acadia_lighthouseIt certainly is great to be back home after our two-week family getaway to New England.  After all, who doesn’t want to get back to 3000 emails, a foot high stack of mail, a ton of work to catch up on and a new school year just right around the corner? 

Why would anyone want to spend more time in gorgeous mountains, pristine ocean shorelines and cool cities when all this great stuff is waiting for us back here at home?

We’d also be lying if we said that we’re rested and refreshed and ready to get back in the swing of things.  Nope.  In fact we’re probably more tired and our brains are mushier now than prior to leaving on our trip.  Long strenuous hikes, tough kayaking, eating like crap, noisy campgrounds, drinking too much and long drives tend to do that to you.

That said, we had a great trip and a really fun time.  It was awesome to be able to take a family vacation again – and one that didn’t involve some sort of competition or tournament. 

We even made it through the two weeks of very tight quarters without killing each other or really getting on one another’s nerves too much.  We can only recall one time when things got a little testy and that was while we were walking around Boston on our last day, somewhat lost, in the 95 degree heat and humidity.

Since we’re not quite back to normal yet, this post isn’t going to be addressing anything related to infidelity, marriage or relationships. So if you’re hoping that it would, sorry to disappoint you. 

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Instead, we wanted just to have a little bit of fun and reflect on the trip and throw out some observations, thoughts and opinions that we gleaned from the journey.

Maybe you can relate and/or share some of the things you’ve observed/experienced/learned during any of your previous travels throughout the country or the world.

We’re going to do this list style, so feel free to add to the list in the comments section below the post.

Here we go…

  • We think that retirement sounds like a good idea right about now!
  • Hands down the best chicken wings we’ve ever devoured are smoked up daily at Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse.
  • Lobster rolls are overpriced and overrated.
  • Truly excellent customer service is very hard to find – especially when someone from the younger generation is involved.
  • Hotel pillows suck.
  • We try too hard at times to make our kids happy.
  • Thoughts of bludgeoning rude, loud, drunk noisy campers who are next door to you are hard to make go away at 3:00 in the morning.
  • Portland, Maine is a very cool city – at least the Old Port section is.
  • The award for the state having the worst highways and worst drivers on those highways goes to…Massachusetts.
  • Toll roads also suck.
  • Apparently it’s OK for large, muscular gay men (bears) to take over the streets in Provincetown and call you asshole (among other things) if you get in their way (even if they’re riding their bikes in the wrong direction on a one-way street).
  • Nobody gets in the ocean at Cape Cod – except for little kids.
  • Boston was way cooler than we expected.
  • The manager at the Bar Harbor Beer Works who was working the afternoon of July 11 is an arrogant, rude douchebag.
  • Acadia National Park is a beautiful place but you really have to get out and hike, kayak and climb to truly experience it.
  • A good percentage of Appalachian Trail thru-hikers never sleep in a tent during the 2000+ mile hike, opting instead for hostels, huts and hotels.
  • Our daughters are not yet ready for the real world.
  • Cape Cod is a nightmare to drive to on a Friday afternoon.
  • We’re not in as good of shape as we used to be!
  • Whales are awesome creatures.
  • Our dog is part mountain goat.
  • When you’re walking around in Boston’s Little Italy you can’t help but imagine how it must have been there decades ago.
  • Pennsylvania is a really beautiful state to drive through.
  • It’s almost impossible to truly and completely ‘unplug’ yourself from cellphones and computers, though being without access to wi-fi and/or cellular services helps.
  • Slow drivers in the passing lane during a 14-hour drive home invoke thoughts of road rage.
  • We’re not sure where our son gets his morning grumpiness from.
  • It seems that every third car in New England is a Subaru.
  • The Franconia Ridge Loop trail in New Hampshire was one of the most beautiful and challenging hikes we’ve ever done.
  • When they say the weather in the White Mountains can change suddenly and drastically, they aren’t kidding.
  • Creme de brulee cannolis are yummie.
  • Eagles are awesome creatures.
  • There are just some people – both men and women – who should not be wearing bikinis on the beach.
  • We’re ready for two more weeks of vacation. Just the two of us this time!
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Well, we’re sure that we’ve left out some things, so if we think of anything else we’ll add it in the comment section.  Be sure to add your travel/vacation observations there as well!

 

    7 replies to "33 Observations from Two Weeks on the Road"

    • Rachel

      Haha Doug ! Great article.
      Yes mass drivers are the worse that’s why we call them Mass-holes!
      Cape cod is a nightmare always any day or night in the summer.
      Glad you’re home.
      Have you discussed what next years vacation will be?

      • Doug

        Mass-holes huh? I like it. Maybe that’s what that one ‘bear’ was calling me. He must have thought I was from Massachusetts! Seriously though, I’ve never been on a worse highway system in my life and every time we’d go over a bridge, the potholes and patch jobs were so bad that I thought our wheels were gonna come off.

        We’ve not discussed next year yet, but I’d like to go back out west, but this time more towards Glacier, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland etc. I’d like to go to Arizona and the southwest but since we can only take vacations in the summer it would probably be too hot. Maybe we need to by a nice air conditioned RV!

    • Tryinghard

      Haha. That was awesome Doug. Sounds like it was a memorable trip on all counts. Happy you guys had a good time. Welcome back.

      • Doug

        Thanks TH. It was indeed a great, memorable trip, and I’ll take a good old fashion lobster dinner over a lobster roll any day.

    • Tryinghard

      Oh yeah. Ditto on the lobster rolls:)

    • Heartbroken

      Ha Ha some of your comments made me laugh out loud. Sounds like yall had a great time despite coming across the occasional “douche bag”. Lol Glad you’re back. I have missed reading your blog.

      • Doug

        Thanks HB! Glad we could lighten up your day a little.

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