My wife and I like to take at least one substantial trip a year. Now that our son is 2 and (mostly) cognizant of the world around him, we maybe foolishly decided to plan an eight-day road trip to the land of lobsters, Maine. Fortunately for us, he was a delight pretty much the whole time and took the long stretches of car rides like a champ. I’m really proud of him.

The road north

We left before the ass-crack of dawn, getting on the road around 5:30am. Our first destination on the trip was Providence, Rhode Island to see my friend and his family, but there was no way we were doing the entire seven-hour trip in a single shot. We ended up stopping in New Haven, Connecticut (spoilers, this won’t be the last time) and getting some apizza (pronounced a-BEETZ) for lunch at the semi-renowned Zuppardi’s. This style of pizza is typified by a thin, crispy crust with a bit of char around the edges, cooked at high heat, usually in a coal-fed oven. It’s kind of like a dirtier Neapolitan style.

I opted to get the signature tomato pie while my wife got some kind of clam monstrosity. I liked this style a lot but I don’t think the tomato pie was for me. Regardless, I bought a hat.

Back on the road, 90 minutes until we’re in Providence.

Providence

In the early afternoon we rolled up to my friend Danny’s house just outside of the city proper. He and his family were generous enough to let us crash with them for two nights. After setting up shop and getting unpacked we chit-chatted until it was time for an early dinner. They treated us to Mexican food at Poco Loco Tacos, which we took to-go and ate on the waterfront at their local yacht club. After dinner we took the kids to a nearby playground before getting devoured by mosquitos and heading back for the night.

The next day we had breakfast at KNEAD Doughnuts before stopping by a local farmer’s market. We were just around the corner from Swan Point Cemetery which interred the remains of everyone’s favorite deceased xenophobe and weird fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft. In a stroke of bizarre serendipity, his grave had a painted stone on it that had originated in the town where we live in Maryland! Weirder things have NEVER happened, even in his stories!

All of this death got us really hungry so we went out for lunch at a local Korean-fusion bistro called DEN DEN on the campus of Brown University. It is now that I begin to regret not taking that many photos of my food.

As the day marched on we decided to hit up a local book and oddities shoppe called Weird Providence where I purchased a collection of Lovecraft stories and a sticker featuring the establishment’s raccoon mascot.

We had a drink at Buttonwoods Brewery and had dinner at a Twin Peaks-themed bar/restaurant called Great Northern BBQ. The ambiance of the place was impeccable and nicely themed, but the food left much to be desired. After ice cream sandwiches for dessert we headed back home for the night. Tomorrow we would be back on the road, heading for Maine.

A brief taste of Enlightenment

Bright and early we grabbed a bite for breakfast with Danny and his family and then set off for the drive to Portland, Maine. But first, we realized that our route would put us directly on the path to Walden Pond, famous neck-beard Henry David Thoreau’s base camp for all things transcendental.

I had last visited this place in high school on a trip the National Honor Society made to Boston and its surrounding areas. Previously, my friend celebrated the occasion by miming placing his testicles in the open hand of the Thoreau statue on site so I knew I had to recreate the image for old times sake [not pictured]. We then took a very introspective walk around the 1.5 mile trail around the pond, stopping to let my son glam up some photos on the beach.

After this we planned to stop in Salem, Mass. for lunch but it was way too crowded downtown so we opted instead to pass through to Beverly and have lunch at a board game cafe called The Castle. We didn’t play any games but I appreciated that we could’ve if we wanted to.

Even though I’m part-way through only our third day on this trip, this post is getting longer than I expected. I’ll leave you here, dear reader, to ponder and pontificate on what you have just read and I will return in a week or so with the rest of the trip. SEE YOU SOON.

Cardboard Popcorn

Our family vacation to New England (Part 1)