =)