Travel Log: Day 7

We started our day by having breakfast at Peg's Restaurant.  It was just as charming as all of the other buildings around AND they make their very own pure maple syrup.  Let me just tell you.  If you have never had the real deal, pure maple syrup, you're missing out!

 The restaurant is owned by the Fadden family and they made the syrup right next to the restaurant.  Check out the article about them winning "Best Maple Syrup in New Hampshire."  The good news, you can order online!

 After stuffing ourselves for a price less than Waffle House, we headed across the world famous Kancamangus Highway, also known as the "Kanc."  This highway stretches from Lincoln to Conway, NH.  It was a beautiful drive.  It was just a bit chilly.

 There were plenty of places for us to pull over and take "a hike."  That's all Andrew wanted to do all day was take a hike.  I tried to get some really cute pictures of him.  This was probably the most cooperative he was the whole trip. 

 I got tired of seeing myself in my gray fleece jacket so I braved the cold just for a second. 

 Then Paw-Paw joined in the photo fun.

 We walked down by the water where I got a cute shot of Granna and Paw-Paw.

 Andrew running through the woods.

 There were all types of firs, hemlocks, and other "Christmas trees" growing wild EVERYWHERE.  I particularly like the little ones.

 Somewhere along our drive I noticed this colorful hillside with a huge ROCK.

 New Hampshire is full of covered bridges too.

 The Kanc ended in Conway, NH, another adorable village with historic buildings.  Here's another shot taken from the bum window in the back seat.

 Conway's public library

 Here's an adorable church in Conway, with a crazy pumpkin lady outside?!

 Just outside of Conway, is Story Land.  It's a little amusement park based on all the story books and nursery rhymes that Children love.  It was a really great way for Andrew to burn off some energy since he has been cooped up in the car for a week.

 Little Miss Muffet

 Pumpkin carriage rides to Cinderella's Castle.

 Granna and Paw-Paw watching from the bridge as Andrew and I ride in a swan boat.

 Cinderella's Castle

 I had to trick Andrew into letting me take his picture, a common theme on this trip.

 Andrew driving a pink tractor.  (He wanted the green one)

 An adorable church we found leaving Conway.

 Up until this point, we had a great day.  But this is where the trip "almost" took a bad turn.  Might I remind you that we have NO reservations on this trip.  Because we have plenty of time to travel there was no way of knowing how far we would make it in a day and we didn't want to have to skip over things in order to make it to our next scheduled stop.  Up until now, we had no problems finding reservations.  BUT...Conway, NH and the Kanc highway are some of the most famous spots in New England for viewing the foliage.  AND there was also a HUGE yearly festival just across the border in Maine...AND it's Columbus Day weekend AND Canadian Thanksgiving, so there was no availability anywhere.  We had this great idea to get out of town and go ahead and drive into Maine and be settled somewhere in time to watch the Auburn vs. Kentucky game.

We started calling around to some hotels on our way and people were flat out laughing at us when we told them we needed a room on the busiest night of the year.  We drove around for 5 hours in Maine, partly in a circle when we finally, by the grace of God, found a place with vacancy.  It truly was the Lord.  Normally our GPS will only show "points of interest" around 15 miles away, but tonight, by the Lord, the Down Easter Inn showed up and had availability.  So we headed to a town called Damariscotta, Maine to call it a night.

*the first couple of hours in Maine, we had NO cell phone service.  The first text message we received was from my friend, Kellye saying that Alabama was getting beat by South Carolina.  Boy, did we get excited. :) We were really trying to get to the Inn before the Auburn game was over.  Once we got there and checked in, we discovered that there was no TV!!!!  So we didn't get to see Alabama lose OR Auburn win.  But with those results, I can't complain!  (War Eagle)