It's Here...Fall in New England!

It's the stuff that great stories are made of.  It's the art that comes only once a year from mother nature.  It's that time when we in New England enjoy our last days of freedom before most of us are snowed in for the winter.  It's the last of the beauty, and it's the best of the beauty.  It's all about getting out and celebrating life, before it's too late.  It's Fall in New England.  It's the best time of the year!

So, what goes on in the Fall?  We've discussed some of this before, but let's talk some more.  Vermont is ground zero for what we New Englanders call leaf peeping.  There are any number of bus tours that you can take from New York City and all over the area.  They will take you on all the best roads like Route 9 across southern Vermont and over Hogback Mountain.  It's a great drive.  You get to stop in one of my favorite towns, Wilmington.  You also get to visit the farms in Bennington.  But, if in Vermont, don't forget those ski towns.  The gondolas and ski lifts in places like Killington are a great way to get a look at some peak foliage.  Brattleboro is a great stop if you like kitchy towns with some interesting shopping and food.  Manchester is another great stop for shopping and eating.  Try out the Von Trapp Lodge for some old time more romantic types of foliage appreciation.  If you bring the kids, head up to Burlington to make a Vermont Teddy Bear, or over to Waterbury to see Ben and Jerry's in action.  Check out the festivals and fairs as well.

Massachusetts is also amazing in the fall and in the fall we New Englanders love to have festivals and fairs.  The biggest of them all is the Big E in West Springfield, Massachusetts.  It's New England's State Fair, and since our states are so small, they all got together and had one major blowout.  It's a lot of fun and runs in the last half of September.  But that's not all that Mass has to offer for fall.  There are any number of fairs both on the mainland and out on the cape and the islands.  One of my favorite things to do is visit some of my favorite spots along Route 2 in norther Mass, also known as the Mohawk Trail.  It's slow and beautiful along that road with all kinds of little stops along the way.  It's windy and the breakfasts at Gould's Sugar House are amazing.  Yankee Candle and area are another great place to visit in the fall and a great place to get a head start on some Christmas shopping.

Now Maine you might want to take a look at a little earlier than the rest of New England.  It turns fast up there, but it's a great place to start the season.  It's quieter along the coast and the views in Acadia are worth the drive up there to see.  Cadillac Mountain is amazing in the fall.  But, my favorite is the International Sea Plane Fly In in Greenville, Maine.  Every year, the weekend after Labor Day, hundreds of sea planes land at Moosehead Lake and the good folks of Greenville throw a big festival to celebrate all things sea plane.  There are community meals, all kinds of events and competitions, and if you like planes...well you've come to the right place.  Don't forget all I've told you about the area as well.  It's great moose watching, great outdoor activities, and the world's greatest people.

Rhode Island is also full of activity in the fall with fairs and such.  Newport still runs tours of the Cherry Street Mansions throughout the year, but this is a great time to walk the cliff walk.  Fall air is some of the crispest and the skies get so blue that a view from the cliff walk is unmatched.  The tourists are mostly gone by then and you have a little more breathing room.  Fall River is a great stop in the fall and Battleship Cove is a great place to visit, I don't care how old you are.  It's a lot of fun and a great look at history.  The views of the river are amazing and Heritage State Park is right there to enjoy the rest of your day.  Before leaving Fall River, check out a Portuguese Restaurant and try the city's most famous native food.

New Hampshire is one of our most scenic states and this is where you need to go and take a train.  In the fall all the trains run so that all of us leaf peepers can get a great look.  Take that last chance to take the Cog Railway up Mount Washington before all hell breaks loose for winter up there.  There are also scenic railways in Conway, Lincoln, Winnipesaukee and more.  New Hampshire is train central and none of them will disappoint.  There are also a number of gondola rides to look at the leaves on with the longest one in the Northeast being at Cannon Mountain.  This is also the last time you'll get to ride the mountain coasters and the Alpine slides at the ski resorts.  It's a lot of fun to look at leaves in New Hampshire.  It's probably the most active area in New England, and this is the last chance to do all the stuff before they switch over to winter sports at a huge number of massive ski resorts.

