Upper East Coast Road Trip

February 23, 2016July 8, 2017 / My Brunette Adventure / Leave a comment

One of my favorite things in the world is on the blog today, travel. It was a must to put together this travel post for you as a way to document where we headed this past Fall. We went on this road trip in October 2015 but its never too late to share the gorgeous upper east coast with my readers. We spent 8 days just adventuring.

A little background on my traveling ways if you have just tuned into the blog. Number one, I am more of a beach and sunshine girl. Give me the Caribbean and I am set! However, this beach girl at heart was at a loss for words to describe this trip. More on that later. Number two, on my husband and I’s first anniversary, we decided to take a road trip and it has turned into an annual thing for our family. Yes, our family. We do not have children yet, but our fur baby does tag along every year. She is not a fan of photos so none of these photos have her included. I know that is sad, but she likes to squirm in family photos so much that the photo ends up looking horribly blurry. This is anniversary road trip numero dos for the Bryant’s! I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I really want to encourage you to make the trip to the upper east coast. You won’t regret it. Keep reading to see all the states we visited. This was also a ‘wing it’ kind of trip which if you know me, that does not happen! Like, not sure what towns we were spending the night in and how many days in each place kind of ‘wing it’. I am a planner of all trips, vacations, parties, etc. but this time around I let go and just took in the crisp Fall air and all the beauty this world has to offer.

Our first day we drove from home, Indianapolis, to right outside Gettysburg, PA. Why Gettysburg, PA? Well, when you have a husband that loves history as much as mine and knows way too many history facts, you stop and take in a historic place. After staying near Gettysburg the first night and visiting for a few hours on day two, we headed for Philadelphia, PA. I must say I had strange ‘must see’ things along our road trip, and Philly was one of them. I wanted to see the Rocky steps and eat at Shake Shack! Go ahead, judge me. Quick pit stop in Philly then off to Mystic, Connecticut we went. Oh and how can I forget seeing NYC from a distance only to come to a screeching holt to sit in traffic for over an hour or so to go across the George Washington bridge. One word of advice if you take this trip, bring lots of cash! Those damn tolls are not cheap, literally! We paid $15 or so just to cross a bridge ONE WAY! Moving on….

Mystic, CT–Day 2 & 3

Yes, I wanted to stop to see where the movie Mystic Pizza was filmed. 🙂 I have always been a Julia Roberts fan. We ended up staying here for two nights! There we go wingin’ it again! Day two was mostly travel and day three was for sightseeing and the huge indoor mall/casino we found. So we happened to be wondering and came across the biggest compound in the middle of nowhere. Of course we ventured in only to find out it was 9 million square feet of hotel, casino, restaurant and shopping mall run by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. Of course, we spent time and miles walking to explore! Good thing I have a husband who enjoys shopping. 🙂

Day 4–traveling to Boston, CT & Providence, RI

We happen to stop at Wahlburgers for lunch and drove through Boston. We didn’t stay long and on-ward north we went to Providence, RI for yet again a quick drive through. Pretty town. (first photo is Boston, second photo is Providence)

Day 4-6–Portland, Maine

Maine is always somewhere I was just not sure about, until I visited. It is also my husbands birthplace, so it was on our go-to places at some point in our life. He did not live there long so he has no memory of it. Being a city girl, I can’t explain the calm feeling I got as soon as we entered the state of Maine. It was such fresh air and like no place I had been before. These pines trees smelled amazing! When I travel, I love getting a feeling that this place, this moment is not like any other. I kept telling my husband these Main(e)ians must love it here! I know, that might be made up but it stuck with me the whole time we were in Maine.

(Downtown Portland, Maine–‘alley restaurants’)

I absolutely loved the buildings, streets and the calm/quaintness it had to offer in downtown Portland. There are businesses on the main streets and then in the back ‘alleys’ are entrances to other restaurants and shops. So cool and I fell in love! Now you see why we stayed 2 nights! On my husbands must do list in Maine? A Lobster roll from fresh lobster!

Lobster Roll ^^^^^

The streets during the daytime! After exploring downtown Portland, we had to venture to the outskirts to see the beauty of nature.

