Road trip report. OH, MA, ME.

Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 07:28 AM
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Road trip report. OH, MA, ME.

Myself, wife, & 15 yr old son went on a road trip from the Northwest suburbs of Chicago to Cleveland & on to Boston area & to Freeport Maine area, the last week of June.

Day 1, Friday, 22JUN07.
Drove I-294 around Chicago, traffic not bad & some construction that really didn’t affect traffic. Assumed it was better than I-94 (Dan Ryan) on the southside which is under construction. Gas at Indiana Service areas along tollway was $2.85/gal regular. Except the last couple on the east side of the state, which are Mobil Stations, they were $3.25/gal. In Ohio, the Service Area gasoline went back to $2.85/gal.

Drove to Cleveland & stayed at the Sheraton on Rockside Rd in Independence, OH. Room was $79 plus taxes. Reserved the room a couple of months before travel date. This hotel used to be a Harley Hotel a number of years ago. I know that because I have stayed there when it was a Harley. The rooms & hotel have been redone since the time of the Harley. The room was nice & the queen size beds very comfortable. & each bed had 4 pillows, not the usual 2. We each like to use 2 pillows. Room was quiet, didn’t hear anybody from the other rooms. But when we travel by car, we also bring along a fan, which we run at night. We are used to that at home, so it helps us sleep better on the road. There was construction on Rockside Rd, out side the hotel. Because of the time we arrived & the construction, it took us a good 15 mins for us to turn left into the hotel. The hotel has a continental breakfast that is included, but also a small breakfast buffet for a price.

For supper, we met some family members from Cleveland at a place called the Winking Lizard, about ½ mile east of the hotel on Rockside. It is a sports bar type of place for food. It has a large dinning area inside. Has very good burgers, sandwiches, ribs, & something called Preferred fries (cheese & bacon bits on them) With appetizers, meal & soft drinks for 6, total came to $95. And they do have a large iguana onsite, in a very large enclosure.

Day 2, Saturday, 23JUN07.
Checked out of the hotel & headed to downtown Cleveland to go to the Rock & Roll Museum. This is the main thing that the 15 yr old wanted to do. Even with taking a couple wrong turns (some roads not marked very well) it still only took us about 15 mins from hotel to the parking garage at the Science Center, which can be used for Rock & Roll parking also. The regular parking price is $8, but attendant asked if we were going to Rock & Roll, & charged us only $6 to park. Even though I usually do sufficient planning ahead of time, somehow I missed that the Cleveland Grand Prix was going on that weekend. It was all taking place at the lakefront airport, on the other side of 9th street from the Rock & Roll. But it didn’t affect us too much. There were more people in the area, but no extra streets were closed off, & we were there early enough, about 9:30am, so as not to be much of a problem. But you could hear the engines roaring.

Got to R&R about 15mins before 10am opening time. There was plenty going on around the area to keep us busy before the doors opened. Tickets were $20 each. I looked into getting AAA discount tickets ahead of time. For AAA discount tickets you have to purchase ahead of time, not at the door. You get $2 off, but you can then either pick up the tix at the office in Independence, OH or have them sent to you for $1.99 mailing fee. I opted for neither. We got to Independence after the AAA office was closed. & I only needed 1 discount ticket, so the fee negated the discount. A friend has a membership to the R&R. He had a certificate that he was not going to use, for purchase 1 ticket, get a second ticket free. So he gave it to me. So cost us $40 to get in. From their website, & having heard this before also, no cameras or picture phones allowed inside the building. So we left them in the car. We wished we had a camera to take pictures of the outside & surrounding area of the R&R. Once inside the building, they never even checked for cameras, & didn’t do a security check. I noticed there were a few people, not with the R&R, around the outside that were willing to take a picture for you, for a price, we didn’t do that. There were a couple of busloads of people also there at the same time. But that did not seem to bog down things too much. Right before you purchase tix, R&R employees get your group together & take your picture & give you a slip to check the picture before you leave the building. You purchase tix on the ground floor & then they have you go downstairs to get wristbands & then you are free to go where ever in the building. But about ½ hr later, R&R workers came around & had to exchange everybody’s wristbands, because they were using the same color wristbands as the Grand Prix. My son knew that 1 of the conditions for going to the R&R, was that we still had a long way to drive & we may not get to do everything at the R&R. We were able to get to all the floors. They had a small Beach Boys exhibit, & a good Doors exhibit. Saw most, if not all of the other exhibits, & listened to some of the music on the various headsets they have along the way, but didn’t watch any of the videos/movies. With that, spent about 2 hrs going thru the exhibits & about another ½ hr in the gift shop.

