This was our fall foliage tour trip. It is something we have always wanted to do and have finally done now. We had such a great time, we will definitely do something like this again. Since we only had two weeks, we basically would have a travel day where we did sightseeing along the route, then a full day in whatever city we were staying in. That day was for local sightseeing. We started and ended in Boston, and did a clockwise loop through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Days 1 and 2 – Boston, Massachusetts
We started this trip at LAX aboard an American Airlines flight bound for Boston. We were belted in and ready to go, as the plane taxied onto the runway and got in line for our turn to take off. But wait, before we took off, the plane turned around and headed back to the terminal. As we taxied back to the terminal, the captain came on and said, “Errrr, this is your captain speaking. Engine number 2 is having some problems so we are returning to the terminal to see if maintenance can fix it.” Are you kidding me, just get us a plane with working engines. But no, for two hours we sat on the plane and miraculously the engine was fixed. Or was it. At this point, I just didn’t care anymore. As we took off, the plane shuddered and made a lot of really weird noises, so Cindy and I looked at the stewardess seated right next to us. She must have seen the panic in our faces because she smiled and told us all of that drama was normal for “this” plane. All I could think to myself was Sulu from Star Trek saying, “Ohhh Myyy!”
Now that we have gotten a little older, I usually pay a little extra and get an emergency exit row for extra leg room. Here we are enjoying our extra leg room during the flight. Notice Cindy is wearing a walking boot. Yes, she kicked another object and injured another toe. At least we were smart enough to get the boot before we left.
After spending over 8 ½ hours on our plane, we arrived in Boston safe and sound, just a few hours later than we expected. We picked up our rental car and headed off to our Hampton Inn in Cambridge, a few miles from downtown Boston. We got checked in and since we were beat from our travels, we ate at a little pizza place around the corner from our hotel. The pizza was delicious and filling and it was back to our hotel to sleep. We were on the edge of a storm system called a “Bomb Cyclone,” which was explained as heavy rains with really high gusty winds. Isn’t that a hurricane? No, apparently a hurricane has really high sustained winds, not gusty winds. So we learned a new weather term.
We woke up the next day to cloudy skies with some scattered rain. We turned on the local news and learned most schools were cancelled and the area took a general beating. It wasn’t too bad where we were, just some downed trees and tree parts all over the place.
We drove through the downtown area and took a few pictures of the buildings.
Our next stop was North Boston where we saw a statue of Paul Revere with some random guy standing next to it.
Behind the statue is the famous North Church that was founded in 1723. It is the oldest standing church in the City of Boston, made famous by Paul Revere’s midnight ride and, “One if by land, two if by sea.”
Trivia alert: Q: How many lanterns were hung in the top of the church tower on April 18, 1775? A: Two. Q: Who hung the lanterns in the top of the church tower? A: If you said Paul Revere you are wrong. It was Robert Newman and John Pulling. Here are some more pictures of the church.
By now it was lunch time, and since North Boston is like Little Italy, we were going to have some Italian food. As we walked into a corner eatery, a stranger walking by told us we would be wasting our money if we ate there. Instead, he recommended a place named Carmelina’s and gave us directions. Well let me say this about Carmelina’s. Probably the best Italian food I have ever eaten! I give it an eleven.
Right across the street was Mike’s Pastry which we had to pass on this time, but would return to in a few weeks before we left.
Our next stop was to visit the famous campus of Harvard University. Harvard was founded in 1636 and is the United States’ oldest institution of higher learning. And it has so many historic and beautiful buildings too. Because it was raining, we didn’t spend too much time on the actual campus. Here is Cindy touching the foot of the statue of the founder of Harvard, John Harvard. This is supposed to be good luck and maybe prevent future foot injuries.
Here are a few more pics from Harvard.
We returned to our hotel, freshened up a bit and were able to get together with my younger sister, Megan, and her boyfriend Brad. Megan is in her last year of her doctorate program at Harvard and even though she is busy as heck, we were all able to go out to dinner. Like a dork, I didn’t get any pictures of that. It was great catching up with Megan and Brad.
Days 3 and 4 – Mystic, Connecticut
Day 3 was our travel day from Boston to Mystic. Of course you have to sight see along the way. Our first stop was at Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Socks. Now I’m not really a baseball fan, nor am I a Red Socks fan either. With that being said, Fenway Park was really cool and worth the stop. It is quite a historic park with a storied history. Ted Williams played there, the “Yaz,” Carl Yastrzemski played there, and of course, the great Babe Ruth played there. It was rumored that the “Curse of the Bambino” was on the team and stadium when they sold the Babe to the NY Yankees. The curse meant the Red Sox were never to win the world series again. Well, it took 86 years for the Red Socks to break the curse, but in 2004 they finally did it. Check out these photos of the stadium.
