New England Trip Highlights

Vieux Quebec

We are home to a gray and dark Sunday morning, but the best of all is we are home safe and sound from a “two-week”, fun filled trip, running like chicken with no heads at times, for example, we had to wake up at 5:00 o’clock in the morning to get ready and catch the ferry ride to Martha’s Vineyard at 8:15 AM. We walked a lot for sure, exploring Quebec City and Boston.

Pokie drove most of the way and I was the so-called navigator in training. I made a cardinal mistake one time when I entered the wrong city into our GPS, it should have been Braintree as the city, but I entered it as Boston instead. The result was harrowing, we went into some of the roughest neighborhood and we went through a huge cemetery. A good thing I realized it quickly and it was a fifteen-minute mistake.

We took the red-eye flight to Providence, Rhode Island from Portland, Oregon resulting in no sleep and a tired day when we got there, but we recovered rather quickly. I think we drove about 1,500 miles in total all in all, covering six states in the US and one province in Canada, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Quebec Province and Maine in that order.

We were hoping for “fall colors” as an added bonus, but we were about three weeks too early. The peak for fall colors starts the first week of October, so we will visit again the next time around.

We mostly stay in the “Hampton Inn and Suites”. There are two things that are certain about this hotel chain managed by Hilton, the cleanliness of the room and the consistent complimentary breakfast served from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. When you are traveling, it is a great help and we save some money along the way. I also belong to Hilton Honors, earning some free nights along the way.

We went as far as Provincetown, Cape Cod and Edgartown in Martha’s Vineyard. Along the way I took some 1,350 images, thus it will take me sometime to sort these out. Here’s some of the highlighted from this New England trip. I will do a website on each segment of the trips later on bit by bit.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2013/ne

Dahlia Festival 2013

Swan Island Dahlia Festival 2013

As with any photography I prefer when the lighting is soft or the day is cloudy. Today we visited Swan Island Dahlia Festival 2013, the day was cloudless and the sun is shinning, the result is too high of a contrast, but we managed to take a few pictures. There are about 350 to 400 varieties of Dahlias; it is just simply amazing. Probably this would be the last flower festival before fall comes and winter shroud Portland, so enjoy it. We also visited the same place three years ago, so you can compare the lighting.

2013:

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2013/dahlia

2010:
http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2010/dahlia

2010 Close Ups:
http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2010/dahlia2

Harmony Lakeside RV Resort

Site #60

I wanted to stay two nights at this resort, it is a quiet place and tranquil. There is one problem – you have to put coins when taking shower, the owner did not tell us when we checked in, luckily Pokie read the fine prints, so we prepare with quarters in our hands. For the price that we pay for a deluxe RV resort, showers should be free. This reminds us when we travel in Canada and Alaska. In addition to that we accomplish what we wanted – ride that steam trains. So, we left Sunday morning under the cloudy sky.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2013/harmony

Chehalis Steam Train Rides

Chehalis Steam Train Rides

I think my limit to ride any kind of trains is two per year, but when Pokie agreed to go to Chehalis Steam Train Rides, some 100 miles to the north, I am sure that I over my quota to my delight. We still plan to ride one more train ride in September in our big vacation in the New England states. I decided to ride this train after I purchased a DVD about steam train rides from OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting). We stayed one night in Silver Creek some 30 miles to the southeast from Chehalis. I wanted to stay two nights, but we decided to leave Sunday morning. I will tell you later.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2013/chehalis

Lavender Festival

Yamhill Lavender Festival

As I mentioned it before, summer here is extremely short, so every chance we get we go out and enjoy the sun and the good weather. This weekend we off to a Lavender Festival in Yamhill, Oregon, some thirty miles away from home, not a bad drive at all. We went to two farms and the festival itself. What a perfect day that is. On the way home we told our GPS to “Go Home”. OMG (Oh My God)…it took us to where we have never been before, rolling hills, to a mountain that I guess close to a thousand feet and down the hill again and we ended up in a farm, we made a quick stop for a Blackberry-Lavender milkshake. Yummy.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2013/lavender

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Passages of the Deep

Sometimes, we ignore the local attraction with the connotation that we can go anytime since it is relatively close by. Since we stayed three nights at the coast, this time we force ourselves to explore this little jewel in Newport. The result is extraordinary; we really enjoyed the atmosphere and the setting. 

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2013/aquarium

July 4th mini vacation

Tillamook Cheese

I am always looking forward for July to come, not only we have a one-day holiday, but I also get three Personal Business (PB) days that I could add to July 4^th Holiday and we have an instant mini vacation. This time I wanted to try to take fireworks display at the Siletz Bay, Lincoln City, so off we went back to the coast, this time we make a loop by going to Tillamook first, home of the world best medium cheddar cheese. Along the way we discover Blue Herron Cheese Factory, which I really like.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2013/fourth

And, here is the fireworks display, mostly trial and error….

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2013/fire