New York City......... "WOW"

Jeff and Sheryl arrived at the State Park, and within minutes they were setup, and then we were off to Boston. We caught the ferry to downtown Boston, and our #1 Bucket List item was to have a cold one at the "Cheer's Bar".  We jumped on a Boston Sightseeing Bus and listened to the tour guide tell us all about his life (Annoying).  With a little bit of luck, the tour bus went right by the "Cheer's Bar", so we were off the bus.

We had a great afternoon, and evening, with our Wheelhouse friends, but all good times come to an end.

We jumped on the subway to get back downtown, to the pier, to catch the last ferry back to the State Park.

In the morning we said our good-byes to Jeff and Sheryl.  We probably won't see them again until summer.

Down the highway we went, heading to Plymouth Rock.  We came across a Cranberry Bog where they were harvesting the Cranberry's.  We have no idea how all of those berries end up in one spot, but it was pretty cool to see.  It appeared that they vacuum the berries into an awaiting semi truck trailer.

We stopped in Plymouth to see this historic town.  We could ramble on forever about Christopher Columbus, the Mayflower, the old Victorian buildings, and lots of history stuff, but we will spare you all those details.                      Google it yourself...  :-))

It was then time to head for New York City.  The RV Park we stayed at was right on the Hudson River, and we could see the Statue of Liberty, way off in to distance.  Let us tell you, driving through New York City, with a 40 foot long box behind us, and also trying to avoid a low clearance tunnel and bridge, is not what we would call fun. Once we arrived, it was perfect.  We didn't drive the truck once, the whole 5 days.  The subway station was just 5 short blocks away.  Our first day out we only got lost how many times???  It was so much fun, except for the rain storm that came through, and soaked us while we were on an open air doubledecker bus.  After our first day, we felt like old pro's getting around on the Subway's.   Well, maybe not pro's....

We have a bazillion pictures of the city, during the day and at night, so we will try not to bore you with to many of them.

1 World Trade Center

Downtown from a tour boat ride on the Hudson River

Very Beautiful Church

 

Rockefeller Center (Ice Skating Rink Was Just Installed)

United Nations Building (When the Flags are flying they are in Session)

Amazing Central Park

Old and New Macy's, and the Empire State Building

We spent a few hours at the 9/11 Memorial, which was quite a moving moment for the both of us.  The 2 fountains are where the original towers once stood, and the victims names are inscribed on the bronze perimeter, as a headstone for all those lost.  The pear tree, in the upper left corner, became known as the Survivor Tree after sustaining extensive damage, but living through the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. In October of 2001, the tree with lifeless limbs, snapped roots and blackened trunk was discovered and freed from the piles of smoldering rubble in the plaza of the World Center.  The tree was originally planted in the 1970's in the vicinity of buildings four and five in the World Trade Center complex near Church Street.

A white rose was place on a few of the names honoring their birthdays.

Grand Central Station was absolutely incredible, and we were there at a slow time of the day.  There are tunnels going off in all different directions, tracks coming and going on all different levels, people going every direction, and somehow it all works.  Put it on your list of must see's if you are ever in NYC.

We stopped by the David Letterman Show, and wished we would have had tickets.  We wandered around to the side street, and found the famous "HELLO DELI" that David talks about every so often.  The deli is located right next to where David's guests arrive and leave.  We managed to see the Cue Card Guy (in the yellow shorts) and we had the privilege to speak with Paul Shaffer, and Roberta snapped a quick picture of him  (bottom right corner), as he walked to his car.  Then Roberta went across the street, hoping to see David, or his guest Lucy Liu.  I was on the other side of the street also hoping. No such luck.....

We went up to the observation deck, at the top of the Rockefeller Center (Top of the Rock), to see the city at night.  We wish now that we would have got there right before dark to see the city during the day also.

We couldn't visit New York City without seeing Time Square at night.  This city is so amazing.  We can see how people fall in love with it.  There is always something going on.

After 4 days of walking around New York City, we had to move on to our next destination, Atlantic City.  We never did find Waldo in NYC (Like we were even looking), but we will never forget our time here.

Thanks for looking in on us,

Steve and Roberta

Boston

We have arrived in Boston

Boston Massachusetts is a very cool town.  We are staying just outside of Boston, at a State Park in Hingham.  This State Park seems to be located right in the middle of town.  Beautiful Park with Lakes for Kayaking, bike trails everywhere, very spacious RV spots and we have even seen deer.

