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Phoenix Rising: 48 Hours in Portland, Maine
Even on a raw, rainy afternoon, with a uniform blanket of cinder-block gray settling over the sky, it’s easy to see why Portland, Maine, has smitten so many travelers. Raindrops the size of lima beans melt down the sides of buildings. The wind whooshes and gusts, cutting through coat sleeves and tossing hats. Atlantic waves wallop the jagged rocks in a spray of white foam. Still, the city seems just as beautiful, and possibly even more transfixing, as it does when there are blue skies for miles over Casco Bay. From native son Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to naturalist-philosopher Henry David Thoreau and professional travel curmudgeon Bill Bryson, this coastal city…
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Best of the Upstate: Furniture Shopping in Hudson
Whether you’re in the 50 percent of the population who loves thrill of browsing antiques, or you’re in the other half and won’t step foot in a store until your sheets have worn to sheers and your coffee table is on its last leg, I’ve got some good news: Hudson, one of upstate New York’s fastest-growing travel destinations, has become a shopper’s paradise. Furniture shopping in Hudson is easy, with more than a dozen independent shops in a span of less than four miles. From sofas and bedrooms sets to soft goods like blankets and pillows, hand-thrown ceramic bowls, original art, and Asian décor, you’ll find it in Hudson. Note:…
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Northern Exposure: A Road Trip along the North Shore of Massachusetts
For decades, Cape Cod has been the “it” place to vacation on the Massachusetts coast. A more easygoing option: a North Shore road trip, beginning only a half hour from Boston. Thank you to Discover Gloucester and Destination Salem for supporting my discovery work. Travelers to coastal Massachusetts have traditionally flocked to Cape Cod, a quintessential seaside New England community that has lured political and Hollywood royalty for decades. But with overtourism has come a variety of headaches, not the least of which is standstill traffic along Route 6, the main road on and off the cape. For a native New Englander like me, the easygoing alternative is the “Other Cape,”…
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Lost & Found: Rediscovering my roots on a coastal Rhode Island road trip
I left Rhode Island nearly three decades ago and didn’t look back. Having grown, in my own estimation, too big and worldly for the place once marketed as “the biggest little state in the union,” I had little sense of nostalgia. I was relieved to divest myself of the neighbors who knew everybody’s business, of the peculiar accent, all dropped r’s and elongated a’s, of the snickering when people asked where I lived and I replied, “I live in Harmony”—the actual name of my northwestern town, green and overgrown, its sidewalks cracked and gritty with sand coughed up by the tires of passing cars. What was once charming and easy…
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The Secret Lives of Northeastern Muffler Men
They’ve been standing guard along roadsides, in front of car and boat dealerships, and atop restaurants for decades. They’ve been subjected to target practice, kidnapped by college students, and used as unofficial mile markers for military planes. They’ve been transformed into pirates, flag-waving patriots, and amusement-park bogeymen. One even foreshadowed the resurgence of Wonder Woman, ten years before she raked in millions on the silver screen. They’re the Muffler Men of the Northeast, and nearly 75 years after they rose, with a mighty squeak, from their molds, they still serve as inspiration for travelers like me. While the largest density of Muffler Men is in the South, Northeastern Muffler Men—30…
Writing the waves of coastal travel
