Sept. 26 - Oct. 4, 2008
This is the map of our trip with Holiday Vacations and hosted by KWAT Radio Station out of Watertown, SD!
Day
1: Going to Chicago
We were picked up by the bus at the Ramkota Motel in Watertown for a trip to the Sioux Falls airport. There we boarded an airplane for Minneapolis and then on to Chicago. When we arrived in Chicago, we had a short amount of time before our evening meal at the Berghoff Restaurant, so the bus driver gave us a short tour of Chicago.
After a wonderful meal, we were driven to the train station to board the Amtrak.
The train station! Large and roomy....... This Amtrak car says 'sleeping car', but ours was actually down another link as we did have windows for the person sleeping on the top bunk to look out of. We were on the 'Lake Shore Limited'. Some of our traveling companys pictured on the left, Jerry & Sylvia Roles from Lindstrom, MN and on the right is Richard Skinner from Watertown, SD.
The left picture shows the entire width (3 ft. 6 inchs) of the car. The top part left side is a 'fold down sink' and the bottom part is a 'fold down commode'. The right side of this picture was seating for one. This was the width of the lower bunk. The right picture shows Owen sitting at the 'little' table between our knees! The top bunk was lowered into position and the bottom sitting area into the lower bunk. There wasn't much room left!! An Adventure...........
Day 2: Arriving in New England
We were overnight on the train and into the afternoon of the second day when we reached Albany, New York. We were picked up by bus and taken to Williamstown, Massachusetts for the evening and our first night in a motel.
When we arrived in Williamstown we did have some time to walk around. The town is primarily a college town, built on small hills. The walking to down town was up and down! On the right is one of the old churches we passed. The town is over 200 years old. We were beginning to get a taste of 'New England' now, the falling leaves, the cool air and scenery. We were on our own for supper, ate at the motel, the beginning of eating many bowls of wonderful 'New England Clam Chowder'!!! It was very good!!!
Day 3: Vermont Sightseeing
Our Holiday Vacations bus and driver 'Bruce' picked us up at the Inn this morning. It is rainy and kinda foggy in spots.
We had time(1 hr.!!) to do some shopping in the Vermont Country Store. What a place!!! Check it out on line, they do have a great catalog too! This is when we started buying Maple Syrup!! Fortunately it had nearly quit raining when we came out, but it still looked gloomy and wet.
We proceeded on to Calvin Coolidge Memorial Site at Plymouth Notch, Vermont. This was the farm/town area that Calvin Coolidge was born and where he was sworn in as the 30th President of the United States.
The picture on the left was the visitors center. It was still wet and kinda sloppy! We had to move between outdoor buildings, I should say 'run', there was a lot to see. The Plymouth Cheese Factory was located there. Plus a school house.
The building on the left is the Union Christian Church, built in 1840 and was Congregational by denomination. The buildings on the right, facing this way were barns, built on a slope so that the back side had a lower entrance. The brown house on the left of second picture was where lunch was purchase....very good soup!!! We were also able to tour the family home where Pres. Coolidge lived in from age 4 on. He was born in the living area behind the local store. Again it began to rain hard, so everyone retreated to buildings or the bus.
From here we went to the 'Billings Farm and Museum' at Woodstock, VT. It was raining pretty good now!! We ran to some of the buildings, toured the museum and watched a movie. This is a project of the Mary F. and Laurance S. Rockefeller foundation. I didn't get any pictures due to the rain. We ate some delicious ice cream there!
Our day ended at the Middlebury Inn in Middlebury, VT. It is one of Vermont historic Inn's that has been restored and is listed on the 'Historic Hotels of America'. It was several buildings that ran together, therefore, not unusual to find a change of levels in the middle of the hallway! A neat old place at dated back to 1827. The Hotel owners wanted a group picture of all of us....so here we are!!
Day 4: Shelburne Museum and Vermont Teddy Bear Factory
It was a pretty nice day, we headed out for the 'Shelburne Museum' south of Burlington, VT. What an amazing place! We didn't have enough time there!! There were 39 Exhibit buildings on 45 acres. Twenty of the buildings had been relocated to the museum area. It was founded in 1947 by Electra Havemeyer Webb who was a collector of 17th century to present day art of all kinds.
