Yankee Magazine May/June 2016

features

56 /// A Short Coast with a Long Story

New Hampshire’s coastline extends only 13 miles—but a day’s walk proves that it’s long on character and characters. text by Julia Shipley, photographs by Carl Tremblay

66 /// Top 10 Dishes Worth Traveling For This Summer

Yankee ’s food editor hits the road to find 10 don’t-miss classics. by Amy Traverso

70 /// Two Weeks on Cape Cod

For parents and kids, siblings and cousins, this three-generation family vacation is a celebration of life’s sweetest traditions. text and photographs by Dominic

Casserly

80 /// Finders Keepers

It’s a real-life treasure hunt: Residents and visitors alike comb Block Island’s secret places in search of Eben Horton’s magical blown-glass orbs. text and photographs by Justin Shatwell

This tranquil spot in Orleans, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, is good crabbing territory. Here, a summer visitor learns to tie a lure.

Curtis Island Light stands sentinel at the mouth of Maine’s Camden Harbor (“Best Harbor Paddle,” p. 158). For more of this year’s “Bests,” start on p. 89. photograph by GregoBagel/istockphoto; typography by Luke Lucas

32 ///

A Gingerbread Cottage Reborn

On Martha’s Vineyard, an iconic Oak Bluffs house gets a much-needed facelift that honors its historic soul. by Lindsay Tucker

38 /// Open Studio

Nantucket’s best-known printmaker, Eric Holch, captures a world of eternal summer. by Annie Graves

42 /// House for Sale

Yankee visits an 18th-century property in the Berkshires—a former stagecoach stop that was home to the very first indoor privy in Hancock, Massachusetts. by the Yankee Moseyer

food

46 /// Recipe for Success

Allison Hooper and Bob Reese have staked the future of their Vermont Creamery enterprise on the robust goodness of goat’s-milk cheeses. by Amy Travero

54 /// Local Flavor

An outing to Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough in Noank, Connecticut, is a mini seaside vacation. by Amy Traverso

departments

8

YANKEE ALL ACCESS

10

DEAR YANKEE

10

CONTRIBUTORS

11

POETRY BY D.A.W.

12

INSIDE YANKEE

14

MARY’S FARM

Harriet’s Whisperer by Edie Clark

16

LIFE IN THE KINGDOM

A Late Spring by Ben Hewitt

20

FIRST LIGHT

Twenty young ladies of Springfield, Vermont, make their début at the cherished “Apple Blossom Cotillion.” by Julia Shipley

24

ONLY IN NEW ENGLAND

Yard Sale Confidential by Ken Sheldon

26

KNOWLEDGE & WISDOM

Birding and baseball, a Norman Rockwell anniversary, and tips on taming poison ivy.

30

UP CLOSE

The John Hancock Tower by Heather Tourgee

192

TIMELESS

TOP: HEATH ROBBINS, NAT REA; ALEX GAGNE

1121 Main St., P.O. Box 520, Dublin, NH 03444. 603-563-8111; editor@YankeeMagazine.com

EDITORIAL

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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Kim Knox Beckius, Annie Card, Edie Clark, Annie Graves, Ben Hewitt, Justin Shatwell, Ken Sheldon, Julia Shipley

CONTRIBUTING

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‘Power Struggles’

Although I’m not directly impacted by the natural-gas pipeline [March/April, p. 120], I am affected by what’s happening to many of the citizens I’ve known all of my life. Your article is the first unbiased explanation I’ve read. Thank you for not hesitating to report this story and for not politicizing either side.

Barbara Miner Holyoke, Massachusetts

‘Could You Live Here?’

The 1959 film It Happened to Jane was filmed in and around Chester, Connecticut [March/April, p. 62]. In the cast was an actor named Max Showalter, a.k.a. Casey Adams. Evidently Max’s answer to whether he could live in Chester was yes, because he made it his home from 1984 until his death in 2000 at age 83. I like reading about small (non-touristy) New England towns and visit as often as I can. Kinda rejuvenates my soul.

William E. Goss Markham, Ontario, Canada

‘Local Treasure’

Having spent four months at Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1960, I know the Newport Tower well [March/April, p. 74]. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had his own take on it. Following the discovery of an armored skeleton in the area, he made a connection between it and the tower. In “The Skeleton in Armor” he writes of a Viking corsair who elopes with the king’s daughter and sails to what is now Newport: There for my lady’s bower / Built I this lofty tower / Which, to this very hour / Stands looking seaward. The narrator goes on to say that upon her death the lady in question was buried beneath the tower. Maybe not the historical accuracy of “Paul Revere’s Ride”—but quite a story.

James Haviland Aiken, South Carolina

Write us! Send your comments to: editor@YankeeMagazine.com

JUSTIN SHATWELL

Reporter and photographer Justin Shatwell (“Finders Keepers,” p. 80), a former Yankee staff writer, is a longtime contributor to the magazine. His work explores the unique history, culture, and art that sets New England apart from the rest of the world. justinshatwell.com

DOMINIC CASSERLY

A lifelong Massachusetts resident, Dominic Casserly (“Two Weeks on Cape Cod,” p. 70) shoots stories and projects as one half of the photography team Little Outdoor Giants. He has a degree in sculpture and is a founder and member of the Boston-based artists’ group Individuals Collective. When he’s not working, Dom can be found riding his motorcycle or sitting on a beach on the Cape. littleoutdoorgiants.com

LINDSAY TUCKER

Lindsay Tucker (“A Gingerbread Cottage Reborn,” p. 32) is a former editor of Boston magazine and Boston Home. These days she contributes regularly to Newsweek and blogs for the historic New England clockmaker Chelsea Clock. @lindstucker

CARL TREMBLAY

Award-winning photographer Carl Tremblay (“A Short Coast with a Long Story,” p. 56) is a longtime Yankee contributor. Born in Montreal, he has been working in Boston since 1987. Carl’s specialties include narrative storytelling, portraiture, and food photography. “The experience of exploring the New Hampshire coast,” he told us, “was new, fascinating, and unpredictable from sunrise to sunset.” carltremblay.com

JULIA SHIPLEY

Julia Shipley (“A Time to Bloom,” p. 20, and “A Short Coast with a Long Story,” p. 56) is an award-winning Vermont poet and author of Adam’s Mark , a long-form lyric essay selected as one of the Boston Globe ’s “Best New England Books” of 2014. writingonthefarm.com

WE HEAR YOU …

‘Only in New England’

What is this snow you speak of [Jan./Feb., p. 24]? This is why I live in Gilroy, California: Except for a dusting on the surrounding foothills, I haven’t seen a speck of snow on the valley floor, except twice in 30 years. However, the first two and a half decades of my life— including the Blizzard of ’78—were spent in Framingham, Mass. I’m the type who was out at midnight in 40 mph winds, staying ahead of the ^&^%%$# only to see the town snowplow put six feet of ^&^%%$# at the end of the driveway before I had a chance to get the car out.

—Richard Cripps

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STRAWBERRY SEASON

Subconsciously these berries rush us, Garden-ripened, sweet and luscious; All through supper we’re alert:

There’s shortcake coming for dessert!

— D.A.W.

Cross Jewelers

I Know Just the Place

here’s a little of the concierge in many of us who live in New England. We like to think we know what makes our region special. You can see this pleasant tendency when visitors pop into our office here in Dublin. Usually they’re on vacation. Their numbers pick up in summer and when the leaves outside glow red, orange, and yellow. They’ll browse a bit in our little gift shop and reception area, where Linda Clukay has been greeting callers and drop-ins for nearly 30 years. Before they go on their way, they may ask about a good place for breakfast (Nonie’s or Audrey’s), or lunch (Dublin General Store or Harrisville General Store), or a cozy inn or B&B (Little River B&B, Hancock Inn, or Monadnock Inn), or a favorite trail to climb the famous mountain that rises over the lake just around the bend. Or simply the prettiest drive to where they’re heading next. They want to know what we know. Everyone knows that feeling of quiet satisfaction when you can say, “I know just the place.” Sharing local knowledge with strangers simply feels good.

In some ways I think Yankee has taken our reader’s arm and gently pointed the way since our first issue in September 1935. But each year our special travel-guide edition (“Best of New England,” p. 89) doesn’t wait to be asked. We know you’re here. Maybe you’re a first-time visitor to New England; maybe you’ve lived here for years. No matter. There are places to see, foods to taste, experiences and adventures down some country road that we want you to know about.

We keep our own personal lists of favorite spots and swirl them around with the places readers tell us about—usually in the form of a letter, a phone call, or an email that says, “I can’t believe you haven’t written about our special town and especially this unbelievable little eatery with the best lobster roll [or ice cream or pizza] I’ve ever had. Ever.” And we have help: contributors with both a deep sense of place and the sensibility and judgment to know what’s truly special. What they recommend matters to us, because we trust what they see. They’re both writers and travelers: Kim Knox Beckius (Rhode Island and Connecticut), Annie Graves (New Hampshire), Patricia Harris and David Lyon (Massachusetts), Hilary Nangle (Maine), Bill and Kay Scheller (Vermont), and Yankee ’s food editor, Amy Traverso (Boston dining and “Top 10 Dishes Worth Traveling For This Summer”). We listen when they say, “I know just the place.” I think you’ll be rewarded when you come along.

Mel Allen, Editor editor@YankeeMagazine.com

Harriet’s Whisperer

Whatever happened between them I’ll never really know.

y dog, Harriet, is now the size of a hearty lamb but is mostly black, her face and legs the color of gingersnaps. She has matured into a reasonably wellmannered dog, but she still has this way of badgering visitors. I don’t know what her message is. Sometimes I think our solitary life together has spawned a kind of resistance in her to any intrusions from other humans. She’s gentle in her delivery, but her message seems to be: Go away, we’re busy here. Other times I think she’s simply overwhelmed with the excitement of welcoming a new person into the house. Whatever she’s trying to say, she jumps up, wiggles, whines, and basically makes a big scene. I’ve tried several methods to discourage this, but whenever a new guest arrives, she just melts down and does it all over again. Beyond that, if the guest is going to eat with us, she insists on joining us for the meal, whining, begging, putting her paws on guests’ thighs. In short, she’s obnoxious. But, as other terrier owners know, training a terrier is like making water flow uphill.

Last summer, for various reasons, a man I knew to be a well-regarded animal behaviorist came here for a brief stay. When he called to make arrangements, I cunningly thought, Oh, maybe he can give Harriet a few lessons. From what I’d read, I knew that aside from being a small-animal vet, Vint worked at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, with large animals like elephants and tigers. If he could work with rhinos, surely he could influence a little border terrier. I couldn’t wait for him to meet Harriet. I’d told him about her but had stopped short of asking for his help.

Harriet and I were standing in the kitchen when he knocked on the door. I beckoned him inside. He slid the glass door open and stepped in. Rather than rushing to greet him as she does virtually all visitors, Harriet sat beside me, stock still. It was as though she’d been shot by a stun gun. I said, “Harriet, come meet Vint!” and walked over to greet him. I wondered whether maybe he had a trace of elephant dung on his shoes. Harriet simply seemed in awe. Vint knelt and rubbed Harriet’s ears and neck. She responded with friendly wiggles. I showed him his room, and afterwards we sat and talked. Harriet lingered warily beside me and finally, to my total surprise, lay down and stretched out on the floor between us. Vint didn’t seem to notice. He was on a tour for his new book, The Soul of All Living Creatures, a powerful exploration of the mystical connection between man and animal, and he had a lot of appointments to meet while he was in town. So he was off and running. Harriet was quiet after he left, settling beside me on the couch while I read.

The next morning, I made breakfast for Vint, and once again, Harriet lay quietly on the floor between us. I was astonished but mentioned nothing. Let him think she’s an angel, I thought to myself. Pretty soon it was time to say goodbye. Once again, Harriet stood next to me, watching him leave.

Was it my imagination that she behaved differently after he left? Maybe not. Visits from old friends seemed to evoke a similar response: “Harriet is a changed dog!” many said as she sat contentedly while we all chatted in the living room or ate at the table. Was Vint a dog whisperer? I hadn’t noticed him whispering to her; in fact, he’d spent little time with her. But what is a whisperer? I suppose whatever the magic is, it’s just between the two of them, and it probably happens very quietly.

Edie Clark’s books, including her newest, As Simple As That: Collected Essays , are now available at: edieclark.com

A Late Spring

Trying to build a new homestead, the Hewitts found themselves

t’s late May before the snow disappears from the shaded northern hollows at the sides of the road. I can’t remember such a late spring in my adult life; I can’t recall ever having felt such an intense longing for warmth and sun, for the sight of bare ground, for even those first glimpses of winter-dead grass emerging from the receding snow. It’s homely stuff, brown and bent, and the possibility of the plant matter returning to life seems as remote as the possibility of a grandparent aging in reverse, growing younger and more supple with each passing day.

Owing to the late spring, it’s almost June before we can begin building in earnest. We make a considered decision to begin with the barn, holding tight to a filament of hope that perhaps we can have a roof over it before the first cutting of hay. That would allow us to transport our hay directly from the field to our new barn, forgoing an intermediate stop (and, more crucially,

The author and his sons, Fin and Rye, take advantage of a rare dry spell last June to bale their hay.

THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM

PHOTOGRAPH BY PENNY HEWITT

the associated unloading and stacking) in either our current barn or that of a generous neighbor. “Don’t get your hopes up,” I tell Penny, and I’m right to say this, since we usually take our first cutting of hay in mid-June. We’re capable enough builders (and we have even-more-capable help), but still: floor to roof in two weeks? Ain’t gonna happen.

But Penny almost always has her hopes up, and for a variety of reasons, this time she’s proven right. That’s because June 2015 turns out to be one of the rainiest in northern Vermont’s history, and although we can frame the barn throughout the incessant showers, there are precious few opportunities to make square bales. The larger dairy operations aren’t as reliant on extended dry spells for haymaking; whereas we look for a fourday window (three days will do in a pinch, particularly if there’s a drying breeze, and if there are five … well, that’s downright relaxing), they mow after morning chores and return to the field just before dusk to bale the still-green forage into round bales that will be wrapped in plastic and left to ferment.

So it is that we find ourselves in a strange race, one with no clearly defined finish line. We need the weather to remain just wet enough that haying isn’t an option, but not so wet that we can’t continue pushing forward on the barn. And then, once the final rafters are in place and the roof is sheathed, we need a break from the rain, but one of a very specific length. If the dry spell is forecast to last too long, we’ll be called to the hayfield; if it’s too short, we won’t be able to finish the roof. (Although many aspects of construction may be tackled in the rain, installing metal roofing on a 12/12 pitch—equivalent to a 45-degree slope—is definitely not one of them.)

Fantastically, we’re granted a two-day window of azure skies just as we finish the roof deck. Remember what I said about putting up dry hay? That’s right: Two days doesn’t cut it. But installing a tin roof on a 720-square-foot barn? Turns out

Since 1996, Good News Garage has provided more than 4,400 refurbished donated vehicles to New England families in need.

“Thank you for this opportunity to help myself. This car makes it easier for me to get to the babysitters and to work. Thank you for helping my family!”

that, had she been born to a family of roofers, two days is exactly what Goldilocks would have ordered for such a task: not too short, not too long, but just right. Building on our run of good luck, the skies clear again, and less than a week after we finish installing the metal, still giddy from the unique rush of working high off the ground in the no-fall zone, we’re stacking hay under tin, the very tin we’d screwed down only days before.

into the barn. I’m grateful for all the luxuries we avail ourselves of each and every day: cans of gas for the sawmill or diesel for the tractor; circular saws that slice through framing lumber with little more effort than is required to press the trigger; even our humble metal roof. And oh, the miracle of a cold bottle of beer at the waning edge of daylight! I’ll pay less than two dollars at a local convenience store, pluck it from the frosted cooler, drink it faster than I should, consider another.

It’s almost too much to behold.

Just as I know that what we’re doing is nothing new, I also know that we have it relatively easy, and I don’t want to lose sight of this undeniable truth. Furthermore, I’m not the least bit convinced that I have the strength of character to shoulder the burdens of my ancestors.

Over the preceding months, I hadn’t dared to grant myself the luxury of my own sense of accomplishment—if only because there was still far too much to accomplish, far too many variables to make accomplishing those tasks a given, far too many ways for things to go awry—but now, filling the barn with bale after bale of hay, the sugared smell of drying grasses mingling with the salty sourness of our own sweat, I allow myself a moment of satisfaction.

I know that what we’re doing is nothing new; it’s nothing special. Hundreds of thousands of New Englanders have done the same and more, and under far more challenging conditions: oxen and crosscut saws; horsedrawn wagons and roofs of shingles they shaped themselves; hay that had to be raked by hand and pitched loose

I recall reading a book to my sons about the early settlers of this region, and how we were all thrown into stunned silence to learn that they burned 50 to 70 cords of firewood annually. Fifty to seventy cords. They burned it to cook, to process their food, to heat their uninsulated homes. They cut it by axe and handsaw, split it by maul, hauled it by the hooves of beasts they’d trained to do this work.

I think about all this on a late-June day in 2015, standing back to admire the barn we’ve built, the sliding doors open to show the neat stacks of hay. I can’t see it from where I’m standing, but just past the barn, there are five cords of firewood drying for the winter to come. Five, not 50, the trees felled with a chainsaw, rather than an axe. And still it felt like a fair shake of work.

It occurs to me that perhaps I don’t really deserve the self-satisfied sense of accomplishment I feel on this earlysummer evening. But then the breeze kicks up, and I catch a whiff of the freshly baled hay, and I think, What the heck. In just a bit more than a month, we built a barn. Then we filled it with hay. Maybe it’s nothing special. But it still feels pretty darn good.

Filling the barn with bale after bale of hay, I allow myself a moment of satisfaction … I know what we’re doing is nothing new … but it still feels pretty darn good.

The Retirement of a Lifetime

Models

A Time to Bloom

One night in spring becomes a lifetime memory for the young men and women of Springfield, Vermont.

BY JULIA SHIPLEY

t’s a soft night in early May.

Outside Riverside Middle School in Springfield, Vermont, clouds are blotting the full moon’s light; the air smells pungent, a mix of river water and new grass; the football field is still tender, spongy underfoot.

Inside, the daughters and sons of Springfield are almost ready: In the girls’ locker room 20 young women are adjusting their straps, slicking on lip gloss, and tucking loose tendrils of hair; in the boys’ locker room, their escorts are hitching up socks, smoothing their jackets, and balancing the wings of their ties.

For the past 16 weeks, since the first Sunday of the new year, when snows were already topping two feet, these high-school seniors have been practicing kicks and bows, promenades and waltzes, and learning to cross a gymnasium floor (some while wearing heels) with grace and panache. Through winter squalls and gradual thaws, through midterm exams and college acceptances, amid part-time jobs and community service, these 20 couples have been practicing for tonight’s début production, their only performance of Springfield’s 60-year-old rite of spring: the Apple Blossom Cotillion.

Just before Christmas, Larry Kraft, Springfield Medical Care Systems’ director of development (or, as he’s more widely known, “the Apple Blossom Guy”), received a blizzard of applications, each one attesting to long-held dreams: “Since I was little, I have always wanted to be part of the Apple Blossom Cotillion … ” “My mom tells me of when she participated in Apple Blossom in 1984 …”

One applicant, Alexis Roldan, described how the Cotillion was a seasonal tradition, like making pies for Thanksgiving and setting up a Christmas tree. Attending each performance alongside her grandmother, she wrote, “we would pile into that stuffy gymnasium and sit anxiously on cold bleachers. As soon as I heard Larry Kraft’s bold voice echo through the crowd, I knew the fun was about to begin.” She remembered, when she was 14, watching her older sister sway and twirl around the gym floor and thinking, “That looks awesome. Someday that’s going to be me.”

OPPOSITE : Alexis Roldan, a senior at Springfield, Vermont, High School and queen of the 2015 Apple Blossom Cotillion. BELOW : Younger kids join in on the night’s choreographed program.

COURTESY OF SPRINGFIELD HOSPITAL

Tonight’s event is a debutante cotillion, a show, a pageant, and a fund raiser, and as emcee Larry Kraft reminds the audience, the only event of its kind in the region. Moreover, as all the young female participants know, it’s also a coveted rite of passage, the chance to be publicly recognized, to be formally introduced to their community as young adults.

Sixty years ago, a woman named Harriet Lindley first planted the idea of staging a grand fundraiser for Springfield’s hospital. Back then, this closely knit riverside town was still a prosperous community, thanks to waterpower, which helped it become a manufacturing stronghold, producing tools and gears in the 1800s, followed by rotary pumps, sewing machines, and lathes in the 1900s. Yet by the mid-1980s, the machine-tool industry began laying off workers, eventually shuttering most of its factories. Now “For Lease” signs adorn the long, boxy industrial buildings along Route 11, Springfield’s main thoroughfare, paralleling the riffling waters of the Black River. Yet, despite Springfield’s chilly economy, every spring, year after year, the young people of the town continue to bloom in the Cotillion.

In 1957, when the Apple Blossom Cotillion began, Alexis Roldan’s grand mother Marge spent the first Saturday in May in this gymnasium. Marge was a 19-year-old high-school graduate, and thus ineligible to be a contestant. Nevertheless, after the ladies in the Cotillion were formally introduced and the very first queen had been crowned, Marge and her beau, along with the rest of the audience, swooped down onto the floor to dance the foxtrot and tango to hits by Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman. Marge wore a dress she’d sewn herself. “Back then everyone wore dresses and danced,” she recalls.

In more-recent decades, the casually clad audience stays put throughout the performance while the contestants and their escorts emerge before them in formal attire. This year, their matching floor-length gowns with glittery belts and spaghetti straps aren’t innocently

a friend in beauty school helped style her hair, Alexis didn’t get her nails done, because she has to keep them short and bare for work. She painted her toes, though. She did her own makeup, and then one of the directors touched it up so that she “didn’t look like a ghost.”

During the final rehearsal Alexis slipped, so now, moments before Larry Kraft stands at the podium and announces the first number, she applies a few quick squirts of hairspray to the soles of her sandals.

Thinking about the other couples dancing beside her, she admits she’s nervous, that there’s no way she could come out on top, that it’ll be “anybody but me.” However, there’s another part of her that doesn’t want to appear conceited or cocky but thinks there’s a chance she might be tonight’s queen.

white, or pale pink; they’re not reminiscent of apple blossoms at all, but more like the neon-pink petals of a crabapple tree. Alexis, who wasn’t crazy about her dress at first, confessed, “Well, I warmed up to it.” She took it home for Marge to shorten, saying, “Grammie, we just got to take this in.” More than half a century after putting the finishing touches on her own dress, Marge knelt with pins in her mouth and began tucking them, one by one, into the flamingohued silk of her granddaughter’s gown.

Back in February, a month into Cotillion practices, Alexis started working at Springfield Hospital three days a week, as a nursing assistant in the emergency department. And although

Up in the filled bleachers, beneath the pennants announcing multiple boys’ and girls’ sports championships, the audience is knee to knee, elbow to elbow: cousins, parents, siblings, neighbors, and grandparents, as well as the five judges. Earlier this morning, the judges interviewed each of the contestants, asking who she is and where she’s going. Three of the judges are former Apple Blossom queens themselves. When I ask Miss 1988 about the influence that being crowned has had on her life, she makes a funny face at first, as if to dismiss the idea that it has had any bearing on her family or her career. But then she musters, “Well, it teaches you to get out of your comfort zone.”

Promenading from the out-ofbounds zone to center court, Alexis and her escort, along with the other couples, perform a small curtsy before the audience. The event’s choreographers have staged an elaborate, fast-paced program. For the next hour and a half, the dancers perform a dozen numbers, involving multiple costume changes

1957: The first Apple Blossom queen and her court. From the bottom, Joan Ryan, Jane Gray, Dorothy Eldredge, Mary Day, Susan Warley, Marylyn Murray, Gloria Mackey.

and props. The floor occasionally swells as 40 future cotillionaires, the kindergarten and elementary-school boys and girls who’ve been practicing the routines alongside the elegant teenagers, join in.

As the couples whisk around the gym floor, the room is transformed. Any hint of game-day hustle and sneaker squeak has been replaced by the thumping music and the synchronized movements of the dancers’ dips and sweeps. Looking imperial in his black tuxedo, Larry Kraft alternately stands at his podium and sits in his director’s chair, observing the ladies and gentlemen parading around the floor, twirling parasols for one number, waltzing for another, boogieing and strutting in yet a third. I sense that I’m where something wonderful is happening, where young people are creating their own grandeur. These teenagers are proud and excited to be the celebrities of their community.

A fanfare blares, signaling the moment when the new queen is announced, and Miss Apple Blossom

1988 steps to the podium to express what an impressive crop of sharp, wellrounded young women these Springfield parents have produced. Gathered beside her are Miss 1987 and Miss 2002, as well as last year’s queen and her court of runners-up, who brandish bouquets to present to this year’s winner: none other than Marge’s youngest grandchild, the young woman in a gown hemmed by her Gram—Alexis Roldan.

After last year’s queen bestows Alexis with her crown and flowers, the new queen poses with Larry Kraft for the first official photo. Having just concluded his 15th Cotillion, he’s the enduring aspect of this ephemeral bunch: the orchardist perhaps, amid Springfield’s ongoing inflorescence. And yet the gym is also filled with other stalwart guys, such as the girls’ escorts—those reliable gentlemen who accompanied their young ladies through so many rehearsals with no interview to look forward to, nor a shot at a fancy title and its attendant hubbub. Their function, it seems, is to provide the handsome branch, the

support against which each hopeful contestant flourishes.

Now the whole audience spills down onto the gym floor, and it becomes a happy chaos of people with bouquets in the crooks of their arms, full of picture taking and proud hugs—friends, family, and classmates; former factory workers, hospital staffers, and people who work at the correctional facility; teachers and farmers; past queens and plenty of future cotillionaires—and all of the jubilant humming is like the frenzy of bees among the apple trees in full flower.

Larry Kraft strides purposefully toward the curtained exit to the locker rooms. He stashes the microphone on its home shelf and slips out the back. I, too, make my way out, drifting through the girls’ locker room, which smells so sweet and where empty hangers are strewn and vibrantly hued costumes puddle on the floor beside baubles, lip gloss, water bottles, and shiny sandals—just the way that after a big wind blows, the apple petals fall and pile up in small drifts beneath the trees.

Yard Sale Confidential

ball card or first edition of The Great Gatsby and then retire in comfort on your stupidity. You casually pull out an old stovepipe hat belonging to your uncle Arnold Lincoln—marked “A. Lincoln” inside—and leave it where he can find it.

The onset of a yard sale typically begins with the realization that your junk seems to be reproducing, creating entirely new categories of clutter. So you decide to sell that extra stuff, casting better judgment and previous experience to the wind.

ILLUSTRATION BY MARK BREWER

irst comes a period of sorting, pricing, and domestic negotiation. Among the things you agree to part with are pots and pans that look as if they were used in some mining operation, toys for which the kids campaigned for months and forgot in weeks, coffee mugs with such heartwarming sentiments as “For all your insurance needs,” half-refinished furniture that you really were going to finish someday, and appliances like the hot-dog cooker, cupcake maker, and pizza baker that you bought because you forgot you owned an oven.

Finally, the big day arrives. At 6:00 a.m., you’re hauling stuff out of the garage when the first buyer arrives. “I know I’m a little early,” he says, “but I’m being sworn in as Head Bull of the Moose lodge today.” Early birds have been using lame excuses like this since Ben Franklin ran Poor Richard’s Yard Sale. Don’t be bamboozled; make him show you the secret Moose handshake.

By 8:00 a.m., the first wave of shoppers has arrived, fanatics who’ll hit a dozen sales before the day is over (fewer than five and you’re still ranked as an amateur). They have the intent look of people scouring a crime scene for clues, but they’ll settle for vintage Pyrex.

BY KEN SHELDON

At 10:00 a.m., a woman in a “Born to Bargain” sweatshirt walks up to you holding the vase that Aunt Edna gave you, which you forgot to mark. You never liked that vase, but you know Edna paid quite a bit for it. “How much do you want for this?” she asks.

You refuse to rise to the bait. “How much will you give me?”

She tries again. “What’s it worth to you?”

You respond, “What’s it worth to you ?”

This game can go on for some time, since neither of you has anything better to do. Eventually, you let the vase go for $10 and pray that Aunt Edna never finds out.

By high noon, the sun is directly overhead and shoppers are sweltering. You move your André Kostelanetz records, Richard Simmons workout videos, and Danielle Steele novels— veterans of previous sales—into the shade for optimum product placement. It doesn’t help.

Shortly after noon, a guy with a slightly crazed look shows up. You recognize the symptoms of Hiddentreasuritis, a disease that makes people believe they’re going to stumble on a mint-condition Mickey Mantle base -

At 1:00 p.m., a beat-up Subaru pulls up, and you groan. The driver, a known haggler, refuses to pay the asking price for anything, no matter how cheap it is. If you were selling a Norman Rockwell original for $2, he’d ask whether you’d take a buck—and then he’d hand you a $50 bill to pay for it.

By 2:00 p.m., the hard-core shoppers are long gone. A Lexus with outof-state plates appears at the curb, driven by a woman who clearly spends more on her hairdresser than you do on your mortgage. She looks over your stuff as though it might be contaminated with the Ebola virus. She’s probably not going to buy your black-velvet painting of Sylvester Stallone.

At 4:00 p.m., you’re putting stuff away, but there’s still one guy casually browsing. He takes his time, looks over every single item … and then leaves without buying a thing. It turns out he was just killing time while his son was at a trumpet lesson across the street. Your only consolation is that you’ve heard his son play.

At the end of the day you collapse, completely exhausted but $27 richer. You still have the hot-dog cooker.

Of Birds and Baseball

Some ball hawks don’t need gloves.

atching baseball and watching birds require similar skills. Both employ patience and imagination, sometimes deep thought; both progress slowly, appear boring from a distance, but are punctuated by bursts of joyous activity; neither is hampered by time.

Over the years I’ve discovered that major-league ballparks are good places for birdwatching. With few exceptions, they hug migration flyways: the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the Great Lakes, the interior rivers … Boston’s Fenway Park—nestled along the Charles River and the Atlantic Ocean—may be the best ballpark in America for watching birds.

—“Of Birds & Baseball,” by Ted Levin, May 1993

WE WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG

—Donna Summer (1948–2012). Famous under her stage name of Donna Summer, she was born LaDonna Adrian Gaines in Boston and raised in the Mission Hill neighborhood by her father, a butcher, and her mother, a teacher. Her voice and talent brought her world recognition as the “Queen of Disco.” She won five Grammy Awards, sold more than 140 million records, and in 2013 was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“I don’t care if I’m beautiful; I don’t care what I am on the outside. It isn’t about the outside.”

NORMAN ROCKWELL

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of his first Saturday Evening Post cover. compiled by Julia Shipley

100

years ago: Norman Rockwell’s first cover painting for the Saturday Evening Post, appearing May 20, 1916

322 number of covers Rockwell painted for the Saturday Evening Post

20,000 number of fan letters archived at the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Mass.

4 freedoms Rockwell depicted in his famous series (from fear, from want, of speech, of worship)

22

Rockwell’s age when he published his first cover for the Saturday Evening Post

4000 known artworks created by Norman Rockwell in his lifetime

998 number of original paintings in the Rockwell Museum, site of the artist’s last studio

Seventeen number of studios Rockwell used (not including temporary studios)

TWENTY-ONE average number of days Rockwell needed to complete a painting

$133,000,000 raised for war bonds during an exhibition of the Four Freedoms paintings

$3,500 Rockwell’s Post fee for Saying Grace in 1951

$46 MILLION 2013 Rockwell record sale price of Saying Grace

See photos of the artist’s studio in Stockbridge, Mass., at: YankeeMagazine.com/Rockwell

How to Get Rid of Poison Ivy

Helaine Hughes’ unique specialty may just save your summer.

BY JOE BILLS

ost of us have at least one poison-ivy horror story of our own. Close encounters with this noxious plant can ruin days, and getting it out of your yard is a nasty chore. Helaine Hughes first took on that task as a youngster in Dunstable, Massachusetts, helping her father clear space for a pheasant pen. In 2003, after assisting with another removal project, she realized that she had a knack for it. She started the Poison Ivy Removal Company that same year. Now living in Greenfield, New Hampshire, here she shares her hard-earned wisdom.

Identification Is Key

It’s easy to confuse poison ivy with other common plants. Its leaves can vary in size, color, and texture, and it can spread along the ground, climb trees or fences, or grow like a shrub. Poison ivy’s defining characteristic is its clusters of three leaves, positioned on the branch like a head and two arms.

It’s All About the Oil

The urushiol oil contained in poison ivy serves as the plant’s natural defense against fungal attacks. It also reacts with human skin, causing a painful rash and oozing blisters. “The key is knowing enough about the oil that you don’t get it everywhere,” Hughes says. “It can stay on an object for as long as five years. I’m OCD-level careful about what I touch. Items are either clean or dirty. If you don’t know, it’s dirty.”

The Risk of Chemicals

Chemical herbicides are a common removal tool, but Hughes doesn’t endorse that approach. “It takes a lot to get the job done,” she explains, “and chemicals leach into the groundwater. Those poisons linger for a long time, endangering kids and pets.”

