New England Hunt For Lighthouses and Lobster Eats

Our vacation started by spending 2 days in historic Boston. Although the city is small (only the size of Central Park in New York City), it is full of historical places to relive the events from the Revolutionary era of early American History. So if you are a history buff and wanted to learn more about early American history, you need a minimum of a day to go through the popular Freedom Trail tour. With the aid of some apps, we basically read and follow the tour along. Check your apps store for Freedom Trail Boston apps. We spent most of our time in Faneuil Hall, Old North Church and the USS Constitution where we took in some guided tours. There are also other ships on exhibit when we visited – the WW2 Battleship and an active US Coast Guard, which we had a chance to tour for free. We walked along the North End where we had Italian food for lunch and came back again in the late afternoon for the must have Italian pastry treats at Mike’s Pastry. Modern Pastry is the other option but lines are always long so we go to Mike’s for convenience. For me, they are both the same. We tried the cannoli, Boston cream pie, tiramisu and a vanilla cupcake with macchiato coffee. They are all delicious. We can’t get enough so I had a pound of the pistachio macaroons to go. This is my favorite pasalubong to the kids when I was assigned to work in Boston when I was in consulting. We capped the day with a must-have meal in Boston at Legal Seafood near Copley Plaza. We recorded 12.01 miles walk or 26,916 steps for the day!

We went to Cambridge to start our second day by attending a mass in St. Paul’s Church at Harvard. We walked around the campus and took pictures in the famous John Harvard’s statue. We also walked around MIT’s very technical looking buildings and sculptures around campus. We walked along the Harvard Bridge to go back to Back Bay in Boston where we had our first lobster roll for this trip. We spent the afternoon along the Boston Harbor starting from the Boston Tea Party where we sampled their teas. We walked along the busy harbor while the Sail Boston event was going on. We were able to see couple of large sailboats that came from around the world for the festival. Some travelled across the Atlantic Ocean for months to attend the event. Lastly, we did the relaxing Duck Ride where we tour around the city and the Charles River. This was before they were shutdown, of course. Then we capped the day with a real lobster dinner in Quincy Market. We walked back to our hotel passing through Boston Commons, the Boston Public Garden and a quick visit to Cheers restaurant. This day, beat our Day 1 record to 12.72 miles walk or 29,888 steps for the day!

We ventured out of the city the next day! We rented a car and drove to Falmouth, MA where we took a boat to Martha’s Vineyard. We parked in the designated parking lot for Martha’s Vineyard travellers and took the shuttle to the pier. I always dreamt to see this place and imagined a dainty, classy and well-manicured place as I always see in movies and shows. We boarded a boat and arrived in Oak Bluff, Martha’s Vineyard before 10am. At the island, we rode a bus to Edgartown where we had lunch. We all ordered yummy lobster rolls in a seafood shanty next to the marina. Edgartown is one of my favorite towns in Martha’s Vineyard. The main strip has about everything from businesses, churches, government offices, shopping and dining facilities housed on white neatly painted buildings. It is also walking distance to the beach along a few blocks of white picket-fenced houses with well manicured yards. We walked to the beach along these houses and enjoyed the first lighthouse we visited on this trip – the Edgartown Lighthouse. Spending an hour or so, we enjoyed some playtime in the beach, the lighthouse and picked some seashells. Our next stop was Gay Head in Aquinnah Cliff. We arrived with dense fog almost touching the grounds. It was also cold so we turned around quickly after a very short glimpse of the Gay Head Lighthouse.

Next we walked around Vineyard Haven while we waited for the next bus back to Oak Bluff. I enjoyed the little quaint shops in this area and throughout the Vineyard.

Our last stop was Oak Bluff. The kids enjoyed the arcade and the ride on the world’s oldest carousel. Across the street, we tried some treats at the Best Vineyard Ice Cream. We walked along the block of gingerbread houses and shopping area and hung out in the park as waited for the boat back to Falmouth.

After getting back to Falmouth, we drove to Cape Cod and spent the night in Eastham. We started early the next day and drove north to the tip of the island. We grabbed some local doughnuts and coffee for breakfast. We headed straight to Nauset beach to see the North Atlantic seashore and walked along the Nauset and Three Sisters lighthouses which are a few meters away from each other. The next stop was at the Highland Lighthouse. In here, we also saw the Jenny Lind tower. At Princetown, we visited the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum and enjoyed the exhibits. We climbed up to the top of the tower and enjoyed the views of Cape Cod. This is the first stop of the Mayflower – the ship that brought the pilgrims to America. However, due to the landscape and heavy fog, the pilgrims taught it was a tiny island so they continue to sail to seek for a larger island and found themselves at Plymouth. We drove downtown along the strip of restaurants and shopping areas, then to Race Point beach and enjoyed some playtime in the sand.

We head back around noon and grabbed lobster rolls on a shack along way and went to the Windmill Park in Eastham for a quick picnic. We drove straight to Plymouth to see the Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. Our next stop is in New Hampshire in the Hampton Beach. We stayed along Highway 1 and stopped to enjoy the view of the ocean and the waves crushing the rocks.

We spent the following day in Acadia National Park where we stepped on the highest point marker in the US east coast. The peak in the Cadillac mountain has a great 360 degrees view of the area. It is drivable to the peak but it could get crowded for the parking. There are short distance relaxing hike routes to see more of the great view around. We spent most of the morning in the Sandy Beach. We walked about a mile from parking as the place was crowded. We stopped along the overlooked for a great view of the cliff next to the beach area. The water was still cold in June but did not hinder the kids to get wet and enjoy the sand. We also hiked along the Jordan Pond and had an afternoon tea in the Jordan Pond house to enjoy the famous pop-over. I searched for the recipe which we now enjoy at home from time to time.

We drove to Eastham the following day for whale watching and lobster fishing trip. It was a fun informative boat ride where we saw a bald eagle, seals, sea lions and various kinds of birds. We also encountered a unique water current where water from east and north of Canada meets the south flow of water from the US side. It was an awesome water whirlwind in addition to an interesting change of temperature from 70s from the US but went down to 40s when we reached Canada side in the span of only about 30 minutes ride. While in the areas, we also made sure that we stepped in the northeast most part of the US which is in the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine as pictured below.