I love round barns so this was a real fascination to me!! Within it was exhibits of yesterday's carousel's, complete and some were just the animals, what a variety. Down stairs was fancy purses!
The above is a light house. We were able to tour the inside. The steamboat, Ticonderoga, was toured, it was really a grand boat in it's day, 220 ft. long!! We ate lunch in the cafe in the middle of the grounds and kept looking. I know we never got to some of the buildings as I heard others talking about things I didn't see!! They had a building with beautiful and unusal quilts and old 'samplers' stitched by people in the early days. I really enjoyed those. Plus a house 'full' of glass dishes and dolls! Wow, it was something!!
A covered bridge for viewing, it had been moved to the location. A brick church. Just too much to see and remember!!
Then we went on to the Vermont Teddy Bear factory!
We had a factory tour. Some of the ladies did some shopping. Owen and I had our picture taken!
Our driver, Bruce, enjoyed making 'bear tracks'. We returned to Middlebury Inn for the evening. Their food was sooooo good, we were fed a bit too well!! It was still kinda rainy. We wanted to see a 'bit' of the area, so Gene & Shirley Jibben's and us walked aways and found the 'Fire & Ice' eating place. There was a train across the street on the tracks. It was a private train that had brought a group of people to town to eat at the same establishment!! They had a clever salad bar built into a little fishing boat filled with ice to keep things cold. The whole theme of the place was fishing, it was really neat, just a nice walk for us!!
Day 5: Lake Champlain Cruise
We had stayed at Middlebury Inn the night before and it seemed like the rain was clearing, but... We drove up to Burlinton, VT. to cruise on Lake Champlain on 'The Spirit of Ethan Allen III'. It was a beautiful little harbour, the ship was nice, 3 decks, but the fog didn't give us a very good view.
This is one of the little light houses that stood out away from the shore to warn the ships of the rock wall there. In the second picture you can almost see a face in the left side. It was kinda funny, there was a recording playing while we 'cruised', many times it would tell what we were suppose to be seeing, but.....we were fogged in!!! They had cinnamon rolls and coffee for us on deck. One of those days!!
Our Host and Hostess from KWAT, Jeff & Maureen Anderson.
As we traveled along the road, we began to see more and more colored leaves. This is the Vermont State Capitol at Montpelier, one of the smaller Capitols in our nation.
More colored leaves showed up along the way. We had lunch in Stowe, Vt. and did a bit of shopping at their 'General' Stores. I hit a Quilt shop and came away with a few treasures!! Most of us ate lunch in a 1950's style dinner, the food was great!! This is a ski resort town.
The colors were so pretty! Our next stop was for the night at Lake Morey Resort. It was still kinda drizzling.
We began our evening with a wine and cheese gathering before a wonderful supper. There was another bus of tourists there that evening also.
It rained during the night when we were there, so we were off to another damp day.
Day 6: On the Kancamagus Highway headed into New Hampshire.
Our first stop is in Bath, NH, a little town dating back to 1769. The main reason for stopping was to see the covered bridge. Also the fall colors!
We also visited the Brick store which is claimed to be the oldest General Store. Mavis Willmott did some shopping as did several more of us. A fun old store!
It was impossible to choose just one or two pictures of the 'colors', so here you are, more than you wanted to see, probably!!
It was beautiful country, called the White Mountains.
Lower Falls at White Mountain National Forest. Lucille & Owen Birkholtz.
After many miles of beauty, we arrived at our destination for the day, Ogunquit, Maine. Interesting enough, our motel was named the 'Anchorage'.
The flowers were all in bloom and this was a fall display at the motel. The second picture is an ocean view from the motel grounds.
We were bused to our restaurant, Oarweed. A neat place, and yes, I had lobster!!!! What a treat!!!! It was great. Some of us did some extra walking after this big meal!! Walked down town and did a little shopping.
Day 7: On our way to Boston
This is the Nubble Light house in York, MA. York was chartered in 1641. The lighthouse was built and lite the first time on July 1, 1879. This is probably the most photographed light house in the USA. Sohier Park has been established near by as a visitor center for the Light House. The little red building is the 'oil house' which was built in 1902. The light house was automated in 1987 and has not been lived in since. You can see it was cloudy and rainy again! A beautiful little place tho.
