North East trip

New York City: the big apple, the city that never sleeps, and of course one of the most visited cities in the world. Going to New York City is something that everybody has to accomplish in their lives. Well, that is exactly what we did last summer, plus exploring the rest of the Northeast coast. With sunrises in Acadia National Park, the waves in Cape Cod, and the twinkling lights of NYC, how could this not be the trip of a lifetime? Join us for 10 states in 10 days and everything that we did and experienced.

Above is a map of the journey that we went on with about roughly 17 hours of driving (not bad for our family).

Pennsylvania-

The home of the Heaven-sent Philly cheesesteaks and those rotten Philadelphia Eagles. To begin our trip we arrived in the lovely city of Philadelphia about 7pm. We stayed at Hilton Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing, an older place on the pricier side (we used points for a free night!). The hotel was similar to other nice hotels, with basic amenities. The hotel did have a great location and was walkable to many of the iconic historical sites. Surprisingly, one of my favorite meals on the trip was a classic Philly cheesesteak from Oh Brother Philly. I highly recommend coming here and trying the cheesesteaks; make sure you also get the truffle fries! We did not have time to do much in Philadelphia besides seeing some of the historical sites like the Liberty Bell and the Rocky steps. We quickly drove by these in the morning as we headed off towards…

Delaware

We ate breakfast in Delaware and that was about it. I hear the beaches in Delaware are beautiful, but we only had time to drive through the northernmost part of the state. There was not a ton of stuff to do near there in the limited time we had; and quite frankly it seemed a little boring (sorry if you’re from there). I found this place called Hill Donut Co. and Pancake House in Wilmington, Delaware. This place had some good looking donuts and we needed a quick meal to grab in Delaware, so donuts were perfect! I had a S'mores donut, and this was delicious and scrumptious. For our state picture my mom found this place called Fort Christina, which marks the first landing of the Swedes, but it was closed :( There was some type of historical mural on a building nearby and my mom was like "let’s take a picture here" and my brother and I were like "what in the world." Cars were driving by and probably thought "wow, those are some weird tourists." The photo turned out horrible so we also ended up taking a photo at a forest where some of the first settlers lived. I know, weird. Thankfully, we soon continued driving to Hershey’s Park!

Pennsylvania

The drive from Philly to Hershey was about 2 hours and we even got to drive through Amish Country which was cool and interesting to see! We went to Hershey Park on a Friday and the park was packed, but we still got to ride a decent amount of rides and enjoyed our time there. If you're into amusement parks then you must come here! We ate at The Chocolatier which is a chocolate-inspired restaurant (yes, we have a sweet tooth). We then drove about 40 minutes east towards a town called Pine Grove and stayed at a Hampton Inn. The hotel was nothing special, just an average hotel to spend the night at.

New Jersey

We left from our hotel at about 7:45 for a 2 hour and 20 minute drive to Liberty State park a good park in New Jersey for viewing the Statue of Liberty. Since our hotel was under renovation it was a grab and go breakfast that was not very good so we ended up having McDonalds. After our car peeked over a hill we finally saw the ionic New York sky line and wow it was stunning how big it was. For our New Jersey picture we took a picture with the statue of Liberty and the Finical District in the background. Liberty State park has good views of the city and was a nice place to stop in Jersey. For our meal in New Jersey we had a cafe called Turning Point in Hoboken a nice part of Jersey City. The Food was pretty good and the restaurant had a great view of NYC and I would recommend going here. Then we headed off towards NYC through an underwater tunnel.

