Kelly Trips and Tours

It was a real chore yesterday morning to drag Karen out of the Wauwinet, an Inn at the Sea and off Nantucket Island, but she gave in with promises for more wonderful trips in the future - like Norway in 2017. We boarded the Hi-Speed Grey Lady (a really nice, large and smooth catamaran ferry) at 10:30 am and said good-bye to Nantucket. Because it was a warm, 65 degree day, smooth and calm, the Captain performed a man over board drill about 1/2 way between Nantucket and Hyannis Port. To simulate, they threw out a life-preserver, then slowed down quickly, made a 180-degree turn around and went back and retrieved the preserver. You don't see that every day folks - pretty cool! Since our flight home from Boston was not until 6:30 pm, we stopped at Plymouth to see the 'Rock', where it all started. A picture of a rock is not that exciting, so a photo of a replica of the Mayflower located in the harbor will have to do. Our 2-week vacation - oops, when you...

This morning we awoke to a beautiful view of the bay outside our room.  It looks to be - and was - a really nice day with not a cloud in the sky.  After breakfast we decided to walk around this beautiful spot for a bit before we go into town. Karen with her morning tea Here we are in front of the Wauwinet Hotel before taking a short walk to the Atlantic Ocean. The Wauwinet 'Woody' The beach and the Atlantic were so beautiful that Karen decided then and there that she is staying on Nantucket and not going home.  She is sure all of you will come and visit her here sometime. Opposite the Atlantic is the bay - just a few 100-yds apart. Karen found some great shells in both spots. We then took the shuttle into town and enjoyed walking the Main Street and it's very large cobblestones - more like boulders than cobblestones!  We enjoyed lunch at the harbor and then took a walk out to the somewhat small lighthouse. The beach around the ...

Said good-bye to our B&B in Stockbridge and hosts this morning around 10 am and on the road again. Arrived Hyannis Port around 1 pm and had lunch at local place in town. Boarded our high speed ferry (the Grey Lady is the ferry - not Karen dude!) at 3:45 pm for Nantucket for our 1-hr cruise to the island. Good results compared to Gilligan's cruise! It was another beautiful day but cold and windy (55 degrees, but with the wind chill, it was 45). Note: Ferries to/from Nantucket had to cancel yesterdays crossings and again this morning as well as the noon crossing due to high winds and rough seas. We were blessed that our crossing was smooth, and many passengers trying to get home to Nantucket, were happy they made it on this afternoon ferry. Looking at Hyannis as we left port Nantucket lighthouse as we approach the dock downtown The Wauwinet, where we're staying two nights, is a 5-Star Hotel, extremely luxurious in an amazing location with water on both ...

We awoke to a light rain that followed us for nearly 5-hrs on our drive from Jackson, NH to Stockbridge,  MA., todays destination. Before leaving we had to say good-bye to a few more pumpkin people. Although we had light rain until reaching Stockbridge, the drive remained beautiful as autumn is definitely here in New England. In fact, today it was a cool 48-50 degrees with clouds and rain - autumn is here! Stockbridge, where we'll spend the night, is the home of Norman Rockwell, and a tour of his  museum is a must. But, we had to make sure we visited the General Store on Main Street as well. He was certainly a remarkable illustrator and prolific. The first picture below, was his first cover for the Saturday Evening Post at the age of 22, published May 16, 1916. He went on to produce another 331 covers for the Post then created many more for Look magazine and other periodicals. Nearly 35-years ago we stayed here in the Red Lion Inn on Main Street w...

Today was all about leaf-peeping on the Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire's Scenic Byway, a 35-mile highway running through the White Mountain National Forest. The 'Kan' is renowned for its autumn leaf spectacular, making it one of the top road trips to drive during the fall leaf-viewing season in the U.S. Designated an American Scenic Byway, it lived up to its reputation, so here are but a few pictures. This evening we drove into North Conway for dinner. We ate at a unique pizza place called Flatbreads, where the pizzas were made and cooked right where everyone was eating. They had two fire pizza ovens working and we watched their very syncronized system of making pizzas. They needed to be very efficient as this was the busiest place in town. After dinner we visited our friends Ben and Jerry again. They have a yummy non dairy ice cream made with almond milk, peanut butter, and oreo cookies. We strolled the town a little before coming b...