Just returned from 30 Sept tour
We just returned and had a great time. I'll start with comments about a few of our local guides since we really lucked out with some truly superb ones.
At the Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain house in Hartford, the Director of Events (you can see him in a video on website) who rarely leads tours in his current position, gave our group a thrilling after-hours presentation. He has been a Mark Twain scholar and enthusiast since he was 15 and it showed! He was so passionate about Twain that his voice cracked and he almost got choked up when telling about the deaths and sadness in the family that resulted in Clemens eventually abandoning the home for good- what a tour!!! Though not quite as incredible, our guide the next morning at the Harriet Beecher Stowe house next door was fantastic, also.
The birds of prey handler/speaker and demonstrations with live birds at Hawk Resort in Plymouth, VT were great as was the Park Ranger at the Augustus Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site the following day. Not knowing much about sculpture, I had never heard of Saint-Gaudens, but came away with an appreciation for the man and his fantastic work!
A former newspaper man and politician gave an interesting and often humorous presentation about the New England landscape and historical and environmental evolution of land use.
The stop at Ken Burn's Florentine Film studios- shoe-horned into a small, historic, old home in tiny Walpole, New Hampshire- was extremely interesting. The head producer of Burn's latest tour de force "The Roosevelts" and another senior producer took us through the process of making a documentary, which, in the case of the Roosevelts, can take over 6 years to complete!!!
The last standout was a former teacher and a big Red Sox fan who gave us the tour of Fenway Park, the oldest active baseball park and home of the "Green Monsta" and legends like Ted Williams. I'm not much into baseball, but his tour, narrative, and anecdotes made for a truly interesting morning.
There wasn't much color in Connecticut and Massachusetts, but colors were at peak in Vermont and New Hampshire- we timed it perfectly! Except for two days of intermittent light rain and some morning fog, the skies were generally blue and the temps were mild.
The lodging and food were generally very good, especially the 'lobsta' dinner at the Cliff House in Ogunquit, ME and the farewell dinner at Grill 23 in Boston- now it is time to diet!!!
