We spent the first half of July in the top two corners of Ohio—the northeast where I was born and raised and the northwest where my adult life began.

When we decided to include Niagara Falls as part of our journey, I was thinking of the actual Falls and looking forward to a boat tour. Our visit to this area yielded a few other unexpected finds that made it even more worthwhile and put it at the top of our list for another visit in the future.

For those of us who don’t live in New York, whenever we hear “New York” we might automatically think of New York City, tall buildings, Broadway, crowds of people, subways, etc. The state of New York is so much more than that! There are mountains, vast acres of farmland, small towns, vineyards, and, of course, access to one of Canada’s Seven Wonders—Niagara Falls (separate blog here).

What a glorious 12 days we had in the beautiful state of New Hampshire. Highlights include bike riding along the beach, ice cream, Rummy, Uno, paint by numbers, puzzles, laundry, mystery, fantasy, chocolate, shopping, dogs, heat, humidity, and fun, fun, fun with friends!

We stayed in Pennsylvania for 11 nights. Amid this COVID-19 pandemic, the Hershey amusement park was closed, as were museums and national parks. Restaurants were still doing curbside pickup, and some were starting to offer outside dining. With the regular “tourist” places closed, we took the time to have some down time, to visit some old friends, and to check out the local area.