My first time seeing the East Coast

I recently traveled to the east coast for the first time and to say things didn't go according to plan is an understatement. Before you get upset that I traveled while in a pandemic, please remember there is always two sides to every story and I was safe wearing a mask and only spent two days in the city. The rest of my trip I was hiding in the mountains.

Day 1: Spend the whole day flying!

Boston, MA/Chelsea, MA

October 7, 2020

One of the most challenging things about traveling in 2020 was the flights. They changed maybe 4 times and at a drop of a dime. My sister and I had flights booked over 6 months in advance and it was hard for us already to coordinate landing at the same time, flying from two different states and now adding in layovers but we made it work by adding a whole day to our trip just to fly. Both of our flights were pleasant and everyone was super nice. We both felt safe in the air and at the airports we flew out of and the airports that we had layovers at. My layover was in Seattle and I was so excited because I got to take the Disneyland plane!!!

Once we both landed it was already 9:30pm on the east coast and we needed to get to our hotel room for the night. We were trying to save money where ever we could, knowing we needed to take an uber the following day to get the rental car, we opted for public transport to the hotel. Our hotel told us that the bus dropped off right across the street from them so once we figure out which bus we needed to be on, we waited. And waited. Bus #1 we needed was out of commission because of covid so a different bus(the "wrong one" that passed us 5 times) took us to our first stop. All the routes were messed up but not stated. We waited another 15mins for our final bus. Once we were done with the buses we found our hotel. It was not across the street! We had to walk up a block and cross a massive shopping center parking lot. We looked crazy walking across an empty lot with all of our bags and luggage. We were dressed in light airplane jackets and it was easily 40 outside with a wind chill of 34. We were freezing. By the time we got to our room it was already 11pm and we needed dinner. Since everything was closed we opted for the Mexican restaurant that we passed walking to the hotel. We tried relaxing the rest of the night as best as we could. Little did we know what the nest day would bring.
*Moral/learning lesson of this paragraph: Just spend the $12 and take an Uber, don't trust public transport in a pandemic.

Day 2: Pick up rental car and explore the city

Boston, MA

October 8, 2020

We said goodbye to our nice hotel and grabbed an Uber 20mins south of Boston to pickup our rental. When we arrived at Hertz, they told us they didn't have any cars left to give us. Mind you we already pre-paid for a car over 4 weeks ago. I will leave it up to your imagination how upset we were with this news. Our trip hasn't even started yet and its been a mess. The Hertz employee called another location for us and asked if they had any cars and they did. The car was now 20mins back the direction we already came from and they had no shuttle or anything to take us to the car. We spent over $40 with tip on Ubers in less then 30mins that day going back and forth. Whatever you do, DO NOT book anything with Kayak. You would think it would be ok since its a huge site but no just don't do it.

Once we got the car we headed for Beacon Hill. We made a few circles to find parking but it was a cute little town. Once we figured out how to pay for parking we got out and explored. One of our spots to stop was Acorn street of course. It one of the only original cobble stone streets left. Boston is a beautiful city with so much history. It was nice to see all the place our grandpa may have told us about as kids. Our grandpa. who is mentioned in the previous post, is from Melrose, MA. After two hours of exploring we grabbed some coffee and decided we wanted to walk the Boston Freedom trail but we needed to move the car to a new parking spot. Boston what's with all the two hour max parking? Who can do anything in just two hours? We found parking relatively close to where we wanted to start the Freemdom trail. 

We didn't get to walk all of the Freedom Trail but we saw most of it. We even wondered into Boston own Little Italy. Once we walked most of the trail and all that was left was a 30min walk across the water we decided it was time to head back to the car and figure out dinner. We arrived back at our car, 4mins past our meeter and had a parking ticket! At that point we didn't want to get dinner in the city like we planned. We headed to our Airbnb in Revere, MA. Sat in traffic and got lost in Massachusetts confusing highways/roads and eventually found our Airbnb for the next two days. Of course I wanted to go to target to pick up a few things. We even got lost going to Target! What they call a roundabout out there is not what we are used to. By no means is it round! lol There is like 5 or 6 different lanes and you don't really know which one you need to be in till your there and its to late. Some lanes turned, some when straight and throw in 2 street lights as well. After Target, we got dinner in downtown Revere and headed back to out Airbnb. We settled in for the night, watched Hubie Halloween on Netflix and planned out our next day.

*Moral/learning lesson from this day: Never book with a third party for your travels, no matter how many times you have before. Also don't let your parking meeter run out even a minute passed in Boston.

Day 3: Explore the one place this trip was supposed to be about

Salem, MA

October 9, 2020

This is the first day of our trip that we didn't run into any problems! Around 9AM we headed 30mins up the coast in the morning to Salem, MA. I was beyond excited. Salem in October has been on my bucket list of places for a very long time. First stop was Max and Dani's house that was featured in the movie Hocus Pocus.

