Our Summer Adventures Part 3: New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire

​After our quick night in Niagara Falls, we headed out the next morning. Our ultimate destination was Acadia National Park, but because it is quite a trek from Niagara Falls, we decided we would drive until we hit New Hampshire and then drive the five or so hours from there to Bar Harbor, Maine. We drove through upstate New York, and since we have the goal of hitting as many National Park sites as we can in our travels, we stopped in Seneca Falls, New York to get lunch and to visit the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. Seneca Falls was a super cute, small town, and our lunch at Café XIX was incredible! The food was great, and the atmosphere, featuring pop-art style women involved in the Women’s Rights Movement. Then, we drove about a mile to the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. I was totally geeking out here. They have an awesome visitor center with a museum upstairs that we spent some time exploring. Outside, there is a park and a historical church which is on the corner where the very first Women’s Rights Convention was held on July 19-20th, 1848. Selah and I took a picture there to commemorate all that these women sacrificed for us to have the right to vote. The kids had a great time running around the park. There are some other things to do in Seneca Falls, including visiting Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s home. We wanted to get on the road, though, so we decided to just stick with the main park, which we all loved!

​After driving some more through upstate New York (which takes quite a long time from Canada), we stopped in Rome, New York at the Fort Stanwix National Monument. The town of Rome, New York didn’t have much else, but the nice thing about making National Park sites a road trip stop is clean bathrooms, a safe place for the kids to stretch their legs, a cold, purified water station to fill up water bottles (most sites have this, although not all), and of course, a history lesson. Fort Stanwix is known as the fort that “never surrendered.” The British armies attempted a siege of the fort in 1777, and the troops there protected the fort and the siege failed.
 
When we arrived, the park was pretty empty. The kids had a great time running around and checking out all of the rooms of the fort, which were set up just like they would have been back in the 1700s. They even got to see the cannons and lookouts at the top of the fort. We explored for awhile and were on our way out when one of the park rangers asked the kids if they would like to play in some 1700s costumes. How could we resist? The park rangers gave them some period costumes and the kids had a blast pretending to be soldiers. It also made for some adorable pictures. The rangers here were so incredibly nice! 

​After leaving Fort Stanwix, we drove through Vermont (just a quick stop for a couple photos here; the scenery was GORGEOUS), and then we stopped in a town in Keane, New Hampshire to stay for the night. We got up early to head to Bar Harbor, Maine, where we were so excited to see Acadia National Park!