When most couples plan their honeymoon, they typically want to head to a beach and somewhere warm. Not us (or should I say not me) because 1. I am not a huge fan of the beach and 2. I can’t just sit around and I need/want to be active and doing things. Since Michael and I had been dating for 6 years (engaged for 3.5 of those years), I had plenty of time to plan the perfect honeymoon for us.

Years prior I had been looking through a magazine (most likely a Martha Stewart one) and saw a beautiful picture of an Inn in New Hampshire. It was cozy and covered in snow and I wanted to go there. It was the perfect picture of romance and I ripped it out of the magazine and kept it in a safe place. When it came time to planning our trip, I knew exactly where I wanted to go. Tamworth Inn in Tamworth, NH. Yes, it would be during summer and not winter but that was ok with me. We were going… and Michael was all for it.

The inside of the Inn was just as beautiful as I had hoped it would be and the grounds were wonderful and right on a creek. We told ourselves that for our 10 year anniversary we would return here, but that dream will never happen. A few years after our stay, they had a massive fire and instead of repairing the Inn, they decided to demolish it. It’s sad that our perfect honeymoon spot is no longer around but at least we got to experience it beforehand.

Before I go any further, I need to back up and tell you funny story about the trip to Tamworth Inn.

The trip from Buffalo to Tamworth, NH is about 11 hours long but it ended up being a total of 14 hours because 1. this is pre-GPS ad we used printed Google Maps directions to get us there and 2. well, let me explain…

We needed to go through Vermont (obviously) to get to New Hampshire and that was fine except we weren’t prepared for the road to move in out of both states with no signage to say where you’re located. You know… the “Welcome to New York” type signs. Instead, there were winding roads with next to no street signs. We had no idea where we were (and more importantly, no idea what state we were in!) and no way of figuring it out.

But… I had a GREAT idea! If we stopped at the gas station and looked at their selection of maps and if they had only Vermont maps, then we knew where we were and vice versa for New Hampshire maps. This was going to work, I just knew it! We stopped to get gas and I went inside. I promptly came out empty handed. Michael gives me a look and asks about the maps. I simply got in the car and said that wasn’t going to work… they had BOTH maps and I refused to ask them about our location.

We just paid for the gas and left, of course. Michael wasn’t going to ask either…

After driving along again for awhile we stopped at another gas station and we both go in. Once again… BOTH maps and no such luck. So as we’re paying for our snacks, I finally muster up enough courage to just ask and ultimately make a fool out of ourselves.

“Excuse me, I know this is going to sound crazy but… what state are we in?” I said as confidently as I could. The two guys behind the counter laughed and said “New Hampshire”. I said thank you and I grabbed the New Hampshire map and paid for it.

We were on our way once again… only we were 3 hours SOUTH of where we needed to be. 14 hours later, we had made it to our first destination. Life with us always this crazy… no matter when or what we’re doing.

We were only spending the 1st 4 days of our week long trip in Tamworth and we found a bunch of neat places to explore. One happened to be right across the street. It was called…

It was a neat place to visit and look around. We got to see various things about how they practiced medicine in the 1800s and other interesting things. It reminded us of the Genesee Country Village & Museum back home that we love so much. They had animals too which was probably my favorite part of visiting there.

We also went to one of the neatest castles that we have ever gotten to explore! (even since then it still ranks close to the top of my list!) It’s called The Castle in the Clouds and you begin driving up the mountain and then you have to take a trolley to the very top and that’s where the castle is located.

I had just gotten a “new to me” DSLR camera and I was still learning how to use it, so we took lots and lots of pictures at the castle. It was wonderful and a place I could see us going back to some day.

The view was simply spectacular and I just couldn’t get enough of it! (I was also remember being really proud of my framing in this picture. hehe) They had tons of these stained glass pictures in all the windows and I had to take pictures of them all.

Michael teased me and said that the bathroom was perfect for me! Seeing as I am a tiny 4’11” and everything was built to accommodate the man’s small wife, it was like it was made for me!

Let me finish the Tamworth section of this post by saying that the above shot will NOT be the only picture taken on this trip where we “broke the law” to the get the shot. This particular room was roped off but I loved the ceiling. So with me being the lookout, Michael went under the rope, laid on the floor and scurried back after I had warned of someone coming.

After our 4 days in Tamworth, we made the drive to Boston and stayed at a hotel overnight. We weren’t spending more than one day in the city, so we needed to make it count. We decided to take The Freedom Trail Walking Tour of the city. It was a neat way to explore the city and I had lots of opportunities to take photos.

One of the neatest things that we saw were the gravestones that are located right in the city. They were all so old and worn but this one fascinated me! It was none other than…

MOTHER GOOSE, HERSELF! This was confirmed by the tour guide and isn’t something that I am assuming. He said that this woman is believed to be the Mother Goose behind all the nursery rhymes that we learned as a kid.

This was also really cool! This is building where Charles Dickens wrote a lot of A Christmas Carol! I love learning about history but it’s these small little details that I love the most!

We also took the ferry and got to get onboard the USS Constitution. We had been through some other large Navel ships before a home but this was impressive!

And there he is… my new husband and trespasser but only because I told him to do it. LOL Michael’s favorite US President is JFK, so naturally we had to visit the museum there. Outside is JFK’s sailboat (you know, the one you see in all the pictures!) and it was roped off and there was quite a distance between the sidewalk and the boat. I convinced (I swear I am not that much of a bad influence lol) him to run up there and I would take his picture really quick and he could run back. No one saw us… and we got a great picture!

For the last part of our trip, we drove to Mystic, Connecticut to visit with Michael’s cousin Sue and her husband Pete. We stayed at their house for a couple of days before making the 8 hour drive back home. Of course we had to eat at the infamous Mystic Pizza! We also visited the Mystic Aquarium, which was so cool!

Sorry this post is so long but we crammed a lot in during our week long honeymoon. We had a fabulous time even though we got lost at the beginning and had a funny (now) but terrible (then) experience with a bathroom in Boston (I am not repeating this one – lets just leave it at that). Good thing we did all that driving and road tripping during our 1st year of dating because we really did a lot of driving that week.

XOXO, Jules