Road Trip Part II--New England

The Comfort Inn in Millford was another one of our ‘we have to stop now’ hotels. Having enjoyed our previous Comfort Inn, we figured we'd give this one a go too.

The room was on the ground floor this time, which Mom and I enjoyed, the kids not so much. There were less special features in this hotel, but it served our purposes.

We did manage to get a cot but we weren’t sure if we were going to. The person working at the desk had to track it down for us (it was booked but the person who booked it decided he didn’t need it after all). The cot arrived with extra blankets, towels, soaps etc. The extra cost was $8. The cost of the hotel room was $89 for 2 double beds.

They also had free high-speed Internet which required plugging the computer in. The trick here was there was a little sign saying to ask the desk clerk about the Internet. When she brought the cot, I did and she said I needed to get a bridge from the desk. I went up to the desk with her and got the bridge which came with instructions. I followed the instructions and it worked just fine.

Breakfast was delicious again, with the continental breakfast very similar to the last one. There was no hot chocolate or oatmeal, but they did have packaged muffins and 4 kinds of bagels and a lot more choices of bread for toast. They also had the do-it-yourself waffles that we have come to love. They had cranberry juice and orange juice, but no apple juice which was a disappointment. There was a vending machine where you could buy apple juice (or ice cream bars) right in the breakfast area.

There was no pool at all, but there was an exercise room.

One of the first things we looked for in the room was the coffee machine, which was not immediately obvious. It was hiding in the bathroom.

We accidentally left something in the room and called them to get it held until we returned. I had to leave a message with the desk for housekeeping to look for the item. They called back the next morning and said they had found it. They agreed to hold the item until I returned to Connecticut the next week. When we returned, the item was there and we had no problem getting it back.

For comparison with other Comfort Inns:

Sign on the microwave: none
High-Speed Internet: Plug in, get bridge from the front desk.
Swimming pool: none
In room extras: none
High Chairs at breakfast: none
Cost of room: $89
Cost of cot: $8

We pulled off the road in Danvers, traffic on I-95 was horrendous, being a Sunday evening this late in the summer. (We also had a screaming baby in the car which didn’t help.) We saw a sign for Comfort Inn and went for it. We pulled off the highway and followed the signs, which cleverly led us right to the hotel.

The Comfort Inn in Danvers is quite new. The rooms are very spacious (we had 2 double beds and there was plenty of room for a cot and a playpen). The cost of the room was $129 per night, but Mom somehow convinced them to give her the ‘special’ rate of $119.

The hotel had 2 pools, one inside and one outside. They were both quite small and with an odd zig-zag shape. You can see the outside pool from the inside pool and they are almost mirror reflections of each other. The indoor pool has a maximum deep end of 6 ft, the outdoor pool is deeper.

High speed Internet access is provided free. Although the room says they have wireless and my computer picked up the wireless signal, I couldn’t convince it to work, so I called the help number. It connected me to a call centre where they talked me through using the plug-in version, after laughing that I didn’t know what version of Windows I was running.

The highlight of our stay was the free continental breakfast. The breakfast includes all the standards, like coffee, tea, toast, bagels, cold cereal, milk, juice, instant oatmeal etc., it also has cold hard boiled eggs and the ultimate in breakfast – do-it-yourself Belgian waffles! We were in heaven! Considering how much it costs for a family of 5 to go out for breakfast, this more than made up for the slightly higher cost of staying here.

Cable TV was included, there were pay-per-view movies, and pay-per-play video games. There was a Nintendo controller hooked up to the TV and you could order games with the remote for $6.95 per hour. There was also a parental control where you could block the pay-per-views and a V-chip.

Oh, the kids also liked that we got to stay on the top floor (the 5th).

For comparison with other Comfort Inns:

Sign on the microwave: “Please do not microwave eggs”
High-Speed Internet: Plug in, in the room
Swimming pool: Inside and outside
In room extras: Pay-per-play video games, extra space.
High Chairs at breakfast: 1
Cost of room: $119

We were driving down I-95 from Maine to Boston, in stop-and-go traffic at suppertime, with two whining kids and a screaming baby. We decided to take the next exit in search of food, which happened to be Exeter, New Hampshire.

Exeter is a quaint little village, with lots of heritage buildings lining the main street. The main road into town was lined with grand houses and lots of law offices. We drove for about 2 miles off the highway to get into town and parked at the first spot we came to in the historic district. Even though it was raining slightly, we decided to walk down the block to select a restaurant.

The restaurant we picked was Me & Ollies. It is a bakery/café with wooden tables and chairs. The first thing we noticed when we went in was of course the "Children’s Corner" which was literally a large corner of the restaurant with chalkboard walls, and an old fashioned wooden kitchen playset, complete with stove, cupboard, and a wide variety of wooden food items.

We headed up to the order line and took a very long time deciding what to get. We finally decided that the 4-year-old would have a fluffernutter (a marshmallow fluff and peanut butter sandwich for $3.25) the 8-year-old had a half smoked turkey sandwich and cup of tomato bisque ($6.95), Mom had a half chipotle turkey toasted sandwich on ciabatta bread with a cup of lentil soup ($6.95), and I had a four cheese and tomato grilled sandwich ($4.95).