After we took a few pictures we headed to downtown Salem. We found parking for $4 all day!! This was one of our highlights for sure. First we got coffee to go at the Ugly mug diner and then headed to the visitor center to start the day. Even with covid and Salems strict mask rule, it was still enjoyable. We got to do almost everything we wanted. We saw all the shops, history sites and museums. The best part, it wasn't busy at all. The only museum we did was the Salem Witch Museum because they all are honestly the same in one way or another. One of the last spots we stopped was Witch City Wicks. Of course I bought some candles. I spent way to much money in Salem but its ok, I was on vacation! We ate dinner at the rooftop bar above the Salem Hotel, where I should of used the bathroom. When they say no open public bathrooms, they mean it. I will never understand why someone would close a bathroom because of covid. There are worse things I'm always worried about then covid in a public restroom. After exploring the quite small town of Salem MA, by night fall we wondered around the neighborhood and then back to the car to head back to Revere for the night.

*Moral/learning lesson from this day: Not having any open public restrooms unless you are eating at a restaurant is challenging

Day 4: Find the house my grandpa grew up in, explore Portland, ME, head to NH

Melrose, MA/Portland, ME

October 10, 2020

We checked out of our Airbnb in Revere and headed to Melrose MA to find the house my grandpa grew up in. It was such a cute little street. All I can say is that I wish I could have talked to him about this trip. Next we drove two hours up the coast to Portland, Maine where we of course sat bay side and tried some lobster rolls. It was good but not worth the price. We walked around the little area downtown and visited some shops but this area was very very busy. We left and went to find a nearby lighthouse. We couldn't figure out how to get close to it but I crossed another thing off my list! I can now say Ive touched and seen the Atlantic ocean! Before it got to dark we headed two hours west to New Hampshire where we spent the rest of our trip in the White Mountains. Not only did we fly into the tail end of a thunderstorm we drove into one once we got close to Lincoln, NH. It was the craziest thunder we have ever seen. Once we found our Airbnb it was time to figure out dinner. We call in for pizza and man did we catch the storm at its worst. As we left the pizza place it started pouring rain and I mean pouring. We could hardly see the road and this was still our first time on it. Cars were pulled over everywhere and stopped. I think we did a slow crawl of 10mhp to get back to the Airbnb.

Day 5: Explore the White Mountains

Lincoln, NH

October 11, 2020

We left early and took a drive down Kancamagus highway which was gorgeous and grabbed some coffee. It was so chilly this day! We decided to try a hike next and lets just say I have never felt more out of shape! We hiked up to this cliff top to see the colors. There were a ton of people and it was very steep to get up there so I felt rushed the whole time. We didn't know that we happened to be there on the busiest time of the year. I learned a new term while up in New Hampshire. We were leaf peepers! I guess that's a term for people like myself. After we did one hike we decided to try our luck with apple picking. The thunderstorm the night before knocked all the apples from the trees though. We still enjoyed walking around the apple farm and we bought a bag of apples. After my sister wanted to try another hike. I should of known I couldn't do another hike in the same day. We were chasing the sunset, and I was having a hard time keeping up with her and breathing so I kinda gave myself a panic attack and had to sit and let her finish the hike alone. I was so bummed but I overthought it to much. I sat on the side of the trail for 40mins and was so cold I couldn't do it anymore. I walked back to the car alone and I mean alone. No one was on trail with me. I felt like I was in the hunger games and got nervous I would lose the trail and get lost. Oh and I had to go to the bathroom again! My sister, well lets just say its a good thing I walked back alone. She ended up taking a different trail down that put her in the wrong spot at the bottom. She ended up running back a different way and on the highway and finally had service to text me. When she made it to the car she told me she thought she was going to have to run back up the start of the trail to meet me since we didn't have service on the hiking trail. Thinking about it now, it makes me laugh still, but we will never separate on trail again lol. Needless to say after she finished her hike we went to our cabin, changed and walked around downtown Lincoln.

Day 6: Explore the White Mountains

Lincoln, NH

October 12, 2020

We got up super early so my sister could hike another trail that was to busy the day before. I made her do it alone because I didn't think I could handle it after yesterday. It was also so cold this morning. A lovely 27 outside. When she finished that hike we decided to go get some bagels and coffee and drive to a different hike she wanted to do that was easier. This hike was called Mt Willard trail. Im glad I went on that hike. It was so pretty oh and guess what? I had to pee again! lol this time I walked into the woods. For us this was a pretty chill day. Knowing we had to go home the following day may have had something to do with it.

Day 7: Time to go home

New Hampshire - Boston, MA

October 13, 2020

Another day we had to wake up super early to drive back to Boston, MA from our Airbnb in New Hampshire. Thankful we were able to get on the same flight back to the west coast. We parted ways in Seattle. With it being a two hour drive and having at 10:15 flight this day is pretty self explanatory and also bittersweet. This was the longest vacation I've taken as an adult. I had so much fun and I was sad to leave my sister again but a part of me was ready to be home.

If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed my recap of my trip. I loved the east coast and all the exploring we did but the west coast will always be home. Im super thankful I was able to do this and with my sister. It was a trip to remember for many reasons.