Road trip from D.C. to Maine
 

Hi,
We are planning a trip from the Washington, D.C. area to Belfast, ME in July. We are planning on taking about 3 days to reach our destination. Since we have children, I was looking for fun/educational things to do on the way. Any help/ideas would be appreciated.
TIA,
J

You can't do all these on the same route, and it depends on the age of your children, but here are some things I think kids 7 or 8 and older might enjoy:

Hancock Shaker Village in the Berkshires

Sturbridge Village

Mystic Seaport and Aquarium, then a brief drive along the coast to Westerly, RI, where there is an iconic merry-go-round on the beach

Plimoth Plantation and/or the Mayflower reconstruction in Plymouth, MA. Be aware that Plimoth Plantation relies on people role-playing 17th century residents and it is hard to get a straight answer.

Museum of Science in Boston (EZ off, EZ on) I-93

**** A ride on the mailboat that serves Casco Bay from Portland, ME

A tacky attraction like Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, NH just off I-93 (trained bears! Steam trains attacked by wild men!)

All these are places where kids can run around and work off steam while learning something

If you go from I95 to I495 north to Nashua NH then Manchester NH, SEE Science Center in an old mill building is wonderful. The old mill yard has been re-created in Leggos. You can easily spend half a day, longer if kids are older but we had a very young grandson with us and we got pooped chasing him around (there are some play areas for very young children).

From Manchester it's less than an hour to Portsmouth NH where kids can visit Odiorne science center which is more about marine biology.

Dover NH has a children's museum and so does Portland ME.

If you want to take a detour, continue north from Manchester on I93 to exit 23 in Meredith NH to Squam Lakes Science Center in Holderness. It is an outstanding place with NH wild animals in natural habitat and scheduled demonstrations. Docents wander around to tell you more. Even I was thrilled to have a woman with a small owl on her arm approach us to tell us more about owls. You can travel east through Sandwich and Tamworth (we have not been to the Remick Museum) to Rt 16 north to Conway and then east to Portland ME. But Meredith is almost to the White Mountains and you have any number of things to do with kids such as Clark's Trading Post. The Flume is a long hike thru a gorge. We might be taking the Cannon Mtn tram and a picnic lunch this summer.

BTW from Hartford CT we continue north on I91 to Brattleboro VT then you can go east to Manchester or Concord NH. This takes you thru western MA which is rural. If you don't mind a detour, the Montshire Museum in Norwich VT is great. Take a picnic lunch Enjoy science museum in morning. After lunch change into bathing suits to enjoy water play. This is a children's museum. You didn't say age of kids so if you have teens, this is too young for them.

Closer to Belfast, get the list of conservation areas in the Harpswells (east of Brunswick ME) for some good hikes. One is to a secluded beach but only take the road in if you have a vehicle with high clearance (we were in a 4x4 PU). There's another beach right on the road with good view of working harbor. My favorite however was Giant Steps (or stairs). Not as long or as famous as Ogunquit's Marginal Way but you might not see anyone on your walk.

If you have teens, I think they would enjoy the Native American Museum at Foxwoods in CT. It's a separate building from the casino and sorry, I can't remember the correct name.

If the kids are "dinosaur age", the footprints at this park just south of Hartford CT will be a big hit. We visited there a number of times when our son was young.
http://www.dinosaurstatepark.org