Just 4 months into her life as The Cutest Baby in the World, Clara came with us on a road trip through New England. She happily traveled with us to Newport, Rhode Island; Bar Harbor, Maine; and Boston, Massachusetts.
Day 1
We started our journey with a 7 hour drive from Washington DC to Newport, Rhode Island. Clara did really well, seeming to be quite content to rest in her car seat and watch things go by through the rear window.
After passing through New York City, we stopped at a Cosi in Stamford, Connecticut to take a break and have some lunch. Here, Clara found the first of many fans on the trip. As soon as we walked in, one of the ladies at the cash register looked at her co-worker and excitedly said “it’s a baby!” Although she didn’t use Clara’s proper title of “The Cutest Baby in the World,” I was in a good mood, so I let it slide.
After eating lunch and letting Clara sit up for a little bit, we got back in the car. We fueled the car with gas, and fueled me on a slow intake of baked snap peas and chocolate covered tangerines. By ~6pm, we made it to Newport.
We checked in, and even got a suite upgrade. I certainly prefer to be on local projects, but every once in a while all of the travel involved in being a consultant results in a small perk.
After setting up our room, we walked to a local Mediterranean restaurant and grabbed some gyros to take back to the hotel.
After eating dinner and giving Clara some tummy time, we fed her and put her to sleep in her travel crib for the first time. I wasn’t sure how she would respond to going to sleep in a new environment, but she took to it right away and slept practically on her normal schedule. A great start to our trip!
Day 2
For our only full day in Newport, we spent much of the morning and early afternoon touring the famous mansions. The mansions in Newport were built during the “gilded age,” mostly in the late 1800’s. The mansions were summer “cottages” for incredibly wealthy families, like the Vanderbilt’s.
Our first mansion was The Breakers. The Breakers is one of the largest and most popular of the mansions in the area. It gets its name for the waves that break on the shore of the property.
The Breakers stuns right away as the entrance opens up into a large ballroom. All throughout the building it has artwork and decoration reminiscent of Renaissance Italy. The ceiling in the ballroom has framed paintings of activity in the heavens, and large crystal chandeliers stretch down to over-sized carpets on a marble floor. The columns and walls are covered with ornate carving, though it’s sometimes hidden by a sculpture, painting, or piece of fancy furniture.
They provide everyone who enters with a self-guided audio tour. It becomes a bit cumbersome when trying to handle the device and all of its cords while carrying Clara in an ergo-baby, but Clara didn’t seem to mind and I managed well.
Many of the rooms have a particular theme. I’m a bit of a sucker for colored marble, so the “Marble Room” stuck out to me. In addition to the floor-to-ceiling marble walls, most of the decoration items were made from marble.
On the second floor we had a chance to step onto their balcony for a great view of the ocean. It would be the perfect place for lounging and reading a good book in the summer.
The tour took us through several of the many bathrooms (while also pointing out that The Breakers has lots more bathrooms than other mansions). We passed by a marble bathtub that had faucets for both fresh water and salt water. At the time, people widely believed that bathing in salt water was good for their health. I don’t know how different it’s supposed to be from Epsom salt baths.
After going through the mansion, we spent a little bit of time on the grounds. The Breakers sports a large green lawn that leads out to the ocean, and we got some nice pictures from it. Clara slept through most of it, but seemed content.
With its overt display of wealth and decadence, The Breakers really lives up to its gilded age reputation. Although this and other mansions have come under criticism either for their taste, or for the extravagance they represent, I’m quite glad they’ve been preserved. Without knowing enough about architecture or decoration to criticize, I thought they looked quite beautiful.
After the tour, we had a quick lunch at the cafe. We tried the local “Del’s Lemonade,” and had a sandwich. Clara picked up a few more fans as we ate.
After giving Clara a diaper change in our mobile diaper change station we went to the next mansion. We weren’t sure how long Clara was going to last, so we had to prioritize what we thought would be our favorite. Remember how I’m a sucker for colored marble? We went to the Marble House.
The Vanderbilt’s owned this house too. As you can guess from the name, the structure primarily consists of marble. In addition to some Italian Renaissance feel, Marble House has more Gothic styling than the other mansions. One of the rooms in particular sported full Gothic decoration, including a stain glass window.
Clara did fuss a little in this house, so Janet ended up carrying her around in her arms. We ended up moving a little more quickly as a result, but still got a lot out of the visit. Clara probably got more out of it too, since she had an easier time looking around while being held facing forward.
The Marble House also has a little Chinese style tea house in the back. Later Vanderbilt’s built it right on the edge of the property overlooking the ocean. We got a few good pictures before moving on to The Elms.
Clara still seemed happy (after being held in our arms and sleeping through Marble House), so we went to the Elms for our third mansion tour. I’m glad we did – I think The Elms was my favorite.