So headed out from there to I-90 towards NY. At exit 200 (hwy 44 Painesville, OH) stopped for lunch at a Waffle House. This looked like a fairly new building, not the same as other Waffle House we have seen. On occasion, that suits our tastes, & in this case it was quick & inexpensive & we were on the road again. Drove for about 5.5 hrs after leaving R&R. That put us at Utica, NY. Were we stopped for the nite. That gave us about 260 miles to drive to get to our MA destination. Went to the Radisson on Genesee St in downtown Utica. We got the last room they had available, but it was still a non-smoking room with 2 double beds, so we took it at a price of $150. They waved the $7 parking fee for the night. Beds had 4 pillows each. Room had a refrig which we could put our water bottles in & freeze the ice packs again. A/C, & bathroom all worked fine. The beds were sleep number beds. Haven’t used those before & took a bit to get it where we wanted them. & then every time somebody moved on the bed, the setting changed. They had what looked like a really good seafood buffet at the hotel restaurant & for only about $22. But we were not that hungry & just had a salad & sandwich. The room didn’t include breakfast.

Gas at the service areas on the NY Thruway was about $3.15/gal. Also, the I-Pass that we use in Illinois for toll roads was also accepted on the NY Thruway, where the EZ-Pass is accepted. It made things easier on the toll way. But in NY, the EZ pass only lanes seem to be in different spots & are different than the I-pass only lanes in Illinois, which we can go thru at hwy speeds. Unless I missed something, NY gives you very little notice on which lanes are EZ Pass only, & they don’t let you know how much the toll costs. Will continue later with next day.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 07:34 AM
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Day 3, Sunday, 24JUN07.
Left Utica for Quincy, MA. Our I-pass also worked on the MA Turnpike. Gas at the service areas in MA was about $3.14/gal. Not much traffic until we got about an hr away from Boston. (Seems to be more people than not from NY & MA, who don’t use the car directional signals when changing lanes on the highway.) Got to Quincy, MA about 1:45pm. Stayed at the Best Western Adams Inn. Had a room with a view of the water. 2 double beds (2 pillows for each bed.), refrigerator, extra table & chairs. Has an elevator, but most of the time we just used the stairs to our room on the second of 3 floors. Nice size room & bathroom ok. Paid $129/night, AAA rate. Stayed for 3 nights.

Then drove down Hancock St in Quincy to find the Adams National Historic Park visitor center for when we go tomorrow. Found it in the new looking, red brick business building just before the United First Parish Church. Went in to get some info & found where to park. Today being Sunday, we could park on the street, but on Monday they suggest parking in the ramp just up the street, & park on the 3rd fl or above, & bring the parking ticket & they will stamp it for free parking. Since we were now parked in front of the United First Parish Church (Church of the Presidents) & they still had tours for another hr, we went in to take the tour. Price $4 adults, $3 students. It is a short tour, but interesting. You sit in the John Quincy Adams pew & listen to the tour guide describe what went on in the church during JQA time, & some history of the church. Then they take you down to the crypt to see the tombs of JA & JQA & their wives. Total tour about 20 minutes or so, & to me was worth it. You can take pictures in the church & the crypt.
Then we walked across the street & walked thru the Hancock cemetery.

Since, we were tired & wanted to have a beer, we went to the Adams Pub, at the hotel, for supper. The food we had, lobster roll, fried clams, steamed mussels & clams, Lobster salad dip, Boston crème pie was decent. Total, including beer, was $64 plus tip.

The hotel has a continental breakfast. The usual stuff. It was ok. But our third morning, it was not supplied sufficiently & ran out of a lot of things.

Sorry this is so long. Hope it is readable. Last day of the trip was Sunday 1JUL07, so more to come, if you can take it.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 07:49 AM
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I can't wait to tell my husband your comment of the lack of directionals when changing lanes in eastern MA. It is sooooo true and drives us crazy!!! Please continue...
 
Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 08:46 AM
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Very few people know about it, but there is a special calendar issued to bad drivers in Mass. that features the Bad Driving Tip of the Day. No Turn Signals Day comes up regularly, but you might also encounter Left Turn from Right Lane day, Right turn from Left Lane day, Yield to Anybody day, Yield to Nobody day, Straddle the Line day, Park on the Sidewalk Day, Coast Through Stop Signs day, and my own personal favorite, Wrong Way day.

Usually, just by driving around town for a while we can figure out what the Bad Driver special of the day is. Yesterday, for instance, was Park Randomly day, so we encountered people parked by the side of the road in arbitrary inconvenient locations wherever we went.

"they take you down to the crypt to see the tombs of JA & JQA & their wives."

Folks from Weymouth consider this the final resting place of Abigail Smith Adams, along with her husband, son, and daughter-in-law.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 09:50 AM
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Anonymous, thanks that explains it. A few times I did see cars in front of us turn right out of the left lane & with out using any signals. Once it was across 4 lanes, not just 2. I like your description of the tombs.
Here in Chicago we have bad, heavy traffic, but usually it dies down after & before rush hours. When driving in Boston, the hwy traffic never seemed to die down. The tunnel roads under the city are a good idea, but if you don't drive those regularly & not used to where the exits are, especially when going from light to dark with sun glasses on, you can miss the exits in the tunnels easily. Somehow it must all work because I didn't see any accidents on the roads during the 3 days driving around Boston. But just like here in Chicago, get a flashing police car on the side of the road, & the gapers back up traffic for miles.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 10:06 AM
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Day 4, Monday, 25JUN07.
Out of the hotel about 9:15am. In about 10 – 15 minutes we were at the Adams Park visitor center. We were the only ones there at that time, & we had the 9:45am tour of the houses to ourselves. $5 for adults, Under 16 yrs, free. The trolley took us to the first stop at the JA house & JQA house. Until taking a closer look, this looked like any other city block. JA house is where JA grew up & the JQA house was inherited by JA & where JQA grew up & also lived as adult. The tour guide met us when we got off the trolley. Each house included a tour, by the guide, of about ½ hour each & did not include the 2nd floor of either house. Then you are whisked by the trolley to be taken to the Old House, which JA & Abigail bought & lived after his ambassadorship to England. Tour of that house went thru 1st & 2nd floor, but not 3rd floor, where servants lived. But also went inside the library, which is a separate building in the garden. Then took trolley back to Visitor Center. Was worth the visit, especially for the Old House. As expected there is no photography inside any house. They tell you to take as many as you want outside, but we got very little time to do that before starting the tours, or sending you on the trolley. So if you want to get some pictures, don’t wait.

From there we drove down Hwy 3 to Plymouth, exit 6. Traffic not bad, except around a bit of construction. Took us about 45 mins to 1 hr. for the drive. We went to The Water Street Café, in Plymouth, for lunch. It was at the far end of Water St, & had their own parking lot. This was a very good place for sandwiches, salad & soup. Price was good also. We then found a place to park on the water side, across the street from Governor Bradford Motor Inn. The parking meter was 50cents/hr for up to 4hrs.

It was a hot, humid day, about 85 degrees or more. Walked over to see the rock. There were a couple of rangers at that site, if you had questions to ask.

Went over to the Mayflower II. It was $8/person to go onboard. I enjoyed being on the ship, even though it is a reproduction of the original, it gives you an idea of how small the quarters were. & the Mayflower II is now in its 50th yr. There were a few workers onboard that were in period attire & answered questions. There is also a gift shop on land. We then walked up Water Street along the shops. Stopped at Pebbles for some ice cream. Sat in the park, by the Pilgrim Mother Statute, to cool down & rest a bit.

After that, we drove south on Hwy 3A towards Cape Cod for some scenic view. Went until we hooked up with Hwy 3 again at Exit 1. Then went north again & at exit 10, hooked up with 3A again going north, just wanted to take the scenic way. & took that back all the way to the hotel in Quincy. Took a little bit longer than Hwy 3, but was a nice drive.

