New England Style Anniversary

There’s only one way to celebrate a second wedding anniversary and that’s with generous portions of New England Clam chowder and plenty of lobster. Such things are easier to find in the New England, so we used our fall break to head up into the Northeast.

We left Saturday morning and spent the afternoon in Boston on our way to Portland, Maine, to meet up with a friend we met in Africa. We walked the Freedom Trail because, well, we’re just that geeky. Along the way, we stopped off for lunch at a small tavern called the Green Dragon. The owners claim the tavern is the “Headquarters of the Revolution.” From we could gather from the poorly written placemat history lesson, Paul Revere and a few others used to gather at the Green Dragon and it was at the Dragon that they learned of the British plot to kidnap Paul Revere.

A short distance down the redbrick trail was Paul Revere’s house itself. It’s one of the few remaining private homes on the street.

Next up was the USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides). The Freedom Trail pamphlet says that the during the War of 1812 the Constitution’s sailor’s cried out from the deck “Hazzaa! Our sides of made of iron!” The ship is also the namesake of the aircraft carrier that my father served on.

Sunday morning, we left Portland (after an amazing breakfast of lobster and crab cake eggs benedict) and headed up to Searsport where our Bed & Breakfast was located. Monday we set off to explore more of coastal Maine and started with Fort Knox. As we learned from the audio version of the book 1776, General Knox retrieved the guns from Ticonderoga and was made commander of the artillery during the Revolutionary War and he served as Washington’s Secretary of War after. This Fort Knox was built to protect the coast of Maine from the British (who felt that northern Maine should be part of Canada). It obviously wasn’t much of a priority as it was never completed (the other Fort Knox in Kentucky is also named for General Knox). This is one of the few canons at the fort.

A view of Bucksport, Maine from the top of the fort.

From Fort Knox we continued northward taking our time and exploring the peninsulas along the coast. At the tip of one peninsula, we found Petit Manon National Wildlife Refuge and we took a short hour walk to the coast and back. Along the way, we found a little retirement spot.

Where Monday was overcast, Tuesday was clear and sunny. We set out from the B&B after some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had. We turned inland and took every scenic route we can find. The leaves were almost perfect.

And some of the scenic overviews, such as these two in Western Maine, was amazing.

Dixville Notch is a small town in Northern New Hampshire. At midnight on the morning of the New Hampshire Primaries, the handful of residents in the town cast their votes for President. Many candidates and prominent politicians have had their picture taken in front of this sign.


We ended up spending way too much time winding our way down Northern New Hampshire and couldn’t make it back home Tuesday, so we stayed the night in New Hampshire. This was just one of the many scenes on the drive this morning.

The rest of our pictures can be found here.

Here are to many more years and many more explorations.