The Elms has a bit more of a home feel, without skimping on any of the extravagance. We saw lots of sculptures, a large ballroom, and more artwork than the other mansions.
The Elms also has my favorite single room of all the mansions. The Berwinds (who built the Elms) apparently claimed to descend from (or at least have some sort of connection to) Scipio Africanus. Scipio is the guy who defeated the also-great general Hannibal during the Second Punic War. As a result, the Berwinds dedicated their dining room to Scipio, complete with large paintings, and a bust of Scipio framed and built using colored marble. A mix of Roman history and colored marble is hard to beat!
We saw a few other things I thought were nice. One room featured several walls with large panels of Japanese lacquer art. In their kitchen, they had a fake mouse eating cheese on the table. The grounds seemed a bit bigger too, and had multiple working fountains to enjoy.
By now our feet were tired, so we rode along Ocean Drive to enjoy the shore. Unfortunately our camera battery died at around this point, but I think that’s indicative of how much interesting stuff we saw earlier in the day.
We parked at one of the several recreational areas along the shore to go out and watch the waves for a bit. The wind was really blowing though, and I think it was Clara’s first time in some real wind. I don’t think she quite knew what to make of it.
We finished up on Ocean Drive, then went to try to walk along the Cliff Walk. We managed to have a nice stroll along it, but entered at a place that quickly got rocky. Since we were using the stroller at this point, we got a few nice pictures, then went back to the car to get dinner. We stopped at Mission, a burger place with good reviews, then went back to the hotel.
Day 3
The drive from Newport to Bar Harbor is a bit shorter, so we took advantage of the morning to visit one more mansion! This time, we went to the Rosecliff mansion.
Rosecliff has been used for multiple movies, primarily for its large ballroom. The grounds also look like they would be good for fancy weddings, and I think a movie or two used the grounds for just that.
After the tour (and a diaper change), we started the trek up to Bar Harbor, Maine. Our road trip really started to deliver on the key selling point for doing a New England trip in the fall: colored leaves! We manged to arrive as the trees made their transition to oranges and reds everywhere.
We made it to our accommodations in Bar Harbor, and got the basics set up. Then we went a short walk into the town for dinner. We brought Clara in the ergo-baby again, and grabbed take-out from Cafe This Way, a popular restaurant in the area. Janet got a lobster roll, which was our first lobster in Maine!
Day 4
We started our first morning in Maine with a short walk to breakfast. It rained on our walk (and throughout the day), so we walked quickly, trying to keep Clara under the umbrella.
We stopped at the first breakfast place in our path and got a delicious hot breakfast. Clara picked up some more fans, and we hurried back to the motel to get our car and start the adventure.
Our original plans for Bar Harbor included doing several hikes. Since we didn’t want to hike with Clara in the rain, we took a relaxing drive through Acadia National Park.
We drove up Cadillac Mountain to try to get some good views. During certain parts of the year, people can see the sunrise at the earliest that the sun hits the U.S. Due to the rain, we weren’t seeing any sun, or even trees. The fog thickened and the wind strengthened so much that by the time we reached the top, I decided against even bringing Clara out to the gift shop.
I hopped back in the car and we went to the Jordan Pond House near Jordan Lake for lunch. People know the Jordan Pond House for its popovers. These were good, but I had apparently had them while consulting in Pennsylvania, and the food we would have the next day was even better.
We browsed the gift shop, and found a cute bib to take home as a souvenir. It has a picture of a lobster with the words “Butter me up!” Now when we start feeding Clara solids we’ll think of our New England adventure!
We took a jaunt to the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse located in the southern area of Acadia National Park. I think it has the honor of being the first lighthouse for Janet and me to see in person. Unfortunately for the lighthouse, we put Clara in a cute pixie hat that our friend knitted for her, and Clara looked way cuter than any lighthouse!
After we got back to the motel, we grabbed take-out dinner from Side Street Cafe, another popular restaurant in the city. This time it was my turn for lobster. I got some lobster mac-&-cheese, while Janet had a bowl of New England clam chowder.
Day 5
The rain let up today, so we kicked things off by getting breakfast at Jeannie’s Great Maine Breakfast, one of the most popular pancake houses in the town. They had a bit of a wait, so we stopped into Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium to get fruit-flavored chocolate truffles (in addition to colored marble, I’m a sucker for fruit- and floral-flavored chocolate).
During the wait, a few of Clara’s fans came up to us and said they had seen us at the Jordan Pond House. Traveling with Clara is like traveling with a celebrity, since everyone would recognize The Cutest Baby in the World, but we wouldn’t necessarily recognize everyone!
For breakfast, Janet and I both got pancakes. I got blueberry pancakes with blueberry jam since Maine is famous for blueberries. Janet got strawberry rhubarb pancakes since the pancake house was famous for that. We loved them both! We even decided to get some strawberry rhubarb jam to take home.