Our Nephew, Zach, lives in Boston, and we were able to hook up with him on our first full day.  We were lucky enough to arrive on a day that he had off from work.  Our first stop was the Sam Adams Brewery. The brewery gives free tours, explaining many details of the brewing process.  At the end of the tour we enjoyed many different tastings of Sam Adams selections.  We were given a free tasting glass, and after the tour we stopped at Doyle's Pub to enjoy yet another brew, and received another very cool Sam Adams glass.  We had a "GREAT TIME" visiting with Zach, and hope to see him back in Portland for Christmas.

Thank You Zach for taking time to show us around.

The State Park where we are staying is only just a few miles from the ferry terminal, where we caught the Ferry into the heart of Boston the next day.

The Ferry ride took about 20 minutes, and the scenery was worth the price of the ticket alone.

We wanted to walk the Freedom Trail, which is located throughout the downtown area.  There is a red brick trail, inlaid into the sidewalk, which makes it easy to find all of the different locations.  We saw where the Boston Massacre took place, Paul Reveres House, the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House and others.  Lots of History going on around this part of the country.  So much to see, and so little time.

After our 2 mile walk along the Freedom Trail, we wandered down along the bay, and made our way back to the dock to catch the ferry back.  We hate to say this, but the weather here has been Perfect.  Sunny everyday and between 70 and 75.  We feel sorry for all of you back home, but we are happy we missed that week of HELL you all went through.  We managed to see many different aspects of Boston, and Boston Harbor is magnificent.  If you are ever in the area, you should definitely spend at least a day exploring.

Today we headed up North to Salem.  We wish we could be here around the end of the month, because we hear that this town, known for witchcraft, gets pretty wild around Halloween. 

If it has anything to do with Witches, you will find it in Salem.  Roberta even found a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, the actress that played in the TV show Bewitched.

I almost parked in the wrong place, the damn government closed the visitors center and Roberta gave me a time out for being grumpy.  I promised I would be good for the rest of the day, so she released me.

Our friends from Oregon, Jeff and Sheryl, are arriving tomorrow, so it will be fun to hangout with them again. We plan to head back into Boston with them to visit the "Cheers Bar" and hopefully have time to take a tour. We will be leaving Friday, heading a short distance South to the Cape Cod area.  We are planning to visit Martha's Vineyard, Plymouth Rock, Cape Cod and enjoy the coastal scenery of the area.

As Always, Thank You So Much for looking in on us.

Steve and Roberta

Bar Harbor Maine

We think we have arrived at the Northern most point of our Maine adventure, Bar Harbor.  This area is very beautiful, as so many have told us, but Oregon and Washington are just as beautiful, if not more.  This entire portion of Maine reminds us of the Puget Sound area.

We must admit though, Maine does have Lobster, like it is EVERYWHERE.

Our friends, Jeff and Sheryl  hooked back up with us here, so we were able to enjoy each others company for a couple more days. We seem to always have so much fun when we get together with them.  We decided to stop at the old Lobster shack, along side of the highway, and get some Lobster for an evening dinner.

We found out that if we purchase 4 lobsters, the owner would cook them up for us, for free.  Why not, we just wanted to get home and pig out, so if we don't have to cook, "BONUS".

I think Jeff and I had one to many pre-dinner cocktails.  Don't even ask about the weird Miley Cyrus Tongue thing going on.  Both of us have no idea where that came from.  The lobster was heavenly, but having lobster 3 times in 4 days is a bit much.  If it was always this available, for so cheap, it would take all the fun out of it.

We headed out, on a day trip, yesterday to see if we could get lost.  We managed to not to get lost, (thanks to our Garmin, and Roberta's awesome map skills) but did find a few small fishing/lobstering ports and some more beautiful scenery.

Walking through a portion of Acadia National Park, Roberta noticed some very peculiar looking pine trees.

You can add your own caption.  Just weird looking.

OMG, Even the Neighborhood Watch signs have a lobster on them.

So, our time up in Northern Maine is drawing to an end.  The weather is beginning to get cool, and we still have a lot to see before old man winter shows up.  We are now making our way down South a bit, to the Boston area, for about a week.  We plan to stay out of town, at a State Park, where we can catch a subway, ferry or train, into town just a few miles down the road.  We are hoping to just use mass transit to get around Boston.  We'll let you know how this works out for us.

