Dorothy Piotrowski’s blog

We had a bbq to celebrate mine and my brother Lester’s birthdays.

We got up and decided to pull everything out of the car and repack it since the lobster trap was somewhat obstructing our view.  We headed over to Christmas Tree Shops #5 in Albany and Christmas Tree Shops #6 in Syracuse.  This was our last store.  Since it’s Sunday, you know what that means … homestyle chicken at Cracker Barrel.  Boy was it yummy.  We had no trouble crossing the border (it’s been roughly a year since we’ve been stopped, our luck is sure to run out) and arrived at home around 7:30pm.

Today is the Day 1 of 2 days of shopping and driving home.  We got up and headed to our first Christmas Tree Shops.  There were lots of great things to buy and managed to spend a bit of money there.  Afterwards, we went to Maine Mall II to go to Bath & Body Works.  We spent lots of money in that store.  We loaded our packages into the car and headed to New Hampshire, the home of NO SALES TAX.  We hit Christmas Tree Shops #2 in Nashua along with a Bath & Body Works at The Mall at Rockingham Place.  You can’t believe how much lotion and shower gel you can buy.  Our final stop in New Hampshire was Christmas Tree Shops #3 in Salem.

Massachusetts is next and Christmas Tree Shops #4 in Shrewsbury.  Of course more money is spent there.  We were to hit Christmas Tree Shops #5 in Holyoke but decided instead to find a Cracker Barrel and enjoy a lovely dinner.  We got to our hotel in Albany, New York and crashed for the evening.

We got into the car and continued our journey to the Acadia National Park in Maine.  The park is located on an island and what’s really cool about this park is that there is rugged coastline and lots of woodlands.  We did the Park Loop Road which gives you a sampler of what the park consists of.

After doing the loop, we headed into Bar Harbor.  This town is a combination of Banff, Alberta and Estes Park, Colorado with all its’ funky little shops and restaurants.  We walked around the town and did some sightseeing, shopping and eating (Michelle’s Brown Bag Cafe).

Our stop for this evening was South Portland, Maine which would be the start of our shopping excursion.

We checked out of our hotel and before leaving the island, picked up a lobster trap for Nana.

We were able to plan a stop at Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick.  This place is really cool.  When the tide is out, you can actually walk on the ocean floor.  We were only able to be there at low tide but to fully enjoy this site, you should be there for both low and high tides.

We crossed the border at Calais, Maine and arrived at our destination for the evening the Calais Motor Inn.