Boston & Cape Cod Road Trip - October 2016 - Day 5 - Mohawk Trail & Yankee Candle

**Erial** · 4 Jun 17, 11:42 AM

Boston & Cape Cod Road Trip
25th October 2016
Day 5 - Mohawk Trail & Yankee Candle

Previous: Salem

We woke to another gloriously sunny day with clear blue skies even though it was still a bit chilly. I was so happy as it was just the weather I wanted and how I imagined New England to be in the fall.

Breakfast at the hotel was complimentary. We had a combination of sausages, omelettes, cereal and fruit. Whilst being nothing spectacular it was perfectly adequate and enough to keep us going until lunchtime.

I couldn’t wait to make a start on the Mohawk Trail. The Mohawk Trail is a Native American trade route which is now part of Route 2. The Trail is 63 miles long. We were doing 42 miles from Greenfield to Williamstown and then back again. Along the trail there was lots of evidence of its Native American history right down to shops selling tepees and totem poles!

Our first stop on the trail was Shelburne Falls. It was a very pretty little town and incredibly quiet out of season. In the summer months there is a little tram that takes you around the area. One of the prettiest areas of the town was the Bridge of Flowers. As the name suggests, it is a bridge that is absolutely covered in flowers and is maintained by the local community. There’s a little guest book to sign and a collection tin to help them maintain the bridge.

The views from the bridge were stunning and the photos just don’t do it justice.

One of the other attractions in Shelburne Falls are the other glacial rock formations. Jeff and I thought these were quite impressive but the kids not so much. They’re just rocks apparently!

Whilst we were there we decided to look for a local geocache. This took us near to the town’s little information centre. Izzy needed the toilet and so we went in to see if they had one we could use. It was all very frill and twee in there. The old lady working in there kept us talking for ages. Jeff wondered what had happened to us. She wanted to know why we were there, how old the kids were, why weren’t they in school (they don’t have half terms), which other parts of America we’d visited etc etc. She also had us sign her visitor book and put a pin in her map to show where we were from. Again being English made us a real novelty.

We carried on along trail stopping regularly and taking photos as we went. We also stopped and did few geocaches along the way with varying degrees of success.

We followed the trail all way to Williamstown. This was a stunning little town but we only drove through. We would have loved to have spent more time here but we were conscious that we still had a lot we were trying to do today. I wanted to stop at the Yankee Candle Factory in Deerfield and then we had a 3+ hour drive to Cape Cod.

On the way back along the Mohawk Trail we stopped at Supermarket in North Adams for lunch. It was really quite expensive but then we did buy lots of extras too.

Lunch was then a picnic in the car! Can’t you tell this holiday was all about the fine dining!

One of the villages of the Mohawk Trail is a little place Florida! It’s quite a high little village at almost 1,900 ft and it was so cold there was even but of snow on ground! I couldn’t help but take this photo. Not often you see temperatures like this in Florida!

Again we stopped to take more photos and admire the views on the way back. However, at one point we did leave Jeff to it as the ‘Beware Bears’ sign was quite off putting!

Continued below...

**Erial** · 4 Jun 17, 11:53 AM

Once we were back to wear we started in Greenfield we headed 20 minutes south to Deerfield the home of Yankee Candle. Like a lot of Dibbers I’m a big Yankee Candle fan and so I couldn’t be this close to their Factory and Flagship store without paying it a visit.

It was bigger than I’d anticipated and sold a lot more than just candles. It also contained a massive (but expensive) Christmas shop.

We stopped at the Ben & Jerry’s café to refuel before hitting the candles hard! There were some lovely large candles that were exlusive to that store but they only did them in large and they were just soo0 heavy.

Instead we hit the factory store! There was just o much choice and some good offers. They worked out a bit cheaper than buying them back home, especially if bought in bulk (well it’d be rude not too).

After stocking up with lots of candles for ourselves and as Christmas presents it was 4pm. We really needed to be making a move down to the Cape before it got too late. We’d already resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to have to do most of the journey in the dark.

It was quite a long, boring journey as it was all dual carriage way and not a lot to see. Most of the time it looked like this.

Our only excitement was when we pulled off the interstate to get petrol. Finding the petrol was easy enough. It was getting back to the interstate that was the challenge. We followed the sat nav which took us round the back of a retail complex down some very dodgy looking roads before finally getting us back on our main road. It was all very strange! Got to love a a random sat nav detour!

The bridge that joins the main land to the Cape was quite scary in the dark. It had some kind of roadworks/maintenance taking place and so the lanes were very narrow with big concrete blocks at the side. I think I breathed in all the way over the bridge!