Root of the Problem

The only completely effective way to remove poison ivy is to pull it out by the roots, Hughes advises: “We get in there and rip it out by hand. It’s important to get as much of the root as possible. If we get to the end of a root and the tip is white, that indicates a recent break, and we keep digging. A black tip means an older break, probably the end of that line.”

Dress for Success

After some early lessons

learned the hard way, Hughes and her team have adopted hazmat suits as their uniform of choice. As a homemade alternative, wear long pants, long sleeves, and washable gloves and sneakers; use tape to eliminate exposure at the wrists and ankles. Once the job is done, all clothes go straight into the washing machine, and you go straight into the shower.

How to Dispose of It

Hughes recommends putting vines and roots into trash bags as you pull them and disposing of them in a landfill compactor. Burning poison ivy is a horrible idea: The oil spreads on the ashes and smoke, and if it gets into your lungs, you’ll likely end up in the hospital.

The Clock Is Ticking

You have about a 15minute window to wash the oil off after skin contact, Hughes cautions, although the window might be shorter in people who are more sensitive. No special soap is required. If you don’t have a ready water supply, an outdoor skin cleanser like Tecnu can be effective on its own.

Better Safe Than Sorry

Once the oil has been washed away, you can’t “catch” poison ivy from someone else; neither the rash nor the blisters contain urushiol. But the oil can be transferred from clothes, pets, or tools. For safety’s sake, Hughes has rules. “The front of truck is clean; the back is dirty,” she says. “Nothing contaminated goes in the front, ever. Anything that’s in the back, I always assume it’s dirty.”

Learn more: poisonivy removalcompany.com

For Now And Ever A

Most Unusual Gift of Love

Dear Reader,

The drawing you see above is called For Now and Ever It is completely composed of dots of ink. After writing the poem, I worked with a quill pen and placed thousands of these dots, one at a time, to create this gift in honor of the the love of two of my dearest friends.

Now, I have decided to offer For Now and Ever to those who have known and value its sentiment as well. Each litho is numbered and signed by hand and precisely captures the detail of the drawing. As an anniversary, wedding, or Valentine’s gift for your husband or wife, or for a special couple within your circle of friends, I believe you will find it most appropriate.

Measuring 14" by 16", it is available either fully-framed in a subtle copper tone with hand-cut double mats of pewter and rust at $135*, or in the mats alone at $95*. Please add $14.50 for insured shipping and packaging. Your satisfaction is completely guaranteed.

My best wishes are with you.

The Art of Robert Sexton • P.O. Box 581 • Rutherford, CA 94573

All major credit cards are welcomed through our website. Visa or Mastercard for phone orders. Phone (415) 989-1630 between 10 a.m.-6 P.M. PST, Monday through Saturday. Checks are welcomed; please include the title of the piece and a contact phone number on check. Or fax your order to 707-968-9000. Please allow up to 2 weeks for delivery. *California residents- please include 8.0% tax

Please visit my Web site at www.robertsexton.com

when you are not a part of me; you hold my heart; you guard my soul; you guide my dreams so tenderly. And if my will might be done, and all I long for could come true, with perfect joy I would choose to share eternity with you.”

LIGHT | UP CLOSE: THE JOHN HANCOCK TOWER

This iconic building—the tallest in New England—turns 40 this year, but it wasn’t always heralded as the modern architectural feat that it is. From its groundbreaking in 1968 to its purchase in 2010 by Boston Properties Inc., Boston’s John Hancock Tower— now branded “200 Clarendon,” after its street address—has endured a history rife with falling windows, corporate mischief, and, well, let’s say a

The tower’s signature glass windows reflect the sky above and the city below, creating a stunning visual amid Boston’s historic buildings. John Hancock Mutual Insur ance, which commissioned the 790-foot tower, had been located in the Back Bay for some time, along with fellow insurance giant Prudential. When Prudential dwarfed the old John Hancock building with its 52-story tower in 1964, John Hancock countered with its 60-story rebuttal just a few years later.

Henry N. Cobb, a native Boston architect with I. M. Pei & Partners, reportedly designed the Modernist-style tower in less than two months in the fall of 1967. Cobb has had an illustrious career in the ensuing years, but he didn’t set foot in the building for nearly 20 years after storming out one day, angry over the inter nal renovations and calling it “wrecked.”

Construction woes hampered the project from the beginning. When excavating for the foundation, something in the bedrock shifted, causing cracks in nearby buildings and ruptures in utility lines. Neighboring Trinity Church sued for (and won) $11.6 million in damages. It was only the first in a series of setbacks that would put the project five

years behind schedule and $100 million over budget.

On the night of January 20, 1973, 75 mph winds widened microscopic cracks in the brittle upper-floor windows, beginning a two-year-long cascade of glass onto the streets

below. No one was hurt, thanks to the watchful eyes of binocular-equipped lookouts in Copley Square (who were paid $4.05 an hour for their service). Ultimately, only 65 windows fell, but all of the building’s 10,344 windows had to be replaced, to the tune of

$7 million. In the meantime, the gaps were covered with plywood, from which the nickname “Plywood Palace” (one of the project’s nicer monikers) stemmed.

The old windows that didn’t meet a bitter end on Boston’s sidewalks were later sold to various buyers and have wound up in antiques shops and as works of fine art all over the country. They’re also popular as coffee-table tops.

The tower’s signature rhomboid shape also caused some headaches. After reports that the building swayed too much in high winds, Cobb sent for Swiss engineer Bruno Thurlimann. His 1975 report concluded that the tower was at serious risk of toppling over sideways (like a book falling over on its spine instead of its cover), and so 1,650 tons of extra steel reinforcements were installed, for $5 million.

Although it might once have been a joke among architects and Boston residents, the building formerly known as the John Hancock Tower has become one of the city’s best-loved structures. Cobb’s innovative and risky design laid the groundwork for some of the 20th century’s most prolific architectural masterpieces, the rewriting of sections of the city’s build ing codes, and a revolution in structural engineering. As the New York Times wrote of the tower in 1988, perhaps echoing the words of another New England icon: “The real lesson in the long Hancock tale is that it reminds us of the rewards that can eventu ally come to those who pursue a different road.”

—Heather Tourgee

The GUIDE HOME

A Gingerbread Cottage REBORN

BY LINDSAY TUCKER

PHOTOGRAPHS BY NAT REA • STYLING BY BETTE TROY ILLUSTRATION AND TYPE BY ANDERSON NEWTON DESIGN

ucked between the kitschy chaos of Circuit Avenue and the breezy shores of Oak Bluffs Harbor, Wesleyan Grove feels like a world apart. Its Technicolor gingerbread cottages line maze-like paths, all leading to a village green anchored by an openair tabernacle. It’s a place as anachronistic as it is charming, a postcard for the simpler life, free from busy streets and the bustle of commerce. But walk a few hundred yards from Trinity Park and chances are you’ll find Kathryn Allen at work on her 1871 cottage, a labor of love that has been anything but simple, even if the results are so serene.

Allen, a writer and editor who hails from upstate New York, purchased the three-bedroom house as a summer home for her family in the fall of 2012. Dubbed “Hunter Cottage” for its exterior “gingerbread” trim depicting a hunter shooting a rabbit, the sunny retreat had ample curb appeal. Inside, though, it looked more like a dilapidated hoarder’s

den. To save money, she and her partner, Dick Miller, decided to do all the work themselves. But the home needed much more than just a fresh coat of paint. “It was in complete disrepair,” Allen says. “And it was packed—wall to wall, floor to ceiling—with old, broken stuff.”

Of course in a house full of trash there are bound to be treasures, and as Allen began sorting, “making a zillion trips to the dump,” she set aside special evidence of her home’s rich history: posters of the 1884 presidential candidates, a 1903 typewriter, lovely antique china, and perfectly preserved 1920s toiletries. “I wanted to maintain the integrity of its past,” she says.

Allen kept as much of the original furniture as was salvageable, giving pieces gentle facelifts where she saw fit. Other items were repurposed to find new life: Kitchen cabinetry was sanded and reused; an antique ice chest doubles as dining-room storage; a bow rake with

a

A Martha’s Vineyard summer home provides a window to the island’s storied past.

OPPOSITE : At home in Oak Bluffs’ historic Wesleyan Grove neighborhood, Dick Miller and Kathryn Allen take a break on the porch of “Hunter Cottage,” which they renovated themselves, retaining many of the 1871 home’s original features, furnishings, and artifacts.

OPPOSITE : Antique china is tucked into the kitchen’s original cabinets. THIS PAGE , CLOCKWISE FROM TOP : Carpenter Gothic–style French doors and windows—and paper lanterns from Illumination Nights past—lend the living room unique charm; the bathroom vanity was created from a repurposed bureau and painted a rich shade of blue; bright-blue and sage-green accents welcome guests to a cozy upstairs bedroom

A magical evening … Every August, residents of Wesleyan Grove, founded in the mid-19th century as a Methodist campground, hang colorful paper lanterns to celebrate Grand Illumination Night, a tradition that dates back to 1869.

A Fairytale Village by the Sea

The vibrant cottages of Wesleyan Grove are known for their “Carpenter Gothic” architecture: Victorian with both Romanesque and Gothic Revival details, such as tall, narrow windows and round or pointed doors and arches. Funky patterns of jigsaw scrollwork (the “gingerbread”) hang from the balconies and the eaves.

The Oak Bluffs community of cottages grew out of the 19thcentury religious camp-meeting movement, first introduced by Presbyterians and Southern Baptists and later perfected by the Methodists of New England in the early 1800s. These gatherings were seen as opportunities to purify body and soul, living close to nature in a state of near-constant prayer. Worshipers from far and wide came to participate in preaching and prayer and to sleep under the stars.

The first camp meeting was held here in 1835, and attendance rapidly grew into the thousands in the following years. Congregants bunked in large canvas tents arranged in a semicircle in what is today Trinity Park. Eventually, families began leasing small plots for their own individual tents.

By the summer of 1858, wooden buildings were popping up among the hundreds of tents, and a year later the first cottages appeared. The Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association was established in 1868, after a group of trustees purchased the grounds for $1,300. Over the following decade, the grounds continued to expand, as more and more permanent cottages were built. In just over 50 years, Wesleyan Grove grew into a village of famed gingerbread cottages and a cherished New England historic site.

broken handle became a one-of-a-kind wine rack. A large, ominous bureau was dismantled and repainted a custom blue to create a vanity for the upstairs bathroom, Allen’s “pride and joy.”

Outside, Allen was lucky to inherit a comparatively large patio, by Wesleyan standards. An L-shaped courtyard is just big enough to house a picnic table, yet it’s small enough to require minimal upkeep. Fresh fish and island-grown vegetables are always available for a quick-and-easy dinner, Allen says, “but Friday night usually finds us ordering take-out lobster rolls from a nearby church.” Everything the family needs is just a short walk away: the ferry, the grocery store, the hardware store, a movie theater. “And it takes all of 60 seconds to walk down to the harbor to watch the sunset,” she notes.

It’s the old-fashioned nature of the

entertainment centers around reading, board games, puzzles, cocktails on the porch, or chatting with neighbors and tourists as they walk by,” she says. And every Wednesday a community sing echoes through the campground, creating a sense of camaraderie.

But the campground’s most magical night of the year—Grand Illumination Night, open to the public—is held annually on the third Wednesday of August (August 17 this year). This special event dates back to 1869, when residents hung paper lanterns from the eaves of their porches, and it still serves as a fund raiser for the Martha’s Vineyard Camp ground Association today. Each year, the community sing comes to a close with a lighting ceremony as the entire Grove is lit up at once with colorful Asian-style paper lanterns, some as old as the cottages

“The lanterns stay with the house,” explains Allen, who has five originals in her possession.

This summer marks Allen’s fourth Illumination Night in her cottage, but she’ll never forget the warmth of her very first one. That morning, a welcome committee came by with a gift basket containing a campground songbook, a directory of residents, a history of the cottage and the campground, and a very special hand-lettered lantern inscribed Allen • 1st Illumination • 2013

“It was so unexpected. It reminded me of my childhood, when Welcome Wagon visits to new people in the neighborhood were common,” Allen recalls. “And then the whole night was marked by euphoria and also a sense of How does one take it all in? ”

Check out our Vineyard itinerary at:

This summer, Eric Holch’s artwork will once again return to a gallery on the Old South Wharf, just a short walk from the ferry landing.

THE VIBRANT LANDSCAPES OF Eric Holch

Nantucket’s best-known printmaker captures a world of eternal summer.

BY ANNIE GRAVES

antucket weather catapults across the 30-mile stretch of water off Hyannis and changes as abruptly as a teenager’s mood. High winds can ground the ferry—as it has on my first attempt to visit printmaker Eric Holch—making appointment-keeping a dicey proposition. When the Hy-Line finally does take off the next day for the one-hour crossing from Cape Cod, we see gray skies the color of pewter, an impressive squall that literally spits precipitation, and sudden, radiant sun.

“We make it an event when we’re stranded in Hyannis and the ferry doesn’t run,” says Holch when he meets me at the landing. We stroll next door to the Old South Wharf, where he points out five different galleries that have featured his work since 1978. Most are predictably small and adorable; one is a former scallop shucker’s shanty. Then we head up Main Street’s sweep of wobbly cobblestones to his home and studio at 5 Pine Street, a short walk away. “This is my morning commute,” he grins.

Weather figures prominently in Holch’s dazzling Nantucket summerscapes. Brilliant, bold serigraphs—silkscreen artworks as colorful as tropical birds—these are the idealized landscapes of summer dreams. A place where Adirondack chairs always face the sea and white sails skim the water. Where gray-shingled cottages soak up the Nantucket sun, lighthouses stand like sentinels, and skies are deep, deep blue. They don’t get any bluer.

Born in 1948 in Andover, Massachusetts, Holch grew up spending summers on Nantucket; his mother was an artist, and he recalls his parents requiring every houseguest to create a painting: “Painting and looking at landscapes was part of my youth. They would all head down to the wharf and paint the same scene. You never knew what you’d get. Some would paint the overall scene; some, one little piece of it. Everyone saw it differently.”

One look in particular would influence the future artist: a stylized print by well-known Nantucket

print maker Bobby Bushong, called Fall, that Holch’s father gave him when he was 15. But for decades Holch put his artistic talents to work in advertising, eventually starting his own agency, while simultaneously working on his own paintings, until one day something clicked.

“This is the painting that started it all,” Holch says, pointing out his Summer Solstice , painted in 1974 and given pride of place in the crow’s-nest studio on the top floor of his handsome house, which he speculates maybe “belonged to someone like the bosun’s mate—not fancy, but a nice house.” The painting, from the point of view of a stark white porch, looks out to horizontal bands of color: pale sand, darkblue sea, lighter-blue sky. A brightyellow towel drapes over the porch railing. Simple and evocative, it looks like a silkscreen print, but it’s not.

“I had no idea how to do silkscreening,” Holch confesses. “I found someone who knew how and learned from her. I made a print based on this painting.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARY HAZLEGROVE

July 1989: Twenty-seven years ago, a Holch design, from his 28”x34” serigraph called Grand Afternoon, graced the cover of Yankee

Quality Solid Wood

100%

It sold out and won all kinds of awards.” He became hooked on the process of sketching the preliminaries, working out the composition, cutting stencils for each individual color, and then printing layer upon layer—a process that can take up to four months for a large, complex print. Eventually Holch’s “hobby” began to catch up with the income from his 9-to-5 advertising job. Licensing agreements included jigsaw puzzles in Japan, dinner plates, and ties for Allyn Neckwear (Rainbow Fleet is still a best-seller).

Holch pages through several small square notebooks filled with enchanting sketches, some dashed off, others diminutive and tidy. “Silkscreen is

the perfect medium for me,” he says. “You’re forced to simplify. You can do a lot, but you can’t do everything. I happen to like that. I like to get to the essence of what I’m looking at.”

The essence is, of course, Nantucket, whose population swells from 10,000 to 60,000 in the summertime. Besides original limited-edition prints, Holch has done 30 posters of the island, each capturing something iconic. “I’m always just very aware of how beautiful Nantucket is,” he says. “You saw my commute—it’s spectacular. We’ve been all around the world— I love coming back here. You walk around town … then something gets you and you just have to sketch it.”

In season, see Eric Holch’s work at 9 Old South Wharf; by appointment at his in-home gallery at 5 Pine Street (508228-7654); or online at ericholch.com. Miniatures (3½ x 5) $60; posters around $210; larger pieces $2,000.

‘I like to get to the essence of what I’m looking at.’

For

The House with an Indoor Privy

f course there are now four bathrooms in this historic 21-room Colonial, and, happily, they’re all indoors. But before we describe our recent visit, we want you to understand that we’re talking about Hancock, Massachusetts—not Hancock, New Hampshire, or Vermont, or New York, or Maine, or any of the many other Hancocks in the United States. This one is in the Berkshires—just a 20-minute drive to, say, Tanglewood and all the other cultural attractions for which the Berkshires are famous. We should mention, too, that the ski resort known as Jiminy Peak, open year-round, is but five minutes away, as is historic Hancock Shaker Village. The actual Shakers are long gone, but there’s a lovely working farm there, in addition to a museum and 20 historic buildings, including the first-in-the-nation round barn. (It’s open daily from 10:00 to 5:00 through October. 413-443-0188; hancockshakervillage.org)

If we’d driven another 50 yards or so beyond the driveway of the 1767 property we’d come to see, we’d have found ourselves in New York State. In fact, to reach downtown Hancock, some Hancock residents have to actually go out of state.

Greeting us that day on the lengthy front porch was the third family to own this property since 1767. Amazing to realize that the first family here, the Caleb Gardners, had to live under the rule of Great Britain’s King George III! Anyway, we were greeted by Ben Szalewicz (pronounced sal-o-wits); his wife of some 24 years, Kelly; their four children (Emma, 15; Clara, 12; Jacob, 8; Evan, 3); and Lady, their dog. Ben, an architect, worked for Bennington College for a while but recently accepted a position at Salem (Massachusetts) State College, which is why they’ve recently had to move to the North Shore. This month, the house, garage, barn, and four lovely acres are on the market for $479,000.

Yankee likes to mosey around and see, out of editorial curiosity, what you can turn up when you go house hunting. We have no stake in the sale whatsoever and would decline it if offered.

In 1767 it was also the very first indoor privy in the town of Hancock, Massachusetts …

Yes, they find it a bit sad to be leaving. During the seven years they’ve been here, they’ve enjoyed painting some of the rooms; restoring the 1837 wallpaper in the second-floor hallway; opening up and/or restoring the seven fireplaces, including the meat smoker built into the side of the chimney in the master bedroom (one of seven bedrooms); and tending the perennial gardens, fruit trees, berry bushes, and asparagus bed. (One of their gardens is over the border in New York State!)

We eventually managed to walk through all 21 rooms, including the 1767 wing, with the kitchen, various rooms added in 1797, and those about 1820. And, of course, we had to see the original indoor privy, as well as another in the bright-yellow attached barn. Why yellow? Well, Ben told us, because that was the color the Shakers always painted their barns. As to the privy— a three-holer—it’s really still there.

Incidentally, until Ben and Kelly came along and made it a one-family home, this place had always been an inn, even way back. In fact, next to the

OPPOSITE : Now on the market, this 21-room Colonial was once a stagecoach stop on the road from Albany, New York, to Williamstown, Massachusetts. THIS PAGE , CLOCKWISE FROM TOP : The home’s original indoor privy; owners Ben Szalewicz and his wife, Kelly, with their children (Evan, 3; Clara, 12; Jacob, 8; and Emma, 15, with Lady); the modern kitchen in the 1767 wing; the dining room, with one of the home’s seven fireplaces.

The Szalewiczes are only the third family to own this property since it was built in the 18th century.

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road out front, Ben showed us a large concrete stepping stone—it must weigh a ton—that guests used as they climbed up into their carriages. The inn was a stagecoach stop on the route from Albany, New York, to Williamstown, Massachusetts, and then, we assume, on to Boston—and, of course, back again to Albany. In more-recent years, the second family to own the property ran it as the “Kirkmead Bed & Breakfast.” Their advertising brochure stated: “Each air- conditioned guest room has its own private bath.”

Before taking our leave, we walked around the four acres with Ben and Kelly, admiring the views of Jiminy Peak and the surrounding hills; then we proceeded across the road and along a woodsy path until, suddenly, we came to a fenced-in cemetery with surprisingly large and dramatic - looking gravestones, a couple of which marked the graves of the Caleb Gardners, the original owners. Of course, in those days some country people simply buried their own on their own properties.

On the way home to Dublin, New Hampshire, later that day, we paid a visit to the famous Clark Art Institute in Williamstown and then stopped at MASS MoCA, the spectacular contemporary- art museum in North Adams. From there we proceeded up and over the Mohawk Trail, one of our favorite mountain roads.

Since then, we’ve stayed in touch with Ben, Kelly, Emma, Clara, Jacob, and Evan. Sure, Lady, too. It’s amazing to think that they’re only the third family (the first two being multigenerational) to live in the historic 250 -yearold home we visited that day. So we’re very curious to know the answer to the pressing question that they have as well—i.e., who’ll be the fourth?

For details, contact Kelly Szalewicz, P.O. Box 1148, Hancock, MA 01237; oldhouseintheberkshires@gmail.com. Read classic HFS stories from our archives at: YankeeMagazine.com/ house-for-sale

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The GUIDE FOOD

Lush blooms grace the dinner table on a bright summer’s day at Allison and Don Hooper’s farm in Brook field, Vermont. OPPOSITE , TOP : The Hoopers at home in Brookfield. Allison is the cofounder, with business partner Bob Reese, of Ayers Brook Goat Dairy and Vermont Creamery; Don is a former Vermont state legis lator and National Wildlife Federation representative.

for

Recipe SUCCESS

Do goats hold the key to Vermont’s dairy future?

BY AMY TRAVERSO

ON A WET EARLY-SUMMER DAY IN VERMONT, THE 4-MONTHold kids at Ayers Brook Goat Dairy line up at a fence in the big barn, curious about a new group of visitors, eager and winsome, bringing to mind golden-retriever puppies on stilts. When Allison Hooper—a partner in the operation and, as co-founder of Vermont Creamery, the state’s bestknown cheesemaker—steps into their pen, they bound over, rooting in pockets for a treat, rising on hind legs for a scratch. Her reaction is mostly unsentimental—Ayers Brook has nearly 500 head to manage, and Hooper is scanning them for signs of sore mouth, a highly contagious, though not particularly dangerous, viral infection that herd manager René De Leeuw has been treating in some kids, now quarantined— but yes, she’ll admit that they’re cute. Cute and demanding.

Case in point: Goats don’t like to get wet. They’re not grazers, like cows, eating any vegetation at ground level. They’re

browsers, gleaning choice leaves, bark, and stems, preferring hay to grass. Mostly “they like to be indoors,” Hooper says. “They can go outside, they hang out, but when they’re eating, they’re inside.” No long, lazy days on Vermont’s green hillsides for these divas. They’re smart, stubborn, and disease-prone. And yet Hooper believes that the future of Vermont dairy should rest—at least in part—on more goat farms.

To that end, Vermont Creamery and Evergreen Conservation Partners, a consortium of agriculturally minded private foundations, purchased the former Hodgdon farm in Randolph, Vermont—30 minutes down I-89 from the Creamery’s headquarters in Websterville—to create a model goat dairy. They did this not merely to provide milk for their own operation, but to develop best practices, to improve genetic stock, and to demonstrate to other farmers and to students that goats represent a viable alternative to cows in a landscape where milking 100 head of cattle no longer guarantees a living wage. “Those original family homesteads with 100 acres don’t provide enough land to feed the number of cows farmers now need to be at scale,” Hooper says. “If you could say to that farmer, ‘If you milked 500 goats, you could harvest the feed on your 100-acre farm,’ I think we can build that story and connect them with investors who want to be helpful.” With everything they’re learning at Ayers Brook, the team hopes to create a more-level path for future farmers.

The demand for the milk is already established. Vermont Creamery, which began in 1984 as an experiment with co-founder Bob Reese, now produces nearly 4 million pounds of product annually: fresh chèvre in many forms, aged

Photographs by HEATH ROBBINS

Food and Prop Styling by CATRINE KELTY

Sweet-faced, ever-curious goats check out the visitors at the Ayers Brook dairy in Randolph, Vermont.

goat’s-milk cheeses such as Coupole (a 2014 Yankee Food Award winner) and Bijou, as well as cow’s-milk products like crème fraîche and cultured butter. To feed all that production, the Creamery supplements its Ayers Brook output with milk from 17 other Vermont farms and 10 additional farms in Ontario. Hooper and Reese would prefer that it all came from Vermont. It’s where their business took root, and it’s the place they call home.

Allison’s own home is a serene 1815 Cape on a 67-acre farm that she shares with her husband, Don Hooper, a gregarious former state senator and National Wildlife Federation representative. Set on a west-facing hill, it boasts a front porch wide enough for a table and chairs and a view of the barn where Vermont Creamery first got its start.

It was an inauspicious beginning. Back in 1983, Reese was the marketing director for the state’s agriculture department. Hooper was a dairy-lab technician, a recent college grad just returned from a stint studying cheesemaking in France. Preparing for a formal dinner with the state’s Restaurant and Lodging Association, Reese asked Hooper to make 10 pounds of fresh chèvre, a rare delicacy at the time. “She saw a free dinner out of it,” Reese jokes.

“She went and sat at one of the round tables. After her course was served, a couple of chefs put their business cards in front of her and said, ‘I want to talk to you about buying some goat cheese.’”

“What should I do now?” Hooper thought. She was 23. In France, she’d seen a glimmer of a life that she wanted to replicate in Vermont. And Reese was ready for a change. So they began talking possibilities. At the time, the state had just 13 licensed dairy, ice cream, and cheese plants, down from more than 200 at the turn of the century. So they decided to gamble. Vermont Butter & Cheese was born. (The company changed its name to Vermont Creamery in 2013.)

“We were so in the weeds, so dayto-day,” Hooper says, now sitting on her porch with Bob Reese and his wife, Sandy. The Hoopers are hosting a small gathering of employees to reminisce and celebrate more than 30 years in business. “I made the cheese, we sold the cheese. Make the cheese,

sell the cheese. Collect the money, meet the payroll.” For the first four years, Hooper was “chained to a cheese vat seven days a week,” Reese says. Meanwhile, he worked from home, taking orders, marketing, making deliveries.

But their timing couldn’t have been better. As the business was growing, so was the American culinary scene and artisanal-cheese movement. Hooper might not have been the first smallbatch, European-inspired cheesemaker in the United States, or even in New England. But in addition to building the business and raising three sons, she served on the board of the American Cheese Society, helped found the Vermont Cheese Council and the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival, mentored other cheesemakers, and has had an outsized influence on American cheesemaking. As demand grew and new hires freed her from the cheese vat, Hooper became the ever-more-public face of the company, while Reese held it all together behind the scenes.

Today, Vermont Creamery’s staff includes a president (French native Adeline Druart), a team of sales reps, and a marketing manager. Hooper and Reese still keep up punishing travel schedules, but both have a bit more time to relax and entertain. “Don is

FROM LEFT : Miles Hooper and Sandy Reese help themselves to grilled salmon; herbed watermelon salad with fresh goat cheese (recipe, p. 51); quinoa salad with tomato and basil (recipe, p. 52). OPPOSITE : Grilled salmon with crème fraîche (recipe, p. 52).

Summer Berry Galette (recipe, p. 52): The essence of the season and so easy to make— the perfect way to top off a great meal.

constantly making lists of dinnerparty ideas at any time,” Hooper says. “It’s often weeknights. But I don’t worry about it. People just want to get together. We don’t fuss over making everything perfect. We just have wine and lots of great cheese.”

When the Hoopers’ son Miles, now Ayers Brook’s farm manager, arrives, everyone sits down to eat. Don pauses, wineglass in hand, always ready with a toast. “To health and wealth and time to enjoy both,” he says. “Cheers!”

The following menu presents several delicious ideas for cooking with three of the Creamery’s signature products: fresh goat cheese, butter, and crème fraîche. In keeping with the Hoopers’ style, they’re exquisitely simple. All were originally made with Vermont Creamery’s products—you’ll find them at many supermarkets, cheese shops, Whole Foods, and Wegman’s stores—but we tested them with several brands and all worked well.

HERBED WATERMELON SALAD WITH FRESH GOAT CHEESE

TOTAL TIME : 25 MINUTES ;

HANDS- ON TIME : 25 MINUTES

We love this dish for the sweet, crisp watermelon balanced with bright, fresh goat cheese, a cooling and refreshing starter on a warm day. Prepare the ingredients in advance; then toss the watermelon with dressing just before serving.

NOTE: Allison uses Vermont Creamery’s “Apricot & Thyme” crumbled goat cheese in this salad, but plain crumbled goat cheese will also work.

FOR THE SALAD:

1 4- to 5-pound seedless watermelon

1 small red onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise

4 ounces crumbled goat cheese (see “Note,” above)

2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh mint leaves

FOR THE DRESSING:

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cut the rind away from the watermelon and cut the flesh into ½-inch-thick wedges. Arrange the melon on a serving platter and sprinkle with the onion, goat cheese, and mint. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Taste and add more salt if desired. Just before serving, pour the dressing over the salad. Serve immediately. Yield: 6 servings

QUINOA SALAD

WITH TOMATO & BASIL

TOTAL TIME : 30 MINUTES ;

HANDS- ON TIME : 30 MINUTES

Gluten-free and high in protein, quinoa is a great way to add rich nutrients and fiber to your diet. Added flavors of basil, lemon, tomato, and edamame blend beautifully.

1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed

3 cups water

Juice of 1 lemon

1 cup small grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

4 ounces crumbled goat cheese

1 cup shelled edamame beans

1/4 cup diced red onion

3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine the quinoa and water in a 3- to 4-quart pot. Bring to a boil; then reduce the heat to low and cook until the grains are translucent, about 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork and cool 5 minutes; then pour into a large bowl. Add lemon juice, tomatoes, goat cheese, edamame, onion, basil, salt, and pepper, and toss to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning as desired. Serve at room temperature. Yield: 6 servings

GRILLED SALMON WITH CRÈME FRAÎCHE

TOTAL TIME : 40 MINUTES ; HANDS- ON TIME : 20 MINUTES

It may sound like a delicate dish, but this aromatic entrée holds up just fine on the grill. White wine and crème fraîche (along with salmon’s own heart-healthy fat) keep the fish moist, giving you a bit of extra insurance against overcooking.

Note: You can also cook the salmon in your oven: Arrange fillets on an oiled, foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 400° until just cooked through, 18 to 23 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets.

6 tablespoons crème fraîche

1 large shallot, minced

6 skin-on salmon fillets, about 1/2 pound each

1/4 cup white wine

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 –1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Vegetable oil (for grill grate)

Garnish: chive blossoms or minced chives

In a small bowl, stir together the crème fraîche and minced shallot. Set aside.

Next, prepare your grill for mediumhigh direct heat (about 400° on a ther-

mometer—you should be able to hold your hand 2 inches above the grill grate for about 5 seconds before you have to pull it away). Meanwhile, put the salmon fillets in a zip-top bag with the wine while the grill preheats.

When the grill is heated, remove the salmon from the bag, pat dry, and sprinkle with the salt, pepper, and cayenne. Then spread the crème fraîche mixture over each.

Oil your grill grate lightly; then place the fillets, skin side down, and cook, covered, until the fish is just cooked through (cut to check), 15 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately, garnished with chive blossoms or minced chives.

Yield: 6 servings

SUMMER BERRY GALETTE

TOTAL TIME : 2 ½ HOURS ; HANDS- ON TIME : 45 MINUTES

Seasonal fruit is the star of this galette (rustic tart) made with a rich, buttery crust. Its free-form shape spares you the trouble of transferring your dough to a pie plate and crimping the edges; simply roll it out on a piece of parchment paper and transfer that to your baking sheet. The galette gets a glossy sheen from a light coating of crème fraîche and a sprinkling of sugar. Feel free to substitute any ripe fruit of your choice, though you’ll need to adjust the amount of sugar in the filling accordingly. (For, say, a strawberry–rhubarb galette, you’d want 1/3 to ½ cup of sugar.)

Note: For best results, use a Europeanstyle butter with a higher fat content (above 85 percent, as indicated on the package).

FOR THE CRUST:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface and parchment

12 tablespoons (6 ounces) cold unsalted butter (see “Note,” above)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1/4 teaspoon table salt

Allison Hooper’s goats gather around for a good scratch (and, hopefully, treats).

1 large egg, stirred with enough water to total 1/4 cup liquid

2 tablespoons crème fraîche

FOR THE FILLING:

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries

1 cup fresh blueberries

2–4 tablespoons granulated sugar, depending on the sweetness of the fruit

First, make the crust: In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together the flour, butter, sugar, and salt until the butter breaks down into pea-sized bits. Drizzle the egg mixture into the bowl, and pulse only until the dough just comes together; don’t overmix.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead two or three times to bring it together. Form into a ball and flatten it into a disc; then wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour (up to overnight).

