Author: Chris

In October and November, I spent a couple of weeks with my love visiting historic sites in Massachusetts and hiking the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire amid the Fall colors. It was a marvelous trip to end another great year of travel.

In my journeys around the globe, I often spend time in places of human development that count their age in centuries, but that isn’t the sense one gets in many parts of the US. Particularly not at home in relatively “new” California. Visiting some of the oldest sites in America brought a warm connection with people of the past that I’m not used to feeling in this nation. However, after a few days amongst the city crowds, we were happiest to get out into the countryside.

Here are a few photos and video clips to entice anyone curious about this beautiful corner of the United States.

Read more: New England 2024: Fall Foliage

Boston, MA

A favorite tourist spot from a popular TV show, “where everybody knows your name.”

Public Art

The popular colors of Halloween confirm it’s a fall festival. We love the creativity!

Not all the tombstones we saw were for Halloween, however. King’s Chapel Burying Ground, established in 1630

I love the common pattern in the composition of these two photos, but I’ll resist making any other comments about analogues.

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Concord, MA

A short drive out of Boston, we stopped at the colonial town of Concord. Many visitors explore its role at the start of our country’s Revolutionary War, but we were more interested in its connection to several of America’s great authors and poets. We visited Authors’ Ridge at Sleep Hollow Cemetery and stretched our legs while strolling around Thoreau‘s Walden Pond.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Louisa May Alcott

Henry David Thoreau

Walden Pond

Thoreau’s cabin site

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Vermont

Leaving the cities and towns behind, our first week combined short road trips between quaint B&Bs and pleasurable hikes through the colorful hills of Vermont‘s Green Mountains. I was surprised (and pleased) to learn that Vermont has the second smallest population out of the 50 American states.

There is a good reason they call it Fall!

Mountain bikers get their own roller-coaster boardwalk through this park.

A visit to Vermont isn’t complete without a stop at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury. Yummy!

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New Hampshire

On our drive from Vermont to New Hampshire, from the Green Mountains to the White Mountains, we passed by Bretton Woods. On this site, in July 1944, 44 allied nations negotiated the establishment of the 20th-century gold standard for exchange rate stability and created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. From the hotel’s northern deck, we could see the snow-powdered summit of Mount Washington in the distance. At 6,288 feet (1,917 meters), it is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States. On this day, it looked quite calm, but it is famous for its extreme weather conditions.

The next day, when we planned to climb Mount Washington, the weather conditions at the summit were not conducive, so we opted to drive up the winding road. The views were spectacular on the climb, but the strong winds and fog took those views away at the top.

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On our drive back to Boston to fly home, we took the coastal route and popped over the border into Maine to see the picturesque Nubble Lighthouse at Cape Neddick.