admin We kicked around several options for this years fall trip and ended up cutting it down from 2+ weeks to 8 +- days, and instead of Chicago being our main destination we ended up with several stops in va, md, pa and ny. Why you ask, well mostly because traveling is getting harder for my wife, and she wanted to save a long trip like that for next year when we will have a new vehicle- maybe a highlander, not sure yet, we will be trying it out on an extended test drive, and if it doesn’t work and by work I mean if it isn’t more comfortable on the long haul then our Avalon, then we’ll see what else is out there that is.
Ok so enough about that. We will be making stops in the Berkshires area then onto intercourse, pa with these first day nights just helping to make the trip a bit easier. No sense in getting tired before we even start our vacation. From intercourse we will make our way down to the sharpsburg, MD area to check out some civil war sites then over to the Winchester, VA area on our way down ‘to quantico to spend some time with our daughter and her family, we will be heading back to Maine Saturday with stops in the Gettysburg’s area to take the grandchildren apple picking, after which they will head back home and we will make our way to the Saratoga area for a few days, and then back home.
So far we’ve had a wonderful meal at mazzeo’s italian restaurant in Lenox, ma. This is a very big restaurant with a wonderful staff and a nice large menu with something for everyone’s taste. My wife had the chicken lobster Newburgh with a Hollandaise Sauce- she gave it 2 big thumbs up. I started with an order of mozzarella frittata, which was an outstanding way to start, to this I had ziti Pasquale and this turned out to be a wonderful choice. Our waiter was pleasant and helpful with suggestions a long the way to make sure we got dishes we would be happy with. On the way back to the hotel I stopped to get some drinks for us and a few lottery tickets. This turned out to be a good thing in that I won $130.00, which was nice as the hotel clerk screwed up entering my cc and it got blocked causing me to pay cash for the room, and yes, you guessed right, $132.00 for the room
Our hotel, well that turned out to be the worst part of the trip so far. The Howard Johnson hotel, whil,it,looked nice from the outside, I can’t say for the inside. Ok, so it was clean, but it had a strange odor-which was a strong odor of musty smell and water, which way have come from rooms close to our with jacuzzi. The second floor was closer to us then we thought in that, we could hear every step and thing they did, which made for a long night.
Tonight we are at a best western in intercourse which we have stayed at before. Nice and clean, quiet and no odors, other then those from the local farms.
Tonight for a meal we went with a recommendation from the young lady at the front desk. The first thing we found out is there are no places in the area open on a Sunday, now the area isn’t a big deal as it only means a 10-15 minute drive to several options. Her choice was issac’s sandwich shop which she said had a killer spicy tomato bisque- so we took her up on her suggestion and headed out on another short drive for something to eat. Now this normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but we had been driving all day and my wife was tired from all the driving, but she was also hungry and this time hunger won out. Turns out it was a pleasant surprise in that it was a very good sandwich shop with a killer spicy tomato bisque and a very good roast beef sandwich, and it was next door to a very large train museum that had we known about before I’m pretty sure we would have visited this place by now, oh well maybe next time.
Noe the somewhat funny thing is this restaurant was in the upper right hand corner of the square. Ok let me break this down better. So the hotel is in the lower left hand corner of what turns out to a square when it comes to main roads, with issac’s being in the upper right hand corner, which I point out only because of the route I choose to take to get there. Either way was the same distance but this way, there was nothing but beautiful homes and farmland while we took the other way back and you guessed it, dozens of restaurants that way and all in the upper right hand corner,so yes, much closer.
So my wife just pointed out a few things that makes her wonder who named some of the towns in the area. Blue balls, Virginville, littetits and intercourse to name a few of the towns.
So this morning in an hour or so, we will be heading for sharpsburg and some civil war sites a bakery and who knows what else we’ll get in the day.
Ok, so it is now a few days later, we did the site of the Battle of Antietam (a must see for any civil war buff). I found it as nice albeit a bit smaller then Gettysburg, and somewhat lesser known, yet more important then Gettysburg.
After a few hours there we headed to our hotel in Winchester.
So out time in Quantico was very nice, always pleasant visiting our daughter, son in-law and grandgirls. Our time was spent doing a bit of everything including visits to occacun, va ( a must stop for folks who like to see and enjoy small town America , stops in warrenton and Gettysburg. Warrenton is a wonderful little town with tons of pride. They have an annual scarecrow contest that covers all of Main Street, and outstanding pastry shop called the red truck bakery- to die for cinnamon buns and strawberry / cream cheese pastries amongst the many treats.