Preheat your oven to 375° and set a rack to the lower third position. Tear off a piece of parchment paper large enough to cover your baking sheet, dust lightly with flour, and set it on the counter. Place the dough in the middle of the parchment and roll it into a rough circle about 1/8 inch thick, sprinkling with flour as needed to prevent sticking. Transfer the parchment with the dough to your baking sheet. Arrange the fruit around the dough, leaving a 3-inch border around the edges. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar over the fruit and taste; add more sugar if needed.

Gently fold the sides of the dough up over the fruit (a bench scraper can help with this step). Brush the crème fraîche over the top of the crust and sprinkle with enough sugar to coat it thinly. Transfer the galette to the oven and bake until golden brown and bubbling, about 45 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with a dollop of crème fraîche or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yield: 8 servings

More favorite recipes at: YankeeMagazine.com/Goat-Cheese

New Gem Color

Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough

Oysters, chowder, and lobster in one of New England’s most picturesque villages.

BY AMY TRAVERSO

he tiny village of Noank, Connecticut, a south-facing peninsula at the junction of the Mystic River and Long Island Sound—once a summer camping ground for the Pequot people—is so camera-ready, so picket-fenced and cedar-shingled and nautical, it would be easy to believe that some movie crew —maybe a team of set designers from Mystic Pizza , circa 1988—built the whole thing as a fantasy New England backdrop and then simply left it standing.

Toward the end of Pearl Street, down a short hill with a view of the blue expanse of the Sound and Fisher Island beyond, a jumble of parked cars and customers breaks up the coastal calm. Here is Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough, a compound of tents, outbuildings, and the original restaurant, which has accreted additional spaces over nearly 70 years as Abbott’s popularity has grown. Here’s the walk-up order window, the indoor dining room for rainy days, the fish market stocked with lobsters in a series of saltwater tanks.

On busy weekend days, the wait for an open parking spot, let alone the line at the order window, can aggravate. But people tend to arrive happy anyway. A meal here is a mini seaside vacation offering fresh seafood and a clean ocean breeze. Most of the action takes place outside by the water, where picnic tables line both the lawn and, most temptingly, a wide dock directly over the water. Sailboats, fishing boats, yachts, and kayaks

The perfect summertime fresh-air lunch: Abbott’s succulent steamed lobster with drawn butter, plus coleslaw and chips on the side.

NOANK

PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEX GAGNE

glide by. Seagulls linger, but rows of thin wire strung above the dining areas prevent them from dive-bombing your lobster roll. And what a unique lobster roll it is: Abbott’s signature dish is done in Connecticut’s hot-with-butter style: a quarter-pound of buttered meat served on a toasted hamburger-style bun. We can’t say that we prefer this deviation over a nicely griddled toploaded type, but the round bun is their trademark. And it does allow more flexibility: The “OMG Hot Lobster Roll” piles nearly double the meat— seven ounces—between the rounds. And for lobster-salad lovers, there’s the traditional cold roll on a split bun.

But being this close to the water, we like to stick to more-elemental pleasures. Fresh oysters from nearby waters—briny Blue Points that go sweet around the edges, Abbott’s own signature variety with a nuttier flavor

like celery root—are intensely satisfying eating when the air is scented with salt and tides. Abbott’s has no liquor license, so BYOB, something dry and fruity, like a Pinot Grigio or Grüner Veltliner. Likewise, the Rhode Island–style chowder, with its clear broth base, is full-flavored and oceanic. Whole lob sters are gently steamed, split down the back, given three or four whacks to the legs for easier picking, and served with potato chips and coleslaw, with plenty of butter for dipping.

A large, multigenerational family seeking shelter from a brief shower under the big, red-striped tent watches as a son tackles a massive two-pounder. “It’s an exercise in humility,” he admits. But he’ll still have room for some ice

cream from the dessert stand opposite the main dining room. Or strawberry shortcake. Or a pumpkin-pie sundae. A sign at the window reads, Clamo; Clamatis; Omnes clamamus; Pro glace lactis. And beneath that: Si hoc legere scis, nimium eruditionis habes. “I scream; you scream; we all scream for ice cream … If you can read this, you’re overeducated.” This may be a lobster shack, but we’re in Connecticut, after all.

Prices: $3.95 for chowder; $15.95 for a lobster-salad roll; $17.95 for a signature warm lobster roll. 117 Pearl St., Noank, CT. 860-536-7719; abbottslobster.com. For our list of “Best New England Lobster Shacks,” go to: YankeeMagazine.com/ Lobster-Shacks

Looking north at sunrise, an aerial view catches Rye’s Ocean Boulevard tracing the New Hampshire coastline behind Concord Point and the beach at Wallis Sands State Park. To the west of the roadway are protected marshlands, drained by Parsons Creek.

A SHORT

with a COAST LONG STORY

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S COASTLINE ENCOMPASSES ONLY 13 MILES. A DAY’S WALK, HOWEVER, PROVES THAT IT’S LONG ON CHARACTER AND CHARACTERS.

BY JULIA SHIPLEY

Photographs

by

CARL TREMBLAY

’m walking the edge of New Hampshire from Massachusetts to Maine, and I’m having a hard go of it. The tide is in. It’s perfect for fishing boats and surfers. On the horizon I count 23 trawlers, their silhouettes like an eye chart, some with distinct prows, others faint. Closer, a cluster of surfers bask on their boards, sleek as seals in their wetsuits. However, the swells keep washing over the beach, and I’m not keen on hopping from rock to glistening rock, so for now I’ve retreated to the sidewalk between two extremes—this glittering ocean off my right shoulder, and off my left, the rumbling engines of Route 1A—the coast-hugging road with its current of summer traffic.

Others intent on enjoying America’s shortest coastline, regardless of tideline, are also improvising. One bikini-clad woman has abandoned her chair by the seawall and climbed atop it to read her novel. Another sunbather, undeterred,

has planted his chair amid the mere inch of beach and inscribed CHEF’S DAY OFF in the slaked sand beside it. Farther on, a young couple pauses beside their pushcart of gear to gaze at the mesmerizing unfurling of surf.

New Hampshire’s coast is only 13 miles long, the shortest of all 23 states bordering an ocean. Even if you toss in the Isles of Shoals, a group of islands about 8 miles off the Rye shore, half of which belong to New Hampshire, their combined 5 miles of oceanfront boosts New Hampshire’s lump sum only to 18 miles—a drop in the bucket compared with Maine’s 228 miles, Massachusetts’ 192 miles, or even Rhode Island’s 40. (And we’re talking just “general coastline” here. If you take these states’ many islands, bays, and so on into account, their “tidal shorelines” encompass hundreds more miles.) Yet, lest you imagine New Hampshire’s petite landfall as one contiguous sandy swath, I can attest that it’s not.

Approaching the New Hampshire Seacoast region from the south, as I did, arriving by a side street in the border town of Salisbury, Massachusetts, and following a slender footpath through the dunes to where the Atlantic Ocean nuzzles the North American continent, you’ll meet the first of several beaches tucked between rocky promontories— a score of unique sites, like the beads and pendants of a necklace.

Venturing north from the Massachusetts border there’s Seabrook Beach and Beckman’s Point; followed by the Mile-Long Bridge over the Hampton River to populous, hopping Hampton Beach; which is followed by Great Boar’s Head, and North Beach, and Plaice Cove, and North Hampton State Beach; then Little Boar’s Head, Fox Hill Point, and the crescent of Bass Beach; followed by Philbrick Beach and Sawyer’s Beach, which drifts into Jenness State Beach; then Cable Beach, and Locke’s Neck, and Ragged

In Odiorne Point State Park, Rye, late-afternoon visitors stroll Monument Way along a rocky stretch just northwest of the Seacoast Science Center.

Neck Point, and Rye Harbor; on to Foss Beach and Concord Point; along Wallis Sands and Odiorne Point, with still more coast to cover, if time and tide are on your side.

For my day’s walk, I’ve come equipped with a pair of sneakers tied together by their laces and slung over my shoulders, and socks stuffed into my satchel. Also, I carry a map, a clementine, a quarter-pound of trail mix, a bottle of water, sunscreen, and a pad and pen. When you’re walking the beach, miles seem like a strange form of measurement. Better to walk toward something big looming in the distance, and reach it and rest, and then pick something else and walk to it, and then pick another, and another …

Since early this morning I’ve been meeting each place this way, one step at a time, by eyeing a distant landmark— the Mile-Long Bridge over the Hampton River, and from the bridge to The Surf, a five-story condominium overlooking Hampton Beach. And from The Surf to the snout of Great Boar’s Head. I continue setting out again for

rocky outcrops, a distant flagpole, the crescent tip of a beach, a cluster of fishing shacks, then stalking off in its direction. Upon reaching it, I rest, and then shove off again, learning along the way that this short coastline has a long story.

In 1888 historian and Hampton Beach native Lucy Dow described New Hampshire’s disparate coastal terrain in her book Beautiful Place of Pines. She portrays “the waves … [throwing themselves upon] a rampart of rocks, stretching far northward, and forming, in all ordinary weather, an effectual barrier,” in contrast to the tempting beaches where “one has but to lie prone … with umbrellas spread for protection from the sun and wind, and look down upon the dancing, flashing waves sweeping shoreward … till the roar tones into a gentle murmur and sky and wave and shore melt together in misty vision under closed eyelids.”

Wherever the beach ends and the cliffs or rocky spits begin, I hit the pavement. I wish it were contiguous, but coursing northward, I feel as though

I’m following as best I can the sea’s bite marks, the shore’s serrations. I trek across wet sand, sidewalk, and rock, much of which is now managed as seven state properties—Hampton Beach State Park, North Beach, North Hampton State Beach, Jenness State Beach, Rye Harbor State Park, Wallis Sands State Park, and Odiorne Point State Park—which are interspersed among town beaches.

Native Americans called this shoreline region “Winnicunnet,” meaning, “beautiful place of pines.” According to Dow, this coast was “an unbroken wilderness trodden only by savages” who “lay basking in the sun upon the sands, or launched their frail canoes and shot out fearlessly over the billows.” In 1974, archaeologists from the University of New Hampshire excavated a mile or so inland along the Hampton River and found bones, shells, tools, stone weapons, and clay pots—evidence that led them to surmise that this coast has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years.

As I descend from the sidewalk back to the sand and make my way amid the throngs on Hampton Beach,

Food shops of every description await summer patrons along Ocean Boulevard in the village of Hampton Beach.

We beachgoers are, year after year, day after day, a corresponding tide, arriving in waves, spilling across the sand.

I pass a 5-year-old with a tousle of red hair murmuring to himself, “Nothing can destroy this.” I stop to watch as he overturns his bucket of packed sand and carefully lifts it, revealing a stout fortress. High tide is just beginning to recede, and his declaration is, if not entirely accurate, at least in tune with the town’s spirit.

Hampton, one of New Hampshire’s four oldest towns, celebrated its 375th anniversary in 2013. Two miles inland from this child’s castle, there’s a rock dedicated to the 1638 founders who “settled in the wilderness … to plant a free church in a free town.”

I wonder how those founding families—the Foggs and the Batchelders, the Moultons and the Laphreys, the Gookins and the Philbricks—would feel about their enduring town’s unfree parking. In 1956, to offset the cost of constructing a 3,300-foot-long sea wall stretching from Hampton Beach to Great Boar’s Head and another bit from Great Boar’s Head to the end of North Beach, 2,300 beachfront parking meters were installed, and remain today—one thing I needn’t worry about as I hoof it north.

At first, the day is cloudy, the sun caught in a net of high clouds. Later, the clouds wear off, the day grows bright and clear, and as I walk I observe hundreds of people fully spread out on their towels or in their recumbent chairs, basking like morsels on a cocktail napkin, offering themselves, it seems, to the sky itself. Meanwhile, the surf pushes and pulls on shore, a soft rowdiness.

I keep thinking, That’s Spain across the way. Other than the Isles of Shoals, it’s the next place out there, and the waves have come all the way over to fall on our shore.

Which sounds like I’m getting a bit precious, except: Way up ahead, on the far side of Jenness, there’s Cable Beach, named for the transatlantic telegraph cable laid down here across the seafloor in the summer of 1874, connecting this bit of Rye coast up to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, and thence across to Ballinskelligs Bay, County Kerry, Ireland. And oh, the messages this wristthick cable has carried across 3,104 miles

Looking south toward the curve of Wallis Sands, marked by rocks at either end.

Out on Ragged Neck at Rye Harbor State Park, two boys spend an afternoon looking for crabs and other shoreline critters.

of ocean. I learn that during the lowest of tides, you might glimpse vestiges of the old cable snaking through the “Sunken Forest,” where an ancient conifer grove once stood, before the glaciers of the last Ice Age sheared them away.

By the time I reach Jenness State Beach, morning has ebbed into afternoon, and now the tide is out. Generously out. It’s as if the sea has courteously moved over to accommodate the influx of people who are vying for places to spread their towels, unpack their gear and lie prone to misty visions. Along my journey between firm sidewalk back to doughy sand, I’ve passed shell gatherers, plucking finds as though recovering pieces of a shattered vase, and stone pickers raking the pebbles around with their toes to churn up the best ones.

I’ve come upon John, a State Parks employee wearing a yellow polo shirt with his name badge; he’s tweezing bits of plastic and paper with his reacher/ gripper, and plunging them into his trash sack. And Lance, the lifeguard, whose 9-to-5 involves manning one of the 18 highchairs spread out over miles of sand. And Gloria and Marsha, sisters in their late fifties, who’ve been returning to this shortest coast all their lives—first as children, later as young mothers, and now, “just chillin’.” Marsha says of their beachgoing habit, “We come in with the tide and we go out with the tide.”

I meet Ed, a retired steelworker, whose self-assigned duty is picking up after the public. On sunny days and on rainy ones, he walks the amber expanse, packing detritus into his garbage bag. “How bad?” I ask. “You wouldn’t believe what people leave,” he tells me. “Dirty diapers, juice boxes, a lot of plastic.”

Considering what might be found, the most material I’ve encountered is dark wisps of seaweed, which centuries ago was a commodity in such demand that the town of Hampton posted an ordinance in 1883 announcing that it would prosecute anyone who took it from the shore under cover of darkness. Meanwhile, the only warnings I find on my foray north are the yellow flags luffing by the lifeguard’s chair. “We always hang them,” Lance says. “Yellow means

moderate danger—which is true, there’s always danger—but there’s no rip[tide] today.” That, and the metal sign at Northside Park warning beachgoers not to mess with the seals as they “haul out on the beach to rest.”

Yet in lieu of litter and danger and seaweed stealers, at intervals I find items that seem to epitomize the spirit of this place. For example, there’s a single sandal with silver straps nestled in the sand, as if it had switched allegiances from the foot to the shore.

Farther on I spot a shiny red tricycle resting all alone by the seawall. Its tassels spray from the handlebar ends and pedals spread on either side of the front tire. Just three steps down from the wall, where the surf-infused cobbles make a skittling sound as the water recedes, the tricycle rider is meeting the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps for the first time, as her father bends over her and lifts her up each time a wave kisses her shins.

And then there’s a yellow toy shovel

lying facedown in the gravel parking lot of Rye Harbor State Park, which also contains a granite obelisk celebrating Captain John Smith, who mapped this coastline on his voyage 400 years ago and gave it a name: “New England.” Could he ever have imagined all of us here today, playing, lifeguarding, picking up trash? I’m startled at how close I’ve come to the beginning of this country; inspired by Smith’s voyage, the Pilgrims sailed six years later. Smith described this continent as a place where a person who could use “a pick axe and a spade” would fare better than “five knights.” And by consequence, I suppose, he anticipated the small hand of the boy who recently plied this yellow shovel.

I’ve paused upon a granite bench inscribed Cherish this day, and, having peeled the rind off my clementine, I’m savoring each segment. Ahead of me lies Wallis Sands State Park, a former lifesaving station; Odiorne Point State

THIS PAGE : Sunrise at Jenness State Beach in Rye finds a surfer already hitting the waves. OPPOSITE : Surfers pose along the North Beach wall off Ocean Boulevard in Hampton.

Park, with its remnants of gun turrets from World War II; the Seacoast Science Center, with its extremely rare orange lobster; Wentworth by the Sea, the grand hotel on New Castle Island, where Japanese and Russian delegates stayed while meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt’s representatives in Portsmouth to hammer out a peace treaty in 1905; and still farther on, the bridge leading to Kittery, Maine.

But those are a few hours and thousands of steps away. I think of Marsha’s observation—“We come in with the tide and we go out with the tide”—and how we beachgoers are, year after year, day after day, a corresponding tide, arriving in waves as we fill up parking spaces, spill across the sand with towels and umbrellas, brim against the water’s edge. We flow into these unique parcels of our country’s shortest coast.

And then, eventually, we stand up, brush off the sand, collect our buckets, trundle our surfboards, scoop up the tricycle, stash the sandal—and take one last look at the mesmerizing surf unscrolling on shore. Then we, the high tide of humans, begin to trickle back out. Or, in my case, keep strolling north.

More images of people and places at: YankeeMagazine.com/NH-SeacoastPhotos. For contact information and great advice on what to do, where to eat, and where to stay, go to: YankeeMagazine .com/NH-Seacoast-Activities

Yankee’s food editor goes on the road to find 10 CLASSICS NOT TO MISS in 2016!

Trained in Tuscany, Morano Gelato founder Megan Morano has been handcrafting this dense and flavorful Italian ice cream since 2010. Her award-winning recipe is made fresh on site every morning at shops in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

TOP 10

DISHES

WORTH TRAVELING FOR THIS SUMMER

BY AMY TRAVERSO

very restaurant has its signature dish—that special source of chefly pride promoted by servers whenever a customer asks, “What’s good?” And then there are the truly great plates that take on lives of their own.

To the delight (or chagrin) of the kitchen, they go viral, achieve tenure, and can never, ever, come off the menu.

They turn customers into proselytizers. Tell one such fan that you’re headed to Maine for the weekend and he or she will lean in in missionary zeal: “You have to stop at my favorite place for the chowder,” you’ll hear. “Food of the gods. It’s just an hour or so out of your way if you take exit 45 …” We’ve done such testifying ourselves, and over many trips and tastings have amassed a list of can’t-miss foods from each of New England’s six states.

Here, in no particular order, we present 10 of these dishes, chosen with a diversity of places and price points in mind. They’re all menu regulars, so you can expect that they’ll be there whenever you are. Keep them in mind when you hit the road this summer. They’re all worth a detour.

VERMONT

MUSHROOM TOAST HEN OF THE WOOD Waterbury + Burlington

Sometimes the simplest things are the most memorable. Here it’s toasted bread (made at Red Hen Baking Company from Vermontgrown wheat) topped with house-cured bacon, hen-ofthe-woods mushrooms, and an oozy, creamy poached egg that forms a mushroomscented sauce when pierced. It’s the best breakfast you’ve ever eaten for dinner. Price: $14. 92 Stowe St., Waterbury; 802-244-7300. 55 Cherry St., Burlington; 802-540-0534. henofthewood.com

PINT OF “FRYS” AL’S FRYS South Burlington

Fans have been lining up for these beauties since Al and Genevieve Rusterholz first opened their shop in 1948. Ben and Jerry love them; UVM students live on them. Prince Edward Island–grown russet potatoes are sliced and prepped on site and fried in a blend of beef fat and canola oil to crisp-on-theoutside, fluffy-on-the-inside perfection. Price: $2; 58 per pint. 1251 Williston Road. 802-862-9203; alsfrenchfrys.com

KINDRA CLINEFF (GELATO)

NEW HAMPSHIRE

CROISSANTS HILLTOP CAFÉ

Wilton

When Christie and Ben Reed moved to New Hampshire from Portland, Oregon, they missed the café scene of their hometown. So they opened their own spot in a white farmhouse on the idyllic Temple–Wilton Community Farm. Through trial and error, Christie discovered that she had a knack for turning out fantastic croissants: buttery, yeasty, and so crisp on the outside that they seem to shatter with each bite. Order them plain or with sweet or savory fillings. Price: from $2.75 each. 195 Isaac Frye Highway. 603-654-2223; hilltopcafenh.com

DARK-CHOCOLATE GELATO MORANO GELATO

Hanover

Megan Morano spent six years in Tuscany learning the gelato craft before opening her first parlor. The flavors are all sublime, but dark chocolate stands out for its silky, almost pudding-like texture, and a taste that encompasses the whole spectrum of chocolate: nuts, fruit, caramel, coffee. (Good news for flatlanders: This past year, the company opened a second location, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.) Price: $3.25 for a small serving. 57 South Main St. 603-643-4233; moranogelato.com

MASSACHUSETTS

TAGLIATELLE BOLOGNESE SPORTELLO

Boston

A great Bolognese sauce is all about patient layering: sweating the onion, celery, and carrots; browning the meat; simmering everything in liquid for a couple of hours; finishing with butter or other dairy. Barbara Lynch’s recipe takes it all a step further, combining pork, lamb, veal, and chicken livers for meaty rich ness, plus two kinds of stock, red wine, cream, and butter. Tossed with fresh tagliatelle and fried basil leaves, it’s the Platonic ideal of pasta. Price: $24. 348 Congress St. 617-7371234, sportelloboston.com

STUFFED CLAM

PJ’S

Wellfleet

PJ’s massive menu and peppy slogan—“Where there’s some

thing for everyone!”—could scare off serious seafood lovers, but they’d be mistaken. As the steady crowds attest, the quality here is excellent (making up for the unscenic U.S. Route 6 setting). The zingy stuffed clam (a.k.a. “stuffie”) is a savory

Wilton

In the current craze for desserts in jars, deconstructed classics, and haute junk food, it’s easy to forget the timeless appeal of a classic soufflé, expertly executed and served with a gush of cocoa-scented steam at the table. So come to this most charming spot, located in a refurbished schoolhouse, to remember why the French remain the masters of the dessert table. Price: $22. 34 Cannon Road. 203-834-9816; schoolhouse atcannondale.com

RHODE ISLAND

JAMESTOWN FISH COOKPOT JAMESTOWN FISH

Jamestown

Consider it Rhody’s own take on bouillabaisse or cioppino, a rich stew combining white fish and bivalves in a spicy tomato-based broth. But chef Matthew MacCartney creates his own signature flavors with the addition of lobster (half a hard-shell), mussels, scallops, clams, saffron, Pernod, and chouriço, among other ingredients. Served with grilled bread to mop up the juices, it’s the ultimate coastal feast. Price: $39. 14 Narragansett Ave. 401-423-3474; jamestownfishri.com

CAN’T-MISS FOODS NEWEVERYFROM STATEENGLAND

MAINE

THE HAND SLAB SLAB: SICILIAN STREET FOOD Portland

Neapolitan-style thin-crust pizza may be all the rage, but one bite of Stephen Lanzalotta’s thick Sicilian pies will turn your head. The oilenriched crust is so tender and lofty, we suspect there’s a crew of well-muscled angels in the kitchen. The one-pound slab comes topped with rivulets of tangysweet sauce and melted mozzarella and provolone. Simple, perfect. Price: $6. 25 Preble St. 207-245-3088;

BUTTERMILK FLAPJACKS PALACE DINER Biddeford

The upscale diner grub at this tiny 1927 dining car has earned reams of breathless reviews since Chad Conley and Greg Mitchell revived it in 2014. Their secret: limiting their modest menu (eggs, bacon, tuna melt, burger) to only those dishes they had utterly perfected. Case in point: fluffy, tangy pancakes—bolstered with real buttermilk, lemon juice, and zest—that float in a pool of Maine maple syrup like griddle-cooked clouds.

Price: $10. 18 Franklin St. 207284-0015; palacedinerme.com

TwoonWeeks Cape Cod

Each summer his large, extended family finds its way to a house by a beach, where the pace of life changes, yet everything important stays the same.

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY Dominic Casserly OF THE LITTLE OUTDOOR GIANTS

Dominic’s friend Elizabeth Yon is tying a crab lure for the first time. “We used raw chicken as bait,” Dom says, “and dropped the lines from a bridge in this secret spot (secret because we couldn’t find it again if we tried!). We caught none, but we had a blast.”

Sense of Place |

TWO WEEKS ON CAPE COD

TOP, FROM LEFT: Family-style dinner on the outdoor porch is “never fancy and always good”; an annual ritual is the group effort to complete a jigsaw puzzle; home from crab fishing, Elizabeth Yon takes in the sunset from the porch.

BELOW : Dominic’s brother Matt, his cousin Mike Quintevalla, and Mike’s wife, Plamena, watch the sunset over Cape Cod Bay in Orleans. “Usually after dinner we head to the beaches on the bay side to watch the sunset,” Dom says.

remember the first house we were in and how special that first vacation was. It was an old farmhouse, down a dirt road, and it had very low ceilings, tilted pineboard floors, and horsehair plaster walls. It was like being on an old ship. That old house was dim, yet inviting and comfortable with its pale palette and exposed wood everywhere; the trees were bright green and the bugs sang you to sleep at night.

I keep seeing that first summer vacation, joined by my brothers and sister, my aunt and uncle, my mom and my cousins, as flashes of memory: beach days, ice cream, watching the nighttime bats catching bugs, wiffle ball, seafood dinners, the discovery of new places, swimming in the ocean and in the Cape’s clear lakes and kettle ponds, riding your bike with grownups (a new one for me) … It was the humble beginning of what would become our blessed summer-vacation tradition, the first I’d known of a dedicated yearly vacation and the discovery of the magic of summertime on Cape Cod.

And our family vacation just keeps going. Each year we pick up where we left off, as if time on the Cape is a vacation time warp, where nothing changes. We do the same things each summer. We swim at Coast Guard Beach, Nauset Light, or Nauset Beach; our favorite ice cream is at Emack & Bolio’s; we play mini-golf and grill out for our dinners in the backyard; we make beach sandwiches and lug them in the cooler to the ocean, along with the same snacks I’ve come to expect; we bike the Rail Trail and have our traditional annual beach bonfire at Coast Guard or Race Point Beach, complete with s’mores; and we always spend an afternoon in P-town, seeing the same things, doing the same things, as last year and the year before. We even use the very same boogie boards and kayaks that my Uncle Joe bought more than 15 years ago.

OPPOSITE , TOP: Plamena Quintevalla sends seeds into the marshes of Nauset Harbor in Orleans.

LEFT: Elizabeth Yon on her way to see the sunset. “We bike to the beach,” Dom notes, “we bike to ice cream, we bike aimlessly for miles on empty dirt and sand roads.”

OPPOSITE , BOTTOM : Dominic’s Uncle Joe and his son Mike Quintevalla set up the Sunfish. “We sailed this all over the sheltered and protected waters of Nauset Harbor in Orleans this year,” Dom remembers.

LEFT: Picking up tiny hermit crabs along the flats at low tide has been part of the summer routine for years.

“We were

good at luring them close,” Dom

“but weren’t fast or skilled enough to get ’em in the net.”

RIGHT: Dominic’s uncle Joe Quintevalla figures out the permits and rules for clamming and mussel fishing. Here, the family gathers dinner from Salt Pond in Orleans.

RIGHT: Emily Hanson casts a crabbing line into the salt river.

really

says,

It takes a village … to catch a crab. Jarrod McCabe, Colin Driesch, and Diana Lisanto join forces. “One to lure them in, one to spot them, and one to scoop with the net,” Dom explains. “We didn’t catch a single crab, but the fun was to be out here in the amazing late-afternoon light. To be learning something new with friends and family, in this beautiful natural spot.”

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CAPE GETAWAY

To rent your own Cape Cod vacation cottage this summer, here are some triedand-true tips.

The earlier in the year you start looking, the better, but for the more spontaneous vacationer, waiting can pay off as well, with many owners and booking sites willing to work out lastminute deals. Have some options in mind, shop around, and, most important, negotiate: Many owners will be willing to do so, but only if you ask.

Whether you’re searching independently on Craigslist (that’s right, some of the best late deals can be found there), on a booking site such as WeNeedaVacation .com, or through a local real-estate agent, call owners ahead of time so that you know what you’re in for. Know your needs (child/petfriendly, private pool, beach access, etc.) and always ask about what extras are provided.

To get the best deal and still enjoy summer weather, be aware of peak times (late June to August), and consider traveling during the shoulder seasons—May/June and late August/September—when owners are more likely to give you a deal or throw out the one-week minimum.

—Heather Tourgee

Sense of Place |

Aunt Laurie spends the whole year adding to the Cape Cod “Book Bag,” an overflowing tote of books to read at the beach. And we do read. As a family, we often all sit around and silently read our books—on the beach, on the porch, before breakfast, late into the night. It amazes me: What is this transformation? We don’t do this at home or in our regular lives! We don’t sit and enjoy the sunset every night at home. We don’t take hours out of a day to go to the beach, and we certainly don’t sit around reading in the evenings.

Maybe that’s why I treasure our time on the Cape: It’s a special time with special rules. I’ve never brought friends along on this trip (aside from significant others); we keep this trip for family. My big, confusing Italian family started when my grandpa and his brother married my grandma and her sister. Two brothers marrying two sisters has created a massive Italian family in which I call everyone older than me an aunt or uncle and everyone my age or younger a cousin. And that’s how the vacation started—with these two families renting a house in Orleans or Eastham as we were growing up. It’s been the longest tradition that I can remember in my life—something to look forward to every year. No matter life’s circumstances, no matter where I go in the world, I know where I’ll be in late July and early August— and I know there’ll always be a place for me.

More photos at: YankeeMagazine.com/Cape-Cod

BELOW : Trekking down to Coast Guard Beach in Eastham. “We have a system of saying in the morning, ‘Left or right?’ and someone chooses,” Dom says. “Today we’re going to go left or right of the boardwalk, and whoever gets there first sets up the spot;

“You make a reservation and get a bonfire permit, but it’s free and simple,” Dom says. “We look forward to this all year. We make s’mores and enjoy the sunset while watching waves and the dune grasses. The kids (myself and my cousins) are in charge of gathering wood and starting the fire, and I insist on starting it with only a single match, so it’s got to be done right. This is the whole crew from this year: siblings, cousins, parents, friends.”

BOTTOM CENTER AND RIGHT: Dom’s Aunt Laurie and Uncle Joe Quintevalla, organizers of the vacation, on a sunset sail; playing in the shallow bayside water at Skaket Beach in Orleans as the sun sets over Cape Cod Bay.

FINDERS KEEPERS

A new tradition is taking hold on Block Island: searching for Eben Horton’s blown-glass orbs.

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY

ben Horton reaches overhead to hide his treasure in the crook of two branches. “That’s a great one,” he says. “You can see it, just barely.”

“A little twinkle,” agrees Jen Nauck, his girlfriend and partner in mischief. The pair admire their work, then move on.

The treasure isn’t much—just an orb of thick, clear glass —but it’s enough to get hundreds of people out hunting. For the past five summers, Horton has been littering Block Island with glass “floats” (so called because they’re modeled on the orbs once used to lend buoyancy to fishing nets). He’s left them in washed-up lobster pots, in restaurant flowerbeds, and even in the community garden’s composter. It’s a simple game with an irresist-

JUSTIN SHATWELL

ible hook: The floats might be anywhere, and if you find one, you get to keep it.

The project started simply enough—just something to keep Horton busy during a slow economy. Inspired by a similar project in Oregon, he began crafting orbs during down moments at his glassblowing studio in Wakefield, Rhode Island. But why hide them on Block Island? “So I can come out here,” he says matter-of-factly, smiling beneath his bushy beard. “That’s really it. I want to come out here.”

It’s easy to see why. Horton and Nauck are hiding in one of their favorite spots, the Hodge Family Wildlife Preserve, a series of stone-wall-lined fields that roll down the island’s spine. Wild blackberry bushes hug the path amid stands of tall

TOP : Glassblowers Jen Nauck and Eben Horton take a break at a “beach fort” while hiding floats at Dorries Cove. OPPOSITE : A float is hidden in a stone wall at the Hodge Family Wildlife Preserve, overlooking Block Island’s historic North Light.

grass that burn golden in the evening light. You can see the entire northern spit of the island from here. Historic North Light sits tranquilly on a distant strip of sand like a discarded dollhouse. It’s a view worth walking for, and one Horton would like more people to see.

Horton pulls out another orb and bowls it down the path. The glass is so thick (think the bottom of a Coke bottle) that it’s almost indestructible. It skips over the grass and disappears into the brush. “Even I don’t know where that one is,” he laughs.

It’s hard to say exactly why Horton does this. It’s an art project, of course, and also an incredible excuse to take long, romantic walks with his girlfriend. But more than anything else, it’s a love letter to an island that, thanks to zealous conservationists and draconian zoning laws, remains defiantly sleepy.

Block Island is charming in a quiet

way. You’ll often hear people brag about spending every summer here for the past 20 years, and then in the same breath comment on how little there is to do. That’s not a complaint, though; it’s the island’s main selling point. The

Horton says that he wanted to give people an added incentive to leave their barstools and beach blankets and really explore these idyllic wilds. The floats are a perfect lure. Hiking is exercise, which is often mistaken for

island forces people outdoors to find their own entertainment in nature— like sleep-away camp for adults—and there’s plenty to explore. Almost 45 percent of the island is conserved land, with 28 miles of hiking trails and more than 16 miles of beaches, every inch of which is open to the public.

a chore. But when you add the hideand-seek element, when you offer the potential for discovery, you make it something childlike and magical—a real-life island treasure hunt.

