Our first cross-border road-trip!

We are just back from a 12-day trip across multiple states in Canada and United States. Though I would cover each place (with some jaw-dropping sights) we visited in detail, this post contains a brief of what we did!

Last year, we spent the Christmas in Las Vegas. This year, we spent the same in French-dominated Montreal, which has some amazing architectural marvels. The city is just about a 5-hour drive from our home, but it was snowing heavily the day we started (22nd Dec) and considering the upcoming long weekend that Canada had, the drive was anything but easy. But, as I mentioned earlier also, I love long drives, in any form 😛

It also snowed for a couple of days while we were there, but that couldn’t deter me from venturing out (it did frighten Saru, though – it was about -25 degree Celsius on all of those days!). I have already written a post on the magnificent 200-year-old Notre Dame Basilica that I visited on Christmas day. I drafted, edited, and published the post same night (as last year). Yay!

On 26th, we left Montreal and entered the US as a tourist in the state of New Hampshire (NH). The immigration was smooth and we felt quite nostalgic as we spent quite a long time in the US until mid last year. This was our 3rd time in NH and we absolutely love the place! We specifically wanted to visit the area of Bretton Woods where I captured this shot last year during fall.Even though our stay in Franconia city was for only a day, I did make the most of my outing even though it was colder there as compared to Montreal. While Saru was fast asleep, I captured a pretty sunrise in the mountains covered with snow – NH is mostly about mountains, lakes, and picturesque landscapes! Later that day, we were lucky to witness another aspect of White Mountains and capture Sunset next to the Omni Mount Washington Resort (seen in the above shot).

On 28th, we started towards New Jersey, but not before buying my crazy love – iPhone X – from the tax-free state of NH. I am loving it! It took us about 7 hours to reach Jersey City (JC) and meet us my brother-in-law and his wife. We have some fond memories of that place as we used to visit them quite often when we lived close by.

Next few days were reserved for eating at our favorite joints – primarily, California Pizza Kitchen and Dosa Hut. We spent New Year’s Eve checking-out decorations in New York (NY). I was impressed with lighting at the Macy’s flagship store and the light-show at Saks Fifth Avenue. We also had dinner at the highly-rated Korean restaurant named Hangawi. Even though I do not like much of non-Indian stuff, I was thoroughly impressed with the restaurant ambiance and food.

You might know I worked next to Times Square (TS) for a couple of years when I was there, but I never saw the ball-drop on 31st midnight. Keeping up with the tradition, we couldn’t see it this time also (though the intent was there) 😀 There were long queues to get to TS and NY was super chilly! In fact, the entire stretch we covered is under a cyclone, and hence the snow, wind, and the resulting frigid temperatures!

We came back home in Canada on 2nd Jan after driving for about 11.5 hours from JC – we enjoy the journey also, with some quick stops and clicks. With over 2700 kilometers on the odometer (I just drove long on 3 days out of 12), it is the longest road-trip we’ve had. But it was all worth it!