Moosies, Moosim, or Meese (VT, NH, ME, RI)

Tuesday morning we went to breakfast with Lori and Carol.  After Carol went to work, we went with Lori to downtown Burlington where we saw Church street and took a short walk by Lake Champlain.  

Fog over Lake Champlain 

We drove back to Lori’s and had a photo shoot with Lucy (her dog) with a Frisbee for dogs (why they need a different Frisbee is still unclear… a regular Frisbee seems just fine).  Lucy wasn’t quite having it, but Lori managed to get what she needs.

We then packed up, had a nice lunch, and were off yet again.

Lori and Carol recommended skipping Grande Isle, so instead Lori sent us on a scenic drive.  We took Route 15 N to 108 South, which cut through Smuggler’s Notch, a tiny winding road surrounded by rocks, brooks, waterfalls, and patches of snow.

As we continued on, we saw a sign for the Von Trapp Estate, which LeeAnn was excited to see, being a big Sound of Music fan.  We took the side road and stopped for photos.  LeeAnn pointed out where they sang The Hills Are Alive, 16 Going on 17, and A Few of My Favorite Things (though in all likelihood the real Von Trapp family didn’t know any of those songs…).  There was also a cemetery but it was closed and all we could see was Maria’s grave (still pretty cool).

We thought the road we were on might meet back up with what we needed, so we continued on and ended up on a windy, very steep, unpaved but beautiful downhill road where we passed what we think were yaks.

We met up with 100 S, which brought us to the Ben and Jerry’s factory (the goal of the whole sidetrip).  We weren’t sure we had time for the tour, so we just went to another cemetery, this time for past flavors.

We went from there to 89 N (despite LeeAnn, who was navigating at the time, saying it was probably supposed to be south) and ended up back in Burlington (sorry we didn’t stop back by Lori).  We finally found an exit to turn around, and headed in the right direction (thankfully the road was, as usual, beautiful).
We switched to 2 E which brought us all the way to White Mountain National Forest, with a quick stop at the Israel River.

We got on 16 S and Dolly Cobb Road to the Barnes Field Campground .

We got there in perfect time to set up a (different) tent, Meir made a pretty successful fire despite the wet wood, and we had a quick picnic dinner.

We had our first successful night in the tent! (Except that it was freezing- the downside to camping in the Northeast in early May).

Wednesday morning we woke up to a still chilly day, took a short cold hike with unique flowers and started on our way from New Hampshire to Maine.

We took 16 N back to 2 E, drove through Mexico, Paris, China.  Who knew this was an international road trip!

We turned onto 17 S through Augusta, the capital of Maine, and got onto 3 E where we saw George Lake (the opposite of Lake George apparently).  We almost ran over a pretty big turtle who was trying to cross the road.  You’d think with all the moose crossing signs they could add in at least one turtle crossing.

We then got back on 1 N (probably the same 1 as we took back in Jersey), then back onto 3 E which brought us into the islands of Acadia National Park.

We had a bit more time before dark when we got to the Blackwoods Campground so we decided to finally cook.  Meir made rice (good thing he was cooking, LeeAnn would have burnt it since she thought he put in too much water), then added carrots to lentil soup as a sauce. As usual we had beer, and we’re now trying to update the blog before we forget everything, even though we’d rather be sleeping.  The people in the neighboring campsite talked about a good place to go for sunrise, but we don’t know what time that is so we may leave it for Friday morning.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen goodbye!

Thursday morning we decided we’d stay another night at Acadia meaning 1. we didn’t have to pack up camp, 2. we could have a full relaxed day there (without worrying about getting to our next destination).

