The best aspect of road trips are all of the little things you stumble upon.  Like how driving through Vermont ended up solidifying the unofficial Dairy Tour of 2013 that started with a 20 mile detour in Canada to Ivanhoe Cheese Factory.  It then continued with trips to the Ben & Jerry's original factory in Waterbury, where they gave us samples of Americone Dream at the end of the tour, and the Cabot Cheese Factory in Cabot, where we tried to see how many cheese samples we could spear with a toothpick and pop in our mouths - let's just say we were no longer hungry for lunch after that stop!  And the tour ended at a cheese shop in the middle of Prince Edward Island that smelled quite pungent when we first opened the door to the tasting room.






I already shared photos of some of the beauty of Prince Edward Island in an earlier post that highlighted lighthouses, but here are two additional gorgeous photos of island scenery.



The towns outside Boston are so rich with history, but we were only able to stop briefly in Salem and Concord.  Time constraints left us unable to do much but take photos of exteriors, save for the tour of Louisa May Alcott's "Orchard House" in Concord.

The Witch House (Jonathan Corwin House) - only house with direct ties to the witch trials
House of the Seven Gables as made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House - her home and setting for "Little Women"
Around the corner from Orchard House is the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his Walden Pond
Statues are always fun to stumble upon to understand how towns would like to be recognized.  In Salem, they had a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery from "Bewitched."  And there is the famous sea captain memorial statue in Gloucester, Massachusetts - America's oldest seaport and home of the Andrea Gail depicted in the "Perfect Storm" movie.

Bewitched in Salem
Gloucester, Mass. Seafront
If time were not a factor, I would have loved to search out and photograph a lot of the charming lighthouses and buildings along the Eastern Seaboard.  Alas, I was only able to capture Portland Head Lighthouse.  We did make the quick stop in Rockport, Massachusetts at Bradley Wharf to see "Motif #1," a red fishing shed that is supposedly the most painted building in the U.S..  I also pulled off the main thoroughfare in St .George, New Brunswick to photograph a neat pulp mill in a gorge.

Portland Head Light
Portland Head Light
Motif #1 - Rockport, Mass.

St. George, NB Pulp Mill
And other random roadtrip captures...

Lobster Cages
A Red Coat on the Freedom Trail in Boston
What a great shop sign (Salem, Mass)
Yummy Beer in Montreal
Brown Dog Coffee Shoppe Hot Apple Fritters in Onatario = AMAZING!
Fake Cronuts at Crumbs Bakeshops (Crumb-Nut) in Conneticut on the way home
Unfortunately, I was lazy and did not capture our adventure on Moncton, New Brunswick's Magnetic Hill, which is an optical illusion where you think you're on a flat piece of road, but if you put your car in neutral, you start to be "pulled" backwards.

And a final shout out to Canadian (not U.S.) Tim Hortons for their delicious chocolate glazed Timbits and for providing me with a new funny Canadian saying: "Do you want a donut with that?"