Monday 25 August 2014

House Swap Summer Holiday in New England: Part I, Maine

This summer we were fortunate enough to spend three weeks in New England, visiting Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts.

We spent the first 13 nights house-swapping with some friends near Kennebunk, Maine while they spent time at our house in Somerset. We were lucky enough to be able to overlap at the beginning of their time in the UK and at the end of our time at their place in the USA. Here we all are (minus hubby who was taking the photo) at our local pub on the day they arrived - hence the somewhat bleary looks!

Rather than schlepping up to London for a flight to the US, we flew from Bristol to Dublin and from Dublin to Boston. There were several advantages to taking this route: 1) it's only an hour's drive from our house to Bristol airport (compared to 2-3 for the London airports); 2) parking at the airport is WAAAY cheaper and so much easier than at Heathrow or Gatwick; 3) being a small airport, Bristol is much easier to navigate and much less crowded and, best of all, 4) during the time between arriving in Dublin and taking off for Boston we were able to complete US immigration which meant that when we landed we simply walked off the plane, collected our luggage and we were on our way. Anyone who has flown to the US will know what a rigmarole the immigration can be - huge queues which move so very s-l-o-w-l-y, so it was nice to have that all out of the way.
This was the little puddle-jumper that took us from Bristol to Dublin
We had a fantastic time in Maine; I think I'll let the photos do most of the talking because otherwise this could turn into a very lengthy post!
Nubble Light, Cape Neddick



I only bought a *few* books, honest


My new favourite photo of DC








'Driving' a submarine, fun for boys of all ages
So very true
The House of the Seven Gables (it's in Massachusetts but we went on a day trip from Maine, so it's in this post)

Oh, how do I love thee?
Brave hubby!




Dinner on the last night of our house swap

We learnt how to eat lobster properly; it's quite an art form


Apologies for the strange formatting in this post; I had a rare old time trying to get the photos to stop misbehaving.

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