We eventually arrived at our hotel, the Anchor In (yes In not Inn) in Hyannis at around 8pm. We had a lovely warm welcome from the lady on reception. She gave us a little tour of the hotel showing us where breakfast would be and where we could get complimentary hot drinks all day. She also gave us the phone numbers for local pizza delivery companies. We were starving but too shattered to go back out to find a restaurant so we ordered pizza whilst we unpacked.

I’d also had a parcel from the Disney Store delivered to the hotel and that was waiting for me to. We really couldn’t fault the hotel. Our room looked very like the rooms in the Beach Club except these ones were authentic New England! 😉 The staff were super friendly and we had an amazing view of the harbour.

This hotel had actually been a last minute choice. We’d originally wanted to book a beach hut right on the sea front in the Outer Cape near to Provincetown. We’d seen one on HomeAway.com but the owner had clearly never taken a booking from an overseas guest. She wanted us to send a foreign cheque which the bank no long issues. She wouldn’t take paypal. She then wanted us to send money to some relative’s paypal account and wanted a massive deposit and it all just seemed a little dodgy so we backed out and booked the Anchor In in Hyannis instead. We’re so glad we made the swap as we went to look at the beach huts and we’d have been very remote in comparison to where we actually were. The beach huts were probably lovely in the summer when there were lots of people around but out of season in October we’d have felt really isolated.

Anyway, I digress. We unpacked in our room whilst waiting for the pizza. The pizza arrived and we sat stuffing our faces sat on the bed watching TV.

After a little more exloring of the hotel we were tucked up in bed excited about exploring more of Cape Cod tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Provincetown & Cape Cod

Thanks for reading.
Claire
x

**Sparksy72** · 4 Jun 17, 03:32 PM

Shelburne Falls is so pretty! What a lovely idea with the flowers on the bridge, it's things like this that make wonderful memories. Looks like you all had fun at the Yankee Candle shop - the choice looks almost overwhelming 😱 It has been interesting trying to pick hotels for our upcoming trip - looks like your picks have been successful so far, can't wait to see pictures of the Harbour. 😊

Melbatb · 4 Jun 17, 08:27 PM

Again - fantastic scenery! Your food options sound like ours

The hotel looks charming!

Pussycat Doll · 5 Jun 17, 01:24 AM

We've just left Hyannis this morning! We stayed at the Hyannis Harbour Hotel so must have been very close to where you stayed!

**Erial** · 5 Jun 17, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

Shelburne Falls is so pretty! What a lovely idea with the flowers on the bridge, it's things like this that make wonderful memories. Looks like you all had fun at the Yankee Candle shop - the choice looks almost overwhelming 😱 It has been interesting trying to pick hotels for our upcoming trip - looks like your picks have been successful so far, can't wait to see pictures of the Harbour. 😊

Shelburne Falls is one of the prettiest places I've ever visited. I'm sure it's all of the autumn colours that did it though!

I could have bankrupt myself in Yankee Candle!

It was fab!

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Again - fantastic scenery! Your food options sound like ours

The hotel looks charming!

I sometimes miss that we don't make time for nicer sit down meals, but sometimes there's just more fun to be fad to waste time in a restaurant!

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

We've just left Hyannis this morning! We stayed at the Hyannis Harbour Hotel so must have been very close to where you stayed!

No way! What's the weather like there at this time of year? I've just googled your hotel, it's just around the bay from where we stayed! You could probably see one from the other! Have you had a good time?

Thanks for reading.
Claire
x

Pussycat Doll · 6 Jun 17, 02:47 AM

Hi Claire, had an amazing time thank you. Weather mixed but warm every day, apparently the wettest may for years! Just done a trippie - Villa Owners on holiday! X

disney owl · 7 Jun 17, 09:54 AM

beautiful scenery & Yankee Candles, brilliant!

**tocpe321** · 22 Jun 17, 06:40 PM

Great day and lovely photos.

**Erial** · 25 Jul 17, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Hi Claire, had an amazing time thank you. Weather mixed but warm every day, apparently the wettest may for years! Just done a trippie - Villa Owners on holiday! X

Ooo off to find your trippie now!

Originally Posted by disney owl

beautiful scenery & Yankee Candles, brilliant!

Thank you.

Originally Posted by tocpe321

Great day and lovely photos.

Thank you.

Thanks for reading.
Claire
x

22 Jun 17, 06:40 PM	#9
	22 Jun 17, 06:40 PM tocpe321 VIP Dibber ✓Premium Member
tocpe321 VIP Dibber Join Date: Apr 12	Great day and lovely photos. __________________ tocpe