That evening, we were hungry for Chinese food for supper. Asked for recommendation from the front desk lady at the hotel. She recommended Great Chow on Beale St, about 1 ½ mi from hotel on Hancock & then right on Beale, 4th store from the corner – next to Brighams ice cream store. Very good selection of Chinese food, & very reasonable price, & good tasting. & then of course after that we had to stop next door at the ice cream/candy shop.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 10:14 AM
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Day 5, Tuesday, 26JUN07
Chose this day to go into Boston, because the main thing I wanted to see was the USS Constitution & the website shows it is closed on Mondays. Today was hottest day of the year in Boston, mid-90’s to 100 & very humid. We left the hotel about 9:15am & drove to the Nautica Parking ramp in Charlestown, across the street from the visitor center there. Got our info about the Freedom Trail & the water taxi there. This was at about 10am. Then went over to the USS Constitution. Had to go thru security checkpoint, where they make you empty all your pockets, & take off belt, if it has metal on it. Then xray any bags or packs you have with you. We did the half hour guided tour at 10:30am. Not a long wait at that time. You can only go below decks to the gun deck & berth deck on the guided tour. If don’t do the guided tour, you can only stay on the top deck. Even with the guided tour, we didn’t get to go in side the main/captain’s cabin or the ward room. I enjoyed the tour.

Then across the dock was the WWII destroyer USS Cassin Young, which is a self tour. I went on board & walked around.

Then walked to the Bunker Hill Memorial. Walked up the 291 steps to the top, no elevator. Not the smartest thing to do on the hottest day of the year, & my leg muscles were sore for the next couple of days, but the view from the top was worth it.

Then walked back to the Charlestown Yard & took the water taxi from there to Long Wharf, which is next to the Aquarium. The taxi was $1.70 each, one way. You pay after you go onboard. For a great view of Boston, & a nice cooling breeze, go out on the main deck & to the front point of the taxi.

Walked to Quincy Market & had many choices for lunch. We ended up with chowder & lobster roll from Boston Chowda. It tasted good to us. About this time it was getting really hot, & it was crowded inside & around the market. Saw some guys walking around in suits & ties. I know they have to do it for work, but how do they do it?

The other site I wanted to go to was the Revere House. So walked the Trail to that point. Now it was very hot, actually too hot & humid & really didn’t get much out of going thru the house at this point, especially with the number of people already in the house.

Did not follow the trail back to the Market, walked a more direct route back. Went into Durgin Park pub for a cool drink & we each had a piece of Boston crème pie. It was excellent.

Took water taxi back to Charlestown. While waiting for it to arrive, you could see many jellyfish in the water. & there were also many of them in teh water at the other end, when we arrived.

Then got the van, it cost $13 for parking at that site, & then drove over to the Prudential Center parking ramp. We had purchased Boston Duck Tour (Not to be confused with the Super Duck Tour near the water taxi) tix from the website, before leaving on vacation, for 6pm tour that evening. Arrived at duck departure site, in front of Shaw’s, at 5:30pm. We had the bright green duck with The Professor as the driver/guide, quackabis quackabis. The tour was fun & enjoyable. Nice breeze, hold on to your hat. About 20 minutes on the water & whole tour took about 1hr 20 mins. (There was 1 point where the duck guide was complaining about the drivers in Boston.)

After the whole hot, humid day, we just wanted to get back to the hotel. Paid $32 for parking at the Prudential Center. We asked for directions to get back to the highway & the ramp cashier had pre-printed instructions on how to get back to the various highways. Very good instructions & we were back at the hotel in no time. Just had supper at the Adams Inn pub again. Food was good. Then called it a night.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 10:18 AM
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Your report is very timely-we leave for our NYC/Boston/Maine trip on Saturday. Some folks on this board have tried to talk me out of visiting Quincy, but we are big Adams fans. I've saved your Quincy info.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 12:51 PM
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Missypie, I had some people try to talk me out of it too. But I am glad we went. They don't tell you alot of about what went on behind the scenes with the Adams'. But that is ok with me, because they are trying to promote them not disparage them. They did hint upon some of the things in the background, but mainly did not talk about that, just the good things. I still think of them as former presidents & national figures & wanted to visit for that. I know they were not well liked in some circles but I still wanted to visit the sites. In fact this morning, I was just watching the history channel show Presidents. & talked about how Andrew Jackson thought that JQA only beat him for the presidency because of backroom dealings. & that the next election was the first smear campaigns to take place by both JQA & Jackson against each other. The commentator did state that they thought the staments made against Jackson were true, but those against JQA were largely false. But Jackson won anyways on mainly popularity & personality. JA was a very fair lawyer even when defending the British soldiers from the Boston masacre. & JQA helped in the diplomatic end of the war of 1812, among other things. We were able to see the Adams' sites in basically 1/2 day, & to me was worth it.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 01:17 PM
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Day 6, Wednesday, 27JUN07
Another very hot & humid day in New England but not quite as hot as yesterday. Lower 90’s today. Checked out of the hotel about 10:15am. Even at that time, the traffic along I-93 is still heavy. Once get north on 95/1 traffic really lightens up. & then you have to cross the bridge. Not sure which one it is, but have never been on a bridge like this before. The lanes we were on top of each other, instead of side by side & the lanes we were on are solidly closed off above it. If you are claustrophobic be forewarned about this bridge.