Can we say a scene from the Notebook? I think I see Ryan Gosling about to paddle me away in that little boat. Okay, I kid! But this view and the picture! This view was maybe my favorite the entire trip. It was so calm and peaceful I could have stayed on that dock all night. I felt like the daily weight of the world did not exist which seems to not happen to me often. We took a causeway out to this land of secluded homes.

Ready for my boat ride! Okay, no real boat ride here but we can pretend, right? It was such a beautiful day exploring with my husband. We were a bit sad to leave Portland, but there were still more states to explore. On our way out of Maine we road along the coastline. Oh and before we left Portland, not too far away was this lighthouse!

You think I have a shot at it becoming a postcard? Ha! We can dream, right?

Day 6-7–White Mountains of New Hampshire

After leaving Portland it was a couple hour drive west to New Hampshire. We found a little cozy bed and breakfast in the mountains that had cottages. It was so calming and quiet here. Lilly loved it. The stars at night were amazing! The nearest town was 15-20 minutes which had the coolest coffee shop, sorry Starbucks! Look at those Fall colors! I enjoyed every bit of the Fall foilage while road tripping. Thanks to my mom, my love of seeing the leaves change colors came from her a very long time ago. On a random Fall Sunday, she would round up my brother, dad and I into our minivan to go see the leaves change colors. As a child I despised this every year, but I grew to love it so much. Fall is my favorite time of the year.

(view from our cottage front yard)

You know I don’t drink coffee, but Hubs lives on it. How can I not take a picture of the pretty heart design! Cheers! p.s we are not big brewery people, but there are great breweries in all the states we went for those of you that enjoy it.

Day 7-8–Burlington, Vermont

Our last and final destination before heading home to Indiana. On our way to Burlington, Vermont we had to stop to take this photo in the White Mountains where it was snowing! This view was breathtaking!

Through the mountains to Vermont we go! We arrived as the sun was setting, sorry for the dark image. It was a cute town. We wondered the streets that back up to the University of Vermont. Coffee shops, restaurants and shops along this downtown area. We had dinner down by Lake Champlain (a few blocks away) and then came back downtown for hubs to get his coffee(ness). And yes, I photograph the coffee(ness). 🙂 The trip went so quickly, I would defiantly recommend more time to cover all those states, but I know that is hard to do when you have to return to work. It was a great adventure to see places we have never been and were so hard to imagine. I will definitely go back to a few of these spots again for longer stays.

Lake Champlain….the side we were on is Vermont the other side where you see the hills is New York state. If you continue north you would be to Canada!

I hope you enjoyed this travel post of the upper east coast of the U.S. I would recommend you to grab your significant other or a group of girlfriends and make this trip. It was so much fun. Even though it was a lot of driving (over 2600 miles roundtrip) it was to date my most relaxing and best road trip to date! If you have specific questions about lodging, restaurants or things to see/do, I would be happy to answer them! The outdoor sports, hiking are also a must if you go during warmer temperatures.

*Oh and since we have visited my husbands birthplace, next up is mine! Well, one day! Hawaii. (I know, fun fact that we were born in the two most furthest spots in the U.S.)

With Love,

Jessica

Fall look in Maine

November 2, 2015November 1, 2015 / My Brunette Adventure / Leave a comment

Sweater: JCrew Factory // Tank: Lou&Grey from the Loft // Jeans: JCrew // Boots: Target (last year)

Happy Monday ladies! Todays look is from part of our road trip two weeks ago. Yes, I am still working on a travel post of all the places we visited on our road trip and hopefully it will not take me months. 🙂 So many great places from the New England area of the U.S. One of our stops on the road trip was Maine. It was so beautiful and it is on my list of places to return later. While we spent two days in Maine, this was my exploring outfit and perfect for adventuring around the coast of Maine. Tall riding boots are always a go to when I am traveling and exploring new outdoor areas. A pair of denim, which I got on sale for under $30, and a tan sweater with elbow patches are an easy and another go to look for Fall adventures.

This location was the most calm and peaceful view. The sun was setting, the weather was perfect and the view was beyond what words could describe. This little row boat immediately took me to the tiny boat scene on “The Notebook”. Anyone else think the same? 🙂 If you have the chance to adventure or travel to new places, do it.

