fall times two

we were so lucky to have two gorgeous falls this year.  in october we traveled north for some awesome maine and new hampshire fall love...
the flight to boston was clear and beautiful.  we were able to follow our flight along the chesapeake bay, right over manhattan (such a cool view of central park!), and along the connecticut coast line (we were pretty sure we saw nick and melissa's beach).
once we arrived in boston we pointed the car north. first stop....

      good beer.     

we finally got to meet candy's dear friends - bill & holly in yarmouth!  they were kind enough to take us in our first night on the road. 

  we hadn't gotten far from bill & holly's when we spotted delorme from the highway... what a great surprise!  delorme makes the greatest gazeteers... maps to the backwoods, backroads, and just all around great exploration!  our seven delormes are a staple of our map collection.

 and we had no idea the largest globe would be here.

a little stop to stretch in auburn/lewiston

 

we were excited to get north to maine's carrabassett valley.  we stopped in quaint kingfield to make sandwiches and picnic next to the carrabassett river. 

flagstaff lake and the beautiful bigelows...

our route took us southwest through the great maine mountains...past rangeley

and south to bethel.  of course we had to stop at ebenezer's in lovell, me for a beer before crossing the border out of maine.

i have always been in love with the maine/new hampshire border.  it's a great area of wildness that is just outside the reach of the masses of the white's presidential range.  the mix of hardwoods and conifers made for some nice colors.

we spent the night at the base of mt washington and its president neighbors; clay, jefferson, adams, and madison.

the whites are amazing - so much exposed granite and so much above treeline!  we drove through the northern part of the whites; from gorham up north past berlin and looped back around into the northeast kingdom of vermont.  vermont had not been on our itinerary, however with the famous kingdom bike trails so close we had to check it out. 

burke mountain is a small local ski area (the kind we like).   the lifts were running for mountain bikes.

darling state forest

mt pisgah (of the north)

  

  a stop at cabot.

important discussions of cheese

 ahh...vermont

after a couple of days touring vermont's northeast kingdom we ducked back into new hampshire.  

where is that old man?

 the famous polly's pancake parlor in sugar hill.

 we spent the last bit of time north of franconia notch and over by the lovely crawford notch.  

bethlehem, nh

i hadn't seen a moose since alaska!

it was a whirlwind, gorgeous trip in which we covered a lot of ground.  we left loving new england but also had a renewed love of the southern appalachians and their vastness.  we were looking forward to heading home to our second fall in the southern appalachians.