A week at the grandparents in photographs

Bear Butt

A sculpture made of STRAWS!

More Birthday Cake

Read Full Post »

Showcase Giveaway: New England Coffee (2 winners)

Congratulations to Kim Holsapple who won the cheese slicer.

Our second journey this year “The East Coast” is nearing an end. We are currently in Columbus with Bryce’s parents, letting them be grandparents. We will be posting soon with great photos and fun. We are planning out our next two routes. Later this year we will be doing a southern trip to 4 states and then Alaska in May which will complete our 50 States Project (Not our Adventures with Lincoln of course). To commemorate our soon to be conclusion of the East Coast/New England trip we get to giveaway TWO sample packages of New England Coffee.

PRIZE: New England Coffee Sample
* TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the answer to this question “Do you need coffee in the morning?”
* GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Tuesday, August 2 at 9pm CST
* NUMBER OF WINNERS: TWO
* PRIZE SHIPS: US/Canada
* DETAILS: The winner will be selected using random.org and announced within 24 hours following the giveaway. There must be at least 5 people entered for contest to continue.  Good luck!
* BONUS ENTRIES: Submit multiple entries by doing any of the following
1. If you have not already subscribed to the RSS feed, do so.
2. If you are not already a Facebook follower of Adventures with Lincoln, become one.
3. Comment on another post on Adventures with Lincoln’s blog (not a giveaway post).
4. Link to this post on your blog or add us to your blog roll

Read Full Post »

Water Water Water Water Water

Wow, the falling water we have driven through, trudged through, and driven to have been amazing.

Torrential downpours and Niagara Falls.

The Wet Family at Niagara Falls, NY

Read Full Post »

Visiting a Toy Maker

We are headed home from our East Coast trip.  Going home is always the hardest.  Repeat visits and money spent usually equals longer drive times for us as we bypass things we have already seen and done.  However, we can’t drive 24 hours at a time.  Therefore we are making short trips to see people we know and love.  From Vermont to Ohio we stayed in Saracuse, NY with Cas Holman.  Cas attended graduate school with Bryce and is currently teaching Industrial Design at Saracuse U.  She is a collector of old toys as well as an inventor of new toys.  Her geemo toy is in select stores now.  Nevertheless, Lincoln is having blast despite the thunderclouds sounding their horns outside.

Read Full Post »

Seeing Red, White, and Green

The past two days have been a whirlwind of looking for places to rest our heads, driving through mountain rain storms and enjoying this amazing trip as we complete our last state for this leg of Adventures with Lincoln.

Seeing Red- Some may have noticed a bit of emotion shown in a recent status update about couchsurfing.  Here is the reason why.  We were accepted by a couchsurfer in Vermont and packed for the journey when I decided to check my e-mail one last time before we left.  There on the screen was a note about wanting some room to breath after a hectic week of work and a warm wish that we find another place to rest.  Though the wording was nice, there is something very uncool about canceling hosting the day of someone’s travels.  I have had travelers cancel a stay and it doesn’t matter much since you are home, but a host canceling is entirely different.  Your leaving people stranded, sometimes on a road they would not have traveled if you were not the final destination point.  The host said she called a couple of times but there were no voice mail messages to confirm this.  On the website I could leave a negative remark.  I could say she canceled the day of via e-mail for a non-emergency related event, but I have decided not to.  Why?  Because after all this she did eventually say we could stay with her, after I contacted her voicing my concern and her poor communication.  We didn’t take her up on the offer however because the situation already felt to jaded.  Instead we got a hotel.  We were celebrating a birthday anyway so why not splurge?

Seeing White- Our trip through New Hampshire was beautiful.  We drove past homes of Robert Frost and dinned at a Shaker table with other guests in Canterbury.  We skipped paying for any tours by asking the other visitors at the table what they learned during their tour.  We also didn’t want to spend a lot of time in the area as we needed to cover a lot of ground in a day and Lincoln was tired.  A meal was the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone (take in the lost culture and fill our bellies) .  After our meal we continued north into the White Mountains.  As we were approaching Franconia Notch the clouds rolled in and the rain started.  This was disappointing to the locals we talked to who thought we were missing the beauty of the notch, but to us, the notch in the rain was amazing.  The mountains became truly white as big billowy clouds sat themselves down in the trees.  Rain made the sun reflect on the road in the most amazing ways.  We went to the viewing station of Old Man of the Mountain, but it was too overcast to see anything.  Later we found out we wouldn’t have anyway.  This iconic legacy which is the outline of every state road symbol in New Hampshire, the image on their state coin and stamp, passed away in 2003.  That is the rock formation making the profile of the man crumbled to the ground.

