Oct 07

We headed out of Springfield towards Boston and made our first stop in Concord at North Bridge which is where the the people of Concord say the first shots were fired in the Revolutionary War.

Then we headed for Lexington where the people of Lexington say the first shots were fired. They are still arguing about this to this day. We saw the Tavern where Paul Revere began his ride. Another charming town.

The bus drove us into Boston through Harvard and past Harvard Commons and then back to the Omni Hotel for a lunch stop. The bus picked us up at 1:15 for our ride to the airport. We got here at around 2:30 pm and are now waiting for a 7:30 flight tonight. Oh joy, nothing like sitting in the airport for 5 hours. I can't get on the internet because they want to charge me for it so I guess I'll pass the time by knitting.

It was a bit weird to say goodby to all these people we've been travelling with for a week knowing that our paths will never cross again. Kind of strange.

It's been a great trip and I am so glad we did it. We saw some incredible country and visited some great historical spots. I could do it all over again and would recommend it to anyone. Now I'm trying to figure out where I would like my next tour to be.

The next day at 8:00 am again, we headed out in the rain from North Conway New Hampshire to Woodstock, Vermont. It was a beautiful drive, even though rainy, through mostly farm country. We drove up through Pinkham Notch to Sugar Hill which is an adorable little town. From there we went to the town of Bath, New Hamphsire which is a teeny little town with America's oldest general store. It was built around 1800 and seems that some of the original merchandise is still there. A very fun and interesting little store with the best homemade pepperoni and smoked cheddar cheese I have ever tasted, along with all varieties of maple syrup, maple candy and everything else you can do with maple.

Lunch was in Hanover, New Hampshire which is the home of Dartmouth. Dartmouth is a very pretty, very old campus. Fun to see. It was "alumni weekend" there so finding a place to eat was a challenge. We finally sat at the bar in a restaurant where I had the best shrimp bisque ever. Still no Starbucks.

We drove into Woodstock and made a stop at Billings Farm which was an amazing thing to see even though I'm not much into museums and things. At least it is still a working farm and has prize jersey cows which produce some of the best cream and butter in the country. Some of their milk goes to Cabot to make one of my favorite cheeses. We saw them milk the cows and I went into the nursery and petted a calf. Al was amazed at the sophistication of the machinery and the running water they had to run that farm back in the days when none of that was available. It was definitely "state of the art" when it was built. In the original farm house they had the running water so they could churn butter in the basement. The more amazing feature to me was the closet off the master bedroom which was a walk-in and had built-in cabinets. Mind you, this was built around 1870 when I don't think people had enough clothes to fill a closet like that.

Then we were dropped of at the Woodstock Inn and Resort to stay in a room that is absolutely the best I have ever been in. 'They even had large screen flat panel tv's in the rooms. I could have stayed there several nights, but I'm afraid the cost of the trip would have gone up quite a bit. It was a most impressive hotel! The batteries in my camera died and I wasn't able to take any pictures of it.

Woodstock is a gorgeous little town with cute little shops. You got a sense that there is a lot of money there. I needed more time to see the shops even though there still was no Starbucks and no cell phone service. I would love to return to Woodstock.

We left Lake Placid in the crisp autumn air and headed south for Springfield, MA. Our first stop was in Lake George which is another gorgeous little town in the Adironacks. We wandered around a bit and then headed for Albany.

Had a problem trying to find a lunch stop as most traditional tourist spots were either closed on Sundays or not open at the hours we there. We stopped in Albany and had to resort to eating at the food court at a shopping mall. At least I got my Starbucks.

We drove through Albany enough to see the capital building and then headed for the Norman Rockwell Museum. As I have said before, I'm not much on museums, but this one was worth seeing. His studio was there left just as it was when he last worked there and most interesting.

We arrived in Springfield and had our farewell dinner which was very enjoyable. Some people stood up and said a few words, but mostly it was our tour guide who did the talking. Joyce, who is one of the ladies from South Africa stood up and told us about her apprehension on coming to the USA and said she was most pleasantly surprised to get to know us and experience the sights of New England. She ended by saying "God Bless America". It made me get a bit teary eyed. It kind of makes you wonder what people around the world actually think of us based on what they hear.

Boo hoo, we had to leave the Woodstock Inn. Again, suitcases out at 7:00 and bus leaving at 8:00 am. It was an overcast and foggy morning. We made a short stop to take pictures of the Mount Washington Hotel which was a very impressive hotel sitting up in the mountains all by itself. From there we headed for Lake Placid with a stop at Fort Ticonderoga which was a part of the Revolutionary War where Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys took the fort from the British.

We got into Lake Placid early enough for a late lunch and then finally had a bit of a break where we just hung out in our hotel room for a couple of hours and watched the President's cup. I went out for a walk to do some exploring and peek in the shops. There was a lot of Olympic memorabilia there but being from Utah I have seen all that before. Still no Starbucks.

The Fall colors around Lake Placid are amazing. It is an area where there are mostly hardwood trees and very few evergreens so the whole hillsides are gold and red - beautiful!

Once again, up at 5:00 am, luggage ready for pickup at 7:00 am, then breakfast and boarding the bus and heading out at 8:00 am for Fox Ridge at North Conway, New Hampshire on a cloudy, rainy day. The lunch stop was in Farmington, Maine where I managed to find a yarn store but still no Starbucks.. A highlight of the journey was supposed to be a tram ride to the top of Wildcat Mountain in the White Mountain for a view of Mt. Washington which is the highest mountain in New England but when we got to the top we were in a cloud and couldn't see more than 20 feet. Oh well, we saw some fall foliage and pretty scenery at the base.

It was a beautiful drive through the Maine and New Hampshire farm country. Rolling green hills and little white farm houses. It was most interesting seeing the New England farm houses and how they evolved. Families would begin with a small house and add on as they were able. When they could they built a barn. From there they would add another room onto the house and maybe a wood storage building onto the barn. They continued adding on as necessary until sometimes the house and barn were connected.

We arrived, in the pouring rain, at the Fox Ridge Resort which was one of the most "basic" hotels we stayed in. And, the pillows were horrible - kind of like sleeping on soft boulders.