Now, in Connecticut we love fall.  All of our fairs are in the fall from Goshen through Riverton.  We love them and we go all over to them to eat junk food and watch the pigs race and the see the wood cutting competitions.  It's how we ride.  We have some great parks and trails to go and see the foliage.  One of my favorite spots is the Barkhamsted Reservoirs for leaf peeping.  It's along the beautiful combination of Route 219 and Route 318.  There are some beautiful drives in general and fall makes it better.  But, Connecticut has some great foliage roads besides those.  I love Routes 4, 202, 44, 154, 7, 63, 254, 10, 72, 69, and 8 just to name a few.  I also love spending some time in the parks like Kent Falls, Campbell Falls, and Enders to name a few.  I wear out my camera during these weeks in the fall, because the foliage is so beautiful here.

But, in addition to our country fairs here in Connecticut, we have some other great fall fun.  Columbus Day Weekend is when Hartford has their marathon.  Norwich throws a Renaissance Faire.  And Lake Compounce puts on the Haunted Graveyard.  We still sail and camp and hike and bike this time of year.  We love it when it cools off a little around here.  We love it all.

So, New England is the place to spend Fall.  We do it up right, and you will never get bored.  We will show you how to have a pumpkin paddling race, navigate a corn maze, joust, and win a wood cutting contest.  We have more to do in the fall than really we do any other time of year here.  And the view?  Anyone will tell you that there is nothing more beautiful than New England in the fall.

Enjoy!

http://www.vacationsbyrail.com/united-states/usa-fall-foliage/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=fall-foliage&utm_term=fall+new+england
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Along Lake Michigan

Some days are just gorgeous, and sometimes even I cannot resist a little time at the beach.  I do have some favorite spots and this summer I took my son to one of them.  The location is the amazing dunes of the east side of Lake Michigan and my favorite spot to visit is around Holland, Saugatuck, and Douglas.  There's a hometown feel to Douglas that I've never been able to explain, but it's comfortable there.  Saugatuck is the playground for wealthier types from Chicago, but it's beautiful and the shopping is good.  Holland is that quirky little city that you'll always remember fondly after visiting.  All together they make a trio that's irresistible in the summer.  Even for a non beach girl like me.

Holland is known for it's Dutch heritage.  There are obvious signs all around, from the tulip festival to the wooden shoe place to the bridges, locks and shops in Windmill Gardens Park.  It's a lovely place to spend the day with beautiful gardens, authentic crafts from times gone by, shops, a carousel and so on.  It's a beautiful place to spend a little time.

Oh yeah, they do have a full sized authentic Dutch windmill that you can tour as well.

But the Holland area has a huge history and the Dutch History is only part of the story.  Most of the rest of the story comes with the dunes.  The whole area around Holland is made of sand.  There are some dunes that are as high as 350 feet, and the people at Saugatuck Dune Rides will take you out to see them in style.  Dune schooners are a way of life along the east shores of Lake Michigan.  The dunes cover so much land that hiking them is not the best way to appreciate them.  Specially designed dune schooners can take you to the best spots to see the views from these amazing monsters, and the drivers will also tell you a little bit about where they come from and how the humans have learned to coexist with them.

We joke about all the sand, we admire the views from the tops, and we enjoy the vastness of them.  We drive dune schooners on them, surf down them, and hang glide off of them, but in the past there have been real problems.  The grass that is growing across the dunes was planted by volunteers in the 1960's and 1970's.  The dunes were taking over and they had to find a way to stop it.  Underneath these very dunes are the remains of an entire town called Singapore.  In some places along the shore you can see the remnants of the foundations of the town.  The rest is somewhere underneath the 350 foot hills that we call the dunes.

The views are amazing though and the rides are fun and thrilling.  I recommend the dune schooner rides.  They are a lot of fun and a little education.  In addition to the dunes that the schooners run on, there are over 100 miles of dunes in this section of the shore.  In the Holland area are Holland State Park, Tunnel State Park, Saugatuck Dunes State Park, and Oval Beach State Park in Saugatuck/Douglas.

Oval Beach is a great place to spend your time at the beach.  No offense to any of the others, but Saugatuck Dunes is a long walk to the beach.  Holland is the one that all the tourists visit when in town from Chicago.  I like the local spot and Oval Beach is that.  The beach is open until sunset, so that you can see the amazing sun at work over the lake.  I really enjoyed this visit, because we met a very nice family visiting from Northern Michigan and the kids all had a really good time.  That's the benefit of the local beach.  People are friendlier and the whole atmosphere is more relaxed.

