~ Kristin & Mike’s New England Trip Recap | Travel ~
New York City, New York | Salem, Massachusetts | Portland, Maine | Portsmouth, New Hampshire
July 2024
Over the summer Michael and I had a destination Wedding in Dayton, ME which is just outside of Portland, ME (See Jen & Dylan). Neither Michael or I have been higher on the eastern coastline than New York City! We decided instead of taking a train we would drive, so we could see all the states we hadn’t seen before. But, our first stop, was New York City. We’ve been there, but we LOVE it there. I am a huge theatre nerd so being there truly brings out all the show tunes and stage magic inside me. Micheal, being very big into movies loves visiting famous filming spots and is looking for celebrities in the streets. We had also took Arielle there for her first birthday back in 2021, it holds special memories for us. So naturally, it was the first stop on our list. This blog is gunna be long, but so worth the scroll if you are ever thinking of traveling to any of these places.
New York
New York had a few stops on our list, but getting there was the first step. We got to the Lincoln Tunnel, during rush hour and our GPS greeted us with a destination of 3 miles, 30 minuets ETA. After experiencing normal NYC rush hour traffic we met up with a distant cousin of mine, Betsy. She lives in Manhattan and she gave a locals tour around Central Park. There were trails there that I didn’t even know existed. And while walking those trails, you couldn’t hear the hustle and bustle from the city at all. There was a huge green algae bloom in the water, so that is why the water in NY looked particularly like Nickelodeon Slime. She showed us where the turtles like to hang out and gave us a little history along the way. After that she had to break off and continue her day so Mike and I hit the city for some food, sights, smells, sounds and….shopping! We stopped by FAO Swartz, of course, and picked out a new stuffy for Arielle and an ornament for our Christmas tree.
After that we made a B-Line for our restaurant destination, Ellen’s Stardust Diner – the HOME of the Singing Wait Staff. This was the place we were going to take Arielle for her first birthday for lunch, but due to COVID we were unable to. So I HAD to bring Mike here this time. After enjoying our lunch and some show tunes, we went back into the city for more sight seeing and shopping. We are hoping to plan another trip to NYC with Arielle in the coming years. After we had checked off our adventure and souvenir list we hit the road again and enjoyed all the gorgeous views of the mountains Upstate NY had in store. We even got lucky and there was an overlook pull off where the light was so pretty. I definitely want to explore Upstate NY more now. We actually completed our drive to Maine very early into that next morning.
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Massachusetts
We woke up and hit the road again to Salem, Massachusetts. All of the New England states are small and fairly easy to go state to state within an hour or so. Our drive ROUND TRIP from South Portland, ME to Salem, MA was about the same ONE WAY from Northern Virginia to Virginia Beach. We grabbed New Englands favorite, Dunkin Donuts for breakfast on the road. Once we made it to Salem we went to the Visitor Center to get a map and a Top 5 things to do from one of the desk employees. They suggested the first thing we do is the trolley ride. I am SO glad we did that, the tour guide shared so much Maritime, Witch Trial, Architectural and Pop Culture history, like the filming spots of Hocus Pocus! After the trolley ride we narrowed down all the museums, shops and food we wanted to see before we had to head back to Maine. The first thing we did was get food! We went into Witch City Mall and decided Essex Pizza was the place to stop. It was the most delicious pizza we had ever eaten and the cashier had talked us into getting Red Velvet Chip Cookies, which were so delicious we were left wanting 1 more and a glass of milk!! Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery was our next stop. We were not allowed to take photos inside the gallery, but they had a VAST and IMPRESSIVE horror movie paraphernalia. You could tell the owner of the gallery truly loves horror films and this is his collection, and it continues to grow. It was so cool to see objects from my favorite horror movies like, Dracula, Alfred Hitchcock movies, Ghostbusters, Alien, Sinister, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Stranger Things. If you love horror, film, or history, this exhibit is definitely a must-see. Michael loves movies and film history and film memorabilia. After, we headed over to the Salem Witch Museum to get the full story of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. There was limited time for photography inside this museum as well. There was a theatrical type experience and then a short guided tour after. I had learned more in this museum about the witch trials than I had in history class and my heart was truly broken for these falsely accused individuals. We were quickly running out of time before we had to leave. We chose to eat at Witchside Tavern, Michael got a beer and I had a Margarita flight! The food and drinks were to mouthwatering delicious. Salem had the best food over all the whole trip. We didn’t realize that the shops closed kinda early there in the summer, because fall is their busy season so we ended up not being able to shop much. But we did get some souvenirs from the two museum gift shops, Omen’s Psychic Parlor and Seagrass. We walked under the full moon to the Charter Street Cemetery and paid our respects to the victims of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials before heading back to Maine.
