Vacation in a Nutshell

• Always take lots of caffeine, and when you find the energy shots you like, stock up!  They don't have them where you're going.  
• Avoid the Pennsylvania turnpike.  And Pennsylvania drivers.
• Avoid NY city at all costs.
• Don't depend on your GPS - it doesn't know that construction will force you off of your route and into the Newark NJ airport.  Eek!
• Try not to bother the people who live in the affluent, neighborhood-watched neighborhood where the things you're visiting are located.
• Touristy hiking trails with amazing views of mansions and the ocean are best experienced early in the morning.  And you can get sunburn in October.
• Graveyards are cool, but it helps to know what their hours are.
• Restaurants are great, but it helps to know what their hours are.  Evidently, some places don't serve food between 2 and 5.  Weird.
• It's best to stick to seafood and poultry when you're eating on the coast.  Burgers are better in the midwest.
• DON'T STAY IN A HILTON!
• Don't visit Salem in October.  It's a very cool place, but it's too busy during that time.
• Beauport/Sleeper House was friggin amazing.  Who says you can't build secret stair cases and build your rooms out of doors?  This guy did it in the 20s!
• The Marriott is a most excellent place to stay.  They CALLED ME to see if everything was to my liking!
• If you want to take pictures at night, have a good flash, or other light.
• It's impossible to take a picture of a white stone mausoleum in broad daylight of a woman with grey hair and have it turn out looking right.
• There are very few street signs in New England towns.
• Those streets will confuse the crap out of a GPS.
• Packing a case of water with us was the best idea we've ever had.