Road Trip 2021, Day 7: a slow crawl up the Coast of Maine

We had no set plan for Wednesday, other then to arrive in Brunswick at some point ahead of our Thursday morning tour of Bowdoin. We took our time and had a lot of fun stops along the coast:

Our first stop was blowing rock at Kennebunkport. It is similar to thunder rock in Acadia and was in full action when we got there. You can also see the Bush compound across the water.

Our second stop was Raptor Falls mini golf, a fun new course with animatronic dinosaurs

We stopped next in Portland, which was a cute city, and had lunch at a grilled cheese restaurant

It's a short hop from Portland to Freeport, where we took in the LL Bean Campus before finally heading to our hotel in Brunswick

We decided to leave the kids at the hotel to chill and Kevin and I had a few of our own adventures in the late afternoon. First, we crossed the swinging bridge (in the rain):

And then we headed back to Freeport to explore Wolfe's Neck State Park:

This island is where the Osprey nest

I've included out Thursday morning pictures from Bowdoin here since they fit better:

After the tour

This is the house where Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, while her husband was a professor at Bowdoin. It was only open from the outside while we were there

Road Trip 2021, Day 6: Ogunquit, Maine

 We ended up with an extra day between Brown and Bowdoin, so I threw in a night in Oguinquit, Maine, which I had been told was lovely (it was):

On the drive from Providence to Maine, we happened along a series of beach towns near the MA/NH border. We skipped over the busiest of these, but stopped at a rocky beach in New Hampshire to stick our toes in the ocean

After checking into our hotel, we made our way to nearby Footbridge Beach for a little more time in the surf

As it got closer to sunset, we made our way into town to tackle the Marginal Way, a walking path along the cliffs above the ocean

We ended up finishing just as it got dark and set off to find a restaurant -- without luck! The town was hopping and most of the restaurants closed at 9, but already had waitlists taking them up to that time. So we stopped at a convenience store and ate in the hotel room.

On the Road Again: Providence, RI

 We spent Monday night in Providence in order to see the Brown campus, which we all thought was pretty. We made a pitstop in New Haven for lunch (at Clare's Corner Copia) and a quick walk around Yale's campus as well:

Yale library

Brown's architecture was very different from Yale

Brown's mascot is this bear

The Rhode Island Capitol Building

Road Trip 2021, Days 2-4 (Weekend in NY)

 On Friday morning, we saw one more school in Pennsylvania (Haverford) and then started the drive towards New York. We made a quick stop for lunch in Princeton (with a very brief walk around campus) and then a longer stop in New Jersey with Chris White. We arrived in New York after dinner. On Saturday, we headed up to Purdys for lunch at Aunt Barbara's house, where we celebrated Abby's birthday with ice cream cake. On Sunday, we celebrated both Abby and Kevin's birthdays with ice cream cakes at Chris and Annmarie's house, joined by Tom, Christine and the girls:

Princeton

We took to the pool at Chris's house

Cousin Sarah, John and Joey joined us for lunch in Purdys. Joey was thrilled to have Kevin play baseball with him

Happy birthday to you....

First Cousins!

And second cousins

Benji and Pop-pop comparing ear lobes on Sunday morning

Ruby and Uncle Kevin

Aunt Ruth's turn

Wattamelon for Kevin; Orange Creme Roll for Abby

Road Trip 2021 (College Trips): Day 1

We're back! I'm going to break these pictures down by day for ease. We started on Thursday (July 15th) in Philly, where we took a walk through Swarthmore and then met cousin Leora at UPenn. Leora was a university tour guide and gave a very thorough tour of the campus:

The Giant Adirondack Chair is a feature on the Swarthmore lawn

Abby and Leora at the start of our tour

Leora said that Ben Franklin is "big" on campus. There are quotes all over the sidewalks, and this statue

Robert Indiana's famous sculpture