Overview of National Parks/New England trip

 

Map of our 2021 National Parks/New England tour

This is an overview of our family trip to see 3 national parks and New England this summer.  The trip will also include short stops at 3 family spots and feature lots of driving.  We decided to go to national parks because last year Lincoln loved going to the 5 we visited out West that he wanted to see more.  Originally I was also going to have a conference at Harvard during this time, but it got moved to zoom.  Hopefully next year we will get to actually be at Harvard for the conference but at least this year it gave us more time to explore.

Day 1 Wednesday July 21st La Crosse

We start by visiting Zach's parents in Holmen (suburb of La Crosse)

Day 2-3 

Explore Indiana sand dunes

Stay Portage

After about a 5 hour drive we reach Indiana Sand Dunes National Park, the newest national park and our first national park of the trip.  We have one full day to explore all as many beaches and trails as possible.

Day 4-5 

Explore Cuhuoga National Park

Stay Stow

Next stop is National Park #2 Cuyahoga national park.  We have one full day to explore all the hiking trails and have Lincoln see some waterfalls (currently this is good hiking motivation)

Day 6  Get up early drive to Mystic CT

We have one of the longest drives of the trip this day.  I am hoping we can get out and stretch but it is 9 hours of driving and an unhelpful time zone switch

Day 7 

Mystic Aquarium, seaport muesum and explore

Stay Mystic

In Mystic we are staying pretty close to the action.  We hope to visit the seaport museum and the aquarium and maybe get some local hikes in

Day 8-9

Drive cape cod, whale watching, kayaking, biking

Stay Yarmouth

We are staying somewhat in the middle of cape cod.  We hope to get in whale watching, kayaking and maybe some biking

Day 10 

Visit Nantucket

Stay Boston

We hope to get up pretty early to take a ferry to daytrip to Nantucket and see some beaches and the whaling museum

Day 11-12 

Explore Boston

Stay Boston

We have 3 nights in Boston to see all the historical sights and hopefully Harvard, MIT and Fenway!

Day 13-14 

Drive to Portsmouth stop in Salem 

Explore Portsmouth

Stay Portsmouth

It is a pretty short drive to Portsmouth so we will stop in Salem to see some historical things.

Portsmouth we are staying right near the water in a cute place with a pool!

Day 15 

Drive to Boothsbay (stop at Portland and/or Botanical gardens)

Stay Norwegan resort

Cruise to see puffins

Aside from Acadia this is what I am most looking forward to.  We will go on a puffin cruise to see a big nesting area.

Also the Norwegan resort we are staying at looks amazing and has bikes and rowboats to rent.

Day 17-19 

Acadia explore

Stay Rose Eden Cottage

Our cute little cottage place is also one of the top rated places to get Lobster

There are so many sights and hikes to do in Acadia!

Day 20-22 

Drive to North Conway 

Stay Cabin near north conway

Explore white mountains

This is part Lincoln is really looking forward to.  The Mt Washington Cog railway.  We might even get to take the steam engine up!

Also we will stop a franconia notch park and other places for lots of hikes in our 3 days

Day 23-24 

Drive to Burlington stops in Montpellier and Stow 

Stay Burlington airbnb

Lots of stops between White Mountains to Burlington, but everyone agrees on getting ice cream (plus some beer stops for the adults!)

Burlington looks super cute and we have a little airbnb right near the action

Day 25-26

Drive to Niagara falls (stop in Seneca)

Stay house in Niagara fall

Explore Niagara falls

Have to make a stop at Seneca falls for women's history (that and it breaks up the really long drive!)

Niagara falls!  We are hoping to do a boat tour and some walks

Day 27-28

Drive to Mackinaw City

Mackinaw island and area

Stay St. Ignacious

Mackinaw Island.  We will do the circle bike tour and stop here for the lookout we somehow missed last time.

Day 29-31

Drive to cabin, stay at cabin in Republic or in Marquette

Stop in Marquette and/or Republic to see Dick Connie and Abby

Day 32-33 

Drive to Duluth

Explore Duluth

Duluth to home

And finally stop in Duluth to see my parents, and hopefully take Lincoln and Juniper on a few tourist things

Home on Sunday Aug 22rd, just in time to start our new jobs!

Scandinavia Day 19 Stockholm to Stavanger

Day 19 was the end of our time in Sweden.  First was saw the royal palace.  Then it was a lot of travel including a few delayed flights on our way to Stavanger Norway

Lincoln always wakes up in the strangest positions

Giant breakfast in the hotel before heading out

Those crazy pink birds on our hotel's street as we left for the royal palace

View of what I think is the royal burial church as we entered old town

The royal palace courtyard, this time way less crowded

The throne room, which is the first room as you enter the royal apartments

Closeup of the throne

Next were lots of rooms showing all sorts of royal awards and dresses.  We didn't have much time to look at anything because Lincoln was on a mission to find all the animals on his kids map

Fancy dining room

Another reception hall, all very grand.  Not quite Versailles, but lots of similarities

Lincoln with his animal map back in the inner courtyard

And then time for Lincoln to pet dad while we looked around

The royal chapel

View back at the Stockholm cathedral

Final view of old town

Shopping street we walked down to get back to our hotel.  We passed a lot of espresso houses and stopped at one of them for drinks while we finished packing

We got back to confirm no suitcase.  So we packed up the broken one.  Here is Lincoln with his stick we were hoping to leave behind, but he snuck it into our luggage to make the trip to Norway

We had about a 10 min walk to the airport express.  18 min to get between downtown and the airport.  Sometimes going at nearly 200 km/hr

Nice platform, very efficient

Then we made it to the airport with plenty of time to have a nice lunch

We even had time to try Joe and the Juice Coffee which we had been seeing all over.  It was fine, but pretty expensive

Waiting for takeoff...we waited for quite a while.  We were late taking off for unknown reasons

Quick transfer in Oslo...but then we actually ended up with plenty of time because our next flight was an our late

At Stavanger we had to take a bus to the terminal

Then a very pricey taxi ride to our apartment

We arrived to find out we were on the top floor of this great building.  It sucked to carry our stuff up but the apartment was amazing!

We had a balcony and lots of windows overlooking the harbor.  Plus 3 bedrooms

We went to noodle noodle for dinner.  It was very good and nice to get away from meat and potatoes for a night.  Plus it was affordable for Norway at least

Dumplings

After dinner we did a short walk to see a little of the town before it started raining

Statue by our hotel

It was already quite late, so we just made sure we were ready to brave the rain tomorrow and went to bed.