We found out that the best hike was Cadillac Mt. so that is what we did.  The 4.2 mile hike was gorgeous and the weather could not have been better.  We ran into a couple and they said they both went to UW Madison and the husband was wearing tzitzit so Meir played some Jewish Geography on the trail.  They remembered the current UW Madison Chabad Rabbi on campuses father as Rabbi who came from Morocco 40 years ago.   We then continued to climb rocks and find a patch of snow that was on the trail (snow was thrown).  When we were half way up we saw pretty views of the Atlantic and then at the peak saw an even better panorama view of the ocean and the entire surrounding island.  We picnicked at the top, walked around a bit, read some signs, and headed back to the camp site.  We jumped right into the car and drove around the island a little to see a few other sites: Sand beach (isn’t that every beach?) was too cold, but Thunder Hole was amazing.  We decided to climb Cadillac Mt. for a second time but this time by car to see the sun set.  Blue hill was the recommended look out at the top of the mountain where the view to the west was amazing.  

After coming back down for a quick dinner we hit the sack in order to wake up before sunrise.  As LeeAnn said, we were seeing a full cycle of the sun.

The plan was to wake up at 4:15am for the 5:03am sunrise on top of Cadillac Mt. (third time on the mountain).  Meir’s phone was put on airplane mode so it would still have battery as the alarm clock.  The 4:15 alarm somehow became 3:15 and so we were in the car at 3:30 with an hour and a half’s time to drive 20 minutes.  We got to the top of the mountain and we were the first car there to see the sunrise.  Prior to sunrise the sky was becoming brighter and the sliver moon was up high in the sky.  

Other cars began piling in and we realized we were not the only crazy ones to wake up so early.  By 4:45 the parking lot was close to full and people were out of their cars with tripods out and waiting to capture the sunrise.  After the sun was up we prayed and drove down for a typical 6am nap.  By 8:30 we were up and getting ready to pack up the campsite, and began driving from Acadia, Maine to Providence, RI.  We had planned to make numerous stops along the way on the coast of Maine and of New Hamshire but realized that we needed to drive quicker that anticipated in order to get to Providence before Shabbat, where we planned to stay with Meir’s high school friend, Meital.  The drive was really nice prior to getting on the 95 and aside from the 60 miles of Boston traffic that took way too long to drive through.  Route 3 north to the 1 south to the 295 south to the 95 south took us to the beautiful city of Providence where we arrived just in time for the weekly shower before Shabbat.

Friday night, Meital arranged for us to go with her and her fiancé, Yehuda, to dinner at a Kolel rabbi’s house.  Rabbi Shochet and his kids were very welcoming, and the food was delicious.  Walking to and from dinner, Meital and Yehuda seemed to know everyone we passed on the street.  Who knew the Jewish community here was so… who knew there was a Jewish community here?

Saturday morning we slept in (past sunrise!), and went to kiddush at shul, where we heard a funny, heartfelt farewell song for a couple leaving the community.  Everyone was very nice, and came up to meet the strangers (aka us).

Afterwards, we went to Yehuda’s house and played truth or dare Jenga (the clean version), and then headed to Chabad for lunch.  It was another very nice meal, and they have three adorable young daughters who kept us entertained (or maybe we kept them entertained?).  They have this interesting custom where the second course does not come out until all of the salads (4 huge ones) are completely gone.  WE DID IT!!! Post lunch a Shabbat nap was necessary so we slept for a few hours before going to Michael and Nechama’s house for Seudat Shlishit.  Turns out Nechama is from a few blocks away from LeeAnn!  What a tiny world.

When Shabbat ended, Yehuda dropped us off downtown with Meital for the WaterFire (one of the reasons we were first interested in visiting Providence).  It was fun watching the boats go up and down the river, lighting all the fires along the way.  Apparently this was only a partial lighting, which means only part of the river was lit, but having never been before, we were still definitely impressed.

It started to drizzle, but most places were closed since it was late, so we headed to 711 for hot chocolate and caramel macchiato (which each came with a donut) and sat on some steps waiting for Yehuda to pick us up.  We were supposed to plan out our week that night, but it was already too late, so the most we got to was planning out Sunday using some tour magazines that Yehuda gave us.

It’s getting late and we still haven’t planned the week out, so we’ll continue from today on next time.  Sorry about the lack of photos, we're having some technical difficulties.

Lila tov from Providence!