Head north to Portsmouth, NH. Went to the Portsmouth Historical Society/John Paul Jones house. You walk thru the house on your own. It surprised me that they didn’t have very much roped off & trusted people not to touch artifacts. You were allowed to take digital pictures, with the flash off. There were a couple of people onsite if you had questions. Being a John Paul Jones person, I enjoyed going thru that house.

Then we went a couple of miles over to Route 1 to have lunch at the Dinnerhorn. Went to the actual restaurant, not the pub. It was busy, but didn’t have to wait to be seated. The food we had there was very good. Lunch was about $43 plus tip for the 3 of us.

Hot, in the 90’s in Portsmouth also. We drove thru the downtown area of Portsmouth. I really liked the look of the houses & town. Went to USS Albacore Park. Went thru the submarine. Cost us $10 for the family. It is a self walk thru tour, with various listening stations were you push the red button to hear a recording of what you are looking at. There were also some fans running inside the sub to help try & keep it cool. Once again, I enjoyed it & thought it worthwhile. There also was a room in the entrance building that had a small museum & history of the sub. But there was no air moving & no a/c. It was just too hot to stay inside the room. When we got back to our van, the outside temp showed as 103 degrees.

We then finished the drive to Freeport, ME via I-295 through Portland. Once again, the tolls on I-95 in NH & ME accepted our I-pass system. We checked into the Best Western Freeport Inn, which is actually about 3 miles from downtown Freeport. We had a room with a view on the third floor. We paid $115/night for Wed & Thur nites, & $132 for Friday nite. Rates were AAA discount prices. The hotel was booked up. Nice room, each bed had 3 pillows, no refrig. Somehow I got the idea that the view rooms were supposed to look over water, but there was none that I could see, other than a small pond & the pool. Glad we had a 3rd fl room, which is the top floor. The rooms kept out some of the noise, but not all of it. We found out after we got there, that Portland was the site for the northeastern regional for youth soccer playoffs. Teams of all youth ages, both boys & girls, & there were a couple of teams staying at the hotel. Having been to some ice hockey tournaments with my boys, I know what to expect on these types of things & I wasn’t disappointed. Good thing we had our trusty fan along to help drown out the noise.

For supper we went to Harraseeket (sp?) Lunch & Lobster pound at the water front in South Freeport. Go all the way down Main St to the water front. We all liked it a lot. You order most things at the main window, but for lobster, walk around the corner of the building on the water side to order there. Had my first whole steamed lobster ever. Not quite sure how to do it, so when I asked they gave a set of instructions. It ended up being simple. They have small lobsters at $14.99/lb cooked, medium at $15.99/lb, & large at $16.99/lb. My medium lobster, order of boiled potatoes, & iced tea cost about $25. There was also a special of a small lobster, 10 steamers, & an ear of corn for $21.95. At this time on this day, there was not a long wait to order at either the main or lobster windows. Then about a 15 – 20 minute wait for the food to be prepared. While we were there the lines just kept going. At times the line got fairly long. If you need a cracker for lobster, you give a $2 deposit (without a deposit, they kept losing their crackers) for one when you pick up your food. Then return the cracker after supper & get the $2 back.

Didn’t think about insect repellent tonight. But after tonight, let me tell you, we didn’t forget about it again. After the past few hot & humid days, the bugs were really out. There were these tiny, what looked like min-flies that bite. & at night the mosquitoes were out everywhere.