It’s working. Across the island, people are stopping to peek into bushes or check behind signs. The hunt has

With the hide-and-seek element you make it something childlike and magical— a real-life island treasure hunt.

Floats may be found anywhere: in lobster pots, in flowerbeds, or even up in a tree.

become something people look forward to—a genuine summer tradition. “It makes a lot of people really happy,” Horton says. “And a lot of people really frustrated,” Nauck adds.

Part of the hunt’s appeal is how devilishly hard it is. In 2015, Horton, Nauck, and a handful of friends hid just 516 floats; they don’t intend to expand any further. That’s a tiny number, considering that the orbs are the size of a fist and the island spans almost 10 square miles. They release the floats a few at a time, never telling people when or where they’re hiding. When people ask for clues, Horton only replies, “Walk a little slower than usual and really look.”

quashed when what they thought was a float turned out to be a lightbulb. Another hunter wrote to tell him that she searched for two days, dawn to dusk, before discovering a float in a bush, just inches from a snake. She went in after it anyway.

“We never get that joy out of someone who comes to buy a vase or something like that,” Horton says. It’s one of the ironies of the project. Both he and Nauck are talented glassblowers, and the floats are by far the simplest things they make—yet Horton readily admits that this project is “the most successful thing I’ve ever done with glass.”

As the sun sinks lower, Horton and Nauck move on to Dorries Cove. Rich orange light slants across the sand as they hike around a rocky point and onto the secluded beach beyond. They’re well out of sight before they

Horton originally fell in love with Block Island as a sport fisherman, so he has a soft spot for hiding the orbs on beaches (always above high tide and

never in the dunes or cliffs). After a few minutes of walking, the pair come across a “beach fort,” a kind of driftwood shanty that summer residents sometimes build on the beach. This one is a simple lounge, with logs for couches and fishnets strung through the rafters. On a makeshift shelf, someone has lined up trinkets they’ve found in the sand—sea glass, a crab claw, a scallop shell. Horton mutters something about rewarding the effort and places a float beside the rest of the treasures.

It’ll get snatched up quickly, he knows—a “gimme,” as Nauck puts it—but Horton won’t be around to see it happen. In the five years he’s been hiding floats, he’s never actually seen one found. He’s at peace with that, though, content with his half of the project: the crafting, the walking, and the hiding. The rest of the story belongs to those who hunt.

For more information, go to: theglassstationstudio.com; blockislandinfo.com

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Enlarged to show detail.

2016 South County Events

Be sure to call ahead or visit venue websites to check seasonal schedules, admission and parking fees, ticket info, registration or reservation requirements, and the latest rates and prices. Lodging rates are per night double occupancy (spring/summer season rates) unless otherwise noted; call or check venue websites for additional travel packages, other special pricing, and off-season rates. “Entrées” refers to dinner pricing unless otherwise noted.

OUR PICKS FOR THE BEST DINING, LODGING, AND THINGS TO DO

This riverside hot spot serves up expansive views alongside fresh seafood, pasta, burgers, and more.

CONNECTICUT

CONNECTICUT

BEST LODGING

BEST HISTORIC INN (p. 94)

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: KINDRA CLINEFF; LORI PEDRICK; JULIE BIDWELL; THE MARITIME AQUARIUM

BEST FAMILY ATTRACTION (p. 94)

BEST LUNCH (p. 94)

ATTRACTIONS

BEST BEACH:

HAMMONASSET BEACH STATE PARK, Madison

Buoyant waves, two miles of sugary sand, nearly 600 campsites, cycling paths: “Good bones,” as they say, but battering tropical storms left Connecticut’s biggest beach craving a facelift. By Memorial Day, more than $10.5 million in enhancements will be revealed, including new bathhouse and concession buildings and an interactive, immersive, 4,000-square-foot nature center with a circular touch tank and live animal displays. 1288 Boston Post Road. 203245-2785; ct.gov/deep/hammonasset

BEST ADVENTURE:

ADVENTURE ROOMS, Middletown

It’s like a video game IRL (in real life). “Room escape is fairly new in the U.S.,” says game specialist Josh Becker of this craze imported from Europe and Asia. Reserve your experience for two to eight adults; enter a strange environment inside historic Sanseer Mill; solve your way out in 60 minutes. Your smartphone won’t save you; street smarts might. Only 30 percent of teams succeed, but “an amazing time” is guaranteed, or the adventure is free. 282 Main St. Extension. 860358-9130; myadventurerooms.com/Connecticut

BEST FLEA MARKET: ELEPHANT’S TRUNK COUNTRY FLEA MARKET, New Milford

It costs peanuts—just $2—to treasure-hunt at Connecticut’s largest flea market. But serious shoppers pony up $20 before 7:00 a.m. for dibs on what’s sprouted in this field of extremes. Each Sunday, nearly 500 sellers parade out antiques, collectibles, and curiosities, from chainsaw art to deep-discount Cheez-Its. The mesmerizing variety has kept this colorful bazaar going strong for 40 years. 490 Danbury Road. 860-355-1448; etflea.com

BEST TOURIST HOT SPOT: LAKE COMPOUNCE, Bristol

There’s something for everyone here: water rides, classic rides, kiddie rides, dance and comedy shows—and, of course, roller coasters and thrill rides. America’s oldest amusement park celebrates 170 years of smiles and screams with its biggest investment yet in 2016. The magnetically propelled Phobia Phear Coaster—the first triple-launch roller coaster in the Northeast— will race at speeds of up to 65 mph and flip riders at 150 feet in the air, one of the highest inversions ever achieved. It’s the most hotly anticipated new thrill in park history. 186 Enterprise Drive. 860583-3300; lakecompounce.com

BEST RAIL TRAIL: AIR LINE STATE PARK TRAIL, East Hampton to Thompson

Jog, walk, or pedal any or all of the 50-mile, flat, easy, gravel trail that cuts a diagonal through northeastern Connecticut, and you’ll marvel at the same scenes that enchanted well-heeled “Ghost Train” passengers at the turn of the 20th century. The gold-trimmed, white-painted Pullman cars have vanished, but this stretch of the “Air Line” from New York to Boston has been reincarnated as a public path over viaducts and bridges, through wetlands and farmlands and forest preserves, for walkers, hikers, horseback riders, bikers, and cross-country skiers. See the website for downloadable maps. 860-2959523; www.ct.gov/deep/airlinetrail

BEST NEW MUSEUM: AMERICAN MUSEUM OF TORT LAW, Winsted

Consumer advocate and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader was the driving force behind the nation’s first law-focused museum, which débuted last fall; that’s why it’s in his Connecticut hometown. Inside, you’ll see a Corvair—the car Nader famously railed against in Unsafe at Any Speed —plus other exhibits and information on “cases that made a difference.” 654 Main St. 860-379-0505; tortmuseum.org

SPOTLIGHT: NORTHWEST HILLS

BEST FISHING LODGE: LEGENDS ON THE FARMINGTON, Barkhamsted

The lodge that Sal Tartaglione hand-built, utilizing reclaimed and custom-milled wood, looks as though it leapt from an Orvis catalogue onto the banks of the trout-filled Farmington River. Seven B&B rooms are steps from this stretch’s “best dry-fly hole,” fishing guides are available, and with a plethora of other outdoor pursuits nearby, guests are lured by the cozy vibe even if they never intend to cast a line. Rates: from $99. 20 River Road. 203-650-8767; legendsbnb.com

DINING

BEST MUFFINS: BANTAM BREAD, Bantam

ATTRACTIONS

BEST CAR EXPERIENCE:

LIME ROCK PARK, Lakeville

“Road to 60” improvement projects underway since 2014 are nearly complete, as racing legend Skip Barber’s historic auto track zooms toward its 60th anniversary in 2017. This summer, there are four major close-tothe-action spectator events, including the Ferrari Challenge, plus near-daily on-track activities for visitors to observe, Fourth of July fireworks, and driving experiences such as Autocross, open to anyone in any car— even your family-mobile. 60 White Hollow Road. 860-435-5000; limerock.com

BEST SHORT HIKE:

HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN STATE PARK, Norfolk

The 360-degree view from the Rapunzelesque stone tower atop Haystack Mountain is worth the half-hour or so of exertion it takes to scramble to the summit. From the parking area, the short, steep, uphill hike is doable for most abilities. At 1,716 feet above sea level, the landscape seems to gleam and glow. Write a fairytale ending by packing a picnic or plotting a proposal. Route 272. 860-482-1817; www.ct.gov/deep/Haystack Mountain

BEST ARTISTS’ COMMUNITY:

WHITING MILLS, Winsted

A dozen years after Jean Paul and Eva Blachere began repurposing a 19th-century brick sock factory, its wood floors gleam, sunlight spills through 6-over-6 windows, and a critical mass of artists, craftspeople, and creative

entrepreneurs makes this a one-of-a-kind shopping destination. The 52 studios’ hours vary; time your visit for “Third Sundays” to view demonstrations and meet most on-site artisans, like gourd carver Jeanne Morningstar Kent. 100 Whiting St. 860-738-2240; whitingmills.com

LODGING

BEST COUNTRY INN: THE WHITE HART, Salisbury

Even the GM wears jeans. But there’s nothing bumpkin about this 16-room 1806 landmark on the green, resuscitated following a four-year closure by a Who’s Who group of investors with ties to the region. Among them is British chef Annie Wayte, whose masterly, experimental way with local ingredients makes Friday and Saturday dinners worthy of a trek. She oversees weekday offerings, too, in the tap room, which—to locals’ glee—remains unchanged. Rates: from $225. 15 Undermountain Road. 860-435-0030; white hartinn.com

BEST RESORT: INTERLAKEN INN, Lakeville

Situated between two lakes with access to superb freshwater fishing, paddling, and swimming, Interlaken’s been a destination for 125 years, yet is remarkably up to date. In addition to 40 spacious main inn rooms, guests can claim petfriendly, motel-style accommodations; antiquefilled chambers in a turreted Victorian; stylish two-story townhouses; a lakeside cottage; the romantic Penthouse with rooftop hot tub; or the Euro-chic new Basha Cottage. Rates: from $239. 74 Interlaken Road. 860-435-9878; interlakeninn.com

Don’t be afraid to bite into a “Dirt Bomb.” These deceptively simple nutmeg muffins— dipped in clarified butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar—are dangerous only because they’re addictive. Gently spiced, melty, crisp, and rich, they’re Nutmeggers’ favorite excuse for a road trip. Muffins: from $1.75. 853 Bantam Road. 860-567-2737; bantambread.com

BEST LOCAL FAVORITE:

THE WOODLAND, Lakeville

Diners never tire of the menu at this country pub that oozes cool. The kitchen’s adept at cuisine that spans the map: sushi and wiener schnitzel, veal parmigiana and chicken enchiladas. The wine list’s equally worldly, and the tables are a mix of high-tops for twosomes and wood-carved and marble-topped antiques for groups. The bar’s a mashup of art gallery and greenhouse, where Humphrey Bogart would look at home. Entrées: from $19. 192 Sharon Road. 860-435-0578; thewoodlandrestaurant.com

BEST NOSTALGIA RESTAURANT:

O’HARA’S LANDING RESTAURANT, Salisbury

What was it like to savor breakfast or lunch lakeside in the ’50s? Don’t wonder. Wend your way along back roads to this seasonal marina restaurant. The lost art of conversation roars back to life around retro kitchenettes. It’s not the vinyl chairs or even the pancakes, eggs, or burgers with seasoned fries, all home-cooked with loving care. It’s the view of rippling water and mountain silhouettes. And knowing you can rent a boat and stay all day, if you want to. Breakfast or lunch: from $4.25. 254 Twin Lakes Road. 860-824-7583; oharaslanding.com/restaurant

BEST COUNTRY INN: THE WHITE HART, Salisbury

BEST SPORTS OUTING: HARTFORD YARD GOATS, Hartford

The Eastern League AA New Britain Rock Cats have a new home and a new name, but affordable family entertainment is still the game. Yard goats are workhorse locomotives in a rail yard, and the ball club’s identity, selected via a name-the-team contest, is such a home run that logowear shipped to all 50 states months before 6,000-seat, 360-degree Dunkin’ Donuts Park was constructed. New and cherished traditions and promotions highlight 71 inauguralseason home games. 1214 Main St. (stadium), 99 Pratt St. (team office). 860-259-1039; yardgoats baseball.com

BEST FAMILY ATTRACTION: MARITIME AQUARIUM AT NORWALK, Norwalk

Harbor seals’ antics tickle preschoolers. Tweens can spend all day petting jellies, sharks, and stingrays. Even Game of Thrones –loving grownups find the dragons—including America’s only black dragon on public view—fascinating. Add in IMAX movies and excursions aboard a revolutionary new $2.7 million hybrid electric research vessel, and the only aquarium devoted to Long Island Sound is an all-day fun destination. 10 North Water St. 203-852-0700; maritime aquarium.org

BEST CRUISE:

CROSS SOUND FERRY

LIGHTHOUSE CRUISE, New London

From the sundeck, the bow, or the windowed, climate-controlled cabins of the fast-gliding SeaJet catamaran, you’ll spy eight architecturally distinctive lighthouses and hear knowledgeable narrator Ted Webb’s tales of pirates, ghosts, and historic events. Bonus sights during these twohour Long Island Sound voyages frequently include sunbathing gray seals, the world’s largest population of nesting common terns, and nuclear-powered submarines. 2 Ferry St. 860443-5281; longislandferry.com/lighthousecruise

BEST BREWERY:

STONY CREEK BREWERY, Branford

Boat parking and Branford River views from multilevel, indoor/outdoor gathering spaces set this ultra-modern 2015 newcomer apart from the growing field of breweries in Connecticut. On a tour, learn how brewmaster Andy Schwartz, who’s made beer for 20 years, hybridizes hoppy West Coast and fruit-forward East Coast recipes to craft his potent trio of “Cranky” IPAs. 5 Indian Neck Ave. 203-433-4545; stony creekbeer.com

BEST COMMUNITY THEATER:

BRADLEY PLAYHOUSE, Putnam

This 115-year-old vaudeville theater in the heart of a revitalized mill town is home stage for a nonprofit, all-volunteer troupe that performs musicals, dramas, and comedies for enthralled audiences. The talent, staging, costuming, and effects are so superb, you’ll swear this can’t be

170 miles off Broadway. 30 Front St. 860-9287887; thebradleyplayhouse.org

BEST CHEESE LOVERS’ OUTING: CHEESE SCHOOL OF CONNECTICUT AT FAIRFIELD & GREENWICH CHEESE COMPANY, Fairfield & Cos Cob

Cheesemongers Laura Downey and Chris Palumbo fill their shops’ cases with rare selections, including New England’s most soughtafter artisanal cheeses. On Cheese School nights, they’ll teach you to love and understand cheese with an ardor you usually reserve for your sweetheart. 2090 Post Road, Fairfield; 203-2928194. 154 East Putnam Ave., Cos Cob; 203-3409227. fairfieldcheese.com/cheese-school

LODGING

BEST SPA ESCAPE:

THE MAYFLOWER GRACE, Washington

Acquired by Grace Hotels in 2013, Connecticut’s notoriously luxurious 30-room country manor reinvented its uber-exclusive spa—open only to guests and members—last year, featuring the country’s only wellness experiences that utilize Earth Matters Apothecary’s formulations for delivering nutrients via the skin. A quiz determines the balancing blend for your body type and personality. Rates: from $510. 118 Wood bury Road. 860-868-9466; gracehotels.com/ mayflower

BEST HISTORIC INN:

THE GRISWOLD INN, Essex

There’s no inn in America with a longer continuous record of welcoming, nourishing, and entertaining guests. The Paul family has updated the Gris a bit—the wine bar’s a big hit—while devoting 20 years to fiercely preserving its traditions. Nightly live music in the Tap Room is more reliable than the postal service. Nearly one-third of 33 individually styled accommodations will be extensively renovated in time for the inn’s 240th birthday in June. Rates: from $155. 36 Main St. 860-767-1776; griswoldinn.com

BEST BOUTIQUE HOTEL:

ELIHU SPICER MANSION, Mystic

A neglected, fire-damaged, overgrown apartment building is a splendid mansion again. Guests slumber beneath stunning plasterwork and muraled ceilings uncovered during the Gates family’s two-year effort to rescue this Victorian sea captain’s home. With Mystic’s loftiest views, locally procured breakfast fare, and the option to savor an eight-course dinner, Tomas Gates promises that an overnight is “an event.” Rates from: $495.15 Elm St. spicermansion.com

BEST ROMANTIC INN:

INN AT STONINGTON, Stonington

This 18-room charmer is romance central, with fireplaces and Jacuzzis in most rooms—and restaurants, shops, a lighthouse museum, and a secluded little beach only steps away. Famous

for repelling the British Navy with just three cannons in 1814, Stonington is still lighting sparks for couples both newly and eternally in love. Rates from: $180. 60 Water St. 860-5352000; innatstonington.com

BEST INTIMATE RETREAT: THE INN AT WOODSTOCK HILL, Woodstock

If it’s privacy you crave, this 19th-century country estate, with an exceptional fine-dining restaurant, is the rare off-the-beaten-path place where you can order duck à l’orange in your room. Ready to venture out of your elegantly appointed hideaway? Historic sights, farms, and a British tearoom are all a short walk away. Rates: from $160. 94 Plaine Hill Road. 860-9280528; woodstockhill.com

DINING

BEST BREAKFAST: THE SLOPPY WAFFLE, Newington

Pearl sugar from beets in the dough makes Liège waffles rich, crispy-sweet, and nothing like any other batter waffle you’ve tasted before. Now imagine Belgium’s gift to the world topped with apple cobbler, s’mores, bananas Foster. It gets better: Regulars are gaga for chicken and waffles drizzled with real maple syrup, and the “Sloppy Waffle,” topped with any-style eggs, bacon or sausage, cheese, and maple syrup, is reason to wear your loosest-fitting pants. Specialty waffles: from $7.25. 2551 Berlin Turnpike. 860436-6893; thesloppywaffle.com

BEST LUNCH:

HEIRLOOM FOOD COMPANY, Danielson

It’s worth a road trip to this organic café, where a chalkboard gives props to local farms for ingredients playfully intertwined in salads, soups, sandwiches—even vivid drinks like the strawberry, mango, flax, and apple juice “Summer Solstice.” Most selections are vegan; all can be ordered gluten-free. And devotion to freshness means baked goods such as oatmeal cream pie taste heavenly. Lunch items: from $8. 630 North Main St. 860-779-3373; eatheirloomfood.com

BEST LOBSTER:

FORD’S LOBSTER, Noank

When a mere lobster roll won’t do, try a “Lobster Bomb”: a tender, grilled sourdough bread bowl heaped full of cold or hot buttered lobster. Yes, it will blow up your wallet. But paired with lobster-rich bisque, it’s plenty for two, and the BYOB policy at this waterside marina deck with table service (and indoor seating off-season) will save you some dough. Lobster Bomb: $37. 15 Riverview Ave. 860-536-2842; facebook.com/ fordslobster

BEST ICE CREAM FLAVORS: GRASS ROOTS ICE CREAM, Granby

Don’t get too attached to scoops of “Salted Caramel Bacon Brittle,” “Blood Orange Chocolate Chip,” or “Goat Cheese & Wild Blueberries.”

The mad-genius ice-cream artisans behind this teeny creamery’s surging popularity incessantly shake up the chalkboard menu, offering about 30 all-natural flavors from their repertoire of hundreds—handcrafted on site in small batches—at any given time. Scoops: from $2.50. 4 Park Place. 860-653-6303; grassroots icecream.com

BEST SWEET SHOP:

TSCHUDIN CHOCOLATES & CONFECTIONS, Middletown

Filmmaker, TV personality, lawyer, firefighter, Food Network battle winner: The plot twists in Roberto Tschudin Lucheme’s résumé hint at why his sweets are sublime. In the hands of a passionate, inquisitive mastermind, stoneground, couverture chocolate becomes an artistic medium, from which Lucheme handcrafts exotic truffles and edible sculptures. Nibble a merlion-shaped “Night in Tunisia,” and red chiles, fenugreek, cardamom, coriander, and ajwain will have your tastebuds calling for backup. “It’s designed to hit all of your senses,” he says. Chocolates: from $2.50. 100 Riverview Center. 860-759-2222; tschocolates.com

BEST FINE DINING:

UNION LEAGUE CAFÉ, New Haven

The crème de la crème of Connecticut specialoccasion restaurants has remained owner Jean Pierre Vuillermet’s passion and workplace for 23 years. Inside a Beaux-Arts landmark, this French master chef—who has fed presidents of several nations, including our own—styles elegant plates with the region’s seasonal bounty, classic French culinary precision, masterly attention to textures and tastes, and creativity ensuring that even traditional dishes such as duck-leg confit are transcendent. Entrées: from $23. 1032 Chapel St. 203-5624299; unionleaguecafe.com

BEST BAKERY:

HEN & HEIFER, Guilford

Tell Whang Suh that his sweets are too pretty to eat, and he’s flattered but displeased. Half Korean, half Italian, 100 percent gifted, this French Culinary Institute– and Per Se–trained pastry chef’s creations are exhibited like delicate sculptures in his jewel box of a bakery. But cinnamon–blueberry macarons, tarts glistening with local fruit, torpedo-shaped croissants—all are made to be devoured. Pastries: from $4. 23 Water St. 203-689-5651; henandheifer.com

BEST DOUGHNUTS:

TASTEASE, Hartford

“We open Saturdays at 8:00. At 9:30, I had zero,” boasts Tony Mendes of his record day, when 2,500 mini doughnuts left his and wife Susan’s 400-square-foot bakery in minutes. He hand-decorates every one of these ridiculously tiny, cute, and addictive treats, sometimes pulling all-nighters. Order ahead—three dozen if you want to try every flavor—to avoid disappointment. Doughnuts: $0.65 each or $6.65 per dozen. 70 New Park Ave. 860-233-2235

ARTIST’S GARDEN

Picturesque Old Lyme, Connecticut, is the only New England venue for this visually stunning show organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The historic gardens and landscape of the Florence Griswold Museum are the perfect accompaniment to this inspiring exhibition.

at the Florence Griswold Museum June 3 through September 18

AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM THE GARDEN MOVEMENT

Philip Leslie Hale, The Crimson Rambler, c. 1908. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

BEST OUTDOOR DINING:

RED 36, Mystic

On balmy days, even the indoor dining area is open-air at this Mystic River waterfront hot spot. And the sun-splashed deck’s umbrella and lobster-trap tables, nautical couches, and bar seats are in high demand. Boat or drive—just be sure to arrive parched and famished. The lineup of cocktails, Connecticut-brewed beers, and inventive fare from land and sea is as universally pleasing as the view. Entrées: from $12. 2 Washington St. 860-536-3604; red36ct.com

BEST SOUTH AMERICAN FARE:

CORA CORA, West Hartford

Andean music, vibrant woven tablecloths, alpaca-wool wall hangings too cuddly not to touch … You’re Peru-bound even before you peruse an encyclopedic menu of ancient and futuristic dishes from the land of the Incas. Amiable servers help newcomers navigate page after page of ceviches, quinoa stews, beef, and seafood. Don’t miss lúcuma fruit ice cream: The texture’s otherworldly; the taste’s a mashup of pumpkin, coffee, and peanut butter. Entrées: from $12.50. 162 Shield St. 860-9532672; coraperu.com

BEST ETHNIC EXPERIENCE: HASNA’S AFGHAN FUSION CUISINE, Waterbury

Hearty kabobs, spinach- and potato-stuffed bolani, pillowy naan flatbread, butter chicken bathed in spicy, fragrant sauce: This stripmall eatery is pleasing diners with pretty much everything that emerges from the tandoori oven, including “fusion” offerings like pizza and burgers. It’s Waterbury’s new place to eat incredibly well yet affordably. Entrées: from $7.95. 625 Wolcott St. 203-805-4044; hasnas restaurant.com

BEST STEAMED CHEESEBURGERS:

TED’S RESTAURANT, Meriden

Steamed cheeseburgers are a Connecticut thing, and this classic lunch counter—familyowned for three generations since 1959—is the place to fall for them. Juicier and healthier than their grilled brethren and erupting with molten steamed cheddar, these hefty burgers are the most satisfying meal you can buy for the price. A heaping side of nostalgia is included—free. Single cheeseburger: from $6. 1046 Broad St. 203-237-6660; tedsrestaurant.com

BEST WINGS:

J. TIMOTHY’S TAVERNE, Plainville

Shuffle off, Buffalo! You haven’t had chicken wings until you’ve tried them “dirt” style: a technique invented in the mid-’90s at this 1789 tavern. Now, more than 200 tons of these tasty poultry parts hit the fryer each year. The dirty secret? They’re sauced, then refried, then sauced again in four flavors: Buffalo, honey BBQ, teriyaki, and sweet red chili. If you guessed that they’re extra-crispy-sticky, you’re right. Wings: from $7.50. 143 New Britain Ave. 860-747-6813; jtimothys.com

TOP 10 CONNECTICUT EVENTS

APR. 29–MAY 1: HARTFORD, 35th Annual Fine Art & Flowers. The Wadsworth Atheneum’s premier spring fundraiser features floral arrangements and garden designs inspired by works of art in the museum’s collection. Special events, tours, and vendors selling handmade goods round out the festivities. 860-278-2670; thewadsworth.org

MAY 21–22, 28–30; JUNE 4–5: NORTH HAVEN, Robin Hood Springtime Festival. Step back in time to 12th-century Nottingham and revel in the laughter and cheer as you stroll the bustling streets of an Old World marketplace. As you wander, you’ll encounter Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Friar Tuck, and Little John, along with nobles, peasants, jousting knights, fire eaters, magicians, jesters, and other characters in temporary residence at the North Haven Fairgrounds. 860-478-5954; robinhoodsfaire.com

MAY 27–29: STAMFORD, Connecticut Salsa Fest. This annual fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Hospital features live bands, instructional workshops for salsa dancers at all skill levels, dance showcases, and a free community party, all at the Stamford Marriott Hotel & Spa. ctsalsafest.com

JUNE 9–12: MYSTIC, 37th Sea Music Festival. Mystic Seaport hosts performers from around

the globe who carry on the classic musical traditions of the Golden Age of Sail. A twoday “Music of the Sea” symposium will be held on the nearby Connecticut College campus, along with concerts, kids’ shows, instructional workshops, and plenty of sea music performed aboard the museum’s historic vessels. 860-572-0711; mysticseaport.org

JUNE 11: MIDDLETOWN, Strawberry Fest. Historic Lyman Orchards celebrates the first fruit of the season with a day of music, tastings of strawberry treats, pie-eating contests, horse-drawn wagon rides, hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, and more. 860-349-1793; lymanorchards.com

JULY 9: HARTFORD, Riverfest. The largest free one-day fireworks celebration in the state takes place at Riverfront Plaza and Great River Park, complete with live bands, clowns, street entertainment, food trucks, kids’ activities, and of course, a dazzling fireworks show over the majestic Connecticut River. 860-713-3131; riverfront.org

AUG. 1–7: CROMWELL, Travelers Golf Championship. More than 150 of the world’s top golfers converge at TPC River Highlands to compete for more than $6 million in prize money. An interactive Fan Zone and family-friendly

events are among the off-the-links highlights. 860-502-6809; travelerschampionship.com

AUG. 6–7: GOSHEN, 21st Litchfield Jazz Festival. Visit the fairgrounds and sway to the music all weekend long with a full schedule of performances. With activities for the kids, a bevy of arts and crafts vendors, and lots of good food, there’s something here for the whole family. litchfieldjazzfest.com

AUG. 11–14: HEBRON, 20th Podunk Music Festival. Some of the finest local and national bluegrass groups descend on Lions Fairgrounds—plus workshops, traditional crafts, storytelling, jam sessions, a variety of food, and an entertainment and activities area for the kids. 860-828-9818; podunkbluegrass.net

AUG. 20: HARTFORD, 16th Riverfront Dragon Boat & Asian Festival. The Hartford riverfront is one of the premier dragon-boat venues in the U.S., and this year will see some incredible competition, with 70 teams racing. Cheer them on while enjoying a lineup of authentic Asian entertainment. 860-713-3131; riverfront.org

Call ahead to confirm dates, schedules, and admission prices. To submit an event for possible publication, go to: YankeeMagazine.com/submit-an-event

STRAWBERRY FEST, Middletown

TOURIST HOT SPOT: WATCH HILL, Westerly (p. 100)

Napatree Point’s long sweep of soft sand invites a swim and a leisurely stroll on a summer’s day. This 1.5-mile-long peninsula and barrier beach is a designated conservation area, home to piping plovers, ospreys, terns, and other wildlife.

