Last Two Days

We got up on Tuesday and drove about 6 hours to Muskegon, MI.  We drove right to the Ferry and were able to drive the car right on.  The ride to Milwaukee took about 3 hours, but we returned to Central Time, so we made up one hour along the way.  Sure beats driving through Chicago.  When we docked, we were the second car off.  We found our hotel, had dinner and turned in.

Mara in the passenger seat, where she belongs

We're in Wisconsin!

Wednesday morning, we headed first to the Milwaukee Art Museum.  It is a very cool building right on the shore of Lake Michigan.  They have some very interesting modern art.  Tara Donovan makes art out of stuff you would throw away, like straw, buttons and sheets of plastic.  They also have very cool interactive displays for kids (and adults).

wall of straws

nothin' but buttons

 We drove to Soup Brothers for lunch, it was described kind of like the soup nazi, but everyone was very pleasant and the soup was very good.  Our final destination was the Harley-Davidson Museum.  Also very fun, a good destination for a short road trip from the Twin Cities.

our last meal

the last smushed penny

no more prius?

We drove another 5 hours and got home at 8:40.  Total miles - 5,187!  22 days, 16 more states, ave. mgp 48.2.  We've been to all 48 contiguous states.  South Dakota was visited the year before we began the intensive road trips, for those of you counting.  And even if you've lost track...

A little review - year 1 - 26 days, 4,318 miles, 12 states
                          year 2 - 27 days, 5,178 miles, 11 states
                          year 3 - 25 days, 6,626 miles, 8 states
                          year 4 - 22 days, 5,187 miles, 16 states
                            total - 100 days, 21,309, 47+1 states

According to Mara, we have three more states to visit, Alaska, Hawaii and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando.  Stay tuned.

Rock & Roll!!!

Cleveland welcomes me!

Bob, Jerry and Sara

Rock & Roll Rules

Big guitar

The Hall of Fame

We had a leisurely morning and then drove to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum.  We spent about 5 hours there getting quite a history of Rock & Roll.  They also had a special exhibit about the Grateful Dead.  The whole place was very cool, we had a great day.  Back at the hotel, we ordered room service to celebrate the near end of our trip and made it an early night.

Lights and Bikes

Sunday morning we left Buffalo behind and took a scenic route along the Erie coast.  We were going to try to see several light houses along the way, but only had time for two.  Our first stop happened to have tours of the light house.  Great, we thought.  Turns out, there is a military museum in the house connected to the lighthouse.  This tiny museum had an amazing collection of artifacts from many wars housed in four rooms, one devoted to each branch of the military.  They also have many objects that fell off ships and shipwrecks.  The tour guide knew stories behind each piece in the collection.  Then, the grandson of the last lighthouse keeper showed up and joined our tour.  He had some interesting, if hazy, memories of his visits to the lighthouse as a child.  We spent more time here than anticipated, so we drove down the road to the next one, not open to the public, and then got on the interstate to speed on to Cleveland.  

Dunkirk Lighthouse

Dunkirk view

Knowledgable tour guide teaches Mara to steer the boat

rudder from sunken ship

Lighthouse Newel Post

Barcelona Lighthouse

We made one quick pit stop at Tim Horton's for some Canadian lunch and a 10 pack of Timbits.  When we got to Cleveland, we found the Institute of Art and took a quick tour.  The building is undergoing a huge expansion so finding our way around was difficult.  After leaving the museum, we drove to our nearby hotel.  We checked in, took a short break and then drove to the Indians stadium where we were to meet our bike tour.  Bob, of Bob's Bikes, took us on a three hour tour of Cleveland.  We went to many interesting places and the tour was mostly on flat streets, so the riding was easy.  We had nice sunset views of the city at the end of the tour and then we headed back to our hotel.  A very full day.

