Wave 3: Northern USA, UK, Spain, Eastern Canada

Wave 3 (USA (midwest, upstate New York and New England), Amsterdam, Portugal, England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Andalucia Spain, Eastern Canada and USA (upper Midwest and plains states, Rocky Mountain states)) – While home in the USA, we made a few short trips to Las Vegas NV, San Clemente CA and the Rapid City SD area. David also made a sailing trip off of Puerto Rico. And then, a three-year delayed cross-country drive ensued!

As we drove eastward, we made stops in Lincoln NE, Iowa City IA, visited West Branch IA and Galena IL before stopping in Chicago IL, stayed in Kalamazoo MI and Cleveland OH before dropping into Ontario for a visit to Niagara Falls and a stay at Niagara-on-the-Lake. Crossing back into the USA in upstate New York, we spent about a week or so in the Finger Lakes and Ithaca with a stop in Cooperstown at the Baseball Hall of Fame, at the Mill Pond Inn in Jefferson and visiting the FDR Library in Hyde Park with an overnight in Hudson.

We then spent several weeks visiting friends and touring around New England, first in the Burlington VT area, then in Woodstock VT, near Mount Washington in New Hampshire and near Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park based out of Hancock ME with visits to Portland and Frye Island.

After a short stay with family in Massachusetts, we were back to Europe with a three-day layover in Amsterdam. A new city for us, which we loved! Several weeks later, we were off again to the United Kingdom. We visited London for five days, then headed south with stops in Rye and visits to southeast England, a stay on the Isle of Wight, a visit to Salisbury and Stonehenge and then through Dartmoor Park to Penzance. Turning east and north, we made stops in Bath, York and Whitby on our way up into Scotland.

We began our visit to Scotland in St. Andrews (where we tried but failed to see the puffins on the Isle of May), then spent a week in Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival after a short trip to Stirling. We stayed a night in Glasgow and then made our way north into the Highlands and then to the Isle of Skye where, collectively, we were for close to a month. We made our way down the west coast of Scotland with stops on the Isles of Mull and Iona and the Isle of Arran. After overnights in Troon and Lancaster, we spent a too-quick time on the Isle of Mann.

Back on the mainland, we spent time in the Lake District visited Liverpool and then spent a couple of weeks in Wales visiting Llandudno, Snowdonia Park, Caernarfon Castle and Portmeirion in the north, Tenby and the Mumbles in the south and near Powys on the Glanusk Estate on our way back into England. Finally, before returning to London for one last night and a flight home, we spent several days in the beautiful Cotswolds.

Over Christmas, we visited Seville and El Rocío Spain on a trip cut short by a nasty flu. Fortunately, we were able to return to Andalucia for a couple of weeks in the springtime where we stayed at Matascalañas Beach, visited El Rocío and Cadiz and stayed in Marbella and then spent a few days in the beautiful Pueblos Blancos (White Villages) of Andalucia.

While in Portugal, we made a few short trips down to the Algarve, spent the night at the historic Palácio Hotel in Estoril and visited a couple of wine hotels in Alentejo. We also were able to visit Lisbon several times and wrote about the Convento do Carmo (one of our favorite sights in Lisbon), the history of São Domingos Square, the Church of São Roque and Lisbon’s Street Art.

A year after departing for Europe, we returned home to the USA, starting off our return trip to Colorado in New England. We stayed first in Boston, re-visited family on Frye Island ME and stayed in Concord MA. Then we headed north, back to Hancock ME where we’d stayed on our way east before returning to Europe. We went back to Acadia National Park and visited Bar Harbor and saw the puffins off the coast of Maine.

Then, it was off to Canada. We took the ferry to Nova Scotia from Bar Harbor and stayed in three places: quaint Smith’s Cove, on a small island to ourselves in Port Medway and outside Baddeck on Cape Breton Island. We visited Halifax’s Citadel between Port Medway and Cape Breton Island and spent several days poking around Cape Breton’s Cabot Trail. We headed next to Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island where we were staying during the Canada Day celebrations.

Our next province was New Brunswick where we stayed in St. Andrews by the Sea and Florenceville enroute to Quebec. In Quebec, we spent a few nights in Quebec City and a couple of nights in Montreal. From there, we dipped into Vermont and New York and stayed with friends on and around Lake Champlain.

Heading back into Canada, we visited our final province (for this time): Ontario. We began in Ottawa, met up with friends on their trek across Canada in Kingston, returned to charming Niagara-on-the-Lake and stayed in Sudbury at the northern end of Lake Huron.

We crossed the US-Canada border one final time in northern Michigan, where we stayed five nights and visited Mackinac Island and Pictured Rocks Lakeshore Park and saw the northern lights. We dipped down from Michigan’s UP for stops in Green Bay and Sister Bay Wisconsin before turning west for Minneapolis, MN. In Minneapolis, we visited Prince’s Paisley Park and went back into Wisconsin for the Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward.

We spent several days in South Dakota while the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was in town and were accompanied by Harley Davidsons wherever we went including Deadwood, the Badlands National Park and Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. After a brief overnight in Sheridan, WY we spent several days exploring Yellowstone National Park.

From Wyoming, we turned north for a week in Montana staying in Bozeman and on Flathead Lake and visiting friends in Anaconda, Whitefish and Glacier National Park. Then we headed south through Idaho to Park City, UT where we spent two nights before crossing back into Colorado 483 days after we left.

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Wave 3 map. Places we’ve stayed in Blue, places we visited in Red.