To drink, we had a bottle of New Hamphire’s own cherry cola, a bottle of Me & ollie's H2Ollies, and a glass of chocolate milk. They were out of chocolate milk, but there was a sign on the cooler saying that they would gladly mix some if you asked at the counter. The total bill came to $28.

Everything was delicious. All of the sandwiches came with pretzels on the side which was a nice touch. We ended up taking home half of both kids sandwiches because they were full and so were Mom and I (normally we would have just helped them eat up). We finished them up later and I tasted some of the fluffernutter. It was surprising good, and especially tasty as a pretzel dip.

Me & Ollie's had a big sign saying they were voted best bread in New Hampshire 2 years in a row. They have 3 locations, one in Exeter and one in Hampton and one in Portsmouth.

Their website is: www.meandollies.com

The Omni Parker House is a lovely hotel in downtown Boston. We decided to go there after reading that it is the birthplace of Boston Cream Pie. How could we not visit the place that created something so yummy? So of course, we planned to order dessert.

When we found the restaurant, the outside had bright lights and big signs and it looked like it would be a fine place to take the kids. However, when we walked through the door, we realized it was a nice, upscale place, not the kind of place we usually head with 3 kids and wearing shorts and t-shirts. They did not mind our dress however and seated us no problem. After a couple of minutes they arrived with a high chair for the baby.

We go there for a late lunch. Because we wanted dessert, Mom and I decided to order sandwiches – figured they wouldn’t be too filling. We both selected the chicken and walnut salad sandwiches, I had fries, Mom had salad. The 8-year-old had a burger and the 4-year-old had a hot dog. Both kids meals came with a drink, fries and Boston Baked beans.

They brought out a basked of Parker Rolls, which were delicious and just a bit sweet. They were served with a plate full of pats of butter. There were about 10 small rolls in the basket and we sure ate them all.

The chicken walnut sandwiches were delicious. They cost about $12 (the salad was $1 extra). By far the best chicken salad I’ve ever eaten. Mom also loved hers. The salad had a nice mix of different greens and Mom enjoyed it also. They were very large sandwiches however and we only ate half of them. We saved the rest for dinner and they were still delicious then. The kids meals cost about $6 each. The 4-year-old started with her fries and beans and was full before she even started her hot dog. She had her hot dog for dinner, and it was the best hot dog Mom or I had ever tasted (it was a Fenway Park hot dog). The kids baked beans came in their own little bean pots. We all tasted them and they were delicious, but we were too full to eat them all.

The kids favourite part though were miniature ketchup and mustard bottles that they were served with their meals. They were actual Heinz bottles, in individual sizes, all factory sealed. We took them with us. The waitress also provided us with a mini maple syrup bottle.

After lunch we asked for directions to the restrooms, which were upstairs. The staff member who provided directions asked if the kids received packages when we arrived, so I explained we had just come for lunch, but she insisted on giving them each a package which included toys, cups, postcards and crayons.

The worst part was that we were too full to order the Boston Cream Pie! Boston Parker House

We went to Harvard to buy a t-shirt. We thought it would be fun for the kids to have Harvard shirts. We decided to park the car and take a walk around the famous University.

Harvard is of course, huge. To get there from Boston, you follow Massachusetts Avenue right across a bridge to Cambridge. The first thing you see in Cambridge is MIT. We kept going until we found the main Harvard campus. We got to the University late in the morning (around 11am). It was in late August, before school started. The time of year when you know you're in a university town by the number of moving vans you see.

We had to circle the block several times to find a place to park, which was fine, because it gave us a nice view of the main campus wall and other buildings. We eventually found a spot on a side street, near the “Harvard Book Store”. The Harvard Book Store is just that, a book store, unlike most campus bookstores, it did not seem to be overflowing with Harvard University merchandise. We walked across the street and entered through a gate that said “Enter and gain wisdom”.

On the other side of the gate there were many historic buildings and the Harvard commons. This is where we found the statue of the founder of the university, John Harvard. We wandered around aimlessly for several minutes looking for an official bookstore, or any information. There were a few signs pointing to some buildings, but most of the buildings only had the name of the building on them. Many of the buildings had signs saying that university ID was required to enter the buildings.

Finally, we went into a building and asked for directions. The guard on duty didn’t seem to know much about where things were, but did provide a map of all the libraries on campus.

By this point, we needed to make a pitstop and went looking for a washroom. We went to a little diner across the street, where we were going to order something to eat (they were advertising Sweet Potato Fries), but they had no restroom, so we went down the street looking for a public washroom.

Down the street we finally found the Harvard Information Centre. Inside they had public restrooms, historic tours by University students, postcards for sale, and coupons for a store run by students. The tours last for about an hour and they are free. If only we’d seen this first!

Anyway, we left there, went to the closest t-shirt store, bought several shirts for reasonable prices. The 8-year-old got a shirt/hat combo for $20, adult shirts were about $15 each. We also bought some pencils for about 50 cents each.

Harvard: Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

Recommendation, go, but make sure you find the info centre outside the Harvard walls first.