New York

I never thought that I was a city person until I visited NYC. Before I came here I was really worried about muggings, shootings, and all that stuff that you see on the news, but that was really just a worry with no logical information behind it. I ended up liking the city a lot more that I thought I would and am really glad that we went. Check out our detailed New York overview “here”. We stayed at the Hyatt Centric Times Square, which was an extremely nice hotel with excellent service (thanks again to points for a free stay!). The location was spectacular with close proximity to Times Square, and we got to stay on the 54th floor. The view was really cool and a little scary for my mom. Overall, I would highly recommend staying here especially if you want a central location. Some of the best things that we ate in New York were Quality Italian, Carnegie Diner and Cafe, Joe’s Pizza (or really just any of the 99 cents pizza places), Anita’s Gelato, and Zia Maria Little Italy. It is pretty hard to go wrong with the food in New York City, I just recommend trying local things or places that you don’t have in your hometown. Some of the best things that we did in New York were visiting Times Square, going on the Big Bus Tour, seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed the Child on Broadway, Central Park, Musuem of Natural History, the Vessel, the High Line, Summit One Vanderbilt, One World, 9-11 Memorial, Top of the Rock, Chinatown/Little Italy, Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building. Out of all of these I would most recommend Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Summit One Vanderbilt, and Central Park! Tips on how to save money BY MOM. Tips on what to do/not what to do BY MOM. Overall New York City was one of my favorite places that I have visited and I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought that I was going to!

Connecticut

Our time in Connecticut was brief, but I found an insane place to stop and eat called Elm Street Diner. We stopped at the location in Stamford, but they also have one in Norwalk. This place is known for their over-the-top food items. My brother and I shared this thing called the Wow Waffle Tower (pictured below). Even though it was only 10am in the morning, my brother and I still decided to share this insane dessert. It was a waffle base though, so technically it could still be considered breakfast! Some other things that this diner has includes: Nutella Reeses Churro French Toast, Churro Pancake Brunch Burrito, giant burritos, OMG birthday bowl, and insane milk shakes. For our picture in this state we did a photo of us eating the Wow Waffle Tower! I highly recommend coming here as it is a unique place with lots of amazing and crazy things to try - just make sure you hop on a diet before coming here so you can ruin it in 10 minutes :) After we had brunch, we drove by Yale real quick to view one of the most prestigious colleges in America, and the campus was absolutely stunning! Then we headed out towards the smallest state in America.

Rhode Island

We did not stay the night in Rhode Island but I would definitely recommend staying a night in Newport, as the town was really historic and looked like it would have been a fun place to spend more time. We decided to drive down to Newport instead of driving through Providence, which ended up being a really good idea. Rhode Island is known as the Ocean State and they definitely did have a gorgeous coastline and many islands and rustic bridges lining the coastline. We arrived in Newport at 1:30pm and had lunch from a deli. I don’t think that I would eat at this place again because it was just a basic sandwich and was overpriced for what you got. After lunch, we headed to The Breakers, which are humongous old homes along the shoreline. We first walked along the 40 Steps, which leads you down to a waterfall at the ocean and gives you access to the ocean. There were a few people swimming there, but I don’t think that this place is for the faint of heart swimmers. Then we walked along the Cliff Walk, a path along the coastline from which you can view mansions from the Gilded Age. Then we drove around the town of Newport and headed out towards Massachusetts.

Massachusetts

If you have read some of our other travel posts, then you know that I am obsessed with the beach. So, somehow, I ended up convincing my parents to go to Cape Cod instead of Boston. It was about a 2 hour drive from Newport to get to the town of South Yarmouth where we were staying. Our hotel was called Blue Water Resort and it ended up being a really nice hotel that was beach front and had a pool and bar. This was a great hotel with a private beach and nice pool. We only had a 3 minute walk from our room to the beach. The room was spacious and had a balcony. After unloading our stuff, we headed down the beach. The beach was really nice and not very crowded because only hotel guests could access this beach. The water felt very refreshing and was not too cold at all. I would probably say that the temp was around 70-75ish degrees. We never saw any sharks, but we did see a stingray after about 3 minutes of being in the water (that was the only we saw the whole time though). For dinner, we went to a popular restaurant in Cape Cod called Skipper Chowder House. I got the Lobster Mac n Cheese and it was one of my favorite meals of the whole trip. Also, the portions here are giant; you can share lots of things on the menu, especially the Lobster Mac n Cheese. The next day, after an uneventful morning we ate lunch at another deli called Ocean Street Cafe & Deli. Then we grabbed ice cream at a place called Cape Cod Creamery. It was good and worth giving a try. By then it was about 1pm and we headed to the beach for the rest of the afternoon, where my brother and I built an epic sandcastle and my mom actually got in the water!!! We then went to Black Cat Tavern for dinner. This place was okay but I think that there were better places on the island. They did have a really good caesar salad though and they had a pufferfish in a fish tank. Then we had ice cream at a place called Penguins Ice Cream Igloo (yes, we had ice cream twice in one day, we are on vacation). This place had a ton of unique and interesting flavors, and their ice cream was very creamy and delicious. I would definitely come back to this place. Later, we caught a sunset on the beach and took a stroll as the waves crashed against our feet and took a beach sunset state photo. Then, we went to bed and prepared for a 9 hour drive the next day.

