New England in the Fall

In the fall, Andy and I made our very first trip to New England. We made our way through Vermont and New Hampshire and finally over to Boston to visit our good friends Zach and Yuko. We also drove through Rochester both ways for extra visits with my Grandma. Somehow I only have pictures from an apple orchard and a graveyard. There were many scenic sights, that will mostly live in my memory. I am posting three lovely photos from the White Mountains that Andy took. We brought our bicycles and rode almost everyday of our trip. It was refreshing. The air was so fragrant, the firewood so neatly stacked. We really enjoyed eating cheese and apples. These pictures are from Poverty Lane Orchard located in Lebanon, New Hampshire which is perhaps my favorite orchard anywhere. They specialize in many antique and heirloom varieties of apples, each more delicious than the next. Plus you can just spend lots of time wandering around the grounds. And they make a lovely hard cider!

Of the apple varieties, there is Esopus Spitzenberg, Thomas Jefferson's favorite, the lovely Calville Blanc d'Hiver, the Pomme Grise and my two favorites, Wickson and Ashmead's Kernel, amongst others. Please if you ever get the chance, do try these apples. They are by far the best I've tasted anywhere.

New England graveyards are something to behold. They have thin, tall gravestones that are darkened with age and have wonderful carvings. I imagine these are very atmospheric year round, but especially so in the fall. We visited this one at the Old First Church in Bennington, Vermont where Robert Frost is buried.

We also especially enjoyed visiting Grafton, Vermont which is a very small town with lots of scenic roads to bike on in all directions! We also biked our way around Woodstock, Vermont. And we headed up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire for some hiking and biking.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of Boston. But we loved it there. It is by far one of my favorite cities I've ever visited. We started out by biking through the Emerald Necklace - a series of connecting parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. They are really some of the finest parks in any urban setting. There are ponds, bridges, upper tiers and lower tiers of walkways. We also found wonderful community gardens. We visited the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History where I fell in love with the blown glass flower collection, and the Boston Public Library. We ate lots of seafood - oysters, clams, lobsta! We ate in the North End and had black squid ink pasta at the Daily Catch and Cannoli from Modern Pastry. We had a wonderful Dim Sum in Chinatown. We also had amazing omelets at Blue Star, a greek diner in Roslindale where Zach and Yuko live. All and all a wonderful trip. We can't wait to go back.