XOXO,

Jessica

Traveling The Southern Caribbean

July 17, 2015 / My Brunette Adventure / Leave a comment

Traveling the world is a dream of mine. I yearn for it. I crave it. If I had it my way, I would take a big trip every third month of the year, making four trips per year. Lets face it. I have to work. I don’t get much time off work and living on an average budget will not get me 4 international vacations. Each year my husband and I work for the opportunity to adventure to new destinations. The world is full of so many amazing people, cultures and landscapes. Traveling to me means more than just spending a week on a beach with our feet in the sand and sunshine on our skin. Sure, I enjoy tropical temperatures, but I enjoy emerging myself in the culture and people of these places even more. That is exactly what we did for nine days while exploring multiple islands in the Caribbean. If you haven’t read about our first trip to the Caribbean during our Honeymoon a year ago, you can read it here. This time around, we went to a few different islands in the more southern Caribbean, almost to South America! Destinations we visited; Puerto Rico, St Thomas, St Croix, St Lucia, St Johns, and Grenada.

Stick around to find out some great places you should put on your bucket list! Sorry for the lack of quality photos, we used our point and shoot camera most of the time and slacked on taking photos. We did take lots of video with the Go Pro.

Our first stop was in St. Thomas. We spent our day on the island at Magen’s Bay beach. How amazing is that view? It was breath taking and our one “beach” day during our weeklong cruise. Check out my sunburn from a one hour Jeep ride in Puerto Rico! 🙂

Saint Lucia is a beautiful, yet rainy place. No worries, it clears up in no time. I only have one photo since we used the Go Pro most of our trip. Plenty of video of our snorkeling adventure in St Lucia. We also learned my husband gets very claustrophobic snorkeling! That was a story in itself. We took a boat ride to our snorkeling site on the other side of the island. Take a look at the Pitons in the water behind me. Our last time on the island, we went zip lining and it was amazing as well.

Welcome to St John (Antigua)! We took the tourist route here and decided to take a couple of hours and explore the entire island. It was amazing!! We ended up getting a private tour, just my husband and I with our tour guide because no one else was needing a tour at that time. Bus all to ourselves! Our guide helped emerge us in the culture and gave a world of knowledge all over the island. Such a kind soul with so much pride in what he does to provide for his family. Learning about the islands education, infrastructure, beaches, economy, agriculture, etc was by far one of our favorite moments of the trip. My husband and I really enjoy learning about history and cultures. We saw many children walking home from school. Fun fact, the school age children each wear a color uniform based on which village they live in. Lets you know that child is from village “a”. I thought that was kind of cool. Our tour guide took us to the top of this historical site that was truly breath taking. To look out at such beautiful views and breathe in such fresh air was really just a moment I cannot describe.

Next stop, Grenada! This was our most southern point on the cruise which is very close to South America. While visiting, we went clear bottom kayaking in the ocean. I emphasize ocean because it was one hell of a workout. We woke up at 7 am and we all know this lady is NOT a morning person. At one point we were paddling and not moving since we were going against the current. On the upside, I have lots of video with the Go Pro under the water, plus great ‘bonding’ time with my spouse. haha. I laugh because it was a two person kayak and we were not a great team trying to paddle our hearts out in the great big ocean. Saw lots of coral while kayaking.

Fun fact from Grenada: The day we were on the island, a huge cricket match was going on! If you look at the red ‘box’ like things above, they are TONS of taxis to take people to the cricket match. The cricket stadium is in the far left of this photo above, which we past in order to get to/from our kayaking location.

Back to Puerto Rico! We flew in and out of San Juan. Before we left on our cruise we spent two days exploring. If you remember the last time we were in Puerto Rico, we did not adventure too far from San Juan. (see here) This time we stayed in a small town about 45 minutes outside the “big city”. The beach view was the first thing we saw when waking up. Yes please! We stayed in a cute little Ma and Pa kind of place. Then, we took a whole day to explore the rainforest. We had been wanting to go to the rainforest since we left last time. Beautiful waterfalls and living bamboo! While hiking into the rainforest we even got caught in the rain!

Until next time my sweet travel partners!

Again, sorry for the lack of photos from the other islands we visited. St Croix, I have no photos of this location. Insert sad face!

I hope you enjoyed the views and will one day travel to one or all of these amazing places. Head over to my Facebook page here to see a video of an amazing beach in Puerto Rico!!!

Have an amazing weekend!!!

Bon Voyage!

Jessica