New England in Fall . . .Spectacular!

Although our trip toward Halifax began yesterday, we’ve been too busy to blog and it’s been glorious to be busy in the way we’ve been. We left Charlotte mid-morning yesterday for our flight to Boston and, despite more than one warning from the cockpit that we would experience turbulence, we actually never did. Some predictions are best left unsatisfied.

We arrived near Noon, contacted our friends who had graciously invited us to be their guests and headed for their home in suburban Boston. Their invitation was not only gracious, but brave. They are in the process of renovating their wonderful old house in Winchester, having torn out the kitchen, dining room and first floor half-bath, but encouraged us to come even when we let them off the hook.

So we met up with Caren and enjoyed a lovely walk from their home into downtown Winchester for lunch, stopping along the way for Mike to take pictures of the beautiful fall leaves. All our fears that we would miss the best of New England’s leaf season were unfounded. The yellows and golds and reds are all around us, literally taking our breath with their beauty.

We had a fun lunch at “It Rains Fishes,” a nice restaurant offering Asian cuisine, then headed to Winchester’s Arthur Griffin gallery. Named for a well-know photojournalist, the gallery is small, but very special, located in a great little building on a pond with swans swimming across its picturesque surface. There are two exhibits currently, one by Christopher Rauschenberg, son of Robert Rauschenberg. The younger photographer used a point-and-shoot camera for this exhibit to create impressive photographs of displays in antique stores. The photographer’s sense of humor and his wonderful eye for composition come through in the work.

The other exhibit is a series of photographs of porches from New England to Texas to California. This photographer’s ability to capture the flavor of porches in his work and to exploit color wherever he found it made the exhibit both interesting and enjoyable.

We wandered back home with Caren and met husband, Randy. All of us worked together years ago in Chattanooga television, so had years to catch up on, including fond memories of a visit they made to us last summer in North Carolina. We decided to head to one of their favorite local wine stores for wine and cheese which we took back to their neighbor’s house to enjoy with the neighbors.

Meeting up with Caren and Randy’s beautiful daughter, Catherine, back at their house, we headed into Boston for dinner. Their suggestion was Sel de la Terre, a restaurant on Long Wharf. The meal was really wonderful and we walked out along the wharf after dinner to enjoy the bracing air of mid-October in Boston. Then Randy took us to one of his favorite architectural marvels of Boston nearby before we headed back to Winchester. It was a magnificent domed ceiling inside an arch.

Unfortunately, we awoke this morning to the realization that the only working bathroom in the house at this point was no longer working reliably. Somehow this family simply adjusts to each challenge in the renovation process with calm and humor. We all got a good laugh out of the situation before Mike and I headed on our way north.

We enjoyed the beauty of the day as we found our way to Freddy’s, a local breakfast spot in Middleton, then continued on toward New Hampshire. Deciding we might benefit from asking questions at the New Hampshire Welcome Center, we stopped and did just that. The very nice gentleman there recommended that we get off I-95 and head up Route 1A along the seashore. This welcome center, by the way, has an amazing weathervane designed by a New Hampshire artist which depicts a sailor using an old-fashioned sextant. It’s both unusual and delightful.

The DOT representative’s great advice gave us one stop after another to photograph the ocean, gulls, marshes, boats and harbors and the line of classic shingled homes along the shore that march along that route. He also recommended a couple of restaurants and we stopped at Petey’s Summertime Seafood Restaurant. It didn’t disappoint. Their chowders are excellent!

We took a much longer time getting to our next stop, Kennebunkport, Maine, than we might have done because we kept stopping to ogle and photograph so many sights along the way. Every time we agreed that we wouldn’t stop unless something simply demanded it, we spotted something that simply must be photographed. These stops captured not just the leaves in every color, but birds, architectural pleasures, sculptures and an amazing croquet lawn behind a roadside house where a game was underway!

We reached the Kennebunkport Inn shortly before sunset, checked in then hurried to the bridge where we took lots of pictures of the setting sun with its ever-changing colors from yellow to orange to purples and pinks, all reflected in the waters of the river on both sides of the bridge. It was quite a show.

We took time, too, to visit a gallery that our son Michael and I discovered several years ago. It has an impressive collection of photographs by a local artist in York. He has a keen eye for both the sights of autumn in New England and the sports venues in Boston. In addition, the gallery has an assortment of signs and marine memorabilia that’s fun to peruse.  We had a nice chat there with Blake, an aspiring lawyer whose love of his home in this area is delightful.

We had a nice dinner at Alisson’s with me all bibbed up for the lobster special (YUM) and Mike enjoying whole belly fried clams. They also had live music with a young man who is quite a guitarist. We actually sat at a table next to the performer’s mother which made it all the more special.

So we settle in for a good night’s sleep in our comfortable room after complimentary glasses of wine at the Inn. We hope to be up for a good walk and a chance to photograph the sunrise tomorrow before heading further north to Bar Harbor. Two days in, this trip is really more than we’d hoped to enjoy, a happy time in one of America’s most beautiful areas.  Thanks again to Caren, Randy and Catherine for their hospitality that got us off to such a great start!

All photos by Mike Lumpkin.