RHODE ISLAND

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: ALEX GAGNE, RARE BRICK, ANGEL TUCKER, COURTESY BLITHEWOLD MANSION, GARDENS & ARBORETUM

ATTRACTIONS

BEST BEACH:

NARRAGANSETT TOWN BEACH, Narragansett

Beach aficionados cherish this crescent of shoreline. Why? Clear water, vigorous surf, attentive lifeguards, on-beach activities like surfing lessons and yoga, wheelchair accessibility, movie and music nights, free street parking if you’re early (or lucky), and nostalgic views of the 1886 Narragansett Pier Casino Towers. 39 Boston Neck Road. 401-783-6430; narragansett ri.gov/323/Narragansett-Town-Beach

BEST ADVENTURE:

POND AND BEYOND KAYAK, Block Island

Kayak guide Corrie Heinz will have you paddling like a pro, even if you’re a nervous firsttimer. She’ll make you leave your cell phone behind. And she’ll show you her native island on a two-and-a-half-hour small-group ecotour of the shallow, serene Great Salt Pond. Wildlife, history, oyster cultivation, conservation, island gossip: You’ll see and hear the real scoop and appreciate that “it’s not just by chance that Block Island is the way it is.” 216 Ocean Ave. 401-5782773; pondandbeyondkayak.com

BEST VINTAGE EXPERIENCE:

SUITE TART, Providence

You can be a ’30s silver-screen siren, a ’40s pin-up sweetheart, or a ’70s Bond girl. Yes—you! Salon owner LuLu Locks and her team of celebritycaliber hair, makeup, wardrobe, and photography pros transform women of all ages for a memorable photo shoot and a long-lasting confidence boost. They’re the same artists who style the ’Gansett Girls: the glammed-up everyday gals who promote Rhode Island’s Narragansett Beer. 150R Broadway. 401-272-8278; suitetart.com

BEST TOURIST HOT SPOT:

WATCH HILL, Westerly

The population? Fewer than 200 residents. The buzz? Off the charts. And it’s not solely because international country-pop superstar Taylor Swift owns a $17 million waterfront mansion in Watch Hill. As accessible as the Hamptons, but far more vintage classic, this Victorian village (part of the town of Westerly) offers exclusive lodgings and celebrity spotting, true. But simple pleasures like concerts in the park, walks on the beach or to the museum at the lighthouse, and rides for kids on the historic Flying Horse Carousel, with its original wooden steeds, make it popular with daytrippers, too. 401-3486540; watchhillfiredistrict.org, watchhillbeachand carousel.com, whmlis.org

BEST GARDEN: BLITHEWOLD MANSION, GARDENS & ARBORETUM, Bristol

One of New England’s most intensely planted and lovingly tended landscapes, the 33 acres of gardens, lawns, specimen trees, and rare and unusual plants at this Narragansett Bay estate are equal parts historic treasure and living classroom. True to the early-1900s vision of owner Bessie Van Wickle McKee and landscape architect John De Wolf, Blithewold’s exotic abundance continually inspires those who wrestle with nature and those who simply relish watching it unfold. 101 Ferry Road. 401-253-2707; blithewold.org

BEST DAY SPA: BODHI SPA, Newport

A $55 day pass—half off with any massage, facial, or body therapy—provides unlimited access to the soothing and rejuvenating “Water Journey” at New England’s first Euro-style hydrotherapy spa. Luxuriate in the Dead Sea and Epsom salt pools, eucalyptus steam room, and cedar and infrared saunas. The cold-plunge pool is less heavenly, but brave the 55-degree water for 30 to 60 seconds after each bodywarming experience for maximum detoxifying benefits. 654 Thames St. 401-619-4916; thebodhi spa.com

BEST RETRO FUN:

BREAKTIME BOWL & BAR, Pawtucket

Built for Hope Webbing millworkers’ entertainment circa 1920, the six remarkably preserved lanes of the last surviving industrial duckpin bowling alley echo once again with the clatter of palm-sized balls scattering short, squat pins. Dine, drink: Breaktime is kid-friendly until 8:00 p.m., then morphs into the ultimate throwback, grown-up hangout, with pub food and a full bar. Rolling a strike is pure joy … well, maybe not for the human pinsetters. 999 Main St., Suite 1330. 401-427-7006; breaktime bowlandbar.com

BEST WINERY:

VERDE VINEYARDS, Johnston

Retired 77-year-old CCRI biology professor Jim Verde admits, “Something went wrong; I kept planting too many grapes.” In 2012, his fervor spawned a commercial enterprise, but this vineyard—down a long dirt road on Moswansicut Lake—seems anything but. Yes, those are photovoltaic cells: “My energy bill is zero,” says Verde, whose last name means “green” in Italian. Take a weekend tour, attend a tasting, bring a picnic lunch, and relax under the oaks. 50 Hopkins Ave. 401-934-2317; verdevineyardsri.com

BEST COOKING CLASSES: OCEAN HOUSE CENTER FOR WINE & CULINARY ARTS, Watch Hill

Create, taste, take home new skills, and celebrate New England’s bounty when you enroll in public classes overseen by Ocean House food forager and director of culinary education Paul McComiskey. The grand hotel’s immersive, 3,000-square-foot culinary center, which débuted in May 2015, is outfitted with a stateof-the-art demonstration kitchen and cellars to house an enviable collection of 8,000 bottles of wine. 1 Bluff Ave. 401-584-7000; oceanhouse events.com

BEST SUNSET WALK: SACHUEST POINT

NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Middletown

This 242-acre expanse of former farmland is prime wildlife-watching territory. The 1.5-mile, pedestrians-only Ocean View Loop is smooth and paved; Newport is in view. But when the sky turns wispy cotton-candy shades, then burns golden-orange as the sun dives into the sea, the only sounds are the scamper of bunnies and deer, the whisper of bird and butterfly wings, and perhaps a joyous shout as a surfcaster lands a bluefish. 769 Sachuest Point Road. 401-847-5511; fws.gov/refuge/Sachuest_Point

BEST LEARNING OUTING: BLACKSTONE RIVER VALLEY

NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

Within the two-state heritage corridor linking landscapes and landmarks pivotal in the birth of American industry, there’s a new experience for visitors who pedal the Blackstone River Bikeway or tour attractions like Slater Mill: bumping into National Park Service rangers. America’s 402nd national park was created in December 2014, and even as long-term plans remain in their infancy, ranger-led adventures are enriching understanding of this storied region during the Park Service’s centennial. 401-762-0250; nps.gov/blac

BEST TREASURE HUNT:

RHODE ISLAND ANTIQUES MALL, Pawtucket

Scott and Rae Davis went antiquing on their first date. Three decades later, their passion-driven, eight-year-old enterprise is a 20,000-squarefoot mega-destination for fans of rare finds and funky old stuff in this river city on the Massachusetts border. Block out hours to browse. With 200 dealers and 150 consignors, you won’t find a more diverse assortment of antiques and collectibles under one roof anywhere else in New England. 345 Fountain St. 401-475-3400; riantiquesmall.com

LODGING

BEST BOUTIQUE MOTEL: BREEZEWAY RESORT, Westerly

This Misquamicut-area standout has a private beach just a short walk, drive, or bike ride away; a heated outdoor pool; and thoughtful staffers who anticipate vacationers’ needs. There’s a towel-filled beach tote waiting in your cottagestyle accommodations; some rooms even have pull-down Murphy beds. Bikes are complimentary for grown-ups; breakfast is free for the whole family. Rates: from $156. 70 Winnapaug Road. 401-348-8953; breezewayresort.com

BEST RIVERVIEW INN: STAGECOACH HOUSE INN, Wyoming

The rustic, homey accommodations—with jetted tubs, fireplaces, and views of the Wood River gliding gently by—feel more Adirondack than Ocean State, and that’s the appeal of this renovated 1796 stagecoach stop in the midst of inland Rhode Island’s outdoor enticements. Freshbaked a.m. treats will fuel you for trout fishing, kayaking, golfing, birdwatching, or hiking. Rates: from $139. 1136 Main St. 401-539-9600; stagecoachhouse.com

BEST LANDMARK HOTEL: RENAISSANCE PROVIDENCE, Providence

From the instant you step into the lobby, restyled in 2014, there’s palpable energy to this historymeets-luxury property—making it incomprehensible that the Classical Revival structure sat vacant for more than 75 years. Intended as a Masonic temple, abandoned during construction in 1928, resuscitated with a $100 million investment in 2007, the Renaissance’s rebirth continues with more than $1 million in new room upgrades. Rates: from $219. 5 Avenue of the Arts. 401-919-5000; renaissanceprovidenceri.com

BEST PET-FRIENDLY HOTEL: NYLO, Warwick

Don’t plant yourself at this Pawtuxet River hotel just because your favorite canine or feline can dream here, too. Embrace the singular experience of slumbering inside the 19th-century textile mill where the Fruit of the Loom brand was born. Industrial interiors are softened by furnishings reminiscent of the Brady Bunch set. Add $50 per pet every three days if you’re traveling with your best pal(s). Rates: from $112. 400 Knight St. 401-734-4460; nylohotels.com/warwick

BEST COASTAL CHIC: THE BREAK, Narragansett

It’s city-meets-seashore at this year-old, 16-room boutique hotel with beach-cottage style and bigtime amenities. Stroll to Scarborough Beach, or laze by the heated pool. Try a Surfset fitness class, or book a surfer’s massage. Complete an Instagram scavenger hunt or take sunset selfies on the rooftop cocktail deck. Then savor Chef Basil Yu’s tantalizing fare at Chair 5. Rates: from $136. 1208 Ocean Road. 401-363-9800; thebreakhotel.com

DINING

BEST BREAKFAST: KITCHEN, Providence

Outside this cash-only, five-table breakfast shrine, seekers and the faithful wait in line, often for an hour plus. Chef/owner Howard Crofts is the guru of French-, American-, or frittatastyle omelets and croissant French toast, as well as shotput-sized muffins split and toasted on the grill. And his hand-cut, super-thick slab bacon is of another world. Breakfast: from $6. 94 Carpenter St. 401-272-1117

BEST LUNCH:

CRAZY BURGER, Narragansett

Suspend your notion of burgers. Here, they’re made not only with beef but lamb, salmon, chicken, turkey, mahi mahi, and vegan-friendly quinoa, mushrooms, and nuts—all intriguingly spiced, topped, and wrapped in everything from bolos to phyllo dough. With an equally extraordinary breakfast menu served until 4:00 p.m., midday is the best time to sip juice-bar concoctions like basil–lime lemonade on the vinesheltered patio, and embrace the zaniness. Burgers: from $9.99. 144 Boon St. 401-783-1810; crazyburger.com

BEST CALAMARI:

SIMPATICO, Jamestown

Rhode Island dominates the lucrative squid fishery with more than half of Northeast landings, and in 2014, lawmakers christened calamari the state’s official appetizer. There’s no better place to try it than this island hangout, which diverges from traditional Rhode Island style by tossing lightly breaded, delicately fried tubes in an eyepleasing, zingy antipasto with hot peppers, red onions, olives, spinach, salami, and capicola. Calamari Antipasto: $14. 13 Narragansett Ave. 401-423-2000; simpaticojamestown.com

BEST ICE CREAM:

SUSANNA’S ICE CREAM AT SWEET BERRY FARM, Middletown

Susanna Williams practices ice-cream alchemy in the kitchen at this lovely land-trust farm. Melding premium local and exotic ingredients, fresh cream from Arruda’s Dairy in Tiverton, and fruits that have burst into season on site, her handcrafted, all-natural ice creams, such as crème fraîche with blueberries and salted caramel swirl, are luscious and dense, while her nondairy sorbets, like Meyer lemon and strawberry–champagne, are intense. Single scoop: $2.50. 915 Mitchell’s Lane. 401-847-3912; susannasice cream.com

BEST ASIAN FUSION:

DEN DEN CAFÉ ASIANA, Providence

Twenty minutes after Korean bibimbap lands on your table, the rice—tucked beneath a visually stunning pile-up of sunnyside egg, veggies, and your choice of seven toppings—is still sizzling like mad in a hot stone bowl. Skillet plates of

SPOTLIGHT: NEWPORT

BEST HOTEL MAKEOVER: NEWPORT MARRIOTT

A $35 million renovation has catapulted Newport’s largest hotel into the upper echelon of seaside places to stay. All 320 rooms underwent high-tech, yacht-chic makeovers, but it’s the lobby’s swings, fountains, and Plank Bar; Mainsail restaurant’s boat-shaped booths and waterside two-tops; and Skiff Bar’s wicked martinis, bacon pops, and ceiling raining nautical rope that are attracting spirited crowds. Rates: from $125. 25 America’s Cup Ave. 401849-1000; newportmarriott.com

DINING

BEST CAFÉ: CRU CAFÉ

ATTRACTIONS

BEST NEW MUSEUM:

AUDRAIN AUTOMOBILE MUSEUM

“I think of them as moving sculptures,” says director David de Muzio of the collection he curates: some 200 rare cars, from an 1898 steam-powered Crouch to “the latest and greatest supercars.” Every four months, a new exhibition spotlights about 15 of these drool-worthy vehicles, owned by real-estate moguls Nick Schorsch and Bill Kahane, who renovated the 1902 Audrain Building for offices but quickly recognized its potential as a showroom of dreams. 222 Bellevue Ave. 401-856-4420; audrainautomuseum.org

BEST ALL-AGES BOAT TRIP:

FISH’N TALES ADVENTURES

LOBSTER TOURS

Help bait traps, band claws, and learn the intimate details of lobster courtship rituals. Captain Rob DeMasi, one of Rhode Island’s last lobstermen, offers a 90-minute lobsterboat excursion—an authentic look at commercial lobstering in one of New England’s most scenic and historic bays. Bowen’s Wharf. 401-619-4431; northeasternlobstertours.com

BEST INTERACTIVE ATTRACTION:

INTERNATIONAL TENNIS HALL OF FAME

In a city filled with “look, but don’t touch” attractions, this architecturally magnificent sports shrine engages an interactive generation. Gutted to the walls for a complete over-

haul, the hall reopened in May 2015 with vibrant galleries and multimedia marvels, including a Roger Federer hologram. Plus, you can participate in clinics or book time on the grass courts where 1881’s first U.S. National Lawn Tennis Championships were played. 194 Bellevue Ave. 401-849-3990; tennisfame.com

LODGING

BEST B&B ALTERNATIVE: GILDED

With a courtyard styled like the Mad Hatter’s croquet party, a fringy chandelier dangling over the white-lacquered billiard table, a jewel-toned library, and 17 funky guest rooms, this newcomer is a visual feast. So is the daily spread of breakfast tapas. If historic inns’ intimacy and formal décor aren’t your thing, this posh, irreverent boutique hotel is your anti-B&B. Rates: from $129. 23 Brinley St. 401-619-7758; gildedhotel.com

BEST GOURMAND GETAWAY: BOUCHARD INN & RESTAURANT

Hospitality power couple Sarah and Chef Albert Bouchard possess that je ne sais quoi that transforms a mere meal or a stay into a memory. Even as their Newport empire has expanded, their flagship French restaurant exudes unparalleled warmth and creativity. With a bellyful of filet de boeuf aux brie, retire to one of 14 rooms upstairs or steps away, and dream until fresh-baked pastries arrive. Rates: from $139. Entrées: from $26. 505 Thames St. 401-846-0123; bouchard newport.com

Russell Morin Catering’s multisensory cuisine is the talk of Newport’s most-exclusive parties. Not invited? Be wowed by the flavors— and affordable prices—at the company’s new casual eatery. Breakfast, lunch, supper, and BYOB Sunday-brunch menus are revamped weekly to highlight local ingredients. Don’t miss the Bellevue blend: a collaboration with Rhode Island’s Custom House artisanal coffee roasters. Entrées: from $6.75. 1 Casino Terrace. 401-314-0500; crucafenewport.com

BEST RAW BAR:

MIDTOWN OYSTER BAR

In oyster lovers’ heaven, icy platters are heaped with glistening molluscs freshly plucked from local waters; crispy fried oysters and remoulade jazz up juicy burgers; and even the beer is brewed with oysters. You can behave and bide your time, or savor these divine creations now. With two bars, two decks, high-ceilinged dining rooms, a marble raw bar, and oyster stout—crafted by Harpoon—on tap, Midtown is where shellfish devotees congregate. Oysters: from $2.50. Entrées: from $21. 345 Thames St. 401-619-4100; midtownoyster.com

BEST BRUNCH:

STONEACRE PANTRY

“Refreshing” it says in the brunch menu’s top-left corner. The heading refers to beverages like lemon–elderflower spritzer. But that single word encapsulates midday meals served Saturdays and Sundays, indoors and out, at this homey yet sophisticated restaurant. Handcrafted dishes like lemon–ricotta pancakes with rhubarb and whipped crème fraîche reflect the owners’ mission to sustain local farms. 515 Thames St. 401-619-7810; stoneacrepantry.com

BEST ALL-AGES BOAT TRIP: FISH’N TALES ADVENTURES LOBSTER TOURS

Japanese noodles steam on and on, too. Inhabitants of Providence’s oldest neighborhood know that Den Den’s multicultural cuisine cures all, from homesickness to head colds to hangovers. Entrées: from: $7.95. 161 Benefit St. 401-2705269; dendencafe.com

BEST SWEET SHOP:

HAUSER CHOCOLATIER, Westerly

Rows of truffles—black vinegar, vodka martini, pumpkin pie—tantalize. It’s no easier selecting from the array of cakes, novelties, and moldedchocolate creations. Luckily, the chocolate dipping station offers only one daily option. Hauser’s signature—chocolate lace—is still crafted on the machine patented by Eugenia Tay, who fled Russia in 1917. The biggest treat at this second-generation-owned company’s industrial-park location is observing through a factory window as chocolates are born. Truffles: $29 per pound. 59 Tom Harvey Road. 401-5968866; hauserchocolates.com

BEST TO-GO FOOD:

SANDY’S FINE FOOD EMPORIUM, Westerly

The bread alone will have you gushing about Sandy’s made-to-order sandwiches—like the “Federal Hill,” built with hot capicola, pepperoni, salami, provolone, and hot peppers.

Whether you’re taking off for Block Island, picnicking at the beach, or provisioning a rental home for the week, this specialty market is your stop for gourmet, freshly made everything, from artisanal cheeses and chocolates to Sandy’s own peanut butter, prepared meals, and pies. Sand-

wiches: from $6.50. 15 Post Road. 401-5962004; sandysfinefoods.com

BEST COFFEE DRINKS:

VANUATU COFFEE ROASTERS, Providence

Jimmy Lappin is a globetrotting eclipse chaser. His sister, Martha Soderlund, got him hooked on Survivor: Vanuatu . His decision to visit proved auspicious. Now, this brother/sister team has coffee connoisseurs craving drinks made with rare, better-than-fair-trade beans from this fertile, volcanic nation. Try the Rhody, a delectable twist on coffee milk made with rich 24-hour cold brew. The Rhody: from $4. 294 Atwells Ave. 401-273-1586; vanuatucoffeeroasters.com

BEST BARGAIN:

THE BEEF BARN, North Smithfield

Since 1969, value-conscious carnivores have flocked to this quirky barn to pay fast-food prices for eight-hour slow-cooked roast beef on a butter-toasted bun. Sit at a silo table or in a chicken-coop booth. Better yet, claim a counter stool and watch the automatic slicer: It shaves 100 pounds of beef daily. Burgers, sandwiches, salads, sides, desserts: Everything on the menu is priced at under $5. (Ham, chicken, and fish are also available.) Roast-beef sandwich: $3.50. 1 Greenville Road. 401-762-9880; thebeefbarn.com

BEST BEACH: NARRAGANSETT TOWN BEACH, Narragansett (p. 100)

BEST LUNCH: CRAZY BURGER, Narragansett (p. 102)

Seasonally

A different kind of mansion experience

BEST SPORTS BAR:

THE RATHSKELLER, Charlestown

Sports matchups on crystal-clear flat screens compete for eyeballs with the LED thermometer above the bar, which constantly confirms: This is the home of Rhode Island’s coldest beer. Above-average pub food isn’t the only added enticement. On the enormous back lawn, competitive types can play horseshoes, cornhole, bocce, and beach volleyball, and the fire bar’s a hot place to toast victory, especially when bands rock the outdoor stage. Entrées: from $15.95. 489a Old Coach Road. 401-792-1000; thecharles townrathskeller.com

BEST COMFORT FOOD:

OGIE’S TRAILER PARK, Providence

Granny Boo’s Kitchen whips up shockingly upscale trailer-park grub: truffle tater tots, deepfried mac-and-cheddar béchamel croquettes, Doritos-crusted chicken, house-smoked pulled pork, char-grilled bratwurst with horseradish cream. You can take your tray to a table or the bar and choose from 66 American beers in cans. But outside, retro metal patio chairs, a fire pit, and the tiki bar (serving new versions of favorite classics, such as the Blue Hawaiian) beckon. And, yup—there’s a toilet in the backyard. Sandwiches: from $4. 1155 Westminster St. 401383-8200; ogiestrailerpark.com

BEST BREADS:

DADDY’S BREAD, Matunuck

As if by sorcery, freshly baked, all-natural loaves are neatly aligned on shelves each summer morning (and weekends during the shoulder months). Parmesan–dill–garlic, anadama, blueberry–apple–cinnamon: Jennifer Manzo sustains her late daddy’s off-the-beaten-path bread shack and generous spirit. Drop your payment in the slot, or send funds via PayPal or snail mail: These artisanal breads are sold on the honor system. Get there early before they go “poof!” Loaf: $6. 805 Moonstone Beach Road. daddysbreadri.com

BEST GASTROPUB: COOK & BROWN PUBLIC HOUSE, Providence

If your idea of a gastropub is a place that serves imaginative comfort food that goes really well with craft beer—like grilled-and-roasted pork with pickled peaches and preserved lemon—then seek no farther. Entrées: from $25. 959 Hope St. 401-273-7275; cookandbrown.com

BEST RHODE ISLAND CLAM CHOWDER: DIMARE RESTAURANT, BAR & SEAFOOD MARKETPLACE, East Greenwich

Real Rhode Island clam chowder has no cream (that’s New England chowder) and no tomatoes

(that’s Manhattan chowder). DiMare’s version of Rhode Island “clear chowder” is based on the recipe of the owner’s father, a retired U.S. Navy commander. A bowl with a jumbo stuffie makes a meal. Before you leave, visit the market for take-home selections. Chowder: $4.95–$11.95. Sandwiches: from $8.95. Entrées: from $16.95. 2706 South County Trail. 401-885-8100; ridimare.com

BEST FAMILY-STYLE CHICKEN: WRIGHT’S FARM RESTAURANT, Harrisville

In the heart of the Blackstone Valley, Wright’s is a Rhode Island institution, and the numbers prove its popularity; the folks here have been churning out family-style chicken dinners for more than four decades at a facility that holds 1,000-plus diners. Even with that kind of capacity, don’t be surprised if they’re running a wait for their all-you-can eat rolls, salad with house-made Italian dressing, pasta (with Wright’s trademark marinara sauce), homestyle fries, and chicken (or 12-ounce sirloin steak, for red-meat lovers). Wrap it all up with an Oreo or “Mudd” “pie/ cake” made locally by The Ice Cream Machine. Takeout also available. Chicken: $12.75 per adult; $7.25 per child ages 10 and under. Steak: $22. 84 Inman Road. 401-769-2856; wrightsfarm.com

The Breakers

TOP 10 RHODE ISLAND EVENTS

MAY 13–15: WESTERLY, Misquamicut Springfest. “Pondfire” is the centerpiece, with firepits in and around the water, creating the perfect setting to enjoy BBQ and an outdoor food court, beer from crafters and commercial vendors, a Ferris wheel and other rides, fireworks, a petting zoo, pony rides, and more, all at Misquamicut State Beach. 401-322-1026; misquamicut festival.org

MAY 21: BRISTOL, 9th Annual Rhode Island Fiber Festival & Craft Fair. Craftspeople demonstrate and exhibit traditional and contemporary fiber arts on the grounds of the Coggeshall Farm living-history museum. Purchase supplies, equipment, and gifts, watch the shearing of the sheep, and perhaps even try your hand at some 18th-century-style work, if you please. 401-253-9062; coggeshallfarm.org

MAY 28–30: WARWICK, Gaspée Days Arts & Crafts Festival. A Warwick fixture since 1965, this outdoor event brings together more than 100 artisans, community groups, and nonprofits at Pawtuxet Park. Live music, good food, amusements, and games round out the event, which draws about 50,000 people each year. 401-781-1772; gaspee.com/arts

JUNE 11: RICHMOND, Rhode Island Scottish Highland Festival. Scotland comes to the

Ocean State at Washington County Fairgrounds. Enjoy traditional music and dance, Scottish food, sheepdog demonstrations, Highland sports competitions, children’s activities, and more. riscot.org

JUNE 18: WESTERLY, Chorus of Westerly Summer Pops Concert. In this much-anticipated annual performance, the Chorus of Westerly teams with the Boston Festival Orchestra under the stars in lovely Wilcox Park. Fireworks, cannons, and the pealing bells of Christ Church will all play a role in the breathtaking finale. 401-596-8663; chorusofwesterly.org

JUNE 24–26: NEWPORT, Flower Show. Visit historic Rosecliff mansion, birthplace of the American Beauty rose, and celebrate the artful living of the Gilded Age through colorful floral designs, exhibits, and garden displays. Plus unique shopping opportunities, a champagne and jazz brunch, an authors’ afternoon tea, children’s activities, and more. 401-8471000; newportflowershow.org

JULY 4: BRISTOL, Annual Bristol Fourth of July Parade. The country’s longest-running annual Independence Day celebration draws a crowd to the historic downtown, so arrive early to get a good spot along the route. july4thbristol ri.com

JULY 22–24: KINGSTON, 38th South County Hot Air Balloon Fest. An annual gathering of community, music, and more than a dozen hot-air balloons at the University of Rhode Island athletic fields, plus kids’ events, food, and fun for all ages. southcountyballoonfest.com

AUGUST 5–7: CHARLESTOWN, 32nd Annual Seafood Festival. A gastronomic extravaganza at Ninigret Park highlights the state’s best seafood—lobsters, steamers, chowder, fish and chips, clam cakes, and a raw bar—plus a bevy of other foods to suit all tastes. Plus amusement rides, a car show, a petting zoo, raffles, music, and more. 401-364-4031; charlestownrichamber.com/seafoodfestival.html

AUG. 20: JAMESTOWN, 39th Fools’ Rules Regatta. As the cannon fires over the town beach at East Ferry, participants have two hours to build their sailing vessels from non-marine items. Imagination and ingenuity must prevail to stay afloat and cross the finish line, though “Worst Example of Naval Architecture” secures an award as well. jyc.org

Call ahead to confirm dates, schedules, and admission prices. To submit an event for possible publication, go to: YankeeMagazine.com/submit-an-event

FLOWER SHOW, ROSECLIFF, Newport

ECHO LAKE, Franconia Notch State Park, Franconia (p. 122)

Among Franconia’s many natural wonders is pristine Echo Lake, a 32-acre body of water at the northern end of this breathtaking mountain pass.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

BEST LODGING

HAMPSHIRE

BEST DINING

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: MATT KALINOWSKI, DOUGLAS MERRIAM, MICHELE HIRSCH, MICHAEL PIAZZA

BEST ORCHARD (p. 110)

BEST SMALL LUXURY HOTEL (p. 124)

BEST PUB GRUB WITH MUSIC (p. 124)

ATTRACTIONS

BEST ORCHARD:

ALYSON’S ORCHARD, Walpole

Topographically, it’s hard to beat this 450acre orchard at the top of a ridge overlooking the Connecticut River Valley. Equally hard to choose when it’s at its most irresistible. From the spring blossoms to the summer berries to the annual chili cookoff, it always feels like a festival up here on the heights. But with more than 50 varieties of apples, it’s ultimately the apple that reigns supreme. 57 Alyson’s Lane. 603-756-9800 ; alysonsorchard.com

BEST SALVAGE:

ARCHITECTURAL SALVAGE INC., Exeter

Art Nouveau mantel? Porcelain folding yacht sink? How did they move that nine-panel stained-glass ceiling? Carpenters love this vintage trip down memory lane, where you can pick up aging barn doors and finial doodads like an architectural time traveler. Christopher McMahon’s extraordinary treasure trove has been here for 18 years. “We have a lot of fun collecting it,” says son Aiden, backed up by a panel of ornate doorbells, a contingent of corbels, and a couple hundred years of inventory. Open Friday, Saturday, and by appointment. 3 Mill St. 603-7735635; oldhousesalvage.com

BEST WINERY:

LABELLE WINERY, Amherst

Winemaker Amy LaBelle’s elegant facility offers guided tours plus tastings from among more than 25 of the winery’s own New Hampshire–produced varietals, including Corazon, Granite State Apple, and Riesling. This coolly sleek enterprise also houses The Bistro, where you can raise a glass to farm-to-fork lunches and dinners featuring artisanal cheese plates, roasted chicken tartine, and fresh pasta. Buy all 34 wines, plus unusual kitchen gadgets, at the gift shop. Like a sip of Sonoma in the New Hampshire hills. Sampler of 5: $8. 345 Route 101. 603672-9898 ; labellewinerynh.com

BEST URBAN ESCAPE:

CONTOOCOOK RIVER CANOE CO., Concord

Just 6.5 miles from the golden gleam of the State House dome, a broad lawn sweeps down to the banks of the Contoocook River. Bright kayaks sit stacked like chili peppers beside canoes and stand-up paddleboards at Patrick and Lisa Malfait’s family-owned business. But it’s the wide expanse of water that inspires you to ease that rental vessel into the river. You can take a ninemile paddle (they’ll shuttle you to Contoocook Village) and steer your boat through Concord’s Lehtinen Park, or a shorter jaunt upriver to Daisy Beach. Canoe: $30. Kayak: $24. Paddle-

board: $20/half-day. 9 Horse Hill Road. 603753-9804; contoocookcanoe.com/contoocook-river

BEST PLACE TO GET AWAY FROM IT ALL: OCEANIC HOTEL, Star Island

Portsmouth’s Isles of Shoals Steamship Company ferry (315 Market St. 603-431-5500; isles ofshoals.com/cruises) cruises six miles off the New Hampshire coast to the windswept Isles of Shoals, where you can reserve lunch at the Oceanic Hotel, a picturesque mid-19th-century hotel turned conference center on Star Island. The Oceanic also offers “personal retreats” for up to a week for those not conferencing, but lucky daytrippers can wander the 43-acre island at will, exploring the old burial ground, picnicking at the gazebo, or just admiring the stunning Atlantic views. 603-430-6272, 603-601-0832 (island phone); starisland.org

BEST CRUISE: GUNDALOW CO., Portsmouth

Set sail on the Piscataqua from Prescott Park and bring your own picnic dinner. This traditional “gundalow” is a replica of the sailing barges that regularly cruised these river waters starting in the 1600s, but with a modern-day twist. On Thursday nights (and some weekends), local musicians climb aboard and play concerts ranging from folk and Celtic to bluegrass and jazz. What could be sweeter? The wind in your sails,

the port at your back, a picnic, good tunes, and soft river breezes. From $40 for adults. 60 Marcy St. 603-433-9505 ; gundalow.org

BEST ORGANIC FARM STAND:

ROSALY’S GARDEN, Peterborough

Mounds of veggies scent this airy farm stand, surrounded by acres of pick-your-own flowers and herbs set against a backdrop of Mount Monadnock, a favorite of fresh-air painters. Named Gardener of the Year by the Northeast Organic Farming Association, founder Rosaly Bass has recapped it all in her book, Organic! , which you can cherry-pick from her pictureperfect stand, along with just-picked lettuce, cukes, and armfuls of Skittles-bright zinnias. 63 Route 123. 603-924-7772; rosalysgarden.com

BEST ALL-AROUND ENTERTAINMENT:

PORTSMOUTH MUSIC HALL, Portsmouth

The outrageous scope of this performing-arts venue—from Tom Brokaw to Melissa Etheridge—seems right at home in this elegantly rehabbed 1878 Victorian theatre, which once hosted vaudevillians. Its acclaimed Writers on a New England Stage series has seen the kind of celebrity cross-pollination that would rattle any reader, spanning Salman Rushdie to Patti Smith. Across the street, Writers in the Loft hosts more-intimate programs and signings, with best-selling authors such as the prolific Chris Bohjalian. 28 Chestnut St. 603-4362400 ; themusichall.org

BEST STUDIO GIFT SHOP:

SALTY DOG POTTERY, Barnstead

Everything about Teresa Taylor’s world is organically artistic, from her weathered-barn showroom and studio to the stooped and hobbity kiln out back. This 40-year-plus pottery veteran produces a nimble and lovely tumble of platters edged with broad leaves, beakers that are literally beaked, whimsical tiles, and swirling birdbaths, shimmering in foamy greens, blues, and coppery earth tones, perfectly complemented by the late-afternoon dust motes filtering down through barn light. 92 Suncook Valley Road. 603-435-6014; saltydogpottery.com

BEST 20TH-CENTURY-HISTORY MUSEUM:

WRIGHT MUSEUM, Wolfeboro

An M3A1 Stuart tank juts from the brick wall encompassing this collection of World War II artifacts, materials, and memorabilia. “We’re losing 500 vets a day,” notes Gene, a volunteer guide at this under-the-radar gem “Dedicated to the Greatest Generation WWII.” The “time tunnel” leads visitors through a series of rooms, one for each year from 1939 to 1945, that orient us to the war via LIFE magazine covers, exhibits, and bits of trivia: A gallon of gas cost 10 cents in 1939 (a car was $700); Rosie the Riveter appeared in 1943. The 1940s-era wartime kitchen is complete in every detail, down to the shiny Glenwood stove and a box of Rinso at the sink. Jeeps, tanks, and a Red Cross van huddle under hanging airplanes in the Vehicles (continued on p. 123)

48 PEAKS OVER 4,000' AND NO END TO ADVENTURE IN SIGHT.

Casually elegant lodging & dining

Sat & Sun, July 2-3, 2016

American Mountain Men Living History and 22nd Annual Open Barn & Celebration

Celebrating Kenneth’s 131st Birthday

Open to the public 11 am – 4 pm

FREE Birthday Cake & Lemonade Will be Served

Poore Family Homestead

Historic Farm Museum

Rte. 145, Stewartstown, NH • 7 miles north of Colebrook

Live Music by: Harold Boydston also Weaving, Spinning, Soap Making, Tanning Hides, and Crafting Axe Handles from White Ash demonstrations. Audience participation is encouraged!

Admission: $10 Donation/adult

Accompanied Children Under 12 are FREE

Regular Museum Hours: June – September

Fri., Sat. & Sun. 11 am to 3 pm (or as posted)

The Poore Farm Music, Arts & Homesteading Festival August 13, 2016. See Web Site for Details.

Breathtaking Views

Award-Winning Cuisine

Cozy & Inviting

FOUR CLAY TENNIS COURTS • HIKING

HORSEBACK RIDING • GLIDER RIDES

HEATED OUTDOOR POOL & JACUZZI

MOUNTAIN BIKING • X-COUNTRY SKIING

SLEIGH RIDES • ICE SKATING • TUBING SNOWSHOEING & MORE...

1172 Easton Road Franconia, NH 03580 info@franconiainn.com

800.473.5299 franconiainn.com

GOING WITH THE FLOW DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN FOLLOWING THE CROWD.

Sage Farm Antiques

A monthly 3-day show of antique, vintage and repurposed furniture, home decor and more. Open the first Friday of the month for 3 days, with our huge 100 dealer anniversary show in October!

For our full schedule, location and hours for each show check: www.sagefarmantiques.com

(603)964-3690

5 Exeter Rd, North Hampton, NH 03862

The Wright Museum of World War II

Wolfeboro, NH

Since 1994, educating visitors about the WWII-era Americans called, “the greatest generation”. See extensive 1939-45 Home Front displays; vintage tanks & weapons; period art & music and more.

Please join us for these 2016 Special Exhibits:

“The WWII Art of Private Charles J. Miller” May 1-June 10

“Norman Rockwell in the 1940s: A View of the American Homefront” June 18-August 21

“Infamy: December 7, 1941” - August 29-October 24

Open May 1 – Oct 31 • Mon.-Sat. 10-4 • Sun. 12-4 Visit us at www.wrightmuseum.org to view complete offerings • 603-569-1212

CAMPGROUND & COTTAGES

Southeastern NH’s Family Campground Camping as it should be!

Quality lakeside family vacations nestled between the mountains & the seacoast. Reserve now! Call 866-335-1110

www.ayerslakecampground.com

497 Washington Street • Barrington, NH 03825

KAYAKING ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER, ERROL VISITNH.GOV

DRED_yankee strip.indd 2

“Yourhome isyourstory, tellitwell.”

AYERS LAKE FARM

History permeates, waterfront beckons, families bond, dining delights, shops entice.

Bob Ness Images

JEWEL OF LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE

New Hampshire

Reservations are highly recommended and appreciated!