Seeing Green- As we crossed the boarded into Vermont the mountain range changed to the Green Mountains.  The vibrancy of the green trees held up to the name.  Vermont was like a mountain top Wisconsin, with dairys and red barns littered through the peaks.  The scenery is uninterrupted.  I don’t think I saw a single billboard in all of Vermont or New Hampshire.  We had dinner at Montpelier, the capitol of the state.  The town was smallest capitol we have visited yet.  The Capitol’s golden dome was rivaled by the single smoke stack along the river.  Still the main street had some great shops and restaurants.  We felt a sense of grunge, hippiness, and emerging modernism with this town.  We ate at Positive Pie and had a great time devouring an artichoke and ham pizza under a swanky fiber-optic ceiling and disco ball.  When we got to Burlington, we realized why this is the largest city in Vermont.  Not only does it have the university and a college like feel, it is also beautifully located along Lake Champlain, which is so crystal blue that you can hardly take your eyes off it.  Definitely a place we would love to return.

Read Full Post »

ONE Sweet Birthday

When Lincoln awoke on his first birthday he found himself appropriately located in Northern Vermont, aka Sugar Central.  Up here they make maple syrup and have amazing sugar filled factories.  The first factory we visited was Lake Champlain Chocolates.  Probably the best tasting chocolate made in the United States.  We first heard about Lake Champlain in a book called Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond.  The factory tour was little more than a video and looking through a glass wall as factory workers moved pieces and chocolate shot into plastic forms.  We were spoiled by the Louisville Slugger Factory tour when you actually got to walk the aisles.  The biggest perk was you got to taste chocolate in various forms throughout the demonstration.  We visited the store and purchased factory rejects and limited edition bars like Grace Under Fire a mix of pistachio and red pepper, made for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

Stop number two was the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory.  We were all excited about this trip and it did not disappoint.  The factory had tents with fun activities like tie dye shirts and spin art.  There was also a playground for kids to wait for their tour.  Once again on the tour we found ourselves behind glass overlooking workers, but there was a tiny bit more walking and a little more humor.  It was interesting to find out that Ben and Jerry took a cheap correspondance course in order to get started.  There commitment to organic and local has always impressed me as well as the idea of giving back to the community from day one.  The factory also liked to poke fun at weight gain as everyone know that the reason Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is so good is because there is no skimping on creamy goodness.  There were “Body by Ben and Jerry’s” t-shirts and a mirror that made you look skinnier.  The video also said that Ben and Jerry became friends while tailing behind the rest of the class in gym. Lincoln pigged out on Key Lime Pie with a “shovel” spoon.

It was a beautiful day which continued with a walk on the lake, a ferry ride, and a beautiful day in the mountains to celebrate our little boy.

Read Full Post »

Our beautiful baby boy is 1 today!!!

Read Full Post »

Marble Head and Salem, MA

Our Boston counterparts recommended we visit Marble Head and Salem so we took off for a day in Mass on Monday.  We were happy that many places were open.  Our first stop was Lincoln’s first beach excursion.  Unfortunately no sandy beaches were found so we walked down on to what looked like a rocky coast.  Once our feet were on the ground we realized we were not on rock, but tons of shells.  We loved digging out blue oyster shells and sea glass.  The harbor was full of mooring sailboats.  We trespassed on a small boat for a picture of Lincoln.  Hopefully not a follower who will notice.

Marble Rock was a very cute little town.  A little hard to get around, but nice with all the great shops (toy store, art gallery, kids shop).  Lincoln saw his first episode at Sesame Street in one of the stores and was mezzmerized.  We had to take in one last lobster roll while we were still on the coast and able to get FRESH catch.

Salem was only a few miles down from Marble Head.  I was excited to see what was done to memorialize the women that were killed during the witch scare of the 1600s.  I was a little disappointed.  Instead of acknowledging the women and herbal medicine, the town capitalized on the idea of witches from a Halloween perspective.  It is like a continual Halloween celebration. Halloween is my favorite holiday, but it just seems so out of place and disrespectful being that these innocent women were killed due to fears.

Read Full Post »

Boston Pre Lincoln

It was a very busy tourism day for the husband and I. We have many a photo to prove it. We started out completing the Freedom Trail. It actually isn’t as long as we thought. (Sometimes maps seem smaller than they are.) We ended up at the USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides) which was spectacular. My main excitement for this trip was to see a ship like this. And the tour was free! Behind us (even in this photo) was this family, The Whites. They video taped everything saying “Ok, now you’re seeing the White family board the USS Constitution” and …

Read Full Post »

Lincoln's Log: Week 4

Destination: New York, NY (Lincoln Center)
Distance Traveled: 93 miles
Host Family: Ted Durbin, Lorri and Mason
How many nights: 3
Activities and Attractions: Central Park and Coney Island
Favorite Meal: SOOOO many.  Lorri’s Chicken Vindaloo was the bomb.
Interesting Fact: Mason is almost exactly 1 year old.
Art on the Walls: Black and White Photos of special family moments
Disappointment: Rain on Coney Island Day

Destination: Brookline, MA
Distance Traveled: 222 miles
Host Family: Phil Durbin, Teresa, Naomi, and Erika
How many nights: 5
Activities and Attractions: Double birthday party with cousin Erika.
Favorite Meal: Ribs at the Village Smokehouse
Interesting Fact: Erika is only 3 days older than Lincoln. (But Lincoln was almost 4 weeks late.)
Art on the Walls: A great painting of a building by a friend of theirs who now lives in Iowa.
Disappointment: Lincoln doesn’t like birthday cake.

Read Full Post »