Day One

It's crazy that this is Hanna and I's first trip, and again for two weeks. Every two months we fly out to the other sides of the country to see each other. This time was from December 28th to January 10th which consisted of us having a late Christmas, New Year's and my birthday. It felt way more "homey" this time around, being that it was much colder than two months ago. Firstly, we got a shoot with my good friend Katt down in Long Beach Island, NJ.

Day Two

Day two was an eventful one. Hanna and I both love the city, and she fell in love with NYC the last time we were there. Trying to get to see different things than we did before, we headed to the Highline. Somehow I don't know how we didn't get up there the first time around.

The Chelsea Market is always a good stop. The clock in the middle of the walkway is always illuminated and there's always a ton of people taking photos of it.

After making our way through the market, we made our way to 10 Below Ice Cream; a rather "Instafamous" ice cream shop located in Chinatown.

With our lips chattering, we headed toward the Rockefeller center to see the massive Christmas tree they put up every year. I don't think I've seen a larger concentration of people ever. Avoiding the screaming parents and selfie sticks coming out of every inch of free space, somehow we made it to the bottom of the tree.

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

Day three was more of a relaxed day. Hanna and I planned to head to Boston early the next morning so we planned to get ready and pack. It was about midday and we were getting a little hungry when Hanna mentioned going in to Philadelphia. We picked up massive pizza slices from Lorenzo's and then headed to Magic Gardens.

Heading to Boston

We had one night in Boston. Being only a 4.5 hour drive, we started our trip pretty early. It seems to be our thing to see as many cities as we can on these trips and we're happy to cross of Boston from that list. It was freezing and raining when we arrived, and our first stop was the Boston Public Market. It reminded me of Pike Place in Seattle but a lot smaller and only food.

Once we were done with our lunch, we roamed the streets a little. This was our walk from the market to the New England Aquarium. Yep, I guess you figured by the fourth blog post that aquariums are sort of our thing.

Off to Portland, Maine

We debated on heading back into the city this day, but ultimately decided not to. Hanna and I checked out of our hotel and hit the road to South Portland where our AirBnb was.

We decided to take the coastal route up to our place, making stops here and there when we saw something beautiful.

Made it to Maine!

Well, we got to Maine! Our place was actually on the market in a super quiet suburb. The night before, we headed to the supermarket and picked up some food for the adventures the next day. Granola bars, gallons of water, chips.... you know, essentials.

Most of these places I don't remember the name but bare with me. More drives up coastal roads and stopping when we saw something.

This coast wasn't actually planned, much of the locations that we stopped at. Looking on our GPS, we saw this point and the ocean, so we decided to head there. Stopping at the edge of the parking lot, we were in awe. The Maine coast is honestly incredible.

Maine is known for its lighthouses. It actually has 65 of them. Hanna had told me about Pemaquid Point a few times and when we looked it up, it was only an hour and a half away. When we arrived, the wind was almost unbearable. My car said 24 degrees but it felt like 0. We toughed it out and made it to the rocks below and watched the waves for a little bit. When we got too cold, we'd run back to my car, get warm and then head back out.

Portland Head Light was twenty minutes away from our house, so we managed to get there for sunset... which was jaw dropping.

Acadia National Park

Our phone GPSs kept saying Acadia was four hours away. Being that we drive all over, we were going to make it a day trip anyways. And then we saw something funny... the point the GPS was giving us was in the middle of the park. Acadia was actually only two hours, not four. The weather was calling for a snow storm, but we headed up there anyway. As we got more north, the snow got heavier. We became more cautious since the road conditions began to deteriorate. We still stayed the whole day in the park, just driving very slowly. 

The Ride Home

The last thing we had to see was the Nubble Lighthouse. It's actually set on an island and isn't accessible by the public, but there's a parking lot where you can view it from. I know I said this whole trip was really cold, but the wind was REALLY bad here. Almost to the point where I thought Hanna was developing frostbite on her fingertips.

Snow was in the forecast for our ride home. Driving into Acadia with snow in the forecast, we didn't think anything of it, so we planned on getting home the same day. As we got more south, the snow got heavier, but sticking way more and the roads were starting to get icy. Still deciding to keep going, the visibility lessened, the three lane highway turned into one, and then eventually there weren't any lanes. We started to get scared but still decided to continue. Five hours in, we were only an hour and a half away from our Portland Airbnb. As the banking of the road increased, my car began to slide and on the straight parts, my car started fish tailing. We decided to get a hotel in Connecticut because we both agreed it wasn't safe to drive anymore. That morning, my car battery died and we had to walk to the gas station and buy jumper cables. This trip had some unforeseen events happen but overall Maine was amazing. Here's to the next adventure.