SPOTLIGHT: WHITE MOUNTAINS

and outlets (L.L. Bean to J. Crew), this family-owned inn is a port in the storm for weary shoppers. One that includes 13 cozy guestrooms; local artwork; a pub; or dining by candlelight on roast duckling, with 12 peaks, including Mount Washington, fanning out before you. Rates: from $165. 185 Chase Hill Road. 603-447-2181; darbyfield.com

DINING

BEST CLASSIC BAR:

THE CAVE, OMNI MOUNT WASHINGTON RESORT, Bretton Woods

ATTRACTIONS

BEST TOURIST HOT SPOT:

MOUNT WASHINGTON COG RAILWAY, Bretton Woods

While options for scaling Mount Washington’s dizzying 6,288 feet include hiking and driving, thankfully there’s also the only Cog Railway east of the Rockies—a 19th-century feat of engineering that’s been clinging to the steep slopes for 147 years. A three-hour round trip affords plenty of time to ogle views of the classic Omni Mount Washington Hotel, Vermont’s Green Mountains, and New Hampshire’s Presidentials. On the summit, you can explore the Extreme Mount Washington exhibit and historic 1853 Tiptop House. 3168 Base Station Road, Marshfield Station. 603-278-5404 ; thecog.com

BEST FRESHWATER EXPERIENCE:

ECHO LAKE, Franconia Notch State Park, Franconia

Cannon Mountain rises sharply over pristine Echo Lake, and the beach boasts a direct view of spectacular Franconia Notch—that deep cut between the Franconia and Kinsman ranges. Amid all that drama, this serene stretch of sand meets crisp, clear water (with a roped-off area for kids). Rent a canoe, a kayak, or a pedal boat on the spot at the Lakeside General Store, where you can also stock up on sunscreen and souvenirs. Franconia Notch State Park. 603-745-8391; nhstateparks.org/visit/ state-parks/franconia-notch-state-park.aspx

BEST CHEESE & CRACKERS:

HARMAN’S CHEESE & COUNTRY STORE, Sugar Hill

In business since 1955, Harman’s sells 11 tons

of the “World’s Greatest Cheddar” every year. Described as “smooth and zesty,” it’s the real deal: whole milk, no added chemicals or colors, aged two years, cut by hand with a wire slicer. The red country store also features other goodies, like crackers, jams, moose memorabilia, local crafts, totes, T-shirts, and vintage Old Man of the Mountain cards. A tasty niche, well done. 1400 Route 117. 603-823-8000 ; harmanscheese.com

LODGING

BEST FANTASY LODGING: ADVENTURE SUITES, North Conway

Is that shag carpeting on the walls ? The B-52s are cranking when you step into the Love Shack, one of 19 themed suites in this compound. In the stained-glass-encrusted Victorian spa, a heartshaped Jacuzzi faces the mountains. If you can imagine it, it’s here, including The Club, with LED dance floor, DJ station, and disco balls. Breakfast is served, as you’d expect, in a 1950s diner. Rates: from $149. 3440 White Mountain Highway. 603- 356-9744 ; adventuresuites.com

BEST LUXURY GETAWAY:

THE INN AT THORN HILL & SPA, Jackson

This 1895 mansion offers 16 rooms in the main house, including a deluxe beauty named for Stanford White, the renowned architect who designed this romantic retreat: “luxury with a view.” With a swimming pool and awardwinning dining, the most stressful moment could be choosing your spa treatment. Summer rates: from $169. 40 Thorn Hill Road. 603-3834242 ; innatthornhill.com

BEST ESCAPE:

DARBY FIELD INN & RESTAURANT, Albany

Eight miles from North Conway’s brand names

We’ll take any excuse to swing by this historic landmark and marvel at its grandeur, dwarfed only by Mount Washington rising behind it. The hotel’s distinctive 1902 silhouette— a Spanish Renaissance ocean liner topped with red tile—took two years to build. Its veranda is legendary. But dig deeper and you’ll uncover The Cave, a “Prohibition Era speakeasy” oozing old-fashioned masculinity with vaulted brick ceilings and a gleaming wooden bar, hosting live entertainment and televised sports. The man cave every woman could love. 310 Mount Washington Road. 603-278-1000; omnihotels.com/hotels/bretton-woods-mountwashington

BEST BREAKFAST:

STAIRWAY CAFÉ, North Conway

Breakfast all day (there’s lunch, too) might include Maine lobster Benedict, pumpkin–pecan pancakes, or a “Bonzo Breakfast Burrito” with a side of homemade applesauce. The deck looks toward the White Mountains, but nothing’s as pretty as the “Vegetable Garden Scramble” that just arrived, or as comforting as this cozy nest buzzing with conversation and brimming with vintage décor. Breakfast: from $6.59. 2649 White Mountain Highway. 603-356-5200; stairwaycafe.com

BEST FUN TIME:

WILDCAT INN & TAVERN, Jackson

The Currier & Ives village of Jackson puts on its fun hat at this cozy tavern, where rustic meets après-ski, local musicians are on tap, and everything’s seasoned with a sense of humor. Lunchtime locals chow down on “Crazy Cajun Chicken Corn Chowder” and “Baja Fish Tacos.” Dinner might be chicken mac-and-cheese—because we can. Tuesday is “Hoot” night, one of the oldest open-mic nights in New England, with one-pound lobsters served. Weekends, anything might happen, just as long as it’s fun. Lunch: from $7.95. Entrées: from $11.95. 94 Main St. 603-356-8700; wildcattavern.com

BEST TOURIST HOT SPOT: MOUNT WASHINGTON COG RAILWAY, Bretton Woods

Gallery. Founded in 1994 by collector David Wright, a Marine in the Korean War, the museum educates and inspires, a tribute to those who served. Adults: $10. Veterans: $8. 77 Center St. 603-569-1212; wrightmuseum.org

BEST VINTAGE DÉCOR:

WHITE HOME COLLECTIONS, Wilton

Pearly mirrors, vintage wrought iron, birds’ nests—a breezy, elegant collection of carefully curated antique finds, furniture, and garden equipment fills a three-story 1860s farmhouse, spilling over into extra barn stalls, a potting shed, and the front yard. Special events like the annual Garden Extravaganza on Mother’s Day attract collectors and decorators from the four corners; across the street, the affiliated White Home Market hosts special themed exhibits every few months. All the ingredients for a makeover. 9 Greenville Road. 603-654-7363; whitehomecollections.com

BEST OCEAN ADVENTURE:

AL GAURON DEEP SEA FISHING & WHALE WATCHING, Hampton Beach

For more than 50 years, the Gauron family has guided fishing trips, fireworks cruises on Wednesday nights, and close encounters with those most awesome of mammals: humpbacks, minke, and finbacks, along with dolphins and sharks. Until you’ve looked a whale in the eye, it’s just another fish story. 1 Ocean Blvd. 603926-2469; algauron.com

LODGING

BEST LAKEFRONT CABINS:

AMES FARM INN, Gilford

Nostalgia rises like mist off the edges of Lake Winnipesaukee where the water meets a quartermile of sandy beach and 17 quiet cottages. Five generations of Ameses have tended this idyllic spread since 1890. The lawn would be extravagant anywhere, but on this lake, it’s astounding. You scarcely need more than the inn, restaurant, dock, and mountain views, but just in case, there are movies, karaoke, and ping-pong. The cottages line up like ducklings, porches facing the view. Peace. Rates: $840–$1,825 per week, depending on season. Separate pricing for rooms and apartments. 2800 Lake Shore Road. 603-293-4321; amesfarminn.com

BEST NEW HISTORIC INN:

BELLOWS WALPOLE INN, Walpole

Colonel Benjamin Bellows, one of the founders of pretty (and today, upscale) Walpole, started building his 14,000-square-foot mansion in 1752, just 1.2 miles from the center of town. Recent renovations have transformed the historic building into a bright and airy eight-room luxury boutique hotel. With a sparkling onsite restaurant and pub, outdoor seating, and tennis courts, Bellows would hardly recognize the place. Rates: from $175. 297 Main St. 603-756-3320 ; bellowswalpoleinn.com

WRITERS

PRESENTING SPONSORS:

MEDIA PARTNER:

Wed., May 11 • 7pm

Historic Theater

After four decades as a reporter, Lesley Stahl says the most vivid and transforming experience of her life was not covering the White House, interviewing heads of state, or any other of her stories at 60 Minutes. It was becoming a grandmother.

SERIES SPONSOR:

Piscataqua Landscaping & Tree Service

EVENING SPONSOR:

Seacoast Area Libraries

BEST SMALL LUXURY HOTEL:

THE MANOR ON GOLDEN POND, Holderness

Perfect, the way the afternoon sun strikes Isaac Van Horn’s 13-acre summer estate, on a hill overlooking Squam Lake. The manor basks in a golden glow—the same that shone in On Golden Pond , the 1981 Academy Award winner starring Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, filmed on Squam. Inside, polished wood gleams in the distinctly uncommon “common” areas—pub, library, sun-splashed dining room. Built in 1907 by a wealthy land developer for his bride, today’s innkeepers, Brian and Mary Ellen Shields, continue the romantic gestures with spa treatments, fine dining, and a Wine Spectator cellar. Member “Small Luxury Hotels of the World,” with 15 manor rooms. Rates: from $230. Entrées: from $29. 31 Manor Drive. 603-968-3348 ; manoron goldenpond.com

BEST WILDERNESS CAMPING:

NORTHERN WATERS OUTFITTERS, Errol

Take a long, deep breath, check your 9-to-5 routine, and jump off the map. The wild beauty of Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge is yours for the paddling, with Northern Waters Outfitters offering canoe camping at several wilderness sites, including near its base camp and school. Canoe the refuge by day; sleep under the stars at night. Or sign up for instruction in kayak touring and whitewater rafting, plus pontoonboat wildlife tours. 3579 Upton Road. 603-4823817, 603-447-2177 (winter) ; beoutside.com/ umbagog-lake-canoeing-and-kayaking-2

BEST TEA EXPERIENCE:

SILVER FOUNTAIN INN & TEA PARLOR, Dover

Bemoaning the lack of manners in the modernday world? Tea and etiquette are on the menu at Jim and Pam Pigeon’s 1871 Victorian inn in downtown Dover, thanks to input from a “certified tea and etiquette consultant” who can offer instructions over a tea luncheon. If your manners are already spot-on, simply kick back and enjoy this properly elegant eight-guest-room property, with its mahogany paneling, Italian plaster ceilings, and silk wall coverings. Or make a reservation for afternoon high tea and settle in with a cucumber-and-dill sandwich. Rates: from $115. 103 Silver St. 603-750-4200 ; silverfountain.com

BEST LODGING PERKS:

SNOWVILLAGE INN, Eaton Center

Peace settles over the Snowvillage Inn like a dusting of snow, and the only distractions are the gorgeous views (Mount Washington), fine dining (Max’s Restaurant & Pub), and pretty rooms. Unless you choose otherwise. This tucked-away inn also knows how to keep its guests well entertained, with an extensive menu of lodging packages running into the dozens. Summer packages include paddling on the Saco River and antiquing in the mountains; in the fall, delve into the mysteries of beer or enjoy “bring a friend” shopping weekends. A perfect complement to all that peace and quiet. Rates: from $139. 136 Stewart Road. 603447-2818 ; snowvillageinn.com

DINING

BEST COCKTAILS: COTTON, Manchester

Owner/chef Jeffrey Paige serves upscale American fare—ruby-red tuna tataki and a perfectly dressed Caesar salad spring to mind—while hunks of chunky bread are companions to any one of a surfeit of award-winning martinis. Candy-colored celebrations—Flirtinis, Bellinis, Cosmopolitans—sashay by. Satisfy your curiosity with a sampler under the gaze of a wall-size, black-and-white Audrey Hepburn. Lunch: from $8.95. Entrées: from $15.95. Cocktails: from $8. 75 Arms St. 603-622-5488 ; cottonfood.com

BEST SEAFOOD:

THE FRANKLIN OYSTER HOUSE, Portsmouth

Abenaki, Little Grizzly, and Fox Point, piled on heaps of ice, greet the traveler who wanders off busy Market Street and steps inside this shimmery ode to the oyster. The modern, iridescent décor feels like the inside of an oyster shell, but when you plunk down at the horseshoe-shaped bar to order grilled “Oysters Off the Hot Line” and a side of pumpkin fritters, you do so knowing that the guys you crossed paths with in the doorway were dropping off something fresh and briny. There’s also plenty to eat besides oysters. Small plates: from $7. Entrées: from $18. 148 Fleet St. 603-373-8500 ; franklinoysterhouse.com

BEST PUB GRUB WITH MUSIC:

HARLOW’S PUB, Peterborough

What started as a small cheese shop has morphed over the years into a full-blown, family-friendly pub with craft brews on tap, a Celtic music jam every Tuesday, open-mic nights on Wednesday, and weekends of toe-tapping, wide-ranging music. You can never fail with lunchtime veggie chili or a thick “Turkey Thang” sandwich, but at night the sizzling diablo chicken makes a perfect complement to the bands that rock everything from Jamaican ska to “chamber art-pop.” Lunch: from $6. Entrées: from $13.95. 3 School St. 603924-6365 ; harlowspub.com

BEST SANDWICH:

MILLER’S CAFÉ & BAKERY, Littleton

When the Food Network crisscrossed the country to find the best sandwiches in every state (tough job), they flipped over the “Yankee Flip Pot Roast” here: juicy meat stuffed into tandoori flatbread, with garlic potatoes and greens overspilling the borders. You, too, can tackle the full roster of breakfast, lunch, and dinner sandwiches and conduct your own taster’s challenge, preferably on the pretty riverside deck. Sandwiches: from $5.25. 16 Mill St. 603-444-2146 ; millers cafeandbakery.com

BEST FRENCH FARE: MISE EN PLACE RESTAURANT, Wolfeboro

When then-president Nicolas Sarkozy was feeling homesick for France, he pulled up une chaise at this fine eatery a few tangled blocks away from Main Street and Lake Winnipesaukee. Chef/

owner Terry Adrignola seasons her gourmet American dishes (like seared sea scallops and lobster/jumbo lump-crab risotto) with Frenchstyle flair—good enough for Sarkozy, while giving you a little taste of France without the jet lag. Entrées: from $26. 96 Lehner St. 603-569-5788 ; miseenplacenh.com

BEST PANCAKES: PARKER’S MAPLE BARN, Mason

Out here in the middle of nowhere, the parking lots are mobbed and eager eaters queue up like hopeful lottery winners. Will it be buttermilk or blueberry–buckwheat? Or “Pancake of the Month”? The wait today, a Sunday, is 70 minutes (it’s a lot shorter during the week), but there’s plenty to fill your time: Sample maple jelly beans at the bustling gift shop, or try a maple doughnut by the sugarhouse. IMHAPY2 reads one license plate, as a helicopter lands nearby. “It’s not unusual,” smiles the doughnut-stand lady. “We have regulars who fly in for breakfast.”

Pancakes: from $3.99. 1316 Brookline Road. 603878-2308 ; parkersmaplebarn.com

BEST NEW INDIAN RESTAURANT:

THE SPICE CHAMBERS, Keene

Ooh, those vegetable pakoras, dipped in chickpea batter and sizzled to crunchy perfection, with some sort of fresh minty sauce that kept us dipping way past the saturation point … Executive chef Madan Rathore brings spice to Keene, with lamb, seafood, and vegetarian options. We’re off to a fine start with creamy navrattam korma (vegetables in sauce), punctuated by a delectable malai kofta (cheese-and-veggie dumplings in curry), plus a puff of garlic–cilantro naan for good measure. But with specialties from all over India, we may have to travel the entire menu, top to bottom. Entrées: from $13. 8 Winter St. 603-352-9007; spicechambers.com

BEST DESSERT:

TIM-BIR ALLEY, Littleton

Unassuming and lovely, with beautiful dishes like Moroccan chicken and blue-corn-crusted tilapia—but owners Biruta and Tim Carr are famed for their swoon-inducing desserts. Save room for white-chocolate coconut cheesecake with toasted coconut–caramel sauce or chocolate hazelnut pâté. Really. Entrées: from $19.95. Desserts: $7.95. 7 Main St. 603-444-6142

BEST BAKERY DISH:

UMPLEBY’S BAKERY & CAFÉ, Hanover Comfort and finger food, rolled into one. Charles and Carolyn Umpleby’s savory pies aren’t much bigger than a generous hockey puck, but they’re juicy reminders of the heights that a pie can achieve in the hands of a master. Chicken curry; artichoke; stuffed with eggs, bacon, mushrooms, or leeks … We just like saying pie. Savory flavors, engulfed by flaky crust, handed over in a waxed-paper wrapping. Since 2007, they’ve been baking up these hearty, oldfashioned treats, reinterpreted, deliciously, for modern times. Pies: from $4.25. 3 South St. 603643-3030 ; umplebys.com

TOP 10 NEW HAMPSHIRE EVENTS

MAY 11, 16: PORTSMOUTH, Writers on a New England Stage. Best-selling authors Lesley Stahl and Joe Hill headline a pair of events in this popular series at The Music Hall. They’ll read from their latest books and will be interviewed, live on stage, by New Hampshire Public Radio host Virginia Prescott. 603436-2400; themusichall.org

MAY 14–15: DEERFIELD, 40th Sheep & Wool Festival. The Fairground hosts shearing, knitting, and weaving demonstrations, sheep and breed shows, more than 100 fiber-related vendors, and more. 603-895-2233; nhswga.org

MAY 29: JACKSON, Wildquack Duck River Festival. Put your money on one of 3,500 rubber duckies floating downriver in a race to the finish line! A children’s duck parade, a silent auction, a bake sale, pony rides, a “Cake Boss” competition, an obstacle course, and other activities round out the fun at Jackson Village Park. 603-383-9356; jacksonnh.com

JUNE 4–5: CHARLESTOWN, French & Indian War Encampment. The sights and sounds of the French & Indian War come alive at The Fort at No. 4. Visit French, British, and Native camps, observe mock battles and military drills, and watch blacksmithing,

spinning, and cooking demonstrations. 603826-5700; fortat4.org

JUNE 16–18: HAMPTON, Master Sand Sculpting Competition. What do you get when 15 worldclass sculptors put their creativity to the test on Hampton Beach? The results are wildly different each year, so you’ll just have to see for yourself. For a real treat, stay late and enjoy these massive works illuminated after dark. 603-548-6002; hamptonbeach.org

JUNE 17–19: MERRIMACK, Rock’n Ribfest. Excellent BBQ is best enjoyed in an atmosphere of live music and entertainment, and that’s just how it’s served up on the grounds of the Anheuser–Busch facility. Proceeds support area nonprofits. ribfestnh.com

JUNE 22: PORTSMOUTH, Taste of the Nation. Eat well, and for a good cause, as more than 70 restaurants come together beneath big-top tents at Strawbery Banke Museum for a celebration of the Seacoast’s best food and drink. This benefit for Share Our Strength’s “No Kid Hungry” campaign also includes a silent auction, a VIP lounge, and dance music. ce.nokidhungry.org

JUNE 24–26: LINCOLN, New England Brewfest: Ultimate Craft Beer Weekend. Tap into more than 100 exceptional brews supplied by the

30 beermakers on hand at Loon Mountain Resort, Mountain Club on Loon, and other sites around Lincoln. Enjoy live entertainment, presentations, delicious foods, and plenty of exhibits offering brew paraphernalia and souvenirs. 603-745-6621; nebrewfest.com

AUG. 6–14: NEWBURY, 83rd League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s Fair. Mount Sunapee Resort hosts fantastic works by juried league members in more than 200 exhibits, plus demonstrations, interactive activities, music, and a variety of food vendors. 603-224-3375; nhcrafts.org

AUG. 19–21: NORTH THORNTON, White Mountain Boogie N’ Blues Festival. The state’s largest outdoor blues festival celebrates its 20th year at Sugar Shack Campground with awardwinning performers, food and craft vendors, kids’ activities, a rock-climbing wall, and Saturday-night fireworks. 603-726-3867; whitemountainboogie.com

Call ahead to confirm dates, schedules, and admission prices. To submit an event for possible publication, go to: YankeeMagazine.com/submit-an-event

MASTER SAND SCULPTING COMPETITION, Hampton

OUR GREAT OUTDOORS HAS A TABLE WAITING FOR YOU.

VERMONT

Ride the Gondola to the shoulder of Mount Mansfield for a breathtaking view of the rolling green landscape below. Fresh, seasonal ingredients and classic yet inventive cuisine are the hallmarks of this unique lunch spot.

BEST LODGING

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: COREY HENDRICKSON; JULIE BIDWELL; COURTESY RED CLOVER INN; COURTESY VERMONT COUNTRY STORE

BEST COUNTRY STORE (p. 130)

BEST HISTORIC INN (p. 134) BEST FARM-TO-TABLE DINING (p. 135)

ATTRACTIONS

BEST COUNTRY STORE:

VERMONT COUNTRY STORE, Weston

Looking for a flannel nightie, a manual typewriter, old-time candies … all in one store? That barely begins to describe the diversity of the inventory at this 70-year-old Vermont institution. There’s a second location in Rockingham. 657 Main St. 800-547-7849; vermontcountrystore.com

BEST ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES:

THE VERMONT ANTIQUE MALL, Quechee

Looking for that Old Farmer’s Almanac from the ’50s? Or a Star Wars lunchbox? They’re most likely here in one of the 450 booths. Take time to visit the free Toy & Train Museum, too. Quechee Gorge Village, 5573 East Woodstock Road (U.S. Route 4). 802-281-4147; vermontantiquemall.com

BEST TOURIST HOT SPOT:

SHELBURNE MUSEUM, Shelburne

An outstanding collection of Americana, folk art, and fine art—including Impressionist and American paintings—is housed in 38 historic buildings and on the beautifully landscaped grounds. 6000 Shelburne Road. 802-985-3346; shelburnemuseum.org

BEST LAKE CHAMPLAIN PADDLE:

ISLAND PASSAGES, North Hero

After more than 18 years of paddling the waters of northern Lake Champlain, husband-and-wife team John and Berney Skutel know the very best places to explore. 802-825-1120; kayakisland passages.com

BEST BEACH:

SAND BAR STATE PARK, Milton

Lake Champlain’s premier bathing beach offers kid-friendly shallows, picnic tables and grills, food and boat rentals, shade trees, and gorgeous views. Route 2. 802-893-2825; vtstateparks.com

BEST CHEESE & SYRUP STOP:

SUGARBUSH FARM, Woodstock

For more than 70 years this small family farm has been crafting tasty cheeses and maple syrup. Sample the wares, visit the animals, and tour a traditional low-tech sugarhouse. 591 Sugarbush Farm Road. 802-457-1757; Sugarbushfarm.com

BEST LOCAL ARTS: BRYAN MEMORIAL GALLERY, Jeffersonville

Paintings by American realists line the walls of this rambling small-town gallery at the foot of Smugglers’ Notch. Many, like founder Alden Bryan and his wife, Mary, have found inspira-

tion in the surrounding landscape. 180 Main St. 802-644-5100; bryangallery.org

BEST BOOKSTORE: NORTHSHIRE BOOKSTORE, Manchester Center

The extensive selection includes everything from best-sellers to rarities, and features a whole floor devoted to children’s titles. The Spiral Press Café is perfect for a light lunch or freshly baked treat. 4869 Main St. 802-362-2200; northshire.com

BEST COVERED BRIDGES: LAMOILLE COUNTY

Aficionados can bag more than a dozen in a day. You’ll often find inviting swimming holes beneath or close by. Cambridge, Waterville, and Belvidere boast eight of these beloved landmarks, all within a few minutes’ drive.

BEST THRILL RIDE: BEAST MOUNTAIN COASTER, Killington Ski Area, Killington

Killington’s nickname, “Beast of the East,” is now appropriate in summer as well as winter. The area’s newest ride plunges thrill seekers down the mountain in individually controlled carts, navigating the twists, turns, and spirals of the 4,800-foot-long Beast track. 4763 Killington Road. 802-422-3333; killington.com

Lang House on Main Street combines 19th century charm with 21st century service. A beautifully appointed Queen Anne Victorian Inn, the property features historic elegance while maintaining environmentally conscientious practices. In fact, it’s a designated Green Hotel in the state of Vermont! You’ll find the staff warm, knowledgeable and willing to help; and their inventive, locally sourced breakfast is a great start to your day. Lang House is conveniently located within walking distance to Church Street Marketplace, Lake Champlain Waterfront Park, and the University of Vermont campus. 802-652-2500 LangHouse.com

Book yourself a room at the Courtyard Burlington Harbor and take in the spectacular views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. Located amidst the charming bustle of downtown Burlington, this hotel offers recently renovated guest rooms, a premier seafood restaurant, and flexible meeting space. The hotel restaurant, Bleu Northeast Seafood, highlights regional New England cuisine with an upscale, warm dining experience. Their meeting spaces are perfect for either social or business events. Courtyard Burlington Harbor offers an ideal place for productive work and revitalizing, restful sleep. 802-864-4700 Marriott.com/btvdt

Make time to visit Vermont Farm Table, a family run business dedicated to the craftsmanship of custom-made tables and seating. Using the highest quality North American hardwoods and reclaimed woods, their products are guaranteed for chef-plated breakfast before taking a short walk to Church Street Marketplace, Lake Champlain Waterfront, Champlain College or the University of Vermont. The inn’s tagline rings true, “Service of Yesteryear with the Amenities of Today”. Rates include off-street parking, Wi-Fi, private baths, locally roasted coffee, and fresh baked cookies delivered to your room; making the Willard Street Inn a great home base during your stay in Vermont. 802-651-8710 WillardStreetInn.com

When You Go: A must see in the Burlington area is the ECHO®, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain (ECHO stands for Ecology, Culture, History, and Opportunity). America’s “Sixth Great Lake” and environs are the focus of this waterfront resource, where you can come face to face with Champlain’s denizens. Learn about the area’s ecological history, shipwrecks, and of course the legendary monster, “Champ.” EchoVermont.org

PACK YOUR BAGS • BURLINGTON

SPOTLIGHT: BURLINGTON

BEST LAKEFRONT LODGING:

ONE OF A KIND B&B

Book well in advance: This tiny lakefront turn-of-the-20th-century lodging, just a short walk from downtown, offers a tworoom suite in the main house, and a small separate cottage. Both are sun-filled and offer wonderful water views. Described by owner/artist Maggie Sherman as “eclectic vernacular Victorian with a bit of Arts and Crafts,” the property has lovely gardens and provides guests with an in-room breakfast. Rates: from $175, including breakfast. 53 Lakeview Terrace. 802-862-5576; oneofakind bnb.com

DINING

BEST BREAKFAST:

PENNY CLUSE CAFÉ

ATTRACTIONS

BEST BOATING: COMMUNITY SAILING CENTER

Sail or paddle the waters of beautiful Lake Champlain from this conveniently located downtown boathouse. Craft available include dinghies, kayaks, paddleboards, and sailboats of various sizes and designs. 234 Penny Lane. 802-864-2499; community sailingcenter.org

BEST PERFORMANCE VENUE: FLYNN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

The last of Burlington’s movie palaces has been beautifully restored to its Art Deco splendor and now serves as the region’s most distinguished venue for an eclectic schedule of big-name music, theatre, and dance. It’s also home to the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, led by the renowned Jamie Laredo. 153 Main St. 802-863-5966; flynncenter.org

BEST TOURIST HOT SPOT: CHURCH STREET MARKETPLACE

Turning downtown’s main drag into a pedestrian mall created Vermont’s liveliest shopping, dining, and people-watching scene. Boutiques, bars, and buskers line this strollable four-block stretch, and eateries offer plenty of sidewalk seating. On summer Sat-

urdays the action spills over into nearby City Hall Park, site of a bustling farmers’ market. 2 Church St. 802-863-1648; churchstmarketplace.com

LODGING

BEST BOUTIQUE HOTEL: HOTEL VERMONT

Downtown Burlington’s first new independent hotel in a century is just a short stroll from both Church Street and the lakefront and offers bright, airy, modern accommodations without boutique minimalism. Vermont wood and stonework are everywhere, and farm-to-table cooking is featured at the hotel’s Juniper restaurant. Rates: from $209. 41 Cherry St. 802-6510080; hotelvt.com

BEST BED & BREAKFAST: THE LANG HOUSE

Burlington’s neighborhood of grand Queen Anne Victorian homes begins right where downtown ends. This 1881 beauty has been transformed into a posh B&B, whose 11 rooms still display the home’s lavish original craftsmanship while incorporating all the modern conveniences. The two rooms in an 1851 carriage house, set well back from the street, have a country-cottage feel. Rates: from $139, including breakfast. 360 Main St. 802-652-2500; lang house.com

Line up with locals for a table at Burlington’s most popular breakfast spot. It’s worth the wait for moderately priced ham’n’egg alternatives such as “Bucket-o-Spuds” (home fries with melted cheese, salsa, sour cream, and scallions), the smoked-salmon plate, and gingerbread pancakes. Not that you’ll need lunch, but that’s served here, too. Breakfasts: from $4. 169 Cherry St. 802-6518834; pennycluse.com

BEST FRESH VERMONT FARE: HEN OF THE WOOD

Award-winning chef Eric Warnstedt and his partner, William McNeil, who still operate their popular establishment in Waterbury, have once again created restaurant magic in their chic new spot next to the Hotel Vermont. The menu features an ever-changing but always sophisticated selection of locally sourced foods, including the signature henof-the-wood mushroom toast for which the restaurant is named. Small plates: from $7. Large plates: from $22. 55 Cherry St. 802540-0534; henofthewood.com

BEST CHEAP EATS: ARTSRIOT TRUCK STOP

America’s food-truck mania has hit Burlington’s hippest neighborhood. The South End, home to numerous artists’ studios and galleries, is the scene for a Friday-night convergence of more than a dozen mobile vendors, serving up everything from burgers to tacos to homemade desserts. It all happens behind ArtsRiot Gallery, where jugglers, DJs, and musicians add to the fun. 400 Pine St., 802540-0406; artsriot.com

BEST BOATING: COMMUNITY SAILING CENTER

VERMONT INN to INN WALKING TOUR

WALK

The “Vermont Inn-to-Inn Walking Tour” is a four-day, selfguided walk averaging 10 miles a day, mainly through old country roads of gravel and through the villages of Chester, Weston and Ludlow. The four historic inns–Inn Victoria, Old Town Farm Inn, Combes Family Inn, and The Colonial House Inn–are linked by their owners’ shared love of Vermont and a commitment to their under-the-radar walking tour. The oldest and longest running tour of its kind in the state, Vermont Innto-Inn Walking Tour is well established and focused on guest safety and comfort.

It’s simple and efficient. The innkeepers transport your bags door to door, Vermont sherpa-style; greet you at the end of the day

with refreshments and a home-cooked meal; and, in the morning, send you on your way with a hearty breakfast,snacks for the road, a map of your walking route, and best wishes for a pleasant day.

A final feature that sets this tour apart from so many others? You’re on your own, so you can set your own pace. Walk alone or with friends; do as much or as little of the walk as you like. Basically, the tour is as idiosyncratic as the state in which you’re walking. Join us from mid-May through the end of October.

www.VermontInntoInnWalking.com 802-228-8799 or 802-875-4288

THE WALK

PART 1: (9 1 miles)

INN V ICTOR I A TO OLD T OWN FARM INN

INN V I CTOR I A 321 Main St., Chester, VT 802-875-4288

InnVictoria.com

PART 2: (10 7 miles)

OLD T OWN FARM INN TO

O LD T OWN FARM INN 665 Route 10, Chester, VT 802-875-2346 O tfi.com

PART 3: (9 6 miles) C OMBES FAM I LY INN TO

COMBES FAM I LY INN 953 East Lake Road, Ludlow, VT 802-228-8799 CombesFamilyInn.com

PART 4: (11 2 miles)

T HE COLON I AL HOUSE I NN TO INN V ICTOR I A

T HE COLON I AL HOUSE I NN 287 Route 100, Weston, VT 802-824-6286 CoHoInn.com

“It’s a meditative walk. Long before the village of Chester appears and I’ve come full circle, I realize that my life has become breathtakingly simple in the last few days. I walk; I look at wildflowers; I avoid poison ivy; I take a deep breath and listen to nature singing; I wonder what’s up ahead; I try to remember to look back from time to time. Occasionally I hum–and then try to get the song out of my head.

“And then I take another step. Am I closer or farther away? It’s my path, my walk. I get to decide.”

–Annie Graves, Yankee Magazine, May/June 2012 | To read more, visit: YankeeMagazine.com/Inn

BEST FREE CONCERT SERIES: SNOW FARM VINEYARDS, South Hero

Pack a picnic and head out to the Champlain Islands for a summer Thursday evening of music. The vineyards’ award-winning wines are available to drink on site or bring home. 190 West Shore Road. 802-372-9463; snowfarm.com

LODGING

BEST HISTORIC INN:

THE INN AT SHELBURNE FARMS, Shelburne

The centerpiece of this Gilded Age estate turned model farm is the Webb family’s former summer

BEST COUPLES RETREAT: THE JACKSON HOUSE INN, Woodstock

Romance is the hallmark of this luxury lodging, from the elegant English gardens to imaginative two-course breakfasts. Rates: from $189, including full breakfast. 43 Senior Lane. 800448-1890; jacksonhouse.com

BEST NEW INN: THE INN, Montgomery Center

Hunting-lodge ambience and some of the North Country’s most innovative and reasonably priced fare. Rates: from $139 (two-night minimum), including full breakfast. Entrées: from $15. 241 Main St. 802-326-4391; theinn.us

lake frontage, offering a full roster of land- and water-based activities. Rates and lengths of stay vary depending on time of year. 175 Tyler Place. 802-868-4000; tylerplace.com

BEST CAPITAL LODGING: INN AT MONTPELIER, Montpelier

The two adjacent Federal-style homes housing the inn were built in the early days of America’s smallest state capital. These 19 rooms are cheerfully decorated with period furnishings such as sleigh and four-poster beds, but all offer modern amenities, including private bath, WiFi, and individual climate control. The gracious wraparound porch is a great place to relax. Rates: from $170, including continental breakfast.