This is Rockport, MA. A little village on the sea. The first picture is an old red fish house on the wharf, claimed to be one of the most painted and photographed in the area. We were in the area of 'Bear Skin Neck' which is a small neck of land that juts out of the town center into Rockport Harbor. Legend has it that the small peninsula is so-named for menacing bears that early settlers routed onto the neck and hunted.
Right and left side of the street that lead to the ocean at 'Bear Skin Neck'. We had lunch here, A very interesting place, would have like to have had more time here!!
The Gloucester Fishermen's Memorial at Gloucester, MA. There was a large wall near by with the names of the ships, dates and fishermen who lost their lives. This was also an old area. There was also a memorial to the Fishermen's wives, very impressive.
We travel on to Salem, MA. This was 'The House of the Seven Gables', built in 1668 by Captain John Turner. We toured this. The history was very interesting. There was an American Literature book written about this house in 1851 by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
We travel on to the Hilton Boston, at Woburn, MA for our last two nights on the east coast. We were on our own for supper, so several couples asked the hotel van to take us to a Chinese Resturant not too far away and there enjoyed a meal together.
Day 8: Boston.....
We started early, hoping to beat the rain, but did get wet!! We met our local tour guide at a park and began our historical tour of Boston.
We began our tour by going out in the country to the memorial site of the Rude (Old North) bridge. A statue in memory of the event stands here with the inscription from Ralph Waldo Emerson's 'Concord Hymn' written in 1836. The first verse reads: 'By the Rude Bridge that arched the flood, Their flags to Aprils breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.'
There was a re-inactment being done that day, the 3 flutists were playing from the bridge.
The home of Paul Revere, thought to be one of the very oldest in downtown Boston, having been built in 1680. He had purchased it in 1770. He sold the home in 1800. The second picture is the statue of Paul Revere in the town square.
Center of the picture is the old North Church or Christ church of Boston where the sexton, Robert Newman, held the 2 lanterns in the steeple that night of April 18, 1775. The second picture is the inside of the church, with the box seats and all.
The first picture is of the Copps Hill Burial ground which was a short distance from the church. Burials began there in 1660. This stone is of Robert Newman, the lantern carried. The second picture, Quincy Market, which was restored and turned into a 'market place' by city planners in 1960. Our time had gotten short by the time we arrived here. Fortunately it was dry for the moment. We entered this front door to the food court. We ended up eating along the side of the building at "Cheers" as did many others on our tour. About the time we got our food, there was a cloud burst!!! What a rain!! It came in under the sides and our feet got wet. We weren't able to do much shopping, between the down pour and the time constraints, we didn't get to see much of Quincy Market.
A very impressive building on the harbor. We began our tour by watching a movie and then entered the museum. It sure brought back a lot of memories of days gone by! Very interesting.
We returned to the Hilton Boston hotel at Woburn for our farwell dinner. We had all traveled together at a fast pace to see all of the wonderful things that were planned for us. We had made new friends from our area and renewed old friendships from former trips.
First picture: Left to right, Kevin & Glenda Meyer, Ron & Diane Dritz, Tom & Mavis Willmott, Roger is standing, Cal & Audrey Schneller, Myra & Doug Dahl.
Second picture: Left to right: Owen & Lucille Birkholtz, Colleen & Burdette VanMeter, Herb & Jo Mischke, Richard & Virginia Skinner.
First Picture: Left to Right: Sorry Bruce you were cut off!, Ilean Schwab, Mareen & Jeff Anderson, Gene & Shirley Jibben, Cathy & Steve Foster and Roger.
Second Picture: Left to Right: Sylvia Roles with Jerry missing!, Ron & Nancy Carlsrud, Donna & Fred Smith, Gertie & Glen Werk, Eldred & Shirley Carlson
Our faithful leaders through it all!! On the left is Holiday Vacations tour guide, Roger Groenewold and our bus driver, Bruce Gregg. 'Couldn't have done it without them!!'
Day 9: Headed Home
We were bussed to the airport where we told Bruce good-bye and boarded our flight for Minneapolis and then Sioux Falls. We were met there by a bus who brought us back to Watertown.
What a trip!!! We saw so much in such a short time. Thanks goodness for pictures to help retain the memories!
