This is hard!
Jul. 7th, 2015 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kv0925It's turned out to be a bit of a challenge to plan next week's New England adventure!
I thought I had the itinerary all laid out, and the hotels were all booked, but for some reason I wasn't thrilled. And today I finally realized why. We're flying into and out of Manchester NH, and that's all set. But from there I had us heading over to the coast to go right into Maine and up to Acadia National Park, by way of Porstmouth, Portland and Boothbay. From Acadia I had us looping up a bit to Bangor and Augusta--but then back down to Portland and Portsmouth on the way back to Manchester and home. And that seemed like a waste, to travel through so much of the same territory twice. Plus it meant going nowhere near the Franconia Notch area, which I really wanted to revisit--we didn't spend much time there on our 2013 trip, and I wanted to explore the area a bit more. Plus, waterfalls are quite literally a nature photographer's wet dream. :)
So today I searched and mapped and tinkered and mapped some more, and drafted up an alternate itinerary. I couldn't completely start from scratch, because one of the hotels I booked was a non-refundable advance rate (that'll teach me!). But even with that one restriction, I was able to come up with a new plan, and I think I like it. So now I think we'll head north from Manchester to the White Mountains and Franconia, swing over to Grafton Notch (which was another place I was sad to miss), and then over to Bangor. From there down to Acadia, and then back towards Manchester, down the coast via Boothbay, Portland and Portsmouth.
I was afraid doing a loop like that might add a lot of driving time, and it does make for some longer stretches on the road--but in sum it only adds a couple hours onto the total, which isn't too bad spread over the course of the trip. Especially since it looks like those longer stretches will be in the afternoons, when the girls can nap anyway.
So I haven't cancelled anything yet, but I did go ahead and book the two new hotels for the loop route. I'll show the wife tonight, though she's said she doesn't really care as long as we have places to stay lined up. Everything is free cancellation, so no worries there. But I'm pretty sure we'll go with the loop. I'm certainly more excited about it!
I thought I had the itinerary all laid out, and the hotels were all booked, but for some reason I wasn't thrilled. And today I finally realized why. We're flying into and out of Manchester NH, and that's all set. But from there I had us heading over to the coast to go right into Maine and up to Acadia National Park, by way of Porstmouth, Portland and Boothbay. From Acadia I had us looping up a bit to Bangor and Augusta--but then back down to Portland and Portsmouth on the way back to Manchester and home. And that seemed like a waste, to travel through so much of the same territory twice. Plus it meant going nowhere near the Franconia Notch area, which I really wanted to revisit--we didn't spend much time there on our 2013 trip, and I wanted to explore the area a bit more. Plus, waterfalls are quite literally a nature photographer's wet dream. :)
So today I searched and mapped and tinkered and mapped some more, and drafted up an alternate itinerary. I couldn't completely start from scratch, because one of the hotels I booked was a non-refundable advance rate (that'll teach me!). But even with that one restriction, I was able to come up with a new plan, and I think I like it. So now I think we'll head north from Manchester to the White Mountains and Franconia, swing over to Grafton Notch (which was another place I was sad to miss), and then over to Bangor. From there down to Acadia, and then back towards Manchester, down the coast via Boothbay, Portland and Portsmouth.
I was afraid doing a loop like that might add a lot of driving time, and it does make for some longer stretches on the road--but in sum it only adds a couple hours onto the total, which isn't too bad spread over the course of the trip. Especially since it looks like those longer stretches will be in the afternoons, when the girls can nap anyway.
So I haven't cancelled anything yet, but I did go ahead and book the two new hotels for the loop route. I'll show the wife tonight, though she's said she doesn't really care as long as we have places to stay lined up. Everything is free cancellation, so no worries there. But I'm pretty sure we'll go with the loop. I'm certainly more excited about it!