Vermont

Originally we were going to come here during the fall for the foliage, but we could never work out a date for this so we decided to hit it up on this trip. On the journey to Vermont, we drove through Boston and saw Harvard which was really cool to see. In Vermont, we went to a town called Brattleboro and ate at a cute little deli called The Vermont Country Deli. Nearby was one of the famous covered bridges, so we grabbed our state photo there. Vermont was stunning and really did live up to its name as the “Green Mountain State”. After lunch, we drove 15 minutes west of the town to a maple syrup farm where a really sweet lady gave us a free tour of their family maple syrup farm. The syrup that they made was delicious so of course my parents had to buy a few bottles. The farm was called Robb Family Farm and if you're in the area go and check it out! Then we left and stopped at a creamy soft serve place 5 minutes down the road for my dad to try maple syrup soft serve. Let's just say he gulped it down. I don’t remember the name of this place but there are lots of places to get maple syrup soft serve in the town. I would really recommend going to see Vermont during fall foliage if you can, because I bet it is stupidly pretty, it just did not fit into the calendar for us to do it. Then we drove out of Vermont towards New Hampshire.

New Hampshire

This was another state that we just drove through and we did not do a whole lot here. I love Ben and Jerry’s ice cream so we stopped for that in Concord. I tried the Marshmallow Sky and it was amazing. They don’t sell that one in containers and you can only get it at shops. New Hampshire honestly reminded me a lot of Vermont, and the two looked pretty similar. For dinner, we stopped in Portsmouth, a small town along the border of New Hampshire and Maine. We ate at a place called Surf Restaurant and my favorite part was definitely the gorgeous view of the river that the restaurant had. The food was okay but I think that better restaurants can be found. Not that the restaurant was bad, I think that there are probably just better options to have. We then grabbed our state photo in the town of Portsmouth and continued our never-ending drive to Bar Harbor, Maine.

Maine

This was another state that we only spent three days in, but did so many things so you can check out the detailed version “here”. Maine was a gorgeous state and the food here is also really good (the lobster rolls and blueberries, they are not lying). To start off this state, we had to wake up at 3:30am (after arriving to our hotel just before midnight) to go see the sunrise at Acadia National Park. Be foretold that you have to get a permit to get in here for sunrise, and the permits are very competitive to get. The sunrise was stunning! It was also very cold so layer up and bring blankets. We stayed at Atlantic Oceanside Hotel and Event Center and I highly recommend this place. It is right outside of Bar Harbor, they serve a delicious breakfast, are waterfront, have fun activities, and provide great service. Some of the other things that we did in Bar Harbor were hike Beehive trail, walk around Jordan’s Pond (and eat the infamous popovers there - they live up to the hype!), nap after waking up for sunrise (hahaha), shop in town, walk along Bar Island Trail, Thunderhole, and Sand Beach. All of these activities were very fun and you can’t go wrong with any. Some of the best places that we ate at were the Traveling Lobster, Jordan’s Pond, Jordan’s restaurant (good after sunrise), and Side Street Cafe. Just make sure that you try a Lobster Roll and have Blueberry soda at some point. The best ice cream places that we had were Udder Heaven and Cj’s Big Dipper.

Awards

Best meal: Skipper Chowder House and the Lobster Mac n Cheese

Best Activity: Summit 1 Vanderbilt

Prettiest Place: Bar Harbor

Worst Thing that Happened: Trusting that my dad “knows where” the pizza place is

Favorite State: Maine

Thank you so much for reading this article and I hope that you got something out of it for your next trip. If you want to see more things like this then make sure to subscribe. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out and I will get back to you as fast as I can.