Frank and I took a ten-day detour back into the States to “leaf-peep” the northeast. We bypassed the crowded cities for the charm of smaller towns and the busy, four-lane highways for the winding, two-lane backroads, In doing so, we were able to truly relax and enjoy fall’s colorful bounty. The foliage was spectacular. The towns were charming. We also took some time to explore the area’s rich history at some fascinating museums.
The leaves . . .
And so much more . . .
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- Bar Harbor, Maine
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- Maine lobsta
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- Maine lobsta
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- Acadia National Park
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- Acadia National Park
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- Acadia National Park
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- Acadia National Park
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- Acadia National Park
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- Across from our airbnb in Deep River, CT, was the Essex river boat and old fashioned steam train.
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- Frank was in train heaven!
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- Essex ferry
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- Another photo of Frank with a baseball, but this time, the stone underneath the sculpture is what’s noteworthy.
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- A rock outcropping next to the town’s ball field marks the spot where two continents crashed together 250 million years ago. When the land masses began to pull apart again, a hunk of what might have become Africa remained clinging to North America. Deep River is one of the few places where the ”suture line” can be viewed.
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- On the eastern side of the rock outcropping is land that was an island continent 500 million years ago. Geologists call it Avalonia.
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- The wife of the couple who owned our airbnb in the Berkshires was from Menomonee Falls. WI!
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- I’ve always been interested in the Salem witch trials.
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- Quietly contemplating this strange time in our country’s history was not to be. October, we found, is a monthlong Halloween party.
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- There were people everywhere!
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- Mystic Pizza in Mystic, CT
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- And I can never pass up a local bookstore!
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- Pomfret, one of many prestigious boarding schools scattered around the northeast.
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- St. John’s in Deep River.
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- Camden, Maine
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- Camden, Maine
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- Stonington, CT
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- Old Saybrook, CT
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- There is no harbor in Old Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut River, because the 450-mile-long river ends on a sandbar.
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- Actress Katherine Hepburn spent her childhood summers in Old Saybrook. Later, the town was a haven for her, a retreat, a place she called “paradise” and it was to this paradise that she retired in 1997, sixty-five years after her screen debut. She passed away here in 2003.
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- Shortly afterwards, the town’s old theatre was restored and the city voted to name it after Katherine Hepburn, the Kate. Fittingly, the endowment fund to keep it running is called the Golden Pond Society.
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- The second generation of Crane printers, Zenas Crane found a lovely location for a new mill along the banks of the Housatonic River in Dalton, Massachusetts in 1799. Even then, the mill was known for producing paper of the finest quality and became the go-to paper for banks, government proclamations, and stocks and bonds.
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- The division that prints stationary was recently spun off and given to the employees.
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- But they still make the paper for money (ours and other countries) here and the guide showed us how they’ve now become a security technology company to make sure new bills can’t be counterfeited. Even though they have to compete for the contract, the Crane Co. is and has been the only paper supplier for US currency.
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- Frank and I also visited the Norman Rockwell Museum.
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- They were hosting a special exhibit of Andy Warhol and it was interesting to see the contrast in how the two artists portrayed their subjects.
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- Rockwell’s workshop.
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- We also stopped by the home of Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick and other short stories.
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- North Adams, Massachusetts, also in the Berkshires, is home to the new Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
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- The grounds of the former factory were as interesting as the art inside.
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- With 250,000 square feet of space(!), it is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the country.
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- Kidspace is a child-centered art gallery and hands-on studio.
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- The Mastheads’ five writing studios, designed by architects Tessa Kelly and Chris Parkinson, spatially interpret the Berkshire work and homes of American Renaissance writers Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. The studios are available for three-hour appointments.
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- An exhibit by light and space artist James Turrell had visitors stepping into and experiencing the art.
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- Jenny Holzer focuses on the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces.
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- Liz Glynn
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- One exhibit we found interesting was this woman who put the focus on her Facebook “friends.”
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- She visited and photographed her 600+ Facebook friends to make the jump from virtual to actual friendships.
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- Exhibit visitors were encouraged to write what friendship means to them.
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- And, in the perfect segue, we return to trees and fall foliage — these, however, being upside down!
Finally, more peeping before we head back to Canada . . .
