Yay, we made it! The first couple days were mostly just a long haul heading East, but we are officially in Vermont now.
After our hotel stop Saturday night, we basically just woke up, got ready, had the “grab and go” hotel breakfast and hit the road again.
I did zero driving this time around, thanks to my lovely husband saying, “I got it.” 🙂
Some highlights from Day 2:
* Driving across part of Pennsylvania and then across the entire state of New York.
* A random interesting fact- we drove through Troy, New York, which is apparently the original home of “Uncle Sam”. Huh! I always assumed he was just a made up cartoon guy whose initials U.S. = U.S. (of USA).
* Arrived to 1st stop of Bennington, Vermont. Stopped at a welcome center to grab a few maps/info. A very nice lady answered a few questions and was very helpful. Pretty views from there already had me excited for what was to come.
* Checked into our hotel, a little inn nestled out of town. Has a very quaint/Vermont-y feel and happy with the choice.
* We had dinner reservations at 7:30, so we took a short drive to check out the town and stopped at the Bennington Battle Monument. It had been cloudy but was clearing up, so I wanted to stop and see the monument as the sky lighting looked pretty. We are going back this morning to go to the top.
* Dinner at 7:30 at a restaurant “with views” (per their ads). Yep, they definitely had views from the deck! I was glad I reserved an outdoor table in advance.
I couldn’t stop taking pictures- it was so pretty!!
* full disclosure that everything is not always perfect… 😉 While the views were beautiful, as soon as the sun set, the mosquitoes come out in FULL FORCE!!! We were dying!! We finally had to ask to move indoors. Fortunately, we were almost done anyway, but it was a bit of a bummer. I guess they come with the territory and all those beautiful trees.
* Ended the night with Asher, Ivan and my dad playing some Texas Hold ‘en in our room. I was tired and had no interest in learning how to play, so I just laid on the bed and posted some pics on Facebook. Lol. 🙂
* Current view this morning from a screen porch gazebo at our inn:
Daily gratitude: I am grateful for a clear evening after some rain sprinkles on our way in.
GRATEFUL KAE 
What a cute inn. I feel like whenever I travel I stick to the tried and true Marriott hotels that I always stayed at growing up. How do you find your little places? I need to start planning for a fall trip (when I hope most people will be back in school and NOT traveling – haha)!!
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I replied to you earlier but I think it didn’t save! For hotels I use the usual Expedia/booking.com, also TripAdvisor recommendations, or just from Google searches/blog posts… and if staying at least a couple nights, I usually check Airbnb and VRBO, too. 🙂
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Well when you’re back home, safe and sound, you can share the names of the places you chose to stay at! They all look super cute! 🤞
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Love the view at the dinner place, bummer the mosquitoes, part of the nature. Do you drive one car with you all? Must be a big one!
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No, we brought two cars! My parents in their van, me/boys/husband in ours. Too crowded with all our luggage etc otherwise! More comfortable this way. 🙂
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I was wondering if you all road together, too. Makes sense to drive separately for a long trip w/ lots of luggage!
The views during that dinner! Wow! Bummer about the mosquitoes, though. I guess that is one upside of our super dry summer – we have so few mosquitoes!
I would love to take a trip like this someday when our kids are older. I typically HATE driving but for that area of the country, it makes sense to drive since there is so much you can see on a week+ driving trip. I kind of shiver just thinking of getting back in the car w/ my boys right now – Will SCREAMED on and off for the 3.5 hour drive home and cried for the last hour of our drive to the lake. So I don’t think we will take any long drives anytime soon, but I know this stage is temporary! Our kids just HATE the bucket infant car seat. Some kids seem to love them and sleep well in the car – NOT OURS!
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