Frances Perkins National Monument is less than 10 miles from where we are staying, so we planned a trip out to see it. This site has been a historical site for a couple decades, but has only been a national monument under the park system since December 2024.

We spent an afternoon exploring Boothbay Harbor (map ). This is a quaint little ocean harbor town that has a lot for tourists. It seems very commercial with several shops and boat tour companies. We enjoyed walking the strip and found a penny press !

We were grateful to spend an afternoon with our friends touring the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens . After our garden tour, we picked up some live lobster to cook the quintessential Maine dinner!

Maine is full of friends! We visited the amazing Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens with friends. The gardens themselves are just stunning! They also have 5 Thomas Danbo Trolls . This was our first time seeing any of the trolls and we thought they were amazing! We enjoyed an easy afternoon in the gardens, meandering along the trails to find each of the trolls on site, and spending quality time with friends.

We made it to Maine - our 10th new state this year! The travel day was very wet and foggy. There was also a major NASCAR race happening in Concord, NH, so we encountered a bit of traffic.

While in New Hampshire we visited Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park . Many people may not be familiar with Augustus Saint-Gaudens , but he was a prominent sculptor during the Gilded Age (late 1800s) and arguably the most renowned American sculptor of all time.

While in New Hampshire, we spent an afternoon exploring the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park (map ). The land has been owned by each of these families over the last 200 years, and has an interesting story backstory from the 1800s where the trees in the area were almost all cut down for wood products and to provide space for sheep to be raised. This deforestation lead to massive erosion issues and loss of habitat for many species.

New Hampshire has worked to preserve more than 50 covered bridges within its borders. At one time during the 1800s, there were more than 10,000 covered wooden bridges in the United States. During our stay, we visited 5 - Swiftwater, Haverhill-Bath, Bath, Taftsville, and Cornish-Windsor. Out of the 5, four of them were still being used by vehicle traffic today!

We’ve made it to New Hampshire! This is our 9th new state that we’re exploring in our RV this year.