Maine
On Saturday Michael and I had to be at our couples wedding rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. So we stayed local around Portland, Maine. We stayed in the cutest Air BnB – The Willard Square. We were on the top floor with a private balcony and was in a BRIEF walking distance to an Ice Cream shop, Beach, and Bakery! I loved their bushes and gardens around the house, they were covered in bees and butterflies! In the morning our Air BnB hosts were outside tending their garden and struck up a conversation with us. They recommend Scratch Baking Co. across the street for breakfast. They had bagels, croissants, breakfast pastries, cakes, muffins, graham crackers and so much more. We got a handful of different items but our favorite by far was the Blueberry-Basil Poppy Seed cake with Buttercream Icing which we saved to enjoy for dessert at the very end of the night. We regret only buying a slice, we should have bought an entire 8″ cake, it was truly that delicious. Once breakfast was over we got ready to meet our couple at the venue and see the rehearsal. The whole family was setting up the venue for the wedding after the rehearsal and they planned to have their dinner later that day. So We had a few hours to explore near our Air BnB again in between events. Our first stop was to get some ice cream from Willard’s Scoops . One of the recommendations I had gotten was the Maine blueberries so anything with blueberry on the menu, I was trying. Willard’s Scoops had Maine Blueberry ice cream and it was the best blueberry ice cream EVER. We took our ice cream to-go and went to the beach for a few hours! The water was 52 degrees and the sand was so different compared to our beach back home. We both waded in the water. I tried to swim but it was just too cold for me, but some hard core Mainers were out there to their necks for hours. It came time for us to meet back up with our couple for their rehearsal dinner at Allagash Brewing – The Cellars. Allagash catered, bartended, and even gave a tour of the Cellars for the evening. I did include a few photos from the tour below. We headed into Portland to explore the city. We took a walk around a nature walk and watched the sun start to set before fully heading into the city. We enjoyed some shopping and sight seeing before stopping for dinner at High Roller Lobster Co. Michael was determined to have a Maine Lobster Roll. And he lucked out because this place offered a FLIGHT of mini lobster rolls for him to try. He said they were absolutely delicious. I ordered a chicken sandwich, and I am sad to say it was pretty terrible. But that is ok, the fries were very good! We concluded the evening stargazing with the telescope, eating the slice of cake, FaceTiming Arielle at the AirBnB.
New Hampshire
The Monday following the wedding we stopped in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Michael’s HVAC company’s office is located there and he wanted to take the opportunity to see the office, introduce me and see people in person. It was so nice to meet everyone, including a super energetic and adorable dog!! We also headed over to Michael’s friend/co-worker’s place and chatted for a few hours. He also gave us a really good lunch recommendation. We headed into the downtown area of Portsmouth to get some food because we were starving!! We went based off the recommendations Michael’s friend gave us and picked River House to eat. It had a lovely view of the water and the famous NH Tug Boats. I had a Frozen Rose’ and Sangria, Michael had a beer. The food was absolutely mouthwatering, I had a burger and Michael had a crab cake sandwich. We walked off all our food exploring the area, admiring the architecture and shopping. There were so many beautiful sights, including a lovely bridge that stretched to Kittery, Maine, which gave off some serious Stephen King vibes. We loved it. We wanted to see the USS Albacore also, but we were running out of time, so we just drove past it.