After supper drove over to LL Bean in Freeport. This is the place that my wife was looking forward going to. Later filled the van with gas & it was about $2.97/gal in this area.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 01:30 PM
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Day 7, Thursday, 28JUN07
Left our room about 7:50am for the drive to Camden, ME, where we had scheduled a 10am 2 hour cruise on the schooner Olad. We booked on their website before leaving on vacation. Drove on hwy 1 & 90, not a lot of traffic at that time, but for the most part they are 2 lane roads. Took us about 1 ½ hrs to get there. Used one of the free all day parking lots, next to the fire station, that the city has. Soon as we got out of the car it started to rain, & then got heavier. At the waterfront we found the Olad, but nobody there. We had given them our cell phone numbers when we reserved our cruise spots. They called to let us know they were not going out this morning because of the weather, but had room on their 12:30pm cruise if we wanted & the weather cooperated.

We killed the next couple of hours walking around the town & going into some shops. This is a town that I would like to go back to & spend more time. The weather cleared up but still hot, in the 80’s, & humid.

There are a number of schooners in the harbor that do day cruises. We picked this one because we could reserve & pay ahead of time, & my wife liked that they had a seating area with cushions. The Olad used the engine to get out of the harbor. But then the sails were put up & the engine turned off until returned just outside the harbor. There were about 20 or so people on this cruise including a few young children & older children. We sailed out to an island where there were adult & pup seals, and some flocks of seabirds. The trip out was breezy & cool. Put my jacket on. The trip back to port was warm, took off my jacket. Both the deck hand & mate had lots of stories to tell. The captain did also; but didn’t get to talk much to him. I really enjoyed this & this is the one thing that my 15 yr old son readily admitted to liking. He is at an age that it is not cool to admit liking to do things with your parents. I would like to return someday & take a multi-day cruise on a schooner. We were back on land about 2:30pm.

We went to lunch at Bayview Lobsters, which is just right next to the Olad dock. Was thinking about having a whole lobster but with the price $7 -$8 more than at Harraseeket, I passed. Got a deluxe lobster roll instead. It had only lobster meat, no fillers. & I had clam chowder. The others had wraps & lobster bisque. It was about $31 & all tasted good.

On the drive back to hotel it rained heavily for about 15 mins & then temp started cooling down. Had planned to stop in Bath, ME for the maritime museum, but because of the postponed schooner cruise, there was not time to stop now. Will have to go to Bath on another trip.

Went for supper at the Freeport Inn Café. Food & salad bar was good, but what I ordered was not. I ordered Seafood Newburg. Most recipes, I think, call for a couple tablespoons of sherry or other alcohol. When I tasted mine, it was as if atleast half a bottle was poured in. I could not eat it. They did not charge me for that & I then had a safe, club sandwich instead, which was pretty good. Total cost was about $26 plus tip.

We then made another trip to LL Bean to spend more time & money.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2007, 07:47 PM
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Hiya Bill!

Great job on the report! Although we are now your neighbors to the north, we "did time" in IL (Tinley Park) and still have the I-Pass we got before my DH was transferred to WI. We will be in Maine next month, so I found it very interesting that the I-Pass will work there. We will take it along- did it save time at the tolls like it does in IL?

We are spending a couple of nights in Camden - might have to consider one of those boat tours!
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Old Jul 4th, 2007, 10:43 AM
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Cheese, The I-pass did save time, especially when the cash only lanes were backed up. But the EZ-pass only lanes are in some places only 5mph & in others 10 or 15mph, not like in Illinois where you can go thru the lanes at hwy speed. & a majority of the drivers that go thru the ez-pass only lanes do so at the posted speed limit. Not always sure which lanes will be the EZ-pass only lanes, so you do have to watch for them. Something I did notice is ez pass has not caught on as much as the I-pass has around here. The local states that have EZ-pass seem to have more cars go thru the cash lanes rather than the ez-pass only lanes. I guess, unlike around here where the cash only pays twice as much on a toll as I-pass holder, out there they both pay the same. But never really sure how much the actual tolls were, except for a couple places where it was posted at $1. They first time we came to a toll in New York, we went to a manned toll both just to be sure. He waved us thru & the I-Pass triggered the thank you light & from then on we always used the EZ-Pass only lanes. Conversely anybody who has an EZ-pass from out east, will be accepted on the Illinois tollway.
Here is the website of the schooner we used, the Olad:
https://www.maineschooners.com/
& a couple of others:
http://www.schoonerlazyjack.com/
http://www.appledore2.com/index.htm
http://www.camdenmainesailing.com/
The Olad you can reserve online ahead of time, if you want to. Otherwise all the schooners, including Olad, have card tables setup down at the water front, near the Bayview Lobster restaurant. & you can sign on for a cruise there. We paid $29/person for our 2 hr cruise. Nothing like it when they turn that engine off & you are moving completely under sail.