BEST MOUNTAINTOP DINING: THE CLIFF HOUSE RESTAURANT, Stowe

Ride the Stowe Mountain Resort Gondola to this chic bistro tucked under the “Nose” of Mount Mansfield for spectacular views and creative New American fare. Entrées: from $16. 5781 Mountain Road. 802-253-4754; stowe.com

BEST FARM-TO-TABLE DINING:

RED CLOVER INN & RESTAURANT, Mendon

Red Clover uses the state’s abundant bounty to its utmost. Among the standouts: venison-stuffed quail and sweetbreads with smoked bacon and house-made fettuccine. Entrées: from $24. 7 Woodward Road. 802-775-2290; redcloverinn.com

BEST LUNCH:

MARTONE’S MARKET & CAFÉ, Essex Junction

Vermonters consistently vote this small brickfront eatery the best place around for homemade soups, salads, and fresh subs and sandwiches piled high with top-quality meats, cheeses, and crisp vegetables. Sandwiches: from $7.50. 16 Main St. 802-878-8163; martonesmarket.com

BEST ICE CREAM:

MOUNTAIN CREAMERY, Woodstock

Upstairs, have a slice of “mile-high” apple pie with a scoop of the Creamery’s vanilla. Downstairs, enjoy a homemade waffle cone with great flavors such as Myers rum raisin, Vermont maple–walnut, and brownie à la mode. 33 Central St. 802-457-1715; mountaincreameryvt.com

BEST ETHNIC FOOD:

DERBY LINE VILLAGE INN, Derby Line

Austrian chef Fritz Halbedl has brought 35 years of experience to this elegant mansion. The menu reflects the hearty flavors of central Europe: goulash soup, sauerbraten, wiener schnitzel, and house-smoked wursts. Entrees: from $18. 440 Main St. 802-873-5071; derbylinevillageinn.com

BEST BYOB:

TOKAI-TEI, Chester

Chef Michiko Yoshida-Hunter prepares Japanese specialties such as soft-shell crab tempura, unagi kabayaki (broiled freshwater eel), and Hawaiian ceviche of tuna. Overnight lodging is available at the on-site Old Town Farm Inn. Entrées: from $23. 665 Route 10. 888-232-1089; otfi.com

BEST SWEET SHOP:

MIDDLEBURY SWEETS, Middlebury

A tempting array: old-time penny candies, gummies, 21 colors of M&Ms, 72 flavors of Jelly Belly beans, and homemade chocolates. 12 Ossie Road. 802-388-4518; middleburysweets.com

BEST BBQ:

CURTIS’ ALL AMERICAN BARBECUE, Putney

For more than 40 years this outdoor favorite has served up some of the best ribs and chicken north of Dixie and time-honored Southern sides, too. Entrées: from $8.59. 7 Putney Landing Road. 802387-5474; curtisbbqvt.com

TOP 10 VERMONT EVENTS

APRIL 30–MAY 1: ESSEX JUNCTION, 20th Spring Craft Show & Vermont Antique Show. Two separate events, but they take place simultaneously at Champlain Valley Expo, and paid admission to one gets you into the other as well. Don’t miss the gourmet food marketplace. 802-879-6837; vtcrafts.com

MAY 7–8: WOODSTOCK, Sheep Shearing & Herding with Border Collies. At Billings Farm & Museum, enjoy a weekend devoted to Southdown sheep and their Border collie friends, with shearing and herding demonstrations, a children’s art show, and a lunch to benefit the local volunteer fire department. 802-4572355; billingsfarm.org

MAY 28–29: STATEWIDE, Vermont Artisans’ Open Studio Weekend. For two days, Vermont crafters open their workspaces to the public. Visit with the artists, learn about how they do what they do, and maybe make a purchase or two. See the website for a map of participating studios. 802-223-7974; vermontcrafts.com

JUNE 3–5: BRATTLEBORO, Strolling of the Heifers & Slow Living Summit. Watch scores of adorable calves all decked out in flowers as they parade down Main Street. Then head over to the Live Green Expo for food, music, dance, demonstrations, exhibits, and fun, all dedicated to the mission of sustaining family farms. strollingoftheheifers.com

JUNE 3–12: BURLINGTON, Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. Headliners descend on the City by the Lake for free and ticketed concerts throughout the week, plus street parties, cruises on Lake Champlain, “meet the artist” events, workshops, and films. 802-863-7922; discoverjazz.com

JUNE 17–19: QUECHEE, 37th Annual Hot Air Balloon, Craft & Music Festival. Book a ride on one of more than 20 hot-air balloons taking flight over the town green, or stay grounded and enjoy the crafts, music, food, inflatable climbing wall, and special kids’ activities. 802-295-7900; quecheeballoonfestival.com

JUNE 18–19: TUNBRIDGE, Vermont History Expo. At the fairgrounds, recall the days of hill farms, rural country stores, homespun clothing, and hearthside story telling. This year’s theme: “H 2O: The Power of Water in Vermont History.” 802-828-2180; vermonthistory.org

JUNE 23–26: TUNBRIDGE, Jenny Brook Family Bluegrass Festival. This multiday Green Mountains musical extravaganza takes over the fairgrounds for the 16th year, with awardwinning bands, meet-the-artists sessions, workshops, and children’s activities. jenny brookbluegrass.com

JULY 17: SHELBURNE, Vermont Cheesemakers Festival. Celebrate the state’s famed specialty —small-batch cheeses (and other fresh, local foods)—and meet the artisans who make them, at idyllic Shelburne Farms on Lake Champlain. 866-261-8595; vtcheesefest.com

AUG. 25–28: MIDDLEBURY, Middlebury New Filmmakers’ Festival. Devoted to the work of first- and second-time filmmakers, this event brings 90 short and feature flicks to three venues. Q&A sessions, panel discussions, and parties round out the fun. 802-247-4650; middfilmfest.org

Call ahead to confirm dates, schedules, and admission prices. To submit an event for possible publication, go to: YankeeMagazine.com/submit-an-event

FOR HUNDREDS OF FAIRS, FESTIVALS, EXHIBITS, SHOWS, AND OTHER FUN ACTIVITIES, GO TO: YANKEEMAGAZINE.COM/EVENTS-HOME

HOT AIR BALLOON, CRAFT & MUSIC FESTIVAL, Quechee

OLD STURBRIDGE VILLAGE, Sturbridge (p. 138)

This living-history museum preserves the artifacts and experiences of 1830s rural New England.

Dressed in period costumes handcrafted on site, OSV’s interpreters invite us to discover the spirit of our vanished past.

MASSACHUSETTS

BEST ATTRACTIONS

MASSACHUSETTS

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: HORNICK/RIVLIN, MARTIN ALBERT/HOTEL ON NORTH; HEIDI MURPHY; SOL LEWITT WALL DRAWING, #1089, PHOTO BY ARTHUR EVANS

ATTRACTIONS

BEST FREE ART MUSEUM:

WILLIAMS COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART, Williamstown

The museum owns more than 14,000 works, so only a select number are exhibited at any one time. Don’t miss the Post-Impressionist paintings of Charles and Maurice Prendergast, the Sol LeWitt wall drawing, and Edward Hopper’s iconic Morning in a City 15 Lawrence Hall Drive. 413–597–2429; wcma.williams.edu

BEST DOWNTOWN MUSEUM:

AMERICAN TEXTILE HISTORY MUSEUM, Lowell

A Smithsonian-affiliated institution, this museum brings to life America’s Industrial Revolution. All eras of history are represented here through raw materials, machinery, brilliant displays of clothing, period photographs, and handson samples for visitors to touch and feel. 491 Dutton St. 978-441-0400; athm.org

BEST FAMILY FARM:

DAVIS FARMLAND, Sterling

Every year as the leaves start turning, fall visitors descend on this family farm to wander the cornfield paths of the eight-acre Davis Mega Maze.

In spring and summer, families make it here for the other attractions: cows and goats, emus and chickens, and all the other critters that make Davis the largest sanctuary for endangered farm animals in North America. Hay and pony rides also offered. 145 Redstone Hill Road. 978-4226666; davisfarmland.com

BEST MODERN DANCE:

JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE, Becket

With a festival schedule of performances by more than 50 companies, the Pillow is America’s summer mecca for modern dance. The major troupes are mesmerizing on the big stages, but there’s something primal and magical about seeing a free performance in the woods at the Inside/Out stage, as well. 358 George Carter Road. 413–243–9919; jacobspillow.org

BEST MINI-GOLF: FAMOUS MINI-GOLF AT LANCASTER GOLF CENTER, Lancaster

The appeal of mini-golf has always been the short holes with something memorable about the obstacles. Instead of windmills, clowns, and pirates, all 18 holes here are modeled on famous holes at venues where the PGA and LPGA tournaments are played. This is mini-golf for the real golf fan. Just beware of hole 17, where the steep uphill shot lands on a sharp-shouldered

green surrounded by water hazards—just like “Anxiety” at PGA West’s Tom Weiskopf Private Course in La Quinta, California. 438 Old Union Turnpike. 978–537–8922; lancastergolfcenter.com

BEST HISTORICAL COMMUNITY: OLD STURBRIDGE VILLAGE, Sturbridge

It’s not all gingham dresses and straw hats at OSV, but the calendar is stuck in the 1830s at this living-history museum. OSV’s cluster of historic buildings creates a little time capsule of life in a New England village in the years when the country was young. Visiting is a lesson in how the “good old days” had their own joys and difficulties. 1 Old Sturbridge Village Road. 800–733-183, 508–347–3362; osv.org

BEST KAYAK TOUR: ESSEX RIVER BASIN ADVENTURES, Essex

For paddlers, the Essex River and marshy Essex Bay make up one of the most beautiful estuary systems in New England. This veteran seakayak tour company offers a gentle daily excursion called the Gilligan. Kayakers head down the river of grass to the bay and explore the basin by paddling around the small islands and through the winding salt marshes. 1 Main St. 978–768–3722; erba.com

The Essential New England Experience

All Massachusetts children 17 and younger are admitted for FREE!

BEST OF NEW ENGLAND

BEST FIBER-ART MUSEUM: NEW ENGLAND QUILT MUSEUM, Lowell

Far more than just a bed cover, the quilt is quintessentially American. As folk art, quilts resonate deeply with issues of family, women’s accomplishments, and even politics. As fine art, contemporary studio quilts range from geometric fantasias to expositions of playful color. The Northeast’s only museum dedicated to the art and history of quiltmaking shows it all. 18 Shattuck St. 978–452–4207; nequiltmuseum.org

BEST ANTIQUES & CURIOSITIES: RAMBLE MARKET, Waltham Stuff. Neat stuff. Funky stuff. Vintage stuff. Artsy stuff. The lion’s share of the 10,000 square feet here is devoted to antiques and collectibles. A lot of it is themed by era (Midcentury Modern, for example) and a lot isn’t. The old stuff is augmented by mini-shops with contemporary painting and furniture, rugs, and vintage clothing. 39 Green St. 781–790–5260; ramblemarket.com

BEST OUTDOOR SCULPTURE: DECORDOVA SCULPTURE PARK, Lincoln

With 30 acres of beautifully rolling landscape, the DeCordova focuses on its sculpture park more than its museum (though there’s always a fascinating show on display). Given the large scale of so many pieces of contemporary sculpture, the great outdoors makes an ideal setting. Bring your own picnic or visit the café. 51 Sandy Pond Road. 781–259–8355; decordova.org

BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKSTORE: AN UNLIKELY STORY BOOKSTORE & CAFÉ, Plainville

When the author of the Wimpy Kid series opened a bookstore in his hometown, young’uns and their parents alike were enthralled. The shelves are filled with books for adults and for children ranging from toddlers to young adults. The café serves a few children’s plates, but many more wraps and salads—as well as coffee and some very grown-up bottles of beer and wine by the glass. 111 South St. 508–699–0244; anunlikelystory.com

BEST WINERY:

WESTPORT RIVERS VINEYARD & WINERY, Westport

When this winery opened to the public 25 years ago, Massachusetts wine was a novelty. The Russell family proved that the Long Island Sound climate of this fertile peninsula was perfect for growing Chardonnay grapes to make outstanding American bubbly. Now they’re crafting cold-climate Pinot Noir to match. 417 Hixbridge Road. 508–636–3423; westport rivers.com

BEST TOURIST HOT SPOT: CAPE COD RAIL TRAIL, Dennis to Wellfleet Threading 22 miles from the mid-Cape to LeCount Hollow Road near PB Boulangerie in Wellfleet, this paved path with a few

gentle hills includes several access points to Cape Cod National Seashore beaches. Pets on short leashes are permitted on the trail, so Fido can run alongside. 508–896–3491; mass.gov/eea/agencies/ dcr/massparks/region-south/cape-cod-rail-trail.html

BEST FAMILY ADVENTURE:

ADVENTURE PARK AT HERITAGE MUSEUMS & GARDENS, Sandwich

Five treetop trails of varying difficulty traverse the forest canopy on three acres of Heritage Museum property. Suitable for ages 7 and up, the aerial portion is a squirrel’s-eye view of forest and some blooming gardens. A forest-floor trail is available for companions who prefer to stay on terra firma. No sandals or flip-flops. 67 Grove St. 508–888–3300; heritagemuseumsandgardens.org

BEST BEACH FOR SUNSETS:

MADAKET BEACH, Nantucket

From town, take the NRTA’s WAVE shuttle (about 20 minutes) or bicycle out to the unspoiled, surf-pounded beach at Madaket on the island’s western tip. There’s no land on the western horizon to mess up the sunset, so watch closely for the green flash as the sun dips. Arrive early for seafood takeout from Millie’s Restaurant while you wait for sunset. Madaket Road. 508–228–0925 (Nantucket Visitor Services); nantucket-ma.gov/visitor

LODGING

BEST SMALL–CITY BOUTIQUE HOTEL: HOTEL ON NORTH, Pittsfield

This suave new hotel near the Barrington Stage Company brings contemporary comfort to a pair of handsome 1880s buildings. The 45 bedrooms, all a bit different, are decorated in low-key, soothing tones and furnished with pieces crafted by local artisans. Two rooms have working fireplaces and some have kitchenettes. Rates: from $149. 297 North St. 413–358–4741; hotelonnorth.com

BEST INN FOR PADDLERS: BLACK SWAN INN, Lee

Lee is well located amid the arts scene in the southern Berkshires, and this recently renovated but modest hotel also has a tiny beach and small dock on pocket-size Laurel Lake. Guests can rent paddleboats or single or double kayaks to explore the waters. Rates: from $110. 435 Laurel St. 413–243–2700; blackswaninnberkshires.com

BEST B&B GETAWAY: POETRY RIDGE BED & BREAKFAST, Greenfield

Located on the climb to Poet’s Seat in Greenfield you’ll find a 100-year-old home with six

guest rooms sitting on 11 wooded acres just off the Mohawk Trail. Generous full breakfasts can fortify you for a hike in the woods or a day of poking around the Pioneer Valley. Rates: from $140, including breakfast. 55 Stone Ridge Lane. 413–773–5143; rkotours.com

BEST TENT CAMPING: BARTON COVE CAMPING & PADDLESPORTS, Gill

Just west of the French King Bridge on the Mohawk Trail, this rustic campground in woodsy conservation land specializes in tent camping, letting vehicles into the campground only to unload and pack up. The associated paddlesports operation rents canoes and kayaks for exploring the spacious cove. Rates: $22. 82 French King Highway. 413–863–9300; gdfsuez na.com/camping

BEST WALK-TO-EVERYTHING HOTEL: HOTEL NORTHAMPTON, Northampton

Coffee shops, bookstores, and restaurants of all kinds are just a few steps from this grand 106room downtown retreat. The hotel’s Coolidge Park Café offers light bistro options, while more traditional fare can be found at the Wiggins Tavern. For the newest digs, ask for the Gothic

What will you DISCOVER?

Garden building. Rates: from $185. 36 King St. 413-584-3100; hotelnorthampton.com

BEST FAMILY LODGING:

GREAT WOLF LODGE, Fitchburg

It’s easy to see that the comfortable modern suites here were designed with families in mind. The outstanding indoor water park is open only to lodge guests; the water slides are the big draw, but there’s also mini-golf, a carousel, and a candlepin-bowling alley. Rates: from $230. 150 Great Wolf Drive. 978–343–9653; greatwolf.com/ new-england

BEST WATERFRONT VIEWS:

ROCKY NECK ACCOMMODATIONS, Gloucester

These clean and bright efficiency rooms and suites aren’t just on the shore—they’re on pilings literally above the water. The furnishings here are simple and plain, but each room has a small deck right on Smith Cove in the Rocky Neck art colony—can’t beat that for a unique location. Rates: from $110. 43 Rocky Neck Ave. 978–381–9848; rockyneckaccommodations.com

BEST BEACH AMENITIES:

BEACH BREEZE INN, Falmouth

The main building of this beach-house complex

is a handsome late-19th-century private retreat with lovingly restored details and spacious, modern bedrooms. Most rooms have ocean views, queen beds, and fireplaces. The actual beach is 100 yards away, and the inn provides beach chairs, beach towels, beach umbrellas, and even sunscreen. Rates: from $89; from $249 in summer. 321 Shore St. 508–548–1765; beach breezeinn.com

BEST PET-FRIENDLY LODGING: OUTER REACH RESORT, North Truro

Set on a knoll at the Truro/Provincetown line, the large rooms of this older motel resort overlook the famous parabolic dunes and the North Truro shore. Fido is very welcome here—the motel even provides a list of dog-friendly restaurants—and there’s a dog park of sorts. Rooms with decks and a water view command a premium. Rates: from $79. 535 Route 6. 508–487–9090; outerreachresort.com

BEST BEACH ACCESS:

ISABELLE’S BEACH HOUSE, Oak Bluffs

An easy walk from the ferry terminal, this airy Martha’s Vineyard guesthouse sits across the street from Joseph Sylvia State Beach. It’s a toss up whether you’ll wake to the sound of light surf

or the tantalizing aroma of breakfast muffins baking in the kitchen. Each bright room has a small refrigerator. Rates: from $175. 83 Seaview Ave. 508–693–3955; isabellesbeachhouse.com

BEST ISLAND BARGAIN: THE BARNACLE INN, Nantucket

Here’s an old-fashioned B&B tucked into a garden landscape in the historic district, about two blocks from the commercial hubbub. The 15 rooms, all named for whaling vessels, vary in size but share a folksy décor, with handmade quilts on the beds. A few rooms have hall baths. Rates: from $80. 11 Fair St. 508–228–0332; thebarnacle inn.com

BEST MANSION: GATEWAYS INN, Lenox

The Shakespeare fan in you will delight in the fact that the 12 guest rooms in this 1912 mansion get their names from the Bard’s characters. The vacationer in you will adore the way this gracious lodging makes an elegant base for enjoying the summer arts scene. Don’t miss the Piano Bar—it’s a good place for a quick precurtain dinner and a relaxing post-curtain dessert. Rates: from $180. 51 Walker St. 413637-2532; gatewaysinn.com

508-693-3334

877-693-3334

DINING

BEST TASTE OF THE ALPS: THE HAFLINGER HAUS, Adams

The tavern, dining room, and outdoor beer garden at this Austrian inn feel like a taste of the Tyrolean Alps in the Berkshires. The schnitzels (pounded and breaded cutlets) are a treat, especially the jaeger (hunter) schnitzel with mushrooms, but don’t miss the goulash crêpe with paprika sauce, or the homey pot of goulash over handmade dumplings. Dining-room entrées: from $15.95. Tavern main dishes: from $10. 17 Commercial St. 413–743–2221; haflinger haus.com

BEST SEASONAL MENUS:

CAFÉ ADAM, Great Barrington

Chef Adam Zieminski offers a sophisticated dining experience in a dressy room. The highly local menu changes daily, but a few popular dishes—such as sausage frites with homemade ketchup—never go on hiatus. Zieminski rarely repeats a daily special, so you could eat a new dish every night. Entrées: from $24. 420 Stockbridge Road. 413–528–7786; cafeadam.org

BEST MOROCCAN FOOD: AMANOUZ CAFÉ, Northampton

Along with a few well-chosen French standards (lentil salad, tasty omelets), Amanouz rounds out Mediterranean cuisine with chicken, lamb, and beef meatball kebabs as well as multiple versions of couscous and spicy Moroccan tagines. Vegetarians also fare well with such classic eastern-Med dishes as veggie skewers, baba ghanoush, and falafel. Don’t miss the mint tea. Main dishes: from $4.95. 44 Main St. 413–585–9128

BEST PIZZA: RED ROSE PIZZERIA, Springfield

Red Rose keeps the faith with true pizza as it’s made in Naples by mixing up fresh dough daily, hand-stretching it very, very thin, and cooking the pies in a ferociously hot oven. It’s all part of a proud Italian family tradition. Although some heavier Americanized toppings are available, do yourself a favor and keep it light to enjoy the amazing crust. Pizzas: from $11. 1060 Main St. 413-739–8510; redrosepizzeria.com

BEST GRILLED-CHEESE SANDWICHES: BIRCHTREE BREAD

COMPANY, Worcester

With yeasty loaves made from organic grains grown in the rich soil of Gill, a tiny farming town in western Massachusetts, this 50-seat bakery/café is well prepared with the foundations for great sandwiches. Two grilled options add more local flavors: Cabot cheddar with apple mostarda on coriander–raisin bread, and Vermont Shepherd sheep cheese with quince jam and almonds on country

(continued on p. 149)

Offering year round accommodations just a few blocks from the center of Vineyard Haven. Amenities include: private baths, CTV, A/C, refrigerator, maid service, and free parking. Kitchenette and 1-bedroom apartments also. Enjoy the private beach and views from the beautiful patio and sunny decks.

The Best of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket The Best of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket

Nantucket is the Marilyn to Martha’s Vineyard’s Jackie

Laura Begley Bloom

Beginning Memorial Day Weekend—and continuing through early October—the Hy-Line Inter-Island ferry will expand its service from Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard to Nantucket, making it a breeze to experience all the islands have to offer. For details on what to see and do on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, visit nantucketchamber.org and VisitMV.Info

OCEANFRONT RESORTS | PRIVATE BEACHES SPA | GOLF | ACTIVITIES

Red Jacket Beach Resort and Spa | Blue Water Resort Riviera Beach Resort | Green Harbor Resort and our Blue Rock Golf Course adjacent Blue Rock Resort

redjacketresorts.com800-CAPECOD 800-227-3263

2012-2014 Choice Hotels Gold Award Winner

"Given for overall excellence and superior guest services"

Complimentary Buffet Breakfast each Morning Seasonal Poolside Lunch Grill Indoor/Outdoor Heated Pools/Hot Tub Marketplace/Free WiFi/Business Center 32" Flat Screen TV/Coffee Maker/Hair Dryer Mini Refrigerator/Iron/AC/Heat GOLF PACKAGES AVAILABLE

1199 Route 28 S. Yarmouth, MA 02664 800-527-0359 www.ClarionCapeCod.com

bread. Sandwiches: from $9. 138 Green St. 774–243–6944; birchtreebreadcompany.com

BEST ICE CREAM:

NEW CITY MICROCREAMERY, Hudson

Liquid nitrogen fumes rising from industrial mixers create a mad-scientist aura at New City —but flash-freezing creates super-creamy, super-smooth ice cream with no discernible ice crystals. The owners experiment with small batches of the flavors of their wildest dreams, such as cinnamon–nutmeg fudge and fennel–pistachio. Cones: from $2.50. 28 Main St. 978–333–7144; newcitymicrocreamery.com

BEST BBQ:

B.T.’S SMOKEHOUSE, Sturbridge

Hardcore fans of Brian Treitman’s barbecue joint remember when it was nothing more than an improvised smoker and a shack with an order counter. But the expanded restaurant digs haven’t affected the authenticity of the pork ribs and beef brisket, slow-cooked over hickory and local applewood. Sandwiches: from $4. Platters: from $10. 392 Main St. 508–347–3188; btsmokehouse.com

BEST SWEET SHOP:

CHOCOCOA CAFÉ, Newburyport

Inside the Tannery Marketplace is a kid-friendly

café serving artisanal whoopie pies, plus excellent espresso and hot and cold coffee drinks. One section of the shop features a play area for the small fry, while the “Coffice Space” is designed for folks meeting up to do business. Whoopie pies: from $1.86. 50 Water St., Mill Building #1. 978–499–8889; chococoabaking.com

BEST BREAKFAST: SUGAR MAGNOLIA’S, Gloucester

For people who truly believe that breakfast is the best meal of the day, this standout goes the extra mile: crab-cake Benedict; pineapple fritters with brown-sugar dipping sauce; fluffy carrot-cake pancakes; or the “Breakwater Omelet,” stuffed with lobster and herbed cream cheese. Breakfast plates: from $6. 112 Main St. 978–281–5310; sugarmags.com

BEST COFFEE STOP: SIX DEPOT ROASTERY & CAFÉ, West Stockbridge

The brainchild of husband-and-wife team Flavio Lichtenthal and Lisa Landry, this local favorite is where community and coffee come together. Housed in a retired station building, the shop is a little bit of everything: small-batch coffee roaster, café, art gallery, and event space. Come for a menu of sweet treats, sandwiches, and salads; stay for the local artwork and maybe a performance. 6 Depot St. 413-232-0205; sixdepot.com

BEST FARM-TO-TABLE DINING: WOOD’S HILL TABLE, Concord

Food activist and chef Kristin Canty went all-out to support local growers by making a documentary about the plight of family farms (Farmageddon ) and opening this locavore restaurant, serving meat raised in New Hampshire, produce from New England farms, and fish from New England boats. It all tastes great. Entrées: from $18. 24 Commonwealth Ave. 978–369–6300; woodshilltable.com

BEST DINER-INSPIRED FOOD: ROSEBUD AMERICAN KITCHEN & BAR, Somerville

The classic Worcester car that fronts this restaurant is mostly window dressing, but the diner spirit prevails in dishes such as grilled pork chop, bacon-packed meatloaf, country-fried steak, and house-made pies. Entrées: from $18. 381 Summer St. 617–629–9500, rosebudkitchen.com

BEST MEAT LOVER’S DINING: THE BACKROOM, Waltham

When master of charcuterie Joshua Smith ex panded his cutting-edge deli to include a dining room, he made meats the centerpiece of the menu—and of the décor, with sausages hanging from the ceiling. Bourbon-bathed pork belly and

meatballs made from the trimmings of roasts and steaks are top among the small plates. Seasonal vegetables roast up golden-brown in his woodfired oven. Entrées: from $15. 468 Moody St. 781–216–8732; moodyswaltham.com/the-backroom

BEST SHORE-TO-TABLE DINING: THE BACK EDDY, Westport

On the Westport River near Horseneck Beach, this casual restaurant with tables on the back dock serves great local seafood, including bay scallops farmed in Buzzards Bay. The kitchen loves local producers, from delectable Hannabell cheese thimbles to herbs from Eva’s Garden. Cod and lobster come from nearby waters. Entrées: from $19.50. 1 Bridge Road. 508–636–6500; thebackeddy.com

BEST ISLAND SEAFOOD: STATE ROAD RESTAURANT, West Tisbury

The extensive garden out back attests to West Tisbury’s deep roots as Martha’s Vineyard’s farm town, but Mary and Jackson Kenworth are just as proud of the catch they buy from local fishermen. Timing is everything, from fluke and black bass to midsummer bluefish to late-summer bonito and yellowfin tuna. Entrées: from $16. 688 State Road. 508–693–8582; stateroadrestaurant.com

BEST FRESH FISH: PISCES, Chatham

More than 60 Galleries Over 60 Eateries Dune Tours WhaleOne of the rare restaurants to work with local weir fishermen as well as day boats, Pisces offers an ever-changing menu that’s a cheat sheet for the fish currently swimming in Cape waters. Its “coastal cuisine” draws on world sources, but spicing is always secondary to the flavor of the fish itself. Entrées: from $26. 2653 Main St. 508–432–4600; piscesofchatham.com

BEST WINE BAR:

JOON BAR, Provincetown

The pared-down American bistro menu (seasonally changing selections, such as whole woodgrilled fish and sausage flatbread with grilled corn) makes a perfect dance partner for the well-chosen list of wines by the glass. Sit at the sleek bar and snack all night on shared plates of duck sliders on buttermilk biscuits or frites with smoked-tomato ketchup. Entrées: from $19. 133 Commercial St. 508–413–9336; joonbar.com

BEST BURGER:

LOLA BURGER, Nantucket

Boston + Cambridge

EDWARD M. KENNEDY INSTITUTE FOR THE UNITED STATES SENATE, Boston

Grapple with constitutional issues and explore Kennedy’s Senate legacy at this new institution near the JFK presidential library. Each visitor or family gets a tablet for easy interaction with the ever-changing programming. Visitors ages 5 to 8 may also borrow a “Junior Senator” backpack full of books and activities. Columbia Point, 210 Morrissey Blvd. 617–740–7000; emkinstitute.org

BEST NEW ART SPACE: HARVARD UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUMS, Cambridge

The central atrium in this jewel box of a museum building, designed by Renzo Piano, creates light-flooded spaces where the art gleams. The European, American, and classical art of the Fogg; the German art of the Busch–Reisinger; and Asian art from the Sackler collections all fit under one roof in a coherent flow. 32 Quincy St. 617–495–9400; harvardartmuseums.org

BEST CITY BEACH: SPECTACLE ISLAND, Boston

Just a half-hour ferry ride from Long Wharf, Spectacle is the gateway to the Boston Harbor Islands. A pristine sandy beach beckons sunbathers and swimmers; the urban towers on the horizon look close yet are refreshingly far away. The visitor center with restrooms and seasonal snack bar is adjacent. Boston Harbor Islands. 617–223–8666; bostonharborislands.org

BEST WALKING TOUR: BOSTON NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, Boston Rangers offer two informative free one-hour tours of the Freedom Trail. Both depart from Faneuil Hall, with “Meetings, Mobs & Martyrs” leading uphill to Old South Meeting House, and “Allegiance to Revolution” threading through the North End to Old North Church. Faneuil Hall. 617–242–5642; nps.gov/bost

BEST FREE EVENING ENTERTAINMENT: SUMMER IN THE CITY, Boston

An upscale burger joint with more than 30 craft beers makes so much sense on Nantucket that you might have to stand in line to get inside. The signature “Lola Burger” is a half-pound patty with cheddar cheese, red-onion compote, and foie-gras sauce. The “adult happy meal” includes the burger with fries and a quarter-bottle of California brut. Tuna, lamb, and falafel burgers are also available. Burgers: from $9.75. 1 Sparks Ave. 508–228–9491; lolaburger.com (continued on p. 154)

This dynamic outdoor series offers free movies and live soul, blues, and jazz bands on summer weeknights at Rowes Wharf. It’s sponsored by the Rowes Wharf Sea Grille at the Boston Harbor Hotel, but the area is public and there’s no pressure to order at the restaurant (or its bar), though the food and drink are top-flight. 70 Rowes Wharf. 617–856–7744; roweswharf seagrille.com/summer-in-the-city-boston-en.html

ONE OF THE “20 BEST SMALL CULTURAL TOWNS TO VISIT” SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE

“AMERICA’S MOST DOG-FRIENDLY CITY” DOG FANCY MAGAZINE

ONE OF “AMERICA’S MOST ROMANTIC TOWNS” TRAVEL AND LEISURE

ONE OF THE “TOP 10 EAST COAST BEACHES” TRAVEL CHANNEL

ONE OF THE “BEST GAY BEACH DESTINATIONS” TRAVEL CHANNEL

VACATIO AVEN MAGAZINE Provincetown

America’s

Shops

deCordova Sculpture Park and

Museum

Established in 1950, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is the largest park of its kind in New England. The 30-acre Park hosts a constantly changing landscape of 60+ outdoor sculptures; the Museum features a slate of rotating exhibitions and interpretive programming. 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA 781-259-8355 www.decordova.org

Explore Wyeth & Thoreau in Historic Concord April 15 – Sept. 18, 2016

At the Concord Free Public Library The story of N. C. Wyeth’s illustrated book of Thoreau’s journal entries. www.concordlibrary.org

Lowell Folk Festival

The Longest Running “Free” Folk Festival in America celebrates 30 years on July 29-31, 2016 on five stages in Downtown Lowell, MA. Join us for Traditional Music & Dance from National & International Cultures, enjoy Ethnic Cuisine, and learn from Master Crafters. www.lowellfolkfestival.org

The UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center

The only hotel located in the heart of downtown Lowell. Lodging features 31 year-round rooms and 150+ seasonal summer rooms located close to historic landmarks, major event venues, museums, parks and a bustling downtown. Easy travel to Boston, New Hampshire. 50 Warren Street, Lowell, MA 01852 978-934-6920 www.uml.edu/icc

BOSTON/CAMBRIDGE DINING

Where to Eat Near …

It’s the tourist’s perpetual challenge: to find a good meal near whatever museum, theater, or historic site you’re visiting when hunger strikes. This dilemma keeps sites like Yelp in business, but eventually, all crowd-sourced reviews tend to drift toward three-and-ahalf- to four-star uselessness. Here Yankee presents our list of favorite low- to mid-price restaurants near Boston’s most popular destinations. Most serve lunch.

