We’re nearing the end, my friends. The end of the New England road trip recaps from our big adventure…that happened in September.

So…yeah. I failed on the punctuality front this time around. Major oops there. I tried! Really I did!

Let’s move on.

This will be the final batch of photos from that trip. Herein you’ll see photos from Vermont and our whale watching tour. As I think I mentioned before, this was my first time to juggle both taking video and shooting still images on my DSLR. Managing those two related, but pretty different tasks, proved to be rather difficult for a newbie like me. So, I apologize for the holes and any redundancy. Practice, practice, practice, and future endeavors will surely be more thorough!

Here we go!

Lake Champlain, Vermont.

We really loved the capital of Vermont: Montpelier.  Not only was the downtown strip very reminiscent of main streets you might encounter in the mountains of our own Colorado, it is the nation’s smallest capital city, and as such seems to exude a small town charm.

When we got to Vermont, our first stop was further north up the highway from the Montpelier exit. As we neared that exit, we kept expecting to get at least a small glimpse of an urban landscape. You know, something to indicate that you’re near a state’s capital city.

But there was nothing. Not even a slight shimmer of light touching off a single tall building.

When we doubled back to that exit the next day, and followed the road through a gap in the mountains, we finally laid eyes on the city. The tiny, quaint, lovely little city.

When people first come to visit Denver, I’ve found that a lot of them express surprise at the compact nature of this place. Yes, it is a city. We have giant buildings and a distinctly urban city center. However, it is nowhere near the size or grandeur of say, San Francisco, Chicago, certainly not New York City. And this often surprises people.

For a minute, Emily and I had that exact same reaction to Montpelier. Then we felt a bit like kindred spirits with the little capital. And then we loved it.

Unfortunately we only had a small amount of time to spend there. So we visited a farmers market. Purchased those very friendly flowers. Explored some main street shops. Got coffee. And made a quick stop at the capital building.

Which looked like this:

Then, we were off again to cross New Hampshire and get back to Massachusetts.

We had a whale watching tour to catch!

This woman was our fearless whale watching guide. Having never been on a whale watching tour, let alone this far out on the big, blue ocean, we didn’t exactly know what to expect.

Hopefully whales. Hopefully no capsizing. Hopefully we wouldn’t get seasick.

Luckily all of those hopes came true.

Our guide was a scientist, so not only was she there to direct our gaze to the proper side of the boat, she also was there to document what whales we saw in her big ol’ log, and explain to us the research and history of whale studies thus far. Being pretty academically inclined myself, I have to say I really appreciated this approach.

And then, we saw some whales.

And they came in pretty close.

Amazement. Thrill. Awe.

It was almost indescribable. The only thing that would have upped the ante on this tour would be if any of these whales – we saw mostly humpback – had done some leaps clear out of the water.

Nonetheless there they were, so close. So massive. So almost-terrifying and yet not.

If you ever have a chance to go on a whale watching tour, I recommend it most highly. It makes you feel small. But in a good, thoughtful way.

And then, just like that, our 12-day trip was over.

We spent our last day roaming the coast of Massachusetts, trying not to get lost on our way to return the rental car through the tangle of Boston roadways, and attempting to soak in every last minute of this adventure.

It was the kind of trip that felt both long and instant at the same time. By the arrival of that twelfth day, we were ready to get back to our loved ones, and our beloved Colorado.

But, we were also so thankful for all the new sights, experiences, and memories we got to collect.

To my sister: Thanks for being an ever-steady, always awesome, super sister-friend of a travel companion. I promise I will never again almost navigate you to the middle of Manhattan while you’re behind the wheel. At least I’ll try reeeeeally hard not to!

To all of you: Thanks for joining us remotely! It really keeps the adventure alive when you can turn around and share your experiences and photos and videos on a platform such as this blog. I really appreciate you reading along. You’re lovely.

Next up: San Francisco. I leave Thursday. Can’t wait!