charon54
My two boys!
Member since 5/05 7279 total posts
Name:
Rebecca
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My review of our New England trip with PICS!
We just got back on Friday from a trip to New England. We were in Kittery, Maine, Portsmouth, NH, Boston, MA, Salem, MA and Newport, RI.
On Monday, we drove up to Kittery, Maine. It took about 4-4.5 hours. We did some outlet shopping and then checked into our hotel in Portsmouth, NH. We decided to go downtown into Portsmouth, which is really a cute town. Lots of little shops.
Downtown Portsmouth
That afternoon, we took a ride down to Hampton Beach, NH which is a seaside town. We had planned on staying for the free concert that night, but it turned out that that night's concert was a polka band  so instead we drove back to Portsmouth for dinner at the Portsmouth Brewary and dessert at this great bakery.
The NH coastline
The next day, we drove down to Boston. We walked the Freedom Trail all day and our feet were dying so we decided to take a sightseeing cruise with Boston Harbor Cruises, which was a nice relaxing break. We walked up to Cheers afterwards to get a picture and a souvenir. In the evening we ate dinner at Dicks Last Resort (thanks to the girl on here who recommended it), which was so much fun. Then we stuck around Quincy Market for the free entertainers and the laser light show. The area is very lively with lots of shops and restaurants and a large food court.
The coolest bridge I have ever seen.
The Freedom Trail
USS Constitution
Boston Skyline from cruise
Cheers
The next morning it was raining lightly, and we decided to go on a whale watching cruise. It was truly amazing. I thought the whales would be hard to see but they come right up to the boats. I loved it. We went on the New England Aquarium's tour in case anyone is thinking of doing this.
Whale Watcing Pics
After the whale watch, it was still raining, so we decided to drive up to Salem. I must say I was disappointed with Salem, it wasn't what I expected and I though the Salem Witch Museum was the biggest waste of $30 I ever had. But we did see the House of the Seven Gables which was nice.
After stopping back at the hotel, we ate dinner and dessert in Cambridge. Dinner was at Fire/Ice and while it was cute, we had a problem with flies and walked out. We ate dessert at Finale, which was amazing. They are a gourmet dessert restaurant.
The next day we drove to Newport. The mansions are so nice, we bought the five mansion ticket and got two coupons for free appetizers at the restaurant we had dinner reservations at that night.
We started our day at the Breakers, which belonged to the Vanderbilts.
Then we went to lunch in downtown Newport, at the Black Pearl. The lunch was good and supposedly they have the best chowder.
We drove up to the Green Animals Topiary Garden which is about 15 minutes out of Newport, but part of the places you could go on the tickets.
Then we came back into Newport and saw the Elms, another Gilded Age Mansion.
That night we ate dinner at 22 Bowens. The steak was like butter, and the free appetizer coupons were great. We walked around the town of Newport for a while, bought a painting for our living room. It's a great little town.
The last day, we drove out on the Ocean Drive, for a scenic view and walked the Cliff Walk which is really cool. We only walked about 3/4 of a mile of it, but the weather was really getting warm by then.
We visited Marble House that morning which was another Vanderbilt Mansion, and the most amazing in my view. It has a Chinese teahouse behind it.
After that, we went to the Astor's Beechwood which is not owned by the Preservation Society. It is run as a living history museum, and as you tour the house, you are interacting with actors portraying the people who would have lived in the house. We were there on a Roaring Twenties day and met Cole Porter 
We ate lunch at the Brick Alley Pub, which was another suggestion from here. The food was great, I would defintely recommend it.
The last mansion we visited was Rosecliff. Many movies were filmed there including the Great Gatsby, Amistad, and a new movie coming out next year starring Katherine Heigl.
Before we left to head home, we got gelato from Cold Fusion. It was on Giada's show on the Food Network. They have amazing gelato in flavors like chocolate curry. I had the Mint Chip which was unbelievably smooth and minty, and DH had Chocolate Mint.
It was an amazing trip, we had a great time. Thanks to all for the recommendations.
Message edited 7/23/2007 8:34:31 AM.
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