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Old Jul 4th, 2007, 12:10 PM
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Day 8, Friday, 29JUN07
Weather has cooled down, in the low 80’s, & humidity went down & not so many bugs around. Very nice day. Out of the room about 9:15am. Going to Portland, about 15 – 20 min drive. Traffic not a problem.

Parked at the Spring St parking ramp. Went for breakfast at a great place called Marcy’s Diner. It was across the street from the backside of the ramp, at the corner of Oak & Free streets. Harley Davidson/Motorcycle memorabilia every where. Food & Service very good. Had to wait about 15 mins to be seated because it was very busy. They had booths, & also stools at the counter. Prices were very good. 3 of us with large breakfast for under $20 plus tip. At least half the people, if not more, that were there knew the people working at the place. Definitely a local gem. Also liked the music they played, & so did my 15 yr old, & didn’t seem to bother anybody else in the dinner. Nothing like a little Led Zeppelin to get you going in the morning.

Walked over to the the Maine Historical Society/ Wadsworth-Longfellow house. Can only go thru on a guided tour, which they were giving on the hour & half hour. Buy the tix at the visitor center. They have AAA discount here. We waited about 20mins for the 11am tour. There are some museum/history rooms in the visitor center, so visited them while waiting. The whole Longfellow family seemed to have some type of artistic sense to them. The house tour was very good. Learned a lot about the family. This is the house where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow grew up. The tour lasted about 1 hr.

We then walked to the Victoria Mansion (or also called Morse-Libby house), about 6 – 7 blocks from the Longfellow house. They offered a guided tour only, on the 1/4 & 3/4 hr. We got there just as the 12:15pm tour was starting. Also have AAA discount for the tour here.

If you do both the Wadsworth-Longfellow & the Victoria, definitely do WL House first. If you do Victoria first, you will then be disappointed in WL. Or if time to only do one or the other, I suggest doing the Victoria Mansion.

The Victoria is very opulent, & fantastic. You can tell by starting with the outside that it will wow you. It was built by a guy who made his money in New Orleans right after the Civil War. The couple who lived there had no children, so the surviving wife sold it to another family who had children & was handed down until almost destroyed but then given to the society to keep. It was a very good tour & lasted about 45 mins, thru the first & second stories out of 3. The tour guide at Victoria told us that Portland also has a duck tour that starts at the water front & goes out into the bay. But we didn’t have time to do that.

Then there was also an LL Bean outlet right across Free St, from the parking ramp. Wife can’t get enough of that so we had to go in there also. 1 thing to note is that if you buy things at merchants in downtown Portland, have the store people stamp your parking ticket & you get a free hour of parking for each stamp. Don’t know if that worked for the historical houses, because I forgot to ask. Even with the 1 stamp from LL Bean, we ended up paying $3 for about 4hrs of parking. Have to interject here that my 15 yr old also spoke up about really liking Portland, & especially Marcy’s Diner. Quite a mix of people walking around Portland: business people, college age kids, tattooed & pierced people (I think this is 1 of things that enamored our son to the city), tourists. Never felt unsafe at all. But didn’t really notice any younger school age kids around. I assumed that their schools were out for the summer. Actually never really felt unsafe anywhere that we went on our vacation. Felt a little trepidation in downtown Utica maybe, but that was it.

From Portland, drove back to South Freeport to go back to the Harraseeket (sp?) Lunch & Lobster pound. Couldn’t get enough of the seafood there & after seeing the price of lobster at some other places, we knew this place had good prices. Had another medium lobster, ear of corn & ice tea & the cost was again about $25, including tax. This was about 3pm on Friday & we had to wait a bit longer to order the food at the main window, maybe about 1/2 hr. But at the lobster window I was able to order my steamed lobster & was able to start eating it about 10 minutes before the others got their food from the main window. The lobster I had this time was what they called a new shell. When I asked for a cracker for this, they said I didn’t need it for new shells, you can break it with your hands, & they were right, of course. This place also has a separate order window for desserts & drinks. So we each had to have our first whoopie pie. Was that ever good, & I don’t even care that much for chocolate, but I couldn’t stop until I ate my whole portion. The whoopie pie cost $2 each.