With the rain gone, we were able to do some hiking! I carried Clara in the ergo-baby through both of our hikes. As we started our first one, a group of elementary school kids (probably 7 years old) were just finishing the hike. Lots of the kids cooed at Clara, and told us that they liked our baby. Again – celebrity status :).
The hike mostly went through a wooded area on packed dirt, but eventually opened up to a rocky area on the shore. Clara seemed to really like both features, but had an easier time looking around in the wooded area where the trees shaded her eyes.
After that hike, we went back to the Jordan Pond House area to hike around Jordan Lake. The park service had built a “bog-way,” which essentially is a bunch of wooden planks bridging across the trail. It made for easy walking so we covered a lot of distance on the hike. We were only stopped by a gap in the bog-way where they were in the process of rebuilding a section. It had a detour for us to continue around the lake, but we didn’t want to push Clara too hard so we happily turned around and hiked on back.
This hike had some of the best views of the fall colors too. Many trees still kept their green, but larger and larger sections of the forest had begun their transition.
Clara kept encountering fans on both hikes. I wondered how so many of her fans knew we were out there!
After that hike, we decided to drive up Mount Cadillac again. This time, we enjoyed some great views on the drive up. Mount Cadillac towers above most of the rest of the area, so it’s easy to see pretty far. Fog still engulfed the peak, so we just took a quick look in the gift shop, then drove down a little ways to see the view.
We were pretty hungry by now, so we went to a lobster pound! We had delicious lobster rolls from a place that specializes in lobster, but the real magic came in the form of a blueberry pie! Janet and I decided it ranked on our Top Pies list, alongside Shoo-fly pie from Lancaster.
After dinner, we carried on to Thunder Hole to see the ocean waves crash against the shore. Clara had a great time walking along the area.
Once we finished up there, we made our way back to the motel to rest.
Day 6
For our last morning in Bar Harbor, we went to Jordan’s Restaurant, a breakfast place famous for their blueberry pancakes and muffins. What they should be famous for is their service efficiency. They sat us down and got us our orders in record time!
After breakfast, we walked around a few of the gift shops in the area. I resisted the urge to get more chocolate (my girth has been headed in the wrong direction), but looking back, I think I probably made a mistake. Those blueberry truffles taste better than thin feels!
After a fun walk through a few of the stores, we got back in the car to head south to Boston. We stopped by Kennebunkport on the way down to take a quick look at the Bush Compound. We didn’t know it at the time, but one of the Bush daughters would get married there just a few days later.
We made it to another Residence Inn near Boston and crashed for the night.
Day 7
By now, Clara was not only used to going on daily adventures, but seemed to itch for them in the morning! We got ourselves ready, went to breakfast (where we encountered more Clara fans), and drove out to Boston.
After parking at the Boston Commons, we started our day’s adventure by going to the Boston Public Garden. We went straight for the “Make way for Ducklings” statue to get a cute picture of Clara next to it. Soon, we’ll read her the book and show her the time she visited the very spot it “happened.”
After the park, we walked back over to the Boston Commons and joined a tour for parts of the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is a path through Boston that goes by many significant landmarks related to the Revolutionary War and the Founding of America.
Although the Freedom Trail is all about gaining independence from Britain, our tour guide wore a British soldier outfit. He provided some explanation for why with a clever story to bring us into the era, but I couldn’t quite hear him over a lawnmower that insisted on following us.
Unfortunately, Janet and I couldn’t quite hear a significant portion of the tour due to crowding, ambient noise, and the guide not speaking up all of the time. It did bring us along a few of the major landmarks on the Freedom Trail though.
The tour started at the Massachusetts State House. Sort-of. It actually started mostly within view of the State House, a ways away behind some trees. We were, however, next to another landmark on the Freedom Trail, the Park Street Church. It apparently was the first thing travelers used to see when they floated into the harbor. The harbor has been filled in a lot more, so it’s now surrounded by land.
If I heard the guide correctly, the church started off as a granary. Right next to it, several famous revolutionaries lay buried. The Granary Burial Ground includes John Hancock, Samuel Adams, James Otis, Paul Revere, and ~5,000 other folk. You won’t find 5,000 gravestones though; the keepers moved the stones into straight lines at one point to make room for riding mowers. They didn’t move the people with the stones.
Clara had been talkative the whole tour, so by the middle of the burial ground we took her out of the stroller and carried her in the ergo-baby. She quieted down a bit, but still had things to say from time to time. We find her noises very cute, but it would have been rude to let Clara outshine the guide.
Then we walked by the King’s Chapel and the Benjamin Franklin statue near Boston Latin School. The Boston Latin School was the first public school in the U.S.
We took a quick pass by the Old Corner Bookstore. It started as the first commercial building in Boston, and is now probably the most photographed Chipotle in the world.
