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You see, I knew this was the right section to post in. I know a lot of people have relocated from the NE to Raleigh and would be able to provide such great advice. Thank you to all - keep it coming. My wife and I devour all the replies nightly and it's really helping. Very much appreciate your personal input.
Nothing would please me more than to get off of I-95.
I know this has already been mentioned, but I-81 is such a nice way to go (at least on your way home). I'm typing from near Ithica right now, no tolls, no traffic, and beautiful scenery the whole way up, and this was on the days before the 4th of july weekend. We took our time, drove around the country some near Stokesville VA, just for the heck of it, and stopped in Gettysburg. We are driving strait through on the way down.
Even on your way up, I think you can take 270 from your MD destination over to 81 and avoid most of the North-East I-95 corrider.
I've driven Logan to Maine (Bar Harbor), it's about 6 hours driving time IIRC. lot of nice towns along the way to stop. Camden was one we really enjoyed getting a coffee and lunch, and enjoying the view of the harbor.
We took a similar road trip to Maine 4 to 5 years ago with our 3 kids. At the time, my oldest was into battleships and my middle son was into lighthouses, so we did make some of our stops around those 2 things. We had a great time!
We drove from Cary to Washington D.C. the first day and stayed with family there and did some sightseeing. We drove from D.C. to Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts stopping in Mystic, CT, New London, Ct, Providence, RI, etc. We also saw several lighthouses in the area. We didn't spend any time in Boston, although we drove through it. We really would love to spend 3-4 days there with the kids, but decided we didn't have time on this trip to devote to that.
From Fall River, we went to Portsmouth, NH and spent a day there. Next, we went to Portland, Maine where we saw several lighthouses. My kids loved the Maine coastline with all of the rocks to climb on. I think Portland was one of the highlights of the trip. After spending a couple of days there we drove to Freeport to see the L.L. Bean store and then headed west to New Hampshire.
We spent a couple of days in the White Mountain National Forest and did some hiking and waterfalls. We especially liked the Franconia Notch State Park. The Flume George there was really neat to see.
From there we headed to Vermont where we visited the Ben and Jerry's factory in Waterbury and drove through Montpelier. We also went to a maple farm and did a tour there. From Vermont, we headed back to Massachusetts where we spent a day with my grandfather outside Springfield. We spent the next day in Philidelphia where we toured some historic sites and visited the Battleship New Jersey. Then we headed home.
We did take 95 for most of the trip. We did a ton of driving, but since the kids were young and not that patient, our goal was to get to the destination as quickly as possible. We did, however, make a lot more quick stops than I posted here as that was just the highlights. We saw a submarine outside of Portsmouth, many more lighthouses than I mentioned, Eartha, the worlds largest globe in Maine, etc.
It really was an amazing trip. I think we were gone 10-11 days total and it easily could have been longer.
OMG that's a lot of driving - Maine to Niagara Falls, more power to you!
I agree that is a lot for 2 weeks! How long do you want to spend at each stop with family and friends? Then you need a few days in Boston then time in Maine. I agree with others, consider 81 other 95 alternatives to avoid losing hours and days to I95 construction and traffic.
There are great suggestions here and you could easily fill 2 weeks or more with places to go and things to see. Enjoy!
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