With the exception of couple of college ski trips, neither Suzanne or I had been to Vermont despite living one state away for over 65 years.  In concert with our recent trend of doing “state-wide” visits, we planned a Vermont tour this October and made five-day stays at four locations. Our stops included Morristown in the North, White River Junction in the Middle, and Morristown and Brattleboro in the South….

Suzanne and I spent September with Sue and Dean Hereford touring England, Scotland and Wales.  Our travels took us through London, Glasgow, the Isle of Skye, Inverness, Edinburgh, the English Lake District, York, North and South Wales, and the Cotswold’s. With the exception of getting to Glasgow, we traveled by rental car.  This allowed us to take several day trips and see a number of “off-the-beaten path” sights.  The lodging…

Our visit to England was split into four stops: London, the North, the Cotswold’s, and a brief visit to Hereford. The London stay started with a walking tour upon our arrival, followed by several museum visits, city exploration, and a night at the theatre.  Also, Suzanne and I made a day trip via train to Canterbury. Canterbury has been a major center of Anglican Christianity for 800 years after Archbishop…

After an action-packed week in London, we headed to Scotland starting in Glasgow. We picked up our car at the airport and began our tour of Scotland.  While waiting for our Glasgow walking tour to start, the men had their first “full” Scottish breakfast at a fantastic cafe that was  recommended by our helpful hotel concierge.  It included eggs, toast, beans, mushrooms, haggis, pork sausage, bacon and a grilled tomato. …

The Wales trip was divided into two “base camps” – One in Llanberis, near the Isle of Anglesey in the north and the second in Mumbles near Swansea in the south.  Although almost everyone we encountered spoke perfect English, most of the names of things and the signs were in Welch, albeit with English subtitles.  We all struggled with location pronunciations to the point where none of us seemed to…

Our 8th year on the road was supposed to an aggressive attempt to see several National Parks that we hadn’t been to.  We left northern NY before Labor Day with a plan to get to 10 parks, 8 of which were new to us.  In September, we visited Indiana Dunes, Theodore Roosevelt, Grand Teton, and Rocky Mountain.  At the 5th one, Mesa Verde in Colorado, Suzanne broke her ankle in…

Great Basin National Park was officially established in 1986, but major portions of it have been a National Monument for the past 100 years.  It was named for its location in the Great Basin region of the US. The Basin is the largest water shed with no exit to the Ocean in North America and occupies portions of six states.  The park features Wheeler Peak (13K feet), the Lehman Caves,…

Lake Tahoe straddles the border of California and Nevada.  It is the 2nd deepest lake in the US at more than 1600 feet, second only to Crater Lake.  It is 22 miles long, 12 miles wide and is a destination for approximately 17 million visitors every year.   It is fed by 63 tributaries but only one going out of the lake, the Truckee River. We spent a gorgeous day in…

Santa Barbara was the last of our unvisited major “fine wine” regions in California.  We had planned to go for several years, but it never quite worked out for us until now. As it turns, the bulk of the wineries are actually in the Santa Ynez Valley, more than 30 miles away.  Consequently, we stayed at the county-run Cachuma Lake Campground on the man-made lake closer to the wineries.  The…

We’ve scheduled Mesa Verde a couple of times over the past few years, but had to postpone it due to winter-like weather.  This year we decided to visit in September to avoid any snow.  It was worth the wait as the place is amazing.  We hoped to see a few great cliff dwellings, but this was way beyond our expectations.  There are dozens of well preserved cliff dwelling complexes that…