Until our next post, Thanks for Looking at Us.  Hopefully we can find some warmer weather.

Roberta and Steve

Lobster in Maine

We have arrived in Maine and our first stay is in Wells, Maine, located about 20 miles South of Portland.

We can now say that we have been to all 4 corners of the United States.  

And in Maine you will find instructions in French, for their Northern Canadian friends, on almost everything.

We do the same on the West Coast, only in Spanish, for our Southern Mexican friends.

Our first outing was to Portland, where we soon discovered that Portland Maine is much smaller than Portland Oregon.  The Port area is beautiful, and lobster is plentiful. 

Today we headed up North, about 70 miles, to Boothbay Harbor.  We had been informed by our friends that we had to go to the Lobster Dock for some Lobsta, so we had to comply.

We will thank our friends, because as the sign says, the view was awesome, and the Lobsta was YUMMY.

After lunch we headed out to Pemaquid Lighthouse.  Also suggested by our friends.  Another beautiful bay along to Maine coast.  We never really realized how many harbors and bays there are up here.  It sort of makes Puget Sound look small, because you can drive to almost all of them.

 And the view from the top of the lighthouse was beautiful.

Saturday we will be heading up North, about 200 miles, to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  We have heard a lot about Acadia Park and are looking forward to seeing it.  Of course we will have to sample some lobster from the this Harbor also.

Thanks for taking a look at us,

Roberta and Steve

Good-bye Oregon.......... We will miss you......

Can you believe it, summer is almost over, which means that our time back at home is over.  We caught our plane back to New York on the 8th, and we are now back on the road.  Before we left we were invited to the Oregon State Beavers football game against Hawaii.

Great game, beautiful weather and we "WON".  A perfect day.

Our first stop was Niagara Falls, where we met up with our RVing Friends, from Grants Pass, Jeff and Sheryl. We first met Jeff and Sheryl in Palm Springs, the winter of 2011.  It has taken us this long for our paths to cross again.  It was so cool to spend a couple of days visiting, and telling each other all of our travel stories. We will probably see them again soon, since they are traveling up to Maine, and down the East Coast, as we are.

Niagara Falls is absolutely CRAZY awesome.  To see that much water going over all of those falls, for how many years now?????  Totally Amazing.....

We have so many pictures of the falls, and we don't want to bore you with all of them, so here are just a few.

We participated in the Blue Man Group Experience

Actually this was the Maid of the Mist boat, that takes you right up to the falls.

The blue plastic shields really did help to keep your clothes dry, but the rest of you gets soaked.

Very Cool Boat Ride.

On the Canadian side of the falls, we found this unique tram that takes you out over the Niagara River, down river from the falls. The Niagara River above the falls is 3 1/2 miles across at its widest point, and the rivers width at this trams point is 300 feet.  The water is traveling about 35 miles an hour, and the rapids that are created are class 6, with waves as high as 15 feet.

Rafting Anyone...?????

We packed up on Friday morning, said good-bye to Jeff and Sheryl, and pointed the rig to the East.  We made it as far as Alexandria Bay, NY, found our new RV Park, unhooked the wheelhouse and set up everything, then sat down just in time to watch the Oregon Ducks kick some serious booty on the Tennessee Volunteers.  "Go Ducks".

Today we drove up the road to check out Alexandria Bay.  This whole area is called  "1000 Islands", and we found out why.  We took a tour boat out from the Bay at Alexandria and learned that there are a little over 1800 islands.  And let us tell you, there is some serious money in this area.  We couldn't even start to imagine what your own island and house would set you back.

Keep in mind that each one of these homes occupies a single island....

And above are different views of Boldt Castle.

We only saw a handful of the islands, and we can only imagine what has been built on the others.

But we did notice a few for sale if anyone is interested.

Yes, Alexandria Bay and the 1000 Islands is a very beautiful area of upstate New York.  We are happy that we took the time to see what others have told us about.  If you ever get up this way you should take a look.

Tomorrow we are hooking up and heading East to Vermont, then through New Hampshire, and ending up in Maine.  We hope to be eating Lobster in Bay Harbor by next weekend.

Yummmmm......Lobster......Can't wait

So, as usual, Thank You All for looking in on us.

Until Next Time,

Steve and Roberta