WHY GO: When I first wrote about Portland ME ten years ago, this working port on Casco Bay was a laid-back town with a “mellow vibe.” But now it’s crazy busy. Especially in Old Port by the waterfront, where uneven cobblestone streets make ambling a pleasurable challenge. There are a …
WHY GO: Ridgefield CT is a feast for all five bodily senses – sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste. And one more: the sense of humanity. This town of 25,000 is home to Connecticut’s only National Park, which also happens to be the only National Park in the country dedicated to …
WHY GO: It’s a safe bet that parents who drop their kids off at Binghamton University in Binghamton NY don’t generally stay to see the city sights, but they’d be missing out. Once maligned as blighted and abandoned, Binghamton – newly branded with the zingy “BING” – is undergoing a …
WHY GO: There’s a reason that Gilded Age millionaires built castles, and hid out, on the 1,800 large and small islands that dot the St. Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands NY. It is exquisite here. And closer than you might think. You can drive to Clayton NY, one of …
WHY GO: Called “The City That Lit the World,” New Bedford MA, once the planet’s premier whaling town, claimed more millionaires than any other city in America. From the 1820s until whaling’s demise in 1925, when the last whaling ship sailed out of New Bedford Harbor, this city dominated the …
WHY GO. Fairhaven MA wasn’t a company town. It was a lucky town. Henry Huttleston Rogers, President of six (out of 13) Standard Oil Trust Companies, was overly magnanimous when it came to his hometown, endowing it with public buildings to rival those in the greatest European cities. (Rogers also …
WHY: The Lehigh River cuts the town of Bethlehem PA in two. The hulking bones of Bethlehem Steel and Lehigh University dominate the South Side. The stone Germanic Colonial buildings of Historic Moravian Bethlehem stand on North side. Bethlehem Steel, which you may recall from Billy Joel’s song, Allentown (“Out …
WHY GO: A monument to American Industry and Ingenuity, Lowell National Historical Park, in Lowell MA, 30 miles from Boston, is unlike any other U.S. National Park in that it takes up sections of a still thriving (or, as the case may be, reviving) city. This unconventional National Park was …
The Groton Inn, Groton MA If you had to be holed up somewhere, you’d be lucky to find yourself at the charming Groton Inn in the small pastoral boarding school burg of Groton MA. A Colonial-style roadside lodging, this brand new iteration stands on the footprint of what had been one …
WHY GO: Lexington MA is the best place in the USA to learn about our country’s origins. And to celebrate Patriot’s Day. Tell the truth. If you’re not from The State of Massachusetts, did you even know about Patriot’s Day before the movie about the Boston Marathon bombing came out? …