We then went to Freeport to walk around & go into some stores other than LL Bean. Also stopped at a Ben & Jerry’s for some ice cream. We were all too full this night to eat any supper.
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Old Jul 4th, 2007, 12:13 PM
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Day 9, Saturday, 30JUN07
Checked out of the Freeport Inn & on the road by 6:15am. I would stay at the Freeport Inn again. It suited our purpose & location where we needed to be. Also, in the shower, it had dispensers on the shower wall for body soap, shampoo & conditioner. Traffic was not as bad as I thought it would be. We were far enough west of Boston today that we didn’t run into that traffic. Traffic got a bit heavier around Syracuse, Rochester, & Buffalo, but still not bad. This time we were aware of the no signal lane changers & were expecting them. Stopped for gas in NY Thruway Service area. It was $3.14/gal regular. Stopped for gas again, just south of Erie, PA. It was $3.09 there.

Saw a number of people stopped in both NY & OH by state troopers. In 10 – 11 hrs of driving, we made it from Freeport, ME to Independence, OH; about 750 miles. We also stopped at the exit 200 Waffle House again for supper.

We didn’t make any hotel reservations for this night because not sure how far we would get in our driving. We were going to stay at the Sheraton Independence again, but they only had 1 room, left; a smoking king room. We were not interested in that. We stayed at the Red Roof Inn, off Rockside Road, on the other side of I-77 from the Sheraton. This Red Roof appeared to have remodeled their rooms, & they were actually fairly nice. I know because I stayed there a couple yrs ago with my son’s hockey team & it wasn’t as nice as it is now. Beds were ok, 2 pillows each bed. A/C worked fine, decent bathroom, with the sink outside the bathroom, which facilitated getting ready in the morning. Not much on amenities, but good enough for us & it was $82 including tax, with AAA discount. Would stay here again.
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Old Jul 4th, 2007, 12:16 PM
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Day 10, Sunday, 01JUL07 – Last Day.
Checked out of hotel & on the road by 8:30am. Was about 375 miles to home at about 5 3/4hrs. There was some construction in OH & IN where went down to 1 lane while bridge work was being done. But that didn’t cause too much of a delay. Had to wait about 10 mins at each of the pay toll in OH & IN.

Gas on this day in OH was $3.11/gal. & once again, the 2 Mobil service areas on the east side of IN were $3.29/gal, while the 3 BP service areas on the west side of IN were $2.89/gal. That is a 40-cent/gal difference. How does that happen? Even though we didn’t need more gas in the van to make it all the way home, we still stopped at the BP to fill up because we knew it would be more expensive in IL (where it is about $3.12/gal).

Took I-80, to I-294 around Chicago, because we knew that there still was construction on the Dan Ryan (I-94 south side). The I-294 route was not bad at all. Hardly any construction on our side of the road, & traffic was moving. That is much different than the scene of this area over the past few years. This was about 1pm on Sunday & surprised at how good the traffic was moving.

So for us, that total drive time home, not including stops. From Freeport, ME to northwest suburbs of Chicago was about 16.5 hrs. Total mileage driven for the whole trip was 2670 miles. It was a fun trip for us, in spite of the really hot weather. Enjoyed the Boston area, but would really like to go back to Maine & New Hampshire.

Thanks to the many people on Fodor’s that I got ideas & suggestions from, especially for the schooners in Camden. You all helped to make our trip fun & successful.
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Old Jul 4th, 2007, 01:05 PM
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Wow what a detailed report! I was at the R&R on the same day you were with my two teen daughters, my mom, my aunt and their cousin (ages 13 to 60+) and we all enjoyed it. We spent about four hours. I didn't think the Grand Prix interfered at all with our traffic, but my aunt works across the st and knew just where to go!

We then took the Good Time boat tour up the Cuyahoga river which was very intersting!

Later this summer, my husband and I are driving our girls out East - we are planning to spend one night in Boston and 4 or 5 on Cape Cod, but I need to plan our return. Thanks for your details - it will help us!
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Old Jul 5th, 2007, 05:48 AM
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Amy, we definitely could have also spent a few more hours at the R&R. But we had to get on the road. The Science Center & the ship museum docked behind the Science Center, next to the R&R, looked intriguing. Would like to go back sometime & be able to spend more time in that area.
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