Travel

Living on a new coast, the opportunities to visit new places is very appealing but, so far, we've stayed pretty close to home. Our experience with the changing seasons is very limited and we wanted to experience them in our new home.

We live in an area that people travel to to camp in the summertime (there are 3 campgrounds within a 5 mile radius). They come to ski in the winter (Wachusett Mountain is nearby). Nearby Hwy. 122 is a designated "Scenic Byway" and people throng to the area to see the Fall foliage (and it only gets better when you leave the highway). Spring is also beautiful. We haven't regretted for a moment our decision to stay close to home.

We did work in some short side trips, some of which were reported in our previous blog.

• We spent a couple of nights in Boston when we went to see the Redsox game that Briar & Family gave me for Father's Day, 2015.
  
• In December, 2015 we visited my Mom in the SF Bay Area and then visited SoCal to attend grandson Cooper's 1st birthday party (spending several days with Grant, Melissa and the kids in the process.
  
• In April 2016, we spent a couple of nights in Stowe, Vermont.
• In June 2016, we spent a couple of nights Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
• In August 2016, Grant and Family visited and we all spent a week with Briar and Family in a cabin that she'd rented in the White Mountains in New Hampshire (more to come on Grant's visit in a separate post).
  
• In October 2016, we spent a couple of nights on Cape Cod.
  
  
  

  

  Spotted a couple of horseshoe crab shells on the beach. We'd never seen these before and thought that they'd be in Florida

  
  
  

One thing that we've found interesting is that it's so beautiful here at home that we usually can't wait to get back. We visited Stowe before and remembered it as very rural. Compared to Oakham, Stowe was like the big city.

I can't see that we'll ever need to go anywhere else for the Fall foliage. Reservations need to be made way in advance and it's next to impossible to hit peak foliage. We can stay at home and watch the entire show.

At the Revolutionary War era cemetary (visable from our kitchen window)

I'm sure that we'll be getting away in our trailer to explore more of the Eastern USA. The Caribbean is accessible and Europe is a much shorter flight. We'll have to see when we're ready for that. Now, we're starting to see that there can be interesting differences in the seasons from year to year.

-J-