There are plenty of things to do in the area besides go to the beach.  Saugatuck has a nightclub, a lot of great shops, the yacht club for all the wealthier visitors, restaurants, and great views.  If you like, just outside the Singapore Yacht Club is the story of the town that got devoured by the dunes.  It's an interesting read.  It's a great place to relax along the way.  They even have a paddle wheeler boat that will take you all around the area, including out onto Lake Michigan.  We were very busy on our road trip and the stop in the Holland area was relaxing and gave us a chance to recharge before heading back east and home.  The views are great, the parks are good, the beach is fun and relaxing, and the food is great.

Michigan is full of friendly and amazing people.  The greater Holland area of the Lake Michigan Shore is no different.  It's only a couple of hours from Hell and only a couple of hours from the north shore by Sault St. Marie.  It's only a hop skip from Chicago on the other side, whether you go by car or by boat.  The bottom line is that it's really not far from a lot of places.  It's just one of those places that you kind of want to go to and be in the know.  It's quiet, friendly, beautiful, and fun.  It's the kind of place you don't want to miss, even if you just stopped by to see the view.
Enjoy!

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https://www.facebook.com/adventuresforanyone?fref=ts

New From New York City, NY

This is where the adventure began.  We walked some around the tower and park at One WTC.  We stopped in at O'Hara's Pub and had a soda.  Then, we went to the National Museum of the American Indian, but not to go in this time.  We went to pick up a bike.

City Bike is the ride share program that operates in New York City since 2013.  There are hundreds of stations where you can pick up a bike around the city, and around 12,000 bikes in service.  It's quite a system, and it's very popular.  After years of complaining that I wanted to give it a try, my son offered to go all the way to New York City for the day just to go bicycling.  My goal was to figure out how it works and take a lovely ride around the waterfront on the greenway that was created in the Bloomberg years.

The waterfront area of South Manhattan has some wonderful views.  You can see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, New Jersey, One WTC, the Irish Famine Memorial, Battery Park, Castle Clinton, ferry docks, and so on.  In recent years, the waterfront has been made into a showplace in order to attract city dwellers to come out and play, and City Bike was the crowning glory of that goal. 

The architecture is fascinating whether it be at the updated ferry terminal or at Brookfield Place.  There are so many beautiful places to see.  I never knew that there were full sized palm trees in Manhattan at the mall.  

After 9/11 the area was devastated, and the city wanted to do something to bring people back to the area.  It wasn't easy to find a solution to that, and we all understood that.  The idea of making the waterfront into a beautiful haven really appealed to people, and it's been a great success.  I enjoy walking there and watching the sunsets over Jersey.  It's gone from being a place that's scary and falling down into a beautiful haven where you nearly forget that you're in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world.

But this time I didn't come to walk.  I came to bike, and we picked up our bikes at the National Museum of the American Indian, right across the street from Battery Park.  The bikes cost $9.95 a day with various options for multi day and weekly passes.  You pay by credit card.  You receive a code that you put into the keypad next to the bike that you choose.  It releases the bike and off  you go.  Now, I learned the hard way that it's a good idea to take a map of bike stations, because you have to check in every 30 minutes while you have the bike.  That's the rule.  So, it's a good idea to know where the stations are so that you can do that.  We didn't see one for a long time going up the East River shore next to FDR Drive.  We ran over and it wasn't a calamity, but I really wish that I would have gotten a map or gotten the app with the map on it for my phone.  Live and learn, which was exactly what the trip was about.

The bikes are all over the city.  You can get them in Brooklyn, Queens and all over the place.  You can ride them from borough to borough across the bridges.  You can take them to NYU.  You can ride them right through Times Square.  They are all over the place.  You do have to be 16 to ride and then you have to go with an adult.  When you're done, you take the bike to the closest station and make sure that it is secure in a parking spot.  That's it.  You're done.  Easy.

There are bike paths that run along FDR Drive, there are paths that go right through congested uptown areas, and there are some paths along the rivers that have amazing views.  New York City has done a great job making the entire city extremely bicycle friendly.  I was riding on a designated bike path that ran between two lanes of traffic on an exit ramp, and it was just fine.  The drivers were very respectful and it was easy.  

So, if you want to get a beautiful view, an unusual view, an artistic view, or just a view that you can't get any other way on Earth; take a ride on a City Bike and see New York in a whole new light.  Remember, City Bike is a corporation that isn't only in NYC.  They are a subsidiary of Motivate and they have systems in places all over the world including Boston, Washington DC, Chicago and so on.  So, if you can't make it to New York, look up Motivate and see if they have a system near you.  It's a great way to see a city near you.

Enjoy!

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https://www.facebook.com/adventuresforanyone?fref=ts