ready to ride

Free Stamp

Cleveland Sunset

Vermont, the 48th state

We left our hotel this morning at 8:15 am and headed west.  We needed to do something interesting in Vermont before continuing on.  What do people do in Vermont when they don't have time to camp, kayak or hike?  They visit the Ben & Jerry's factory!  They had a wood fire pizza oven serving up tasty slices, so we each had one before heading in to the land of sweetness.  We had a nice tour and got a large sample at the end.  Then we needed to buy our own serving as well.  The most interesting thing we learned was that each employee at Ben & Jerry's gets 3 pints of free ice cream to take home EVERY DAY.  Holy Cow!  We also visited the graveyard for old flavors before continuing on with the next 8 hours of driving.  

high-tech cows

Ben & Jerry?

long gone flavors

Vermont has very pretty rocks, trees and vistas.  In New York, we drove through the Adirondacks, more lovely vistas.  We stopped outside Syracuse for a light dinner.  More sensible people would have probably stopped there for the night, but not us.  We could have stopped in Rochester, but no, we drove on to Buffalo.  We got to our hotel at 9:45 pm and finished off our dinner with an order of Buffalo wings.  Best ever.  Yes, we have been to 48 states and now we're heading home.

my view of the world

MAINE

Maine Apples

nifty chair, artist unknown

Calder

Pirates are everywhere

We drove into Portland to the Museum of Art.  It's in a cool building and they have interesting Maine art, particularly landscapes and work by Winslow Homer.  They have a few nice modern pieces as well.  We walked around the area and had pizza at Otto, very good.  We were in the Arts District, but it was very quiet, not many interesting shops.  I think it's more lively there at night, there seemed to be a lot of places to hear music.  

Three pieces of the Berlin Wall

The Wharf

We drove over the Old Port District next.  There were many more shops to check out and a nice Gelato store.  We drove along the Eastern Promenade for some nice views of the water and then headed back to South Portland.  We had dinner at Port Seafood and I finally got some clam chowder.

New Hampshire

So Long Kendall Hotel

We had some difficulty getting our car out of the tiny parking lot under the hotel.  We had a pillar and a car on either side and two posts behind us that were in front of the elevator.  I could picture the moves necessary from outside the car, but not while I was in the car.  Luckily, there were some men working in the garage, so three of them helped get the very tight car (VTC) out.  We drove about an hour to Portsmouth.  We toured a submarine currently docked in a ditch.  It was very interesting to walk through it and imagine living in it with 50 others under the water.

The Albacore

Tight Quarters

She's driving again

way out

We had lunch at Fat Belly, a place I felt very comfortable at.  The town is very quaint and had lots of cute shops near the water front.  We enjoyed some fun shopping and also took the Portsmouth Harbor Cruise.  The seats were all taken so we stood at the front (bow?) of the ship and enjoyed the wind and great views. 

  

After leaving Portsmouth, we stopped briefly in Kennebunk, ME trying to find the Tom's of Maine store, but it was no where to be found.  So we drove on to Portland.  We are staying at a nice, normal place with plenty of parking.

Boston Independence

Americana Art in our room

We began our day taking the T over to Fenway Park.  We arrived a bit early so we had a snack at a neighboring sports bar.  It gave us a more complete feel for the experience.  The tour was great, even for  Twins fans.  We got to sit in/on the green monster and sit in the press box.

After the tour, we joined a trolly tour, since we hadn't taken one yet.  We are trying to hit every variety of touring.  The trolly took us past many historical and interesting spots.  It was a bit difficult to get good pictures because we were in Boston traffic and had to keep moving.  

Patrick the Tour Guide

We walked down by the river when we got back to Cambridge and checked out the fireworks crowd.  It was filling up and there were several food stands.  We got dinner at one and then went back to the hotel for a cool break.We finally walked back at about 10:00.  We found a nice curb and settled in for the wait.  Rain had beed forecasted all day, and it finally came just as the fireworks began.  No lightning though, so it just added to the sparkle!  There were speakers,  so we could hear the music.  We even got to hear Jennifer Hudson sing her Dreamgirls hit!

Oooo

Ahhhhh

Wow