"" Writer's Wanderings: 1996--Our Amazing Fall Road Trip

Thursday, July 02, 2020

1996--Our Amazing Fall Road Trip

Fall colors in Northeast Ohio are spectacular in the perfect Autumn weather. We had always heard though that the fall foliage in the New England area were the best. In the Fall of 1996, we decided to see for ourselves. We weren't disappointed.

Our trip began with a flight to Connecticut as best we can recall since our first stop was in Mystic. The Mystic Seaport Museum has quite a few historic ships moored there and we explored several. I remember it being a quaint town but that was back in 1996. Hard to say if it is still the picturesque place I remember.

From there we drove north through Boston and up to Salem. Of course how could you visit Salem without exploring all the history behind the infamous Salem witch trials. For some reason, I was surprised to discover that Salem was also home to the House of Seven Gables, made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel of the same name. I had no idea that it was an actual place.

Acadia National Park was a little more than a four and a half hour drive. I believe we stayed in Bar Harbor but again, I did not take good notes and I've lost my initial planning for the trip. The park was beautiful and the surrounding seaside was fun to explore. We took a whale watching tour where we sighted a few whales but the season for seeing the really big whales was over by then. They had headed south for better food prospects for the winter. 

I have a picture that appears to be a huge Maine clambake of sorts with lobster. I don't remember that but I do remember a very nice dinner in a restaurant that was on a dock where we could look down and watch the lobster boats come in and unload their catch. Needless to say, the lobster was really fresh.

We also made a stop in Kennebunkport after driving past the Bush compound. In town, we treated ourselves to a lobster roll. By the time we had left Maine, we'd had quite a lot of lobster. 

From Bar Harbor we turned west and began our journey through the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. The weather was a bit misty and rainy but I was amazed at how brilliant the colors of the leaves were--mostly gold but even in the cloudy and rainy day they stood out. We began to see signs warming of moose crossing. We didn't see any but when we stopped for the night, we heard stories about them.

Vermont is where I believe we found the covered bridges I have pictures of. Of course we made a stop at Ben and Jerry's which was interesting and amusing. Vermont was very beautiful and the Burlington area was a nice place to stay for a bit.

Burlington was our "turnaround point". We headed southeast again to the place we'd started to turn in our car and fly home. As I recall, the trip back to the airport was not quite as picturesque. I think we went through more populated areas. 

All in all, it was a great trip but I think in any given year, our Fall foliage in Ohio is as pretty as anywhere else.

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