After grabbing lobster rolls and root beer to go we set off from Kennebunkport towards New Hampshire. The sat nav pronounced we were at our destination but we found ourselves at a Doggy Daycare Centre instead. Driving up and down the "White Mountain Highway" we were starting to get worried. The road had intermittent run-down clapboard buildings and abandoned diners, certainly nowhere we would want to stay.

After coming to the conclusion that we were lost we pulled in at a sign writer's place where I found an old guy with an oxygen cylinder chain smoking, watching football on the TV. It was slightly bizarre, but he was very helpful in a gruff sort of way and explained there was some consternation amongst locals about which road was actually "White Mountain Highway" and apparently businesses only called it that because it sounded "pretty". We were told we needed Route 16, which confused me slightly as all the signs said I was on Route 16, but evidently the old guy didn't think he lived on Route 16 any more than he thought he lived on White Mountain Highway. Luckily at this point his wife arrived and gave us pretty good instructions back to the other bit of Route 16 and we found the resort fairly easily after that.

After driving up and don't a road with no apparent name, and getting seriously concerned about the sort of place we might be staying, to say we were delighted to find we had a loft room with mezzanine level in a charming old resort right on the river would be an understatement.