FENWAY PARK

EASTERN STANDARD, Boston

For 10 years, Eastern Standard has been the gold standard of Boston brasseries for delivering on three key variables: great service; a cutting-edge bar program; and offering something for truly everyone: the burger with Vermont cheddar for the aftergame set, the carrot agnolotti for vegetarians, the curated cheese plate and oyster bar for the foodie crowd. Entrées: from $21. 528 Commonwealth Ave. 617-532-9100; easternstandardboston.com

THE FREEDOM TRAIL

THE BREWER’S FORK, Charlestown

A mere six-minute walk from the U.S.S. Constitution Museum and “Old Ironsides” herself (that is, at the end of the trail), this Charlestown gastropub is drawing raves for its impressive beverage program (25 beers on tap and an inter national roster of hard ciders) and excellent wood-fired fare. Don’t miss the pizza, the impeccable burger, or the mussels cooked with cider, cream, and bacon, all enjoyed in a lovely outdoor beer garden, spring through fall. Entrées: from $14. 7 Moulton St. 617-337-5703; brewersfork.com

FANEUIL HALL/ QUINCY MARKET

BOSTON PUBLIC MARKET, Boston

This year-old indoor food market at the Haymarket T station houses some 40 vendors,

many of which offer snacks, drinks, or full meals to go, from the stellar grilled-cheese sandwich at the Cellars at Jasper Hill stand to the smokedhaddock chowder at Boston Smoked Fish Company to a reuben from Beantown Pastrami Company. Finish it off with ice cream from Crescent Ridge Dairy, fresh cider doughnuts from Red Apple Farm, or a marshmallow confection from Sweet Lydia’s, or take home some yogurt and cheese from Appleton Farms, or leafy greens from Corner Stalk Farm. The only tough part is deciding where to start. Entrées: $8–$15, depending on vendor. 100 Hanover St. 617-973-4909; boston publicmarket.org

HARVARD SQUARE

ALDEN & HARLOW, Cambridge

Since its red-hot opening in 2014, Alden & Harlow has remained a bright star on the Harvard Square dining scene. Michael Scelfo’s imaginative take on American food means local corn pancakes with popcorn, shisito peppers and maple, or crispy pork belly with caponata, walnuts, and Anson Mills grits. This is ambitious food, but the sane prices make it a great place to sample and share, as the menu encourages. And there’s a great burger for the meatand-potatoes crowd. Small plates (made to share): from $8. 40 Brattle St. 617-864-2100; aldenharlow.com

THE NORTH END

THE DAILY CATCH, Boston

The thing about the North End is that it’s never just about the food. So although there are many good places to eat, we like The Daily Catch not just for its fried calamari or its linguine with clams or saucy puttanesca, but for the crowd-pleasing, pan-clattering, elbow-to-elbow authenticity of a real North End restaurant. Even the long wait can be part of its charm, if the weather is fine and you keep a snack in your bag. Entrées: from $14.75. 323 Hanover St. 617-523-8567; the dailycatch.com

BEACON HILL

BEACON HILL BISTRO, Boston

Chef Lucas Sousa makes classic French bistro fare with New England–grown ingredients, so you’ll find frisée salad, moules frites, and duck confit—but the menu goes beyond the classics to include tagliatelle with truffle butter and short-rib tortellini with scallops and Asian pear. In the bistro tradition, the restaurant serves a more-casual lunch, making it a lovely place to settle into a comfy banquette and watch the parade of doyennes and politicos. Entrées: from $16. 25 Charles St. 617-723-7575; beaconhillhotel.com

THE BREWER’S FORK, Charlestown

Escape toSoutheastern Massachusetts...

Escape toSoutheastern Massachusetts...

Battleship Cove

5 Water Street Fall River, MA 02721 508-678-1100

www.battleshipcove.org

Battleship Cove is an incredible journey through our countries past for the whole family with fun events and programs to honor the history of these historic ships and the brave individuals who served aboard them.

Buttonwood Park Zoo

425 Hawthorn Street, New Bedford, MA 02740 508.991.6178

www.bpzoo.org

Buttonwood Park Zoo-Where the community comes to connect with nature! Experience the natural beauty of our zoo, While meeting and learning about 70 species, and 180 individual animals, including Asian elephants.Enjoy our Café, train and carousel rides too!

Destination New Bedford

133 William Street Room 119 New Bedford, MA 02740 508-979-1745

www.destinationnewbedford.org

A historic, sightseeing city to explore. New Bedford is home to artist studios, unique shopping, year-round festivals, seaside dining and performing arts. Visit the Whaling National Historic Park, Buttonwood Park Zoo, the #1 Fishing Port in America, beaches and our Seaport Cultural District.

New Bedford Whaling Museum

18 Johnny Cake Hill New Bedford, MA 02740 508-997-0046

www.whalingmuseum.org

Discover the dramatic history of whaling. Explore the science of whales and modern conservation efforts. Get a feel for life at sea, and climb aboard the world’s largest ship model, the Lagoda. Great harbor views, multi-media exhibits, historic area.

Greater

Raynham Flea Market

Routes 24 & 44 on So. Street Raynham, MA 02767 www.raynhamflea.com

New England’s premier Flea Market for over 35 years! We have hundreds of vendors on 10+ acres. Open year round 8-5! Indoor/Outdoor Food, Bargains and Fun!

Seastreak Ferry

To Nantucket And Martha’s Vineyard 49 State Pier, New Bedford, MA 02740 1-800-262-8743

Seastreak.com

Take a Seastreak ferry to Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard and Skip the Cape Traffic! Save an hour or more each way! Convenient dockside VIP parking and Valet available. Your vacation begins the moment you step aboard!

| Greater Fall River | Greater New Bedford | Greater Taunton | Tri-Town

Funded by the Massachusetts

Butler Flats lighthouse photo by Sergio sergio.az@hotmail.com

layout and design by Sergio

BEST VINTAGE RIDES: SWAN BOATS, Boston

Take an old-timey spin around the Public Garden lagoon in one of the marvelously ridiculous pedal boats decked out to look like giant swans. Said to be inspired by a scene in Wagner’s Lohengrin , the boats have been cruising here since 1877. Public Garden, 4 Charles St. 617–522–1966; swanboats.com

BEST FOLK-MUSIC CLUB: CLUB PASSIM, Cambridge

Founded as Club 47 in 1958, this cellar spot in the alley between two buildings of the Harvard Coop remains Greater Boston’s venerable home for folk music, blues, and even a little jazz—pretty much any flavor of music played for active listeners. 47 Palmer St. 617–492–7679; passim.org

BEST URBAN WILDS: FRANKLIN PARK ZOO, Boston

With a pair of new lion brothers and the adorable little gorilla Azize (1 year old on May 14), the megafauna are getting all the glamour shots. But don’t overlook some of the less-heralded critters, such as the ruddy duck and the black-tailed prairie dog, both of them YouTubeready. 1 Franklin Park Road. 617–541–5466; zoonew england.org

LODGING

BEST BOUTIQUE HOTEL: HOTEL VERITAS, Cambridge

Tucked into a residential neighborhood five short blocks from Harvard Yard, Hotel Veritas brings a hushed boutique style to the halls of Ivy. Blending modern amenities with careful detailing, this chic lodging specializes in personal service and exquisite design. Rates: from $339. 1 Remington St. 617–520–5000; thehotelveritas.com

BEST DOWNTOWN HOTEL: AMES BOSTON HOTEL, Boston

Soothing modern minimalism is the hallmark of this establishment, carved out of one of Boston’s first skyscrapers, built in 1893 near the Old State House. Opt for an upper floor for skyline views from oversized windows. Rates: from $400. 1 Court St. 617–979–8100; ameshotel.com

BEST NEIGHBORHOOD HOTEL: ENVISION HOTEL BOSTON, Jamaica Plain

This contemporary lodging overlooks an Olmsted park. Although few attractions are nearby, a stop on the E branch of the MBTA’s Green Line is almost outside the front door. Rooms are both comfortable and stylish. Rates: from $199. 81 South Huntington Ave. 617–383–5229; envision-hotel-boston.com

BEST PET-FRIENDLY LODGING: MIDTOWN HOTEL, Boston

A reborn motel where the South End meets the Fens, the Midtown offers, for an extra $30, food and water dishes, pickup bags, and treats for your pet. Rates: from $209. 220 Huntington Ave. 617–262–1000; midtown hotel.com

Photo by David Warren

TOP 10 MASSACHUSETTS EVENTS

MAY 1–31: CAPE COD, 23rd Annual Cape Cod Maritime Days. This month-long event includes guided kayak excursions, lighthouse tours, walking tours, nautical art exhibits, the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History’s 19th Annual Maritime History Symposium, and other nautically themed activities. capecod maritimedays.com

MAY 10–15, JULY 12–17, SEPT. 6–11: BRIMFIELD, Brimfield Antique Show. The largest outdoor antiques event in the country attracts more than 6,000 dealers to the fields along Route 20. Whatever you’re looking for, you’ll find it here—but bring your walking shoes. brimfieldshow.com

MAY 18–22: NANTUCKET, Wine Festival. With

more than 50 tours, chef demonstrations, seminars, dinners, and food tastings scheduled over five days, the island of Nantucket becomes a wine and food enthusiast’s paradise. 617-527-9473; nantucketwinefestival.com

MAY 28–29: CUMMINGTON, 42nd Annual Sheep & Woolcraft Fair. From competitions and sheepdog trials to rug-hooking demontrations, spinning contests, and children’s workshops, the fairgrounds is given over for two days to all things sheep and wool. masheepwool.org

JUNE 2–5: GREAT BARRINGTON/PITTSFIELD, Berkshire International Film Festival. With more than 70 films and related events featured at Triplex Cinema, Beacon Cinema, historic Mahaiwe Theatre, and other area venues, BIFF provides entertainment, education, and inspiration for filmmakers and film lovers alike. 413-528-8030; biffma.org

JUNE 17–19: NANTUCKET, Nantucket Book Festival. The island’s historic heart gives itself over to all things literary, including author presentations by Diane Ackerman, Mark Doty, Nathaniel Philbrick, Geraldine Brooks, Alice Hoffman, 2015 Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James, and others. nantucketbook festival.org

JUNE 18–AUG. 28: BECKET, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Called “the dance center of America” by the New York Times, this much-anticipated summer tradition is America’s longestrunning dance festival, featuring more than 50 companies and more than 200 performances, talks, exhibits, films, classes, tours, and community events. 413-243-9919; jacobs pillow.org

JUNE 25–26: SALISBURY, The Vintage Bazaar. More than 175 dealers offer antiques, nostalgia, architectural salvage, rusty junk, repurposed goods, and more at Pettengill Farm, where you’ll also find plenty of food, live music, and free family-friendly activities. 978-518-0128; mybazaarlife.com

JUNE 25–SEPT. 3: LENOX, Tanglewood Concerts. There’ll be something for everyone at Tanglewood this year, as the beautiful Berkshires summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra welcomes a varied lineup of performers in several genres, including Garrison Keillor, James Taylor, Seth MacFarlane, and Chick Corea—plus a live performance of the NPR quiz show Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! 888-266-1200; bso.org

JULY 8–17: CAPE COD, Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival. This annual celebration of the region’s signature blue, pink, and creamywhite flowers is built around exclusive tours of private gardens. See the website for details on participants and scheduling. 508-362-3225; capecodchamber.org/hydrangea-fest

Call ahead to confirm dates, schedules, and admission prices. To submit an event for possible publication, go to: YankeeMagazine.com/submit-an-event

FOR HUNDREDS OF FAIRS, FESTIVALS, EXHIBITS, SHOWS, AND OTHER FUN ACTIVITIES, GO TO: YANKEEMAGAZINE.COM/EVENTS-HOME

TANGLEWOOD CONCERTS, Lenox

Acadia Turns 100!

BEST TOURIST HOT SPOT: ACADIA NATIONAL PARK (p. 160)

Established on the untamed, sea-swept Maine coast as Sieur de Monts National Monument in July 1916, today Acadia National Park—the first national park in the East—preserves some 47,000 acres of forests and mountains, meadows and wetlands, lakes and coastal habitats on Mount Desert Island, Isle au Haut, and the Schoodic Peninsula. Accessible by parkway and crisscrossed by landscaped carriage roads, graceful stone-faced bridges, hiking trails, and footpaths, the park welcomes more than 2 million visitors each year. Come celebrate the centennial of this crown jewel of the National Park system all year long: You’ll find a full roster of festivals, concerts, cruises, art and science exhibits, craft shows, readings, presentations, and more at: acadiacentennial2016.org

MAINE

BEST LODGING

BEST BEACHSIDE INN (p. 162)

BEST LOBSTER-ROLL EXPERIENCE (p. 167)

BEST ATTRACTIONS

BEST COASTAL FOOTPATH (p. 158)

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: GREG HARTFORD; COURTESY OF INN BY THE SEA; ©TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY LLC/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; KINDRA CLINEFF

Maine’s Original

ATTRACTIONS

BEST HARBOR PADDLE: CURTIS ISLAND LIGHT, Camden

Experience beautiful Camden Harbor from a new perspective as you paddle your kayak or canoe among schooners and yachts on your way out toward Curtis Island. The island’s iconic lighthouse and red-roofed keeper’s house aren’t open to the public, but the grounds are a town park with walking trails. On the return trip, take in an unforgettable view of the Camden Hills. Guided group paddling tours are also available. breakwaterkayak.com; mainesport.com

BEST COASTAL FOOTPATH: MARGINAL WAY, Ogunquit

Frequent benches make it easy to rest and enjoy the views on this mile-long, gently rolling, paved footpath hugging Ogunquit’s shoreline from Perkins Cove to Shore Road. Free. marginal wayfund.org

BEST BEACH: OLD ORCHARD BEACH

The hub of the seven-mile-long white-sand strand stretching from Saco’s Camp Ellis to Scarborough’s Pine Point is Old Orchard, where Rose Fitzgerald met Joe Kennedy more than a century ago. Escape the Pier and amusementpark scene at nearby Ferry Beach State Park or in Ocean Park, established as a religious summer community in 1881 and still the site of Chautauqua-type public programs. oldorchard beachmaine.com

BEST ICONIC STATE ATTRACTION: PORTLAND HEAD LIGHT, Cape Elizabeth

Lobsterman’s Wife’s Maine Sea Glass Bracelet

Saw an ad in Uncle Henry’s: “100 Pounds of Sea Glass For Sale” that’s all it said We called, then visited She was delightful She said she and her daughters, and then grandchildren, had been picking up sea glass on the beaches around her home forever

The walls in her basement were lined with coffee cans and glass jars. It was beautiful. This was the definitive collection of Maine sea glass. We bought it all.

Absolute Satisfaction Guaranteed Sterling silver X2593 $285.00 CrossJewelers.com

Cross Jewelers

Portland Head Light, at Fort Williams, has illuminated Cape Elizabeth’s rock-girdled shores since commissioned by George Washington and first illuminated in 1791. Inside the restored keeper’s house are lighthouse memorabilia and displays highlighting local history. Pair it with another icon, a lobster roll from the Bite Into Maine food truck. 1000 Shore Road. 207-799-2661; portlandheadlight.com

BEST CRAFT COOP:

PEMAQUID CRAFT CO-OP, New Harbor

Mosey through 15 rooms over two floors filled with works created by more than 50 juried Maine artists and artisans. Inside are pottery, quilts, specialty foods, carved birds, kitchen textiles, glass and leather works, furniture, jewelry, baskets, children’s clothing and toys, lamps, and more. 2565 Bristol Road. 207-6772077; pemaquidcraftcoop.com

BEST SMALL MUSEUM:

MONHEGAN MUSEUM OF ART & HISTORY, Monhegan Island

It takes a bit of effort to hoof up to Monhegan’s hilltop lighthouse, but it’s well worth it for the historical displays interspersed with original artworks by masters such as Andrew Wyeth, James Fitzgerald, George Bellows, Robert

PM Page 1

Henri, Edward Hopper, Alice Stoddard, and Rockwell Kent, plus art exhibits in the keeper’s and assistant keeper’s houses, as well as the panoramic views. 1 Lighthouse Hill. 207-596-7003; monheganmuseum.org

BEST MUSEUM EVENT:

OWLS HEAD TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM, Owls Head

During the August 6–7 “Wings and Wheels Spectacular,” pilots in antique planes perform airborne aerobatics; antique, classic, and vintage vehicles are displayed and demonstrated; and free Model T rides are offered at this museum, where nearly every aircraft, vehicle, bicycle, and engine works. Even on nonevent days, thanks to its location on an airfield, it’s possible to see a Stanley Steamer motoring the grounds while a 1917 Curtiss Jenny biplane soars overhead. 117 Museum St. 207-594-4418; ohtm.org

BEST FORT:

FORT KNOX & PENOBSCOT NARROWS

BRIDGE & OBSERVATORY, Prospect

Not only does this sprawling granite harborfront fort have two complete Rodman cannons, but it’s also home to a glass-walled observatory tower delivering clear-weather views from Katahdin to Cadillac. Route 174. 207-469-6553; fortknox.maineguide.com

BEST TOURIST HOT SPOT: ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

Even though Acadia, celebrating its 100th anniversary, is one of America’s most popular national parks, it’s easy to find a private patch of heaven for hiking, biking, paddling, or simply enjoying the mountain-and-ocean views. Hike or pedal the 5.3-mile Amphitheatre Loop, which passes over two of the 17 unique roughstone bridges in the 57-mile carriage-trail system. 207-288-3338; nps.gov/acad

BEST INTERNATIONAL EXCURSION: ROOSEVELT CAMPOBELLO INTERNATIONAL PARK, Welshpool, Campobello Island, New Brunswick

Cross the International Bridge into Canada from Lubec, Maine, and visit the 2,800-acre parkland commemorating U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who summered here. Tour the Roose velt Cottage, hike the trails, and don’t miss “Tea with Eleanor,” a program in which park docents share local stories about First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt while serving tea and cookies. 459 Route 774. 877-851-6663; fdr.net

BEST EXPERIENTIAL ART TOUR: MAINE ART MUSEUM TRAIL, Statewide From Ogunquit to Bangor and out to Monhe -

gan Island, weave a tour through eight cultural institutions mapped on the 200-mile Maine Art Museum Trail. Comprising more than 73,000 works of art, collections range from ancient to contemporary and include European, American, and Maine masters. maineartmuseums.org

BEST LAKESIDE STATE PARK: PEAKS–KENNY STATE PARK, Dover–Foxcroft

Begin with serene views across Sebec Lake to Borestone Mountain; now add a mile of shorefront with a lifeguard-patrolled sandy beach, a grassy picnic area, 56 campsites, and a 10-mile trail network. 401 State Park Road. 207-5642003; parksandlands.com

BEST FAMILY SWIMMING HOLE: STEP FALLS, Newry

The Step Falls trail rises a half-mile along Wright Brook and rewards hikers with waterfalls, swimming holes, natural waterslides, flat rocks for picnicking, and nice views of the Mahoosuc mountain range. Find it off Route 26, a half-mile south of Grafton Notch State Park. mahoosuc.org; mainetrailfinder.com

BEST GALLERY: HARVEST GOLD GALLERY, Center Lovell

Hard to say which is more stunning: the views

over mountain-backed Kezar Lake outside the gallery or the works displayed within, which include gold jewelry accented with Maine gemstones, among the fine crafts by a variety of artisans. 1082 South Main St. 207-925-6502; harvest goldgallery.com

BEST EASY ISLAND BIKE EXCURSION: PEAKS ISLAND

On Peaks Island, only a 20-minute ferry ride from Portland, it’s easy to dream of seaside cottages, endless blue seas, and crisp breezes. You can bike the circumference of this 1-by-2-mile knob of land in 40 minutes. But there’s no need to rush—beaches here are plentiful and accessible. Bring your own bike on the Casco Bay Lines ferry (home port: 56 Commercial St., Portland) . Or, used (and inexpensive) bikes can be found just off the dock at Brad’s Bike Rental. peaksislandmaine.net/Peaks.shtml. Ferry, 207774-7871; cascobaylines.com. Brad’s, 115 Island Ave. 207-766-5631

BEST RETRO BEACH HANGOUT:

FUN-O-RAMA, York Beach

A stone’s throw from York’s Short Sands Beach is the Fun-O-Rama arcade. The building was once a 1940s bathhouse before converting to an arcade. Today it packs more than 250 rides and arcade games (including Skee-Ball) into its

BEST MOOSE-SPOTTING TOUR: NORTHWOODS OUTFITTERS, Greenville (this page, bottom right)

BEST USED-BOOK STORE:

MERRILL’S BOOKSHOP, Hallowell

Upstairs at Merrill’s, John Merrill has been barricaded behind towering walls of used books for 25 years. It’s easy to pass several hours here, fingers rustling the pages of a Hardy Boys installment or a first-edition East of Eden . “I’m going to be the last old-fashioned bookstore,” Merrill declares. “No selling books on the Internet. I refuse. It takes all the fun out of it.” 134 Water St. 207-623-2055; merrillsbookshop.com

BEST ADVENTURE:

KENNEBEC RIVER RAFTING, The Forks

Take a whitewater roller-coaster ride delivering guaranteed big thrills—without cold-water chills. The dam-controlled Kennebec drains from a shallow lake and flows through a steepwalled gorge in Maine’s timber country. Northern Outdoors founder Wayne Hockmeyer pioneered the route, which includes Big Mama and the Three Sisters as well as dropping over Magic Falls. 1771 Route 201. 800-765-7238, 207-6634466; northernoutdoors.com

10,000 square feet. There’s something endearingly boardwalk-retro about it—it makes you want to stroll through even if video games and old-fashioned photo booths aren’t your thing. 7 Beach St. 207-363-4421; funorama.us

BEST MOOSE-SPOTTING TOUR:

NORTHWOODS OUTFITTERS, Greenville

The Moosehead Lake region supports some of the country’s densest moose populations, and

SAIL MAINE

Northwoods is so confident of finding the gangly critters that it offers a money-back guarantee. Choose from water or land tours. 5 Lily Bay Road. 866-223-1380; maineoutfitter.com

LODGING

LODGING

BEST CLASSIC ISLAND INN: CHEBEAGUE ISLAND INN, Chebeague Island

Much of the charm of this 1920s establishment is that it’s a part of island life. Monday-night dinners become a regular event for summer island residents, who sit on the famous porch and take in the sunsets, some of the finest in New England. 61 South Road. 207-846-5155; chebeagueislandinn.com

BEST PET-FRIENDLY B&B: THE CAPTAIN JEFFERDS INN, Kennebunkport

The 11 elegant rooms in the 1804 main house are fur-free, but five equally inviting rooms in the attached Carriage House welcome dogs with bowls, towels, and a treat. Each room has direct access to the yard, and pet sitting is available. Rates: from $170. 5 Pearl St. 207-9672311; captainjefferdsinn.com

BEST BEACHSIDE INN: INN BY THE SEA, Cape Elizabeth

Handsome rooms, suites, and cottages shelter guests at this seaside resort with an outdoor saltwater pool, a restaurant and lounge with indoor and outdoor seating, and a boutique spa. A boardwalk through a New England cottontail rabbit preserve links the ultra-green, dog- and family-friendly property with dunebacked Crescent Beach, a state park with lifeguards. Rates: from $229. 40 Bowery Beach Road. 207-799-3134; innbythesea.com

BEST LIGHTHOUSE STAY: INN AT CUCKOLDS LIGHTHOUSE, Cuckolds Island

Splurge on one of two ultra-luxe suites in a meticulously restored 1892 lighthouse complex on a private island. The pampering includes transportation, breakfast, and afternoon tea; lunch and dinner are available. Rates: from $450. 855-212-5252; innatcuckoldslighthouse.com

BEST OCEAN RESORT: SAMOSET, Rockport

If you can tear yourself away from the dreamy views, facilities at this 230-acre oceanfront resort edging Penobscot Bay include an 18-hole golf course, indoor and outdoor pools, a spa, a fitness center, a children’s program, tennis courts, lawn games, and easy access to the Rockland Breakwater. Rates: from $110. 220 Warrenton St. 207-594-2511; samosetresort.com

(continued on p. 166)

SPOTLIGHT: PORTLAND

ATTRACTIONS

BEST BAY TOUR:

LUCKY CATCH LOBSTER TOUR

Cruise Casco Bay aboard the Lucky Catch and in addition to learning all about lobsters, participants can help haul, bait, and set traps and perhaps even catch dinner. 170 Commer cial St. 207-761-0941; luckycatch.com

BEST SHOPPING ADVENTURE:

RENY’S

Whether you’re shopping for souvenirs, school supplies, brand-name clothing, housewares, food, toys, or personal neces sities, find them at Reny’s, a Maine-grown department store with wallet-friendly prices. 540 Congress St. 207-553-9061; renys.com

BEST HISTORIC-HOUSE MUSEUM:

VICTORIA MANSION

Widely considered the most magnificently ornamented dwelling of its period remain ing in the country, the mid-19th-century Victoria Mansion retains about 90 percent of designer Gustave Herter’s original furnish ings. Jaw-droppers include a 6-by-25-foot stained-glass ceiling window, mind-boggling trompe l’oeil wall and ceiling flourishes, and the dizzying colors and patterns of the Turk ish Smoking Room. 109 Danforth St. 207772-4841; victoriamansion.org

LODGING

BEST B&B: THE DANFORTH INN

New owners have revitalized this 1823 Federal mansion, updating it with a mix of period and contemporary Asian-accented art and antiques. The inn’s justly acclaimed finedining restaurant serves authentic Southeast Asian cuisine. Rates: from $210. 163 Danforth St. 207-879-8755; danforthinn.com

BEST DOWNTOWN HOTEL: THE PRESS HOTEL

The full-service Press Hotel’s décor takes its cue from its home in the former headquarters of the state’s largest newspaper. Fronting on Congress at the head of Exchange and Market streets, the location is ideal for exploring the city. The hotel’s Union restaurant earns raves. Rates: from $175. 119 Exchange St. 207-808-8800; thepress hotel.com

BEST ISLAND INN: INN ON PEAKS

Walk off the ferry, and it’s just steps to the Inn on Peaks on Peaks Island, where each suite has a water view, a gas fireplace, a Jacuzzi, and a private deck for taking in sunset views of Portland’s skyline across the harbor. Rates: from $135. 33 Island Ave. 207-766-5100; innonpeaks.com

DINING

BEST BREAKFAST: HOT SUPPA

Scratch-made breakfast specialties—such as rave-worthy corned-beef hash, biscuits and sausage gravy, French-style omelets, and burritos— draw the faithful to this venerable brick Victorian in the city’s West End. Breakfasts: from $5. 703 Congress St. 207-871-5005; hotsuppa.com

BEST FINE DINING: BACK BAY GRILL

It’s not the trendiest restaurant in town, but white-tablecloth elegance combined with pro -

fessional service makes Back Bay Grill a perennial favorite for a special evening. The nightly changing menu might include grilled filet mignon or lavender-marinated duck breast. Entrées: from $18. 65 Portland St. 207-772-8833; backbaygrill.com

BEST PÂTISSERIE:

PORTLAND PÂTISSERIE & GRAND CAFÉ

Find Paris in Portland at Steve and Michelle Corry’s classic pâtisserie, serving pastries, cakes, and tarts, of course, but also crêpes, croissants, quiche, sandwiches, salads, and other light fare in a bright and airy, orderat-the-counter spot in Old Port. Baked goods: from $5. 46 Market St. 207-553-2555; portlandpatisserie.com

BEST ICE CREAM:

MOUNT DESERT ISLAND ICE CREAM

Oh my! Crazy rich, crazy good, crazy flavors. Try “Bay of Figs,” “Cinnamon 7 Layer,” lavender–white chocolate, blackstrap–banana, and other small batches of deliciousness. Ice cream: from $4.50. 51 Exchange St. 207-2103432; mdiic.com

BEST DOWNTOWN HOTEL: THE PRESS HOTEL

Maine Highlands

BEST SHOREFRONT VALUE: OAKLAND SEASHORE MOTEL & CABINS, Rockport

Psst … Don’t tell too many friends about this shoreline-hugging colony comprising no-frills, gently updated vintage cottages and a dance hall turned motel. On 70 grassy, shaded acres, with a private pebble beach, accommodations are simple, comfortable, and clean; some have kitchens or kitchenettes, but none has a TV or phone. Rates: from $70. 112 Dearborn Lane. 207-594-8104; oaklandseashorecabins.com

BEST FAMILY VACATION:

MEDOMAK FAMILY CAMP, Washington

Think summer camp is only for kids? Swim, play, create, paddle, hike, tour, or do nothing during family sessions at this traditional lakeside summer camp on Washington Pond. Family-style meals and a rustic, few-frills private cabin are included; the counselors make it sing. Rates: from $915 per adult per week, $650 per child per week. 178 Liberty Road. 203-845-6001; medomakcamp.com

BEST CLASSIC SEASIDE HOTEL: THE CLAREMONT, Southwest Harbor

White curtains billow in the afternoon breeze at The Claremont, a pleasantly old-fashioned yet elegant grand dame, with a croquet court on the lawn rolling down to Somes Sound. Rates: from $180. 22 Claremont Road. 800-244-5036; theclaremonthotel.com

BEST LAKESIDE RESORT: MIGIS LODGE, Casco

Set under towering pines on the shores of Sebago Lake, this 100-year-old resort turns the lakeside family vacation into a luxury experience, pampering guests with wood-burning fireplaces, stocked daily, and fancy linens in 35 well-appointed cottages and a main lodge. Choose from paddling, sailing, tennis, kids’ programs, and a slew of family-friendly activities, from island cookouts to waterskiing sessions. Meals and most activities are included. Rates: from $199 per person. 30 Migis Lodge Road. 207-655-4524; migis.com

BEST WILDERNESS CAMPING:

STEPHEN PHILLIPS MEMORIAL PRESERVE, Rangeley

Swim, paddle, watch wildlife, or simply escape at this 6,000-acre preserve, including more than four miles of shoreline on Mooselookmeguntic Lake. Choose from mainland and island sites, all with picnic tables, fireplaces, and toilet facilities. Rates: from $20 per site. 377 Stephens Road. 207-864-2003; stephenphillips wildernesscamping.com

BEST ISLAND SPORTING CAMP:

ATTEAN LAKE LODGE, Jackman

Attean has been welcoming guests to Birch Island, an oasis of hospitality in the wilderness, since the late 19th century. Guests stay

in comfy cabins, enjoy meals in the main lodge, and spend their days swimming, paddling, hiking, and fishing. Rates: from $290, including meals and most activities. Birch Island. 207-668-3792; atteanlodge.com

DINING

BEST BREAKFAST WITH A VIEW:

DAVID’S KPT, Kennebunkport

Watch boat traffic on the Kennebunk River from the glass-walled dining room or on the deck, while enjoying eggs Benedict, pain perdu, or perhaps even duck potstickers and eggs.

Breakfast: from $8. 21 Ocean Ave. 207-9678225; boathouseme.com

BEST DINNER & A SHOW:

JONATHAN’S, Ogunquit

Packages make it easy to enjoy a fine-dining farm-to-table menu downstairs, and chase it with a show in the intimate upstairs venue, where touring acts such as Dar Williams, George Winston, Madeleine Peyroux, and Paula Poundstone perform. Entreés: from $23. 92 Bourne Lane. 207-646-4777; jonathans ogunquit.com

BEST LOBSTER-ROLL EXPERIENCE:

QUODDY BAY LOBSTER, Eastport

Lobster doesn’t get any fresher than that served at this family-owned fish store and lobster shack sited on a working pier. Chopped claw,

tail, and knuckle meat is tossed with a hint of mayo (Miracle Whip, if you prefer) or drizzled with butter, mounded in a toasted and buttered split-top roll, and gilded with a meaty claw. The views over Passamaquoddy Bay to Campobello Island seal the deal. Choose from junior, regular, or jumbo size. Lobster rolls: from $10. 7 Sea St. 207-853-6640

BEST QUICK LUNCH:

WILD OATS, Brunswick

At least four scratch-made soups, prepared specials, made-to-order sandwiches on housemade bread, and fresh salads are all available at Wild Oats, a self-serve bakery and café with plentiful seating. Located in the Tontine Mall. Lunch: from $5. 149 Maine St. 207-725-6287; wildoatsbakery.com

BEST FRIED FISH:

BET’S FAMOUS FISH FRY, Boothbay

Free Beer Tomorrow teases the sign in front of Bet’s, a roadside take-out fish shack famed for its generous portions of always-crisp, never-greasy fish-and-chips made with local haddock caught by Bet’s brother, battered with breadcrumbs, and paired with hand-cut fries. Don’t skip the homemade dill sauce. Hint: A half order is often enough for two people. Cash only. Entrées: from $8. 20 Route 27 at Common Drive

BEST BREAKFAST WITH A VIEW: DAVID’S KPT, Kennebunkport (below left)

Surround yourself with sweeping panoramic views of Maine’s Atlantic Coastline and bask in contemporary luxury and design. The custom millwork, beautiful moldings, coffered ceilings and marble bathrooms are the ultimate in cra smanship. The Cuckolds is a unique experience, an historic, offshore 1892 Lighthouse, now transformed into an elