Moseying Our Way Up to Halifax- an update on the way

So we all know the ship leaves from Halifax, NS on the 27th of August. That's this Friday. But I left home on Saturday so my parents and I could visit a few places on the way up and make a road trip out of it. Here's an itinerary and my all-important opinions:

Saturday: left from Fairfax County, VA. Drove through Baltimore. Kept doors locked. Took the Jersey Turnpike. Kept the windows closed and oxygen masks fully deployed. Got to Rockaway, New Jersey (west of NYC) a short 6 hours later and met up with my aunt and uncle. We had some great Thai food for dinner and stayed at a hotel. Thanks again for the food, guys!
 Also tried to watch the Redskins preseason game but could only get the Steelers beating the Giants. So I decided to text someone back home about the game.

So how 'bout those Redskins, guys?!

Why do I even bother asking anymore?

New Jersey rating: 5/5 fun times, family, and good food.

Sunday: Breakfast with aunt and uncle at a diner and then we headed off to our next stop at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut. I had never been further east in the US than New York City, so this is officially "here be dragons" territory now. Mystic Seaport is a 'typical' old fishing town that has a touristy trappish area in it where you learn about ships and whatnot. It was a relatively interesting insight in to how much less shitty ocean travel has gotten in the past century. They pooped in holes off the side of the boat and the sailors slept in cots hardly wide enough for a decent laptop downwind from where they cut up and burn whale blubber.

Connecticut rating: 3.5/5 The state is extremely boring to drive through. The Merritt Parkway in the western part of it is hacked out of a forest and you can't see anything. Then 95 is just as boring except you get to go through the smelly ports of New Haven and New London. There might be other things to do in Connecticut but I'm not going to let fact-finding delay my knee-jerk judgment of this place. Also, it was raining the entire time we were there. Yes, that's your fault, Connecticut.

Monday: Woke up early, which is good I guess since I have an early class on the ship. The rain storm, according to the weather website, will be following us at least until Maine. Fantastic. Anyway, 95 took us through Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire (home of tax-free liquor stores! I guess, like Delaware, they needed a gimmick), and finally Maine. Maine is bigger than it looks on maps. We drove and drove and it actually cleared up and stopped raining after two hours. You know the weather's messed up when you have to go to Bangor to get some clear skies. Anyway I'm updating the blog now after a very good seafood dinner at Bar Harbor, our overnighting destination. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day for hiking, cuz we're going hiking regardless (that's just what you do here).

Maine scenery now that it finally stopped raining. I'll upload more in Halifax because there is no way their Wifi could possibly be slower than the stuff here.

Rhode Island: 4.5/5 Rainy but a good Dunkin Donuts stop; got it over with quickly.
Massachusetts: 4/5 There is no way its that big. It took like 2 hours to drive through it.
New Hampshire: 0/5 The highway is in your state for barely 30 miles and you charge a toll?
Maine: 5/5 Scenic, which makes up for it being huge. I'll be able to say more about it next update but so far so good. I shouted for you Henri, did you hear?