Historic National Road in Addison, Pennsylvania
Now that my December, 2012 cruise series is complete, it’s time to move on to my next major project – our combo road trip and cruise to Bermuda in May, 2014. After all, considering that this blog has the word “road” in the title, it’s probably about time I actually put together a post about road tripping 🙂 The first real installment won’t go live for a few days, but to whet your appetites, I’ve gone ahead and put together a trip report index and an overview of our vacation as a preview.
The Skinny: We had decided late last summer, after coming back from our cruise to Alaska, that we’d like to head to Bermuda for our big 2014 vacation, having heard lots of good things about the island nation. I also wanted to get a move on completing the “Kokomo” tour, having already been to Aruba, Jamaica, Key Largo, and Montego – though I suppose Jamaica and Montego are one and the same, and this is one tour that can never be completed, considering “Kokomo” doesn’t even exist. But I digress.
The Plan: With a destination decided, we then decided to do the trip in mid-May for a few reasons. One, mid-May to the end of June is probably the slowest time of year at my job, so it’s as good a time as any to take off for a couple of weeks (plus, I could use the Memorial Day holiday to save a vacation day). Second, a May cruise to Bermuda falls squarely within shoulder season, since school is still in session, meaning lower prices and thinner crowds – and temperatures in the 70s in Bermuda, which would be perfect exploring weather. Third, this would provide an opportunity to try a new cruise line for us, Norwegian Cruise Line. So with that, we decided on May 16th-23rd from Boston on the Norwegian Dawn. Why this particular itinerary? We would have almost three full days to explore Bermuda, which was more time than other cruise line options provided. Plus, we had heard that cruising out of Boston was a fairly hassle-free experience.
Now came the question of how to get to Boston. Getting to Boston from DFW by air in May is pretty cheap, thanks to nonstop options on both AA and jetBlue. I have to admit, the temptation to try out jetBlue for the first time was pretty strong. But on the other hand, I hadn’t been on a real road trip since 2011, and flying to and from a cruise is a PITA because of the need to check baggage. So we decided to drive to Boston and back instead. I like to plan my road trips out in excruciating detail, so I mapped out a bunch of sections of interstate I hadn’t driven before to get to Boston, and we would then drive the entire length of the Historic National Road from Maryland to Illinois and visit the confuence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers on the way home. We were also going to try and visit my cousin who lives outside of NYC on the way up, which fortunately ended up working out, and spend a half a day or so after disembarking the ship doing some quick exploration of the Boston area (we ended up deciding to spend this time in Salem).
Admittedly, driving and then catching a cruise also defeated the “we’ll get there fast” aspect of the whole “Kokomo” them, but oh well…
Trip Index: I’ll break this report into multiple parts for easier reading.
- Trip report index and overview (this post)
- A Wet, Whirwind Three Days Driving to Boston
- Boston to Bermuda on the Norwegian Dawn – Cruise Review
- Getting Lost in the Royal Naval Dockyard and the Bermuda Triangle
- The Frog and Onion Pub, Royal Naval Dockyard – Restaurant Review
- Sea Glass, Historic Forts, and Beautiful Beaches in St. George’s
- A Day at the Beaches on Bermuda’s South Shore
- The Lobster Pot, Hamilton – Restaurant Review
- The Lobster Shanty, Salem – Restaurant Review
- Zipping Through the Appalachians, Boston to Cumberland, Maryland
- The Frontier Tavern at the Historic Bedford Springs Resort, Bedford PA – Restaurant Review
- Driving the Historic National Road, From Almost Start to Almost Finish
- The Cornerstone Pub, Stilesville, Indiana – Restaurant Review
- Traveling the Home Stretch, Vandalia, Illinois to Dallas
- Short Tour of the Ohio and Mississippi River Confluence, Cairo, Illinois
Borrowing a theme from fellow UPGRDr James, I will also post a link to the appropriate Flickr album if you like photos and want to see more.
Needless to say, this entire series will take some time to put together, probably a few months. Posts won’t necessarily go up in this order, but you can always click back on this page to see what has and hasn’t been posted. I hope you enjoy the series!