Thanks KWAT and Holiday Vacations for a great time.
We were picked up by the bus at the Ramkota Motel in Watertown for a trip to the Sioux Falls airport. There we boarded an airplane for Minneapolis and then on to Chicago. When we arrived in Chicago, we had a short amount of time before our evening meal at the Berghoff Restaurant, so the bus driver gave us a short tour of Chicago.
After a wonderful meal, we were driven to the train station to board the Amtrak.
The train station! Large and roomy....... This Amtrak car says 'sleeping car', but ours was actually down another link as we did have windows for the person sleeping on the top bunk to look out of. We were on the 'Lake Shore Limited'. Some of our traveling companys pictured on the left, Jerry & Sylvia Roles from Lindstrom, MN and on the right is Richard Skinner from Watertown, SD.
The left picture shows the entire width (3 ft. 6 inchs) of the car. The top part left side is a 'fold down sink' and the bottom part is a 'fold down commode'. The right side of this picture was seating for one. This was the width of the lower bunk. The right picture shows Owen sitting at the 'little' table between our knees! The top bunk was lowered into position and the bottom sitting area into the lower bunk. There wasn't much room left!! An Adventure...........
Day 2: Arriving in New England
We were overnight on the train and into the afternoon of the second day when we reached Albany, New York. We were picked up by bus and taken to Williamstown, Massachusetts for the evening and our first night in a motel.
When we arrived in Williamstown we did have some time to walk around. The town is primarily a college town, built on small hills. The walking to down town was up and down! On the right is one of the old churches we passed. The town is over 200 years old. We were beginning to get a taste of 'New England' now, the falling leaves, the cool air and scenery. We were on our own for supper, ate at the motel, the beginning of eating many bowls of wonderful 'New England Clam Chowder'!!! It was very good!!!
Day 3: Vermont Sightseeing
Our Holiday Vacations bus and driver 'Bruce' picked us up at the Inn this morning. It is rainy and kinda foggy in spots.
We had time(1 hr.!!) to do some shopping in the Vermont Country Store. What a place!!! Check it out on line, they do have a great catalog too! This is when we started buying Maple Syrup!! Fortunately it had nearly quit raining when we came out, but it still looked gloomy and wet.
We proceeded on to Calvin Coolidge Memorial Site at Plymouth Notch, Vermont. This was the farm/town area that Calvin Coolidge was born and where he was sworn in as the 30th President of the United States.
The picture on the left was the visitors center. It was still wet and kinda sloppy! We had to move between outdoor buildings, I should say 'run', there was a lot to see. The Plymouth Cheese Factory was located there. Plus a school house.
The building on the left is the Union Christian Church, built in 1840 and was Congregational by denomination. The buildings on the right, facing this way were barns, built on a slope so that the back side had a lower entrance. The brown house on the left of second picture was where lunch was purchase....very good soup!!! We were also able to tour the family home where Pres. Coolidge lived in from age 4 on. He was born in the living area behind the local store. Again it began to rain hard, so everyone retreated to buildings or the bus.
From here we went to the 'Billings Farm and Museum' at Woodstock, VT. It was raining pretty good now!! We ran to some of the buildings, toured the museum and watched a movie. This is a project of the Mary F. and Laurance S. Rockefeller foundation. I didn't get any pictures due to the rain. We ate some delicious ice cream there!
Our day ended at the Middlebury Inn in Middlebury, VT. It is one of Vermont historic Inn's that has been restored and is listed on the 'Historic Hotels of America'. It was several buildings that ran together, therefore, not unusual to find a change of levels in the middle of the hallway! A neat old place at dated back to 1827. The Hotel owners wanted a group picture of all of us....so here we are!!
Day 4: Shelburne Museum and Vermont Teddy Bear Factory
It was a pretty nice day, we headed out for the 'Shelburne Museum' south of Burlington, VT. What an amazing place! We didn't have enough time there!! There were 39 Exhibit buildings on 45 acres. Twenty of the buildings had been relocated to the museum area. It was founded in 1947 by Electra Havemeyer Webb who was a collector of 17th century to present day art of all kinds.
I love round barns so this was a real fascination to me!! Within it was exhibits of yesterday's carousel's, complete and some were just the animals, what a variety. Down stairs was fancy purses!
