Maine Road Trip

Off again on one of our fun family vacations! Traveling in large groups is one of my favorite things to do. It takes a lot of pre planning to make things go smooth but overall is such a fun time. This time we were off to Maine. With lots of planned sightseeing on the way out there we headed out at 4am on a Wednesday from our home in Minnesota. Our first stop was in Illinois, then headed up through Canada to Niagara falls. We hit the falls around sunset but had plenty of time to walk around. We stayed overlooking the falls at the Marriott Niagara Falls Hotel Fallsview & Spa. Overall the hotel was clean but the service was not helpful or friendly. We were unable to get into our hotel room until 7:00 PM with check in at 3:00pm. We also had to be out prompt at 11:00am You paid per car for parking around thirty dollars. Overall I would not recommend this stay as there are plenty of hotels you can see the falls from on both sides and the per room rate was very high.The Buffett was around $25.00  with not much selection. We chose to stay on the Canadian side because it had better views than the American side. The American side of the falls looks more like a lake and to see the full view of the falls you would have to take the Maid of the Mist boat to get the full view.

Walking around Niagara Falls was one of the prettiest sights I have ever seen. The mist from the falls was heavy and if the wind was blowing in the right direction you could feel it a little bit. There were incredible walking paths around to take in all of the views. There was a tram that could take you from the top of the hill at its steepest point all the way to the bottom. Once at the bottom you have to walk through Niagara Falls Gift to get out to the falls. We did this adventure the first night along with eating at the Horseshoe Landing Patio. The Food was amazing and the view was even better. I would definitely recommend if adventuring to this wonderful place! The next morning we woke up, had a little starbucks and headed on our way down to get a little closer to the falls. We got our tickets early to go on the Hornblower Niagara Cruises. Although we were early the lines were still pretty long because it was such a popular attraction. With around fourty of us wanting to go we were able to go in the group entrance so we could all ride together. This experience was so worth the wait. We were each given a poncho to wear and headed on the boat. It was fun to see both boats (Maid of the Mist) taking tuns to get the best views. The boat quickly headed up to the falls as we all slowly got drenched. We suggest wearing shorts and a t-shirt, you will come out dryer than the rest. After this fun event we walked around a lot more, went on the Rainbow bridge to the US side, and then prepared for our next long drive to our VRBO home in Maine. As we were leaving we decided not to go over the Rainbow bridge to get to the United States because traffic was over two hours to get across.

We were off from Niagara Falls mid afternoon and made an unexpected stop at Quechee Gorge near Woodstock in Vermont. We needed to stretch our legs so we went for a small hike, visited a little gift shop, and along with the gift shop was an outdoor walk up window with fresh seafood. This was our favorite unexpected stop of the trip. The seafood was brought in fresh daily and it was just a great atmosphere. These are the best stops in my book on a road trip! We then headed for the hotel. This would be our last hotel stay before we got to our home in Bethel, Maine. We woke up bright and early to hit the road to our home. Check in was not until noon, but we wanted to cruise around, grab all of our food for the week at the Bethel Foodliner, and see what the town of Bethel had to offer!

Our home was unreal, from rooftop balconies to an indoor pool, this place had it all. Unfortunately the rooftop hot tub was broke for the week so we were unable to use the best feature (in my opinion) of the home. The house looked over this ski resort an into the mountains. I thought the resort looked really close but it turns out it was quite a ways away! Crazy how the mountains will do that to you. Monday we enjoyed the house for the rest of the day, but Tuesday we were up bright and early to head to Portland, Maine to do a little lobster trapping. Fitting 40+ people on one boat is definitely not possible, so we were able to find Lucky Catch Cruises to take us all out! Our guide was phenomenal and I would highly recommend this activity while out in Maine. We hopped on the boats and headed out into the bay. One thing I loved about this activity was that our guide was a ton of fun and gave us a little background as to how people get started in the lobster business and how difficult it is to actually trap a lobster that is of legal size. Lucky Catch had a bunch lobster on the boat for us to look at (eventually eat) and hold whenever we wanted. Pulling up the traps was so exciting because we did not know what we would find.We pulled up a quite few lobster but only two were of legal size to take home with us.We also were able to learn about other species that were pulled up within the trap as well. Once getting back to shore we each grabbed a lobster that was on the boat and headed to Portland Lobster Company where we waited in line to have our fresh lobster cooked for us. Once you got up to the front the waiters would tag your lobster and ask you your prefered side dish, and gave you a number. Honestly I can say I have never had anything more fresh and the lobster tasted AMAZING. As you can tell I keep talking about food… but I am a tad bit obsessed with these types of experiences. We then toured the town of Portland. The company we went through was great and out tour guide was hilarious. We then left Portland Discovery Land and Sea Tours and headed up the coast to Freeport. This town was on my bucket list because this is where L.L. Bean Headquarters is located. We stopped and toured the large boot but what made this town so special was that ant shop that was put into town had to transform an old building. So there was an Abercrombie & Fitch in an old library and a McDonalds in 168 year old mansion. It was just so neat. We wanted to try Frosty’s Donuts as we hear this is the hit in town but they were closed by the time we went there. We headed on home in time to make spaghetti for supper.

The next few days were spent relaxing and hiking Maine. We talked with locals on the best spots/ easiest spots to hike. Their easy was not our easy as we figured this out the hard way. We decided to hike 1 mile up a steep incline to a magnificent view. With only one water packed we all felt like giving up. We all made it to the top… even our 75 year old grandpa! He wouldn’t let anyone do it without him. We raced down to the bottom as ½ our group made a tee time at the local golf course. We decided to hit up another recommended spot where you can jump off of a rock into clear water. A handful of us jumped off the rock and headed home. The next day we headed to Frenchman’s hole. This we heard was a great place to experience and boy were they right! We jumped off this waterfall for nearly four hours! Some even used the waterfall as a slide! We then went further down the river and swam in a really cool deep part of the river. Wednesday we decided to head to the lake as we heard the water was beautiful. We also experienced a rope swing! The last day we decided to spend at the house. As the day went on we couldn’t just sit at the house so we went Bethel Outdoor Adventure and Campground where we rented around 25 kayaks and went down the river near our house.

Friday morning we got up bright and early and made our way back to Minnesota. With little stops and gas station food we made it back in a day and a half! There were no vehicle breakdowns or any complaints (just kidding!). This was a trip of a lifetime and would definitely travel back to Maine.