Here are some pictures of the famous statues in front of the stadium.
And some pics of a few of their championship plaques.
As we continued south, we stopped and snapped a few pictures of our first glimpse of the fall colors.
We arrived in New Bedford, Massachusetts hungry. Since it was chilly outside (in the low 50’s) we decided to have some soup at a place called Destination Soup.
Notice the cobblestone streets? They were in many of the places we visited. The soup was very good and warmed us up for a little walk around the small downtown area. Cindy really liked the city. She liked it so much she decided to leave her mark in the city by leaving her walking boot print in some wet cement in the street. Here is the proof.
And she did this right in front of a New Bedford Police officer who was directing traffic. It looked like it took all of his energy to not laugh out loud. Now when I posted this picture on Instagram, my good friend Dan B did not let me down. He asked what the cone was there for. My reply was, “To mark the spot where Cindy walked in the wet cement!”
We got out of town before Cindy could destroy anything else and our next stop was at Fort Taber/Fort Rodman Park located on Clark’s Point in New Bedford. Fort Taber is a historic American Civil War-era military earthwork built fort that was garrisoned from 1861 to 1863 until Fort Rodman was ready for service. Fort Rodman was built of stone and was never completely finished. The fort, as built, had emplacements for 72 cannons on three tiers. Here are some pictures of the forts and surrounding area.
Our next stop was to tour the famous mansion “Elms” in Newport, Rhode Island. There are several mansions that have been restored to their turn of the century glory and you can tour many of them. One was enough for me. The one we toured was the summer home for Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwind of Philadelphia and New York. Mr. Berwind made his fortune in the coal industry. In 1898, the Berwinds engaged Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer to design a house modeled after the mid-18th century French chateau d’Asnieres (c.1750) outside Paris. Construction of The Elms was completed in 1901 at a cost reported at approximately $1.4 million. That would be approximately 42.3 million dollars today. Here are some pictures from the tour.
In Mystic, we stayed at the Whalers Inn. This is a really neat hotel that we would stay in again.
It is right across the Mystic River from the main downtown area of Mystic. We had to cross a draw bridge to get across the river. The draw bridge not only had crossing arms to stop the cars, but also had crossing arms for the sidewalk as well. We were fortunate to get to see the draw bridge operate both once during the day and once at night. Here are some pictures of the draw bridge, the river, and the draw bridge up at night.
We walked all around the town and even walked to dinner at the Captain Daniel Packer Inn, which is in a historic house built in 1754. The food was very good and the place was a fun place to have a meal. Here are a few pics from the Inn.
Of course we had to visit the local library. It seems like we always visit the local library and the state capital when we can. Here are a few pictures from around town.
Now if the name Mystic sounds familiar, it is probably because you are thinking about the movie “Mystic Pizza.” Yes, the movie was filmed here and we even had lunch at Mystic Pizza. Of course we didn’t eat pizza, we had a salad and a sandwich.
We really enjoyed our stay in Mystic, but it was time to move on.
Days 5 and 6 – New Milford, Connecticut
On our way to New Milford, our first stop was in New London, Connecticut to see the submarine Nautilus, the United States first nuclear powered submarine. We toured the submarine and even though there was more room than the World War II submarine we toured when at Pearl Harbor, it was still tight. My hat is off to our brave sailors that choose submarine duty. Here are some pictures from the submarine tour.
We then toured the museum which was also very interesting. Here are a few pictures from that.
It was on to New Haven, Connecticut where we toured Yale University. This was just as impressive as Harvard and the security staff there was very nice to us. Here are some shots from the university and the bookstore.
We had lunch and watched all of the families with children go around to the local businesses for some sort of trick or treating event. Here is a really short video of the best kid’s costume I have ever seen. You go T-Rex!
In New Milford, we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast named the Homestead Inn. Natasha was our host and she was a kick in the pants. We stayed in the Kennedy Suite, so named because JFK’s parents stayed in the room. Here are a few pics.
They also had a Marylyn Monroe room where she allegedly stayed once.
Our day in New Milford started with a visit to Kent Falls. This was a beautiful park like setting with a covered bridge and the actual falls you could hike next to all the way (about ¼ of a mile one way) to the top. We did the hike and enjoyed the views. Take a look.
Near the bottom of the falls trail was evidence Big Foot had not only been there, but had the same issue with wet cement that Cindy had in New Bedford.
Next, we purchased some sandwiches from a local market and had a picnic lunch at Lake Waramaug (common spelling) State Park. The lake and surrounding area were in full fall colors and provided a great picnic backdrop. Here are a few shots.
We rounded out the day shopping in some little town on the way back to our Inn.
Next post will be the rest of this trip!