oldfiddler

MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, Amherst, Williams and 100 other colleges, Cape Cod, the Berkshires, Cape Ann…. Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox… MFA and 20 other notable museums, Sturbridge Village, Plimoth Plantation, Freedom Trail…New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont just an hour away… Provincetown to Stockbridge, Rockport to Woods Hole….

My family was all over town 100 years ago, including the town M.D., the Engineer and Conductor on the local railroad, the lady who did the quilt that is on display in the Hist. Society, the guy who ran the jewelry store, the Minister at the Presbyterian church, a bunch of guys at Masonic Hall, and a whole lineup of old guys laid out on the hill at Eulalia Cemetery. Someday I’ll be up there, too. A nice quiet, pretty little small-town America County-Seat type of place. Not a big tourist center, though. What do you do on Saturday night?

Worth visiting if you are not intimidated by the idea of 1 million men violently dead standing over your shoulder. I visited in 1992. They were still adding bones on a daily basis to the 100,000s collected in the unknown soldier’s ossuary, digging them out of the old fortifications as they searched for unexploded shells.
Whenever President Bush or one of his moronic sidekicks made an ignorant comment about French soldiery, this is what I thought of. I have paid my respects at Pearl Harbor and many times at Gettysburg where an ancestor fought. They don’t carry nearly the emotional impact of this place—the air is heavy with the aura of lost heros.

Get a guidebook from the Appalachian Mountain Club that lists all the trails in detail. A great way to hike the Whites is to stay at the “huts” that are built at the top of many peaks. That is expensive but you can walk all day with just a hip pack and arrive to a hot meal and a safe, dry bed. There is lots of info online about this.
In fall and spring you must be very careful to check the weather. It can go from a nice fall day to a blizzard in ten minutes. If you have no proper clothing and lose the trail you could be in serious danger from hypothermia. Every year visiting hikers die this way! Be prepared and go safe, and have a great time.

Oahu is very crowded. Waikiki is just a tourist trap, but you can go there at sunrise and swim… there were local kids sleeping on the beach and cops patrolling all night when I was there. The AYH youth hostel is just a block away – $17/night. Take the cheap bus that goes all around the island. You can walk to the crater at Diamond head. Big island of Hawaii is mostly a very harsh lava field except in the Northeast where the prevailing winds drop a lot of rain there are pretty rainforests, some awesome cliffs and lots of waterfalls. The big crater is pretty cool. I walked up Kilauea—long hot dusty road—you can rent a bike and they take you up to the top and then you can ride down…that’s a way better idea hahaha!
The reef swimming was not nearly as good as in Belize except while I was resting on the beach five gorgeous coeds arrived and stripped naked and swam and played for an hour. That was an unexpected treat for a dirty old man. hahaha
Read up before you go. There are lots of good books and websites to check out.

Good but small. What are you looking for? Got some nice beaches. Got some interesting old houses. Got great sailing. Got history. Got lobsters.

Walden is a state recreation area so there are people there swimming and canoeing sometimes, but it is often quiet and atmospheric—it wasnt deserted or wilderness when Henry D. was there either. You can walk all the way around on a flat path. It is quite pretty in the fall when the leave are changing.
Bring a small rock from home in your pocket and add it to the cache at the cabin site…