NH to MI, EH?

Dates: May 1-10, 2024

Locations: New Hampshire, Vermont, Upstate NY, Shelburne Farm, Taughannock Falls SP, Watkins Glen SP, Finger Lakes National Forest, Niagara Falls, and my first time in Canada

There's No Place Like Home

After 9 months in New Hampshire working at Dartmouth, Kate's travel nursing contract there was up and she was heading home to enjoy a world-class Michigan summer. Aside from being very jealous as I stewed in my already-present Texas heat, I went up to experience spring in New England and help her move back to Michigan on a fun road trip. We planned a nice route out of New Hampshire that wound through Vermont, Upstate New York and then crossed into Canada at Niagara falls to expedite the remainder of the miles back to Michigan.

New Hampshire

As Kate packed up and said her farewells, we took in a perfect spring day to explore the town of Hanover, including the historic Dartmouth Baker-Berry library. Flowers were in bloom everywhere, and the sun brought flocks of college students out to the lawns. We got coffee and a great reuben and strolled the campus before we made our way out of town.

Vermont

Leaving the rugged granite roadsides of New Hampshire behind, we cruised into Vermont where spring was turning the Green Mountains... green. Leaves were more prevalent here, and even with some cloud cover it was a warm day. We stopped at historic Shelburne farms on the shores of Lake Champlain, where we walked a trail around the grounds that wound through lush grazing fields, woods with active maple syrup tapping going on, and lakeside views.

In Burlington, we had delicious Indian food (and very mid chai) before strolling down to the lakeshore where a spectacular sunset was unfolding. Orange hues permeated everything as canoers and boaters made their way in for the night. A lighthouse started up with a red light as twilight spread. Kate and I ran back and forth along the lakeshore and docks to see it from every possible angle.

Upstate New York

Crossing from Vermont into upstate NY, the lush green mountains switched out to the equally green Adirondack mountains. We wound through to the Finger Lakes, which is an amazingly beautiful region. A stop at Taughannock Falls State Park gave us the opportunity to see one of the nicest of many falls in the area. After the overlook near the parking, we took a quick 1 mile hike on the gorge trail through a shady broadleaf forest to reach the base of the falls.

Cinnamon of course joined us on the hike in his backpack, and with no one else around we decided he could do a little photoshoot with him on the bridge near the falls base.  From below it's an impressive plunge 215 feet into a rock amphitheatre, with a clean drop and lots of water flowing that day. Bright green spring foliage at the top lit up with the light of the hidden sun.

After we got back in the car, we finished out our drive to Watkins Glen, where we were fortunate to have a place to stay courtesy of a friend of Kate's. On the outskirts of town, we saw a pair of red foxes playing in the woods and pulled over to watch- Cinnamon was especially fascinated by these orange and white not-cats.

After seeing a great sunset, we found our home for the night and headed into the sleepy town center of Watkins Glen for dinner - Jerlando's Ristorante for some incredibly delicious Italian (-American) food, which paired with planning our upcoming trip to Italy just felt right.

In the morning we walked down to the piers on Seneca Lake, the largest finger lake. It was a beautiful sunny day for some tourist activities in town, and we tried to go to the famous Watkins Glen State Park, a winding gorge trail that goes over and under tons of waterfalls. Sadly, it was closed still for the season, and we could go up to, but not across, the first bridge. 

Kate was taking pictures of the falls under the bridge when she dropped her lens hood over the edge, leading to a small scrambling adventure down to water level to retrieve it. Fortunately, this gave me even better views of the waterfall, making me feel like I got at least a small piece of the park before leaving.

Just 2.5 hours in the car brought us to our secret shortcut - Niagara falls through Canada, so we wouldn't have to deal with Ohio (puke). Amazingly, I think this is my first time ever going to Canada or leaving the US! Hello international traveler status!

Strolling all the way up to the brink of the horseshoe, we felt the ground vibrating from the millions of gallons flowing by. Kate unfortunately pointed out a seagull wheeling super close to the water- too close it turned out, because we then watched it get sucked in and disappear in the thundering mist, never to be seen again :(

Michigan

Crossing the blue water bridge at the southern tip of Lake Huron, we were finally back in Michigan. I had just a couple days to see friends and family before my one way flight from Detroit back to Houston. On my last night in town, Dad and I decided Kate had seen enough Star Trek now to see the greatest Trek movie ever, The Wrath of Khan. We had just put it on when I glanced at my phone and saw notifications exploding about the northern lights being out. We rushed out onto the deck to look around but were having trouble seeing it, then heard Sophie over at the Rega's house just minutes away had a good view. We piled in the truck and zoomed over, and lo and behold over the dark streets of their subdivision were the second display of the northern lights I had ever seen!

A second successful moving-kate-cross-country road trip in the books, I left her to her Michigan summer and flew back to hell Texas. But luckily, we were less than a month out from... a trip to EUROPE! Plans still actively forming, but italy, Slovenia, and Croatia were all on deck. Stay tuned!