The above is a light house. We were able to tour the inside. The steamboat, Ticonderoga, was toured, it was really a grand boat in it's day, 220 ft. long!! We ate lunch in the cafe in the middle of the grounds and kept looking. I know we never got to some of the buildings as I heard others talking about things I didn't see!! They had a building with beautiful and unusal quilts and old 'samplers' stitched by people in the early days. I really enjoyed those. Plus a house 'full' of glass dishes and dolls! Wow, it was something!!
A covered bridge for viewing, it had been moved to the location. A brick church. Just too much to see and remember!!
Then we went on to the Vermont Teddy Bear factory!
We had a factory tour. Some of the ladies did some shopping. Owen and I had our picture taken!
Our driver, Bruce, enjoyed making 'bear tracks'. We returned to Middlebury Inn for the evening. Their food was sooooo good, we were fed a bit too well!! It was still kinda rainy. We wanted to see a 'bit' of the area, so Gene & Shirley Jibben's and us walked aways and found the 'Fire & Ice' eating place. There was a train across the street on the tracks. It was a private train that had brought a group of people to town to eat at the same establishment!! They had a clever salad bar built into a little fishing boat filled with ice to keep things cold. The whole theme of the place was fishing, it was really neat, just a nice walk for us!!
Day 5: Lake Champlain Cruise
We had stayed at Middlebury Inn the night before and it seemed like the rain was clearing, but... We drove up to Burlinton, VT. to cruise on Lake Champlain on 'The Spirit of Ethan Allen III'. It was a beautiful little harbour, the ship was nice, 3 decks, but the fog didn't give us a very good view.
This is one of the little light houses that stood out away from the shore to warn the ships of the rock wall there. In the second picture you can almost see a face in the left side. It was kinda funny, there was a recording playing while we 'cruised', many times it would tell what we were suppose to be seeing, but.....we were fogged in!!! They had cinnamon rolls and coffee for us on deck. One of those days!!
Our Host and Hostess from KWAT, Jeff & Maureen Anderson.
As we traveled along the road, we began to see more and more colored leaves. This is the Vermont State Capitol at Montpelier, one of the smaller Capitols in our nation.
More colored leaves showed up along the way. We had lunch in Stowe, Vt. and did a bit of shopping at their 'General' Stores. I hit a Quilt shop and came away with a few treasures!! Most of us ate lunch in a 1950's style dinner, the food was great!! This is a ski resort town.
The colors were so pretty! Our next stop was for the night at Lake Morey Resort. It was still kinda drizzling.
We began our evening with a wine and cheese gathering before a wonderful supper. There was another bus of tourists there that evening also.
It rained during the night when we were there, so we were off to another damp day.
Day 6: On the Kancamagus Highway headed into New Hampshire.
Our first stop is in Bath, NH, a little town dating back to 1769. The main reason for stopping was to see the covered bridge. Also the fall colors!
We also visited the Brick store which is claimed to be the oldest General Store. Mavis Willmott did some shopping as did several more of us. A fun old store!
It was impossible to choose just one or two pictures of the 'colors', so here you are, more than you wanted to see, probably!!
It was beautiful country, called the White Mountains.
Lower Falls at White Mountain National Forest. Lucille & Owen Birkholtz.
After many miles of beauty, we arrived at our destination for the day, Ogunquit, Maine. Interesting enough, our motel was named the 'Anchorage'.
The flowers were all in bloom and this was a fall display at the motel. The second picture is an ocean view from the motel grounds.
We were bused to our restaurant, Oarweed. A neat place, and yes, I had lobster!!!! What a treat!!!! It was great. Some of us did some extra walking after this big meal!! Walked down town and did a little shopping.
Day 7: On our way to Boston
This is the Nubble Light house in York, MA. York was chartered in 1641. The lighthouse was built and lite the first time on July 1, 1879. This is probably the most photographed light house in the USA. Sohier Park has been established near by as a visitor center for the Light House. The little red building is the 'oil house' which was built in 1902. The light house was automated in 1987 and has not been lived in since. You can see it was cloudy and rainy again! A beautiful little place tho.
