Wednesday 23 September 2015

Tour Gettysburg - New England - Niagara Falls

An 11 day tour with Danny and sister (and brother for 5 of the days)......

More photos of trip

Gettysburg - Sept 8, 9, 10

The historic bed and breakfast where we spent 3 nights was beautiful, charming, lovely, and very comfortable. We had a two bedroom apartment with living room and kitchen, all decorated with period furnishings. Gourmet breakfasts were included and homemade cookies in the afternoon.

Brafferton Inn

Our accommodation

The first day the temp hit 94F and it was sunny. The driving tour of this massive battleground was sobering with all the deaths and injuries which took place there.  At the same time, the countryside is simply beautiful. On the second day it rained off an on and the temp dropped so we visited the museum and cyclorama and the Eisenhower farm.
Gettysburg National Military Park

A section of the 360 degree cyclorama oil painting

















Newport Sept 11 - 17

Brother lives here so he was our excellent tour guide for the area.  It was the first trip to Newport for all 3 of us. I LOVE the old houses here, block after block of beautiful, well-maintained homes, some dating from the 1600's but most seemed to be 1700s and 1800s.

During our stay the weather varied from mid 60's and rainy on one day to 70's and 80's and sunny most of the time.

Of the many mansions and historic houses in Newport, we visited those below as there was no time for all of them:

The Breakers - a Vanderbilt home (this one was my favourite)



















Marble House - another Vanderbilt home

Tea house on the property overlooking the ocean















The Elms - a Berwind home
















Chepstow
















Hunter House
















Other adventures:

Bird's Eye View helicopter tour!  OMG!  What an awesome view!








Fort Adams   Brother loves this fort and knows all the history of it and he also enjoys working there part-time.


























Mystic Seaport CT  What a lovely day!  Weather was perfect, the village, boats and ships, the interesting displays and videos, lobster dinner and local ales made it a delightful day out!


















John Adams homes Quincy, Mass   I vaguely remember seeing these as a child and wanted to return. We had planned to visit Boston and do the freedom tour and visit other historic sites but we all decided the long drive was more than we wanted to do.  So we spent additional time in Newport. We took a short detour through Plymouth and saw the underwhelming Plymouth Rock and spotted the Mayflower but since it was a rainy day didn't get to board it.















The historic home of 2 of my siblings and I from about 1957/58 to 1960 - Rockland, MA
















A short boat trip around the bay in Newport



















Random homes around Newport



















Sept 17 - Niagara Falls.  We wanted a different route home so detoured through Niagara in Canada and spent one night there.