We also passed the Old South Meetinghouse (which is right next to the Old Corner Bookstore). The meetinghouse gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party. Since we have a modern political movement named after the party, this meetinghouse stands as the genesis of two political movements across multiple centuries.
Next came the Old Statehouse. I actually recognized this area since I walked by it to get to BCG’s Boston Office when I went through my original training. I believe the office has since moved. We didn’t go on vacation to see any work-related sites though, so we moved to the front to see the site of the Boston Massacre.
We found a bit more room to listen to the guide at this point, but mostly I just heard his comment that the Boston Massacre wasn’t really a massacre since only 5 people died. I’m not sure what the threshold is for dead people, but I think 5 is enough. Perhaps he also meant to mention that the colonists had clubs and were harassing the British sentries, but it wasn’t clear.
Our tour ended at Faneuil Hall. It has been a market and meeting place since 1741, and still going strong.
Once the tour ended, we used the restroom, and found a Regina’s Pizza in the market area. We found a few standing tables and had lunch before continuing our exploration of the Freedom Trail.
We stopped next at Paul Revere’s house. Janet and I took turns staying out with Clara while the other went through the house. It turns out, everything I know about Paul Revere’s ride comes from the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which means everything I know about it is wrong! I enjoyed learning the true story about the events that night, as well as about Paul’s life as a silversmith.
Paul Revere’s house is just around the corner from Mike’s Pastry, so we took a stop there for a few cannolis and a slice of Boston cream pie. While in line, a lady asked about Clara’s age and was surprised that Clara was only 4 months old. Clara is getting big, alert, and full of smiles very quickly!
We took our goods to the courtyard of the Old North Church, ate two cannolis (one for each lantern that was hung in the steeple).
By now the sun was starting to get low, and the Copp’s Hill Burial ground was closed. I still took a picture through the gates. Apparently one of the alleged lantern-hangers to start Paul Revere’s ride is buried there.
For dinner, we searched for a good Italian restaurant in the North End. We managed to find a restaurant that makes amatriciana, which I enjoyed very much. Nothing will ever come close to the bucatini all’amatriciana I had in Italy, but it was still very nice.
We walked all the way back to the Boston Commons area, and took a closer pass by a few of the Freedom Trail landmarks we didn’t get a good look at on the tour. This included walking up to the Massachusetts State House and getting some pictures of the gold dome.
We made it to our car, and went back to our hotel to get a good rest for our last full day.
Day 8
We started our last full day of adventuring at the U.S.S. Constitution. Clara stayed close to me in ergo-baby as we romped around what looks like a Disney pirate ship. We got a good view of the cannons, ropes, hammocks, and the rest of “Old Ironside.”
It also seems that every time I step aboard a boat, one way or another I manage to get behind the wheel.
The ship earned most of its fame in the War of 1812. Its hull made use of great wood and tech for its day, helping it win every battle it ever fought.
Nearby, the U.S.S. Cassin Young is also docked. Its a WWII era destroyer that the Park Service now runs as a museum. It hugely contrasts with the fanciful U.S.S. Constitution with its modern grey hull, grey guns, and grey everything else. We enjoyed learning about their depth charge catapults and how they did torpedoes
After a quick pit-stop to give Clara a diaper change, we went to the Bunker Hill Monument. It marks the spot of the first major battle between Revolutionary and British forces. We wandered the grounds, and then Janet held Clara as I climbed up all 294 steps to the top. I tried to get some nice pictures, but it was tough through the glass on the windows. I was also a bit sweaty from going up a bit too quickly.
We took a quick look at the Bunker Hill museum across the street, then made our way back to the car. From there, we went to the JFK Library.
We watched the movie and viewed the exhibits about JFK, but Clara didn’t seem to like him much since she was a bit fussy throughout the museum. We gave her a few diaper changes and fed her a bit, and she did like being walked around in the stroller.
By the end of the museum we were pretty hungry. We tried driving to the North End again, but couldn’t find reasonable parking. We ended up driving near Harvard Square in Cambridge to a ramen place. It was our first time getting ramen since Clara was born, and it was really good!
After dinner, we went back to our hotel for one last night before going home.
Day 9
Today, we drove home. We packed everything up fairly efficiently, had one last breakfast at our hotel, and started the long drive to DC.
On the way down, we did take a quick detour to see Albert Einstein’s old house in Princeton. As it turns out, someone lives there; I guess the house has remained a residence and hasn’t been turned into a museum. The owners must have received lots of people expecting a museum since they had a big “Private Residence” sign on the front gate.
Clara was a good girl on the way home just as she had been the whole trip. I think she liked getting back to our home, more of her toys, and the usual routine. Though, she does seem to have a stronger itch for an outdoor adventure in the mornings than she did before!
Keep seeking truth.