This is Rockport, MA. A little village on the sea. The first picture is an old red fish house on the wharf, claimed to be one of the most painted and photographed in the area. We were in the area of 'Bear Skin Neck' which is a small neck of land that juts out of the town center into Rockport Harbor. Legend has it that the small peninsula is so-named for menacing bears that early settlers routed onto the neck and hunted.
Right and left side of the street that lead to the ocean at 'Bear Skin Neck'. We had lunch here, A very interesting place, would have like to have had more time here!!
The Gloucester Fishermen's Memorial at Gloucester, MA. There was a large wall near by with the names of the ships, dates and fishermen who lost their lives. This was also an old area. There was also a memorial to the Fishermen's wives, very impressive.
We travel on to Salem, MA. This was 'The House of the Seven Gables', built in 1668 by Captain John Turner. We toured this. The history was very interesting. There was an American Literature book written about this house in 1851 by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
We travel on to the Hilton Boston, at Woburn, MA for our last two nights on the east coast. We were on our own for supper, so several couples asked the hotel van to take us to a Chinese Resturant not too far away and there enjoyed a meal together.
Day 8: Boston.....
We started early, hoping to beat the rain, but did get wet!! We met our local tour guide at a park and began our historical tour of Boston.
We began our tour by going out in the country to the memorial site of the Rude (Old North) bridge. A statue in memory of the event stands here with the inscription from Ralph Waldo Emerson's 'Concord Hymn' written in 1836. The first verse reads: 'By the Rude Bridge that arched the flood, Their flags to Aprils breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.'
There was a re-inactment being done that day, the 3 flutists were playing from the bridge.
The home of Paul Revere, thought to be one of the very oldest in downtown Boston, having been built in 1680. He had purchased it in 1770. He sold the home in 1800. The second picture is the statue of Paul Revere in the town square.
Center of the picture is the old North Church or Christ church of Boston where the sexton, Robert Newman, held the 2 lanterns in the steeple that night of April 18, 1775. The second picture is the inside of the church, with the box seats and all.
The first picture is of the Copps Hill Burial ground which was a short distance from the church. Burials began there in 1660. This stone is of Robert Newman, the lantern carried. The second picture, Quincy Market, which was restored and turned into a 'market place' by city planners in 1960. Our time had gotten short by the time we arrived here. Fortunately it was dry for the moment. We entered this front door to the food court. We ended up eating along the side of the building at "Cheers" as did many others on our tour. About the time we got our food, there was a cloud burst!!! What a rain!! It came in under the sides and our feet got wet. We weren't able to do much shopping, between the down pour and the time constraints, we didn't get to see much of Quincy Market.
A very impressive building on the harbor. We began our tour by watching a movie and then entered the museum. It sure brought back a lot of memories of days gone by! Very interesting.
We returned to the Hilton Boston hotel at Woburn for our farwell dinner. We had all traveled together at a fast pace to see all of the wonderful things that were planned for us. We had made new friends from our area and renewed old friendships from former trips.
First picture: Left to right, Kevin & Glenda Meyer, Ron & Diane Dritz, Tom & Mavis Willmott, Roger is standing, Cal & Audrey Schneller, Myra & Doug Dahl.
Second picture: Left to right: Owen & Lucille Birkholtz, Colleen & Burdette VanMeter, Herb & Jo Mischke, Richard & Virginia Skinner.
First Picture: Left to Right: Sorry Bruce you were cut off!, Ilean Schwab, Mareen & Jeff Anderson, Gene & Shirley Jibben, Cathy & Steve Foster and Roger.
Second Picture: Left to Right: Sylvia Roles with Jerry missing!, Ron & Nancy Carlsrud, Donna & Fred Smith, Gertie & Glen Werk, Eldred & Shirley Carlson
Our faithful leaders through it all!! On the left is Holiday Vacations tour guide, Roger Groenewold and our bus driver, Bruce Gregg. 'Couldn't have done it without them!!'
Day 9: Headed Home
We were bussed to the airport where we told Bruce good-bye and boarded our flight for Minneapolis and then Sioux Falls. We were met there by a bus who brought us back to Watertown.
What a trip!!! We saw so much in such a short time. Thanks goodness for pictures to help retain the memories!
Thanks KWAT and Holiday Vacations for a great time.