The first stop on our East Coast trip was Wildwood an eclectic town on the New Jersey coast where we stayed at the historic 1950's Motel The Caribbean famous for it's Doo Wop Style and architecture which did not disappoint! There are so many great vintage motels in the area, with new and vintage neon signage plus gorgeous colour palettes so that most of our time was spent just walking around exploring!
We arrived right at the beginning of the season so not everything was open but there is a lot on offer for anyone interested in 50's Americana; we ate delicious hotdogs at Maui's Dog House and had morning pancakes at The Doo Wop Coffee Shop plus checked out the Doo wop experience!
From Wildwood we drove to Philadelphia where we hit some of the main tourist spots but mainly we did some 'street art hunting' which was easy as this city is filled with exceptional street art! We checked out Front St Walls and a really interesting project using street art and a light installation to prevent crime on Percy St but the main event was seeing ESPO / Steven Power's 'Love letter to Philadelphia' I remember following the project on Blogger around 10 years ago so it was great to see the work in person!
We broke up the bouts of driving with local attractions and when we headed north from Philly our destination was Roadside America a miniaturised American landscape complete with working railroads that began as one man's hobby but expanded into a very popular attraction in the 40's and 50's. I love anything kitsch and 'Americana' so exploring all the details of the miniaturised worlds was a dream!
Next stopped in Scranton 'the electric city' and visited the tram museum before heading up to Vermont and staying in a cabin in the woods for a couple of nights, which was really beautiful! Plus there was loads of great antique shops to nose around! Then we headed to the Maine coast and made our way down to Boston where I was keen to visit the Natural History Museum, at Harvard University as they have an amazing collection of Blaschka; anatomical Glass models of flowers; my photos do not do them justice they are truly incredible and have to be seen to be believed! Yes every element is made with glass!!!!
Next we headed to Cape Cod before working our through Rhode Island to Connecticut so that we could hit The Elephant Trunk Flea Market before crossing on the ferry to Long Island at Bridgeport and heading to our Air Bnb in Greenport. While on Long Island we did check out the Hamptons but it just made me glad that we had found a place in Greenport which was totally small town america; quaint and quirky with cute diners and cafes, vintage shops and a contemporary gallery we also loved taking the foot ferry over to Shelter Island which had incredible picturesque architecture and felt like we were walking around a film set!
After a few days in Greenport we drove back to JFK to drop off the hire car and headed to our Air BnB in Brooklyn, a separate blogpost on our NYC adventures is coming soon! I hope you enjoyed reading this, if you'd like me to blog about anything in particular in the future then please let me know with a comment below! :D
