New England Fall Color Tour
October 10-17, 2018
October 10-17, 2018
The saying is that the best time to see fall color on the East Coast is over Columbus Day weekend. This year, at least, they were right!
The ten of us began our adventure in Boston. Our hotel was the DoubleTree by Hilton next to Tufts Medical Center. Our first morning we met our guide Taunya and explored Beacon Hill on the way to a foodie tour in the Italian North End. For three hours our hostess Michele walked us from shop to shop teaching us how true Italian food is made...and how it tastes. Yum!
After an afternoon on our own we met at Cheers for our welcome dinner and got to know everyone’s name.
The next morning we drove south into Newport, Rhode Island by way of a cranberry bog. The farmer showed us how cranberries are harvested in his “dry” operation, rather than the wet bogs shown in Ocean Spray commercials. From there we toured The (breathtaking) Breakers, the grand summer home of the Vanderbilt family.
We had a scrumptious dinner at the 300 year old White Horse Tavern after our walking tour in Newport then returned to our hotel in Boston for our last night there.
In the morning we headed out to Vermont to visit the Billings Farm and Museum, a working Jersey dairy farm with delightful cows and interactive learning opportunities. From there we drove to Quechee Gorge to see what was left after glaciers scoured the area 13,000 years ago.
Our hotel for the next two nights was the splendid Omni Mt. Washington Resort, nestled in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The resort was built in 1902 and was the most luxurious hotel of its day. The Mount Washington as it was called, catered to wealthy guests from Boston, New York and Philadelphia. As many as 50 trains a day stopped at the nearest town’s three railroad stations. For our first evening there was a wedding and reception featuring a twenty minute fireworks show!
The next morning we drove to the close-by Cog Railway built in 1869 to take visitors to the top of Mt. Washington. Its top speed is 4 miles-per-hour with an average grade of over 25% and a maximum grade of 37.41%. We set off for the top of Mt. Washington. But alas, there was ice and snow on the tracks, so we enjoyed the spectacular views from ¾ of the way to the top.
Our next drive was a loop on the spectacular Kancamaagus Highway, where the New England colors were in full display, reds, then the oranges and yellows, tumbling down hills after each other. Our destination was a yummy dinner at the Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery in Woodstock, New Hampshire, not to be confused with Woodstock, New York.
Back to the Resort for a final night, then on to quaint Kennebunkport, Maine for shopping and lunch. We drove along the coast where we saw the Bush family home and lovely ocean views. Our destination for the night was Newburyport, Massachusetts where we stayed in the Garrison Inn. The Garrison Inn was built in 1809 and named in honor of the great American abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison. We had dinner next door at the Mission Oak Grill, a former church.
Our last morning we started the day with a traditional Whoopie Pie then visited the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm House, a colonial farmhouse dating back to 1609. Next was apple cider donuts at Russell Farms then a stop in Rockport for lunch. After lunch we drove to Gloucester, Massachusetts and toured Beaufort, the Sleeper-McCann house, the summer home of one of America’s first professional interior designers, Henry Davis Sleeper. We finished our tour with a fitting lobster dinner in Gloucester, then back to the Garrison Inn.
Our seven days in New England gave us all as taste of some of its people, weather, history, color, architecture, and food. And for some of us, I think, it whets our appetite for more.