NECT: Salem to Bennington via Kittery

Put on your tennis shoes - it's time to play tourist!

The fourth day of our adventure found us with three new souvenirs under our belts: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. We had already planned to spend today in Boston, but there's an awful lot to see in a short time. With the resolution that I will be bringing TaGeez back to Boston this Fall or next summer, we decided to head North... and then West.

Salem, Massachusetts

Salem has a fabulous wherigo that'll give you a thorough tour of all the main points of interest in Witch City.  We completed it within 1 1/4 hours, and it was a very hot day. I could fill several blog posts with all the interesting sites on this tour.

Doing the touristy thing on the Witch City Tour GC44T83

What's with the jellyfish everywhere?

Red brick and cobblestones - just like I remembered it

Salem Witch Museum

Salem Witch Trials Memorial

The Burying Point established 1637

Justice John Hathorne
of the Witchcraft Court

Part of me feels guilty for goofing around so close
to the Salem Witch Trials Memorial

Which witch is which?

Derby Wharf

Salem Customs House

Look at my cheeks! It was Hot! Hot! Hot!

Ye Olde Pepper Companie established 1806
America's Oldest Candy Company - located across from House of Seven Gables

Although a lovely tour, we were grateful to reach the end. We tried for several other caches along the way without luck so it was a lot of walking for a smiley and memory awesome memories!

Portsmouth, NH

After the heat and the traffic of the city, we were grateful to head up the coast into New Hampshire for a long walk, cool breeze, and some incredible scenery. Just outside Portsmouth is a little state park called Ordiorne Point.  For a measly entrance fee of a few dollars, you can walk the shore, follow nature trails, and escape the world for a few hours. 

ShelleyJean and I followed a tree-lined trail to a lovely cliff that contained a highly-favorited Virtual (SeaView GCAC8A), an Earth Cache (The Dikes of Ordiorne Point GC15NZV), and a Traditional (Carol Cook's Kitchen GC2J58Y) all within a few hundred feet of each other.

eM-BURR's Trackable on a tour

Unfortunately, it was still a little hazy so no great pictures of the lighthouse or sailboats in the bay.

SJ doesn't normally get a chance to sit down during our adventures!

Mind you... none of this was planned. We had reserved several days for the NCMCS so we were exploring wherever the road was taking us. I think we couldn't have planned a more awesome adventure!

After grabbing a few hours to top off our New Hampshire numbers, we turned North along Route 1.

Kittery, Maine

Once you cross the bridge from New Hampshire, you land on Master Badger Island. There we spied a highly-favorited cache on the island's only road so we cut across traffic and hunted for parking along a packed dead-end. Dead end? Literally. The favorited cache was atop a little hill next to a small apartment building and turned out to be an old cemetery.

Cemetery tour, right? We snapped photos and dropped another trackable from my diminishing stores.

The afternoon was getting late so we turned towards Kittery with only food on our mind. The moment you cross the bridge you see Warren's Lobster House. Well, why not!

The view from our table!

They advertise "the Finest Salad Bar", and I've never seen anything like it! Homemade soups, cheese bar, salad bar, pasta salads, pickled brussel sprouts, hummus & pita, cornbread. So much more! It was worth the extra money, and the Baked Lobster Roll with crumbled Ritz Crackers was killer!

Baked Lobster Roll

Afterwards, I wobbled over to their gift shops for souvenirs and taffy for the family. Big hit!

Yep. That's right.

I already had a Maine souvenir, but we stopped to grab some loved caches for Shelley while there. This next was a hoot because they had seating for the weary traveler along the way!

Inspiration Park GC3TG4G is memorable for several reasons. The cool chair up the road. The pretty park so secluded from the nearby bustle. Pretty flowers, sculptures, rocks with inspirational quotes. We also met two students on work visas from Macedonia. They happened to be sitting atop the cache we were looking for, and, happily, one of them turned out to be a geocacher!

Back to New Hampshire

Time is winding down, and we decided to target Bennington, Vermont as our nightly stopover. They only have two hotel/motels so we booked as we were onramping from Kittery to our next stop: webcams in New Hampshire!

UNH Webcam Cache GCG8TK

Now, I've already shared our webcam experience, but these stops were too fun now to mention again here.

Yankee Ingenuity Webcam GCMYKV

I worked in bookstores for 19 years. So geeked when I pulled in and saw Yankee Magazine. I reference the Old Farmer's Almanac for weather before planning any adventure, and they generally nail it.

Bennington, Vermont

It's late when we finally reach Vermont. We have to drive across the southernmost portion to reach Bennington and this two-lane highway is very hilly and unforgiving. Major kudos to SJ for her driving job and getting us to our last hotel safely.

For tomorrow, we go home... via a whole bunch of places and adventures!