You can read about the first half of our road trip from North Carolina to Maine here.
All good trips come to an end, and after spending three blissful days in our little cabin in Ellsworth, it was time to bid Maine farewell and head back home to North Carolina. This being a road trip however, it was a pretty long farwell.
From Ellsworth, we headed to Portland for a night to see a bit of the city and hang out with our friend Mahendra. Clearly, this is one place where we could have spent an entire week and not run out of things to do. We added Portland to our bucket list of travels in the near future. Next stop, Boston.
After two quick hours in the car and we were in Boston. It was raining pretty hard in Portland that morning but by the time we arrived at Quincy Market the weather was as good as it gets. We had three hours to hang out in the city and see our friends Arezu, Ankur, and Tarang. We made the best of it by getting a delicious lunch inside the market and then heading to little Italy in the North End for dessert at Mike’s Pastry, which we ate on the Greenway nearby.
Leaving Boston was hard because we were having such a good time. But by now the kids had caught on that leaving one place only meant moving on to our next adventure, so it wasn’t really too hard to get them back in the car. Our next leg to Philly would be a long one, but thanks to friends in Staten Island who were willing to meet us for a dinner of pizza, we were thankful to at least get a fun little break in this otherwise 6-hour drive. By the time we got to our hotel, it was late (10:30pm) and the kids were passed out in the car. But with a pretty full day in the city earlier, a bath was necessary. So we carried them from the car and straight into the tub. There was some protest but it all ended well with everyone falling back asleep in their clean PJs.
After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we packed up the car again and drove into the city to explore Philly for the day. I have been to Philly only once before but not in the capacity that allowed for any sightseeing, so I was really looking forward to what lay ahead. It was Easter Sunday and given the nice weather, the city was bustling with happy people. We did a lot of walking, bouncing from site to site. Some lines were really long (like to the one for the Liberty Bell) so we skipped those and covered what we could. The carousel at Franklin Park, huge ice cream cones from the Franklin Fountain, and lunch by the Benjamin Franklin Bridge were the highlights of the day.
We were meant to leave Philly in the early afternoon but we were having such a fun and relaxed day that we totally lost track of time. This ended up being bittersweet because while we had a great time in Philly, it was too dark when we arrived at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We wanted the kids to see this 17.5-mile marvel that goes over and under the bay.
We were taking this bridge-tunnel to Virginia Beach, our last stop before making it home to Raleigh. Once at the hotel, we slept like babies and woke up to another sunny day which we spent on the beach, on the playground, and in the swimming pool. And all that before check-out time of noon (perk of having kids, we never miss a sunrise).
The drive fromVirginia Beach to Raleigh was a just about 3-hours and we killed it. We got home with plenty of daylight to spare which the kids spent running around the neighborhood with their friends and us adults doing some yard-work and laundry (true signs of a relaxed vacation).
We spent three days driving to Maine with stops in D.C., N.J., and Newton, Massachusetts. Three days exploring Acadia National Park and surrounding cities from our cabin in Ellsworth, Maine. Three days driving back to North Carolina via Portland, Boston, Staten Island, Philly, and Virginia Beach. An epic road trip for sure!
But if you are wondering, “So chika, it can’t all be rosey! Was there anything that went wrong along the way?” Well, since you asked, the only goof that I made was leaving an entire bag of our laundry back at the hotel in Virginia Beach. We lost a lot of clothes because by the time I called the hotel, it was already presumably tossed in the garbage by the cleaning staff. I lost my new pink skirt from L.L.Beach that I wore in all those Philly pictures (ahhhhh). Kids lost a lot of underwear and clothes too. But you know, of all the things that could go wrong, I was happy to make peace with some lost laundry.
As always, thanks for reading and partaking in our travel stories. I hope they inspire you to be a little more adventurous. I’d love to hear about your travels and any upcoming road trips especially if you plan to cover any crazy distance. I love to read your comments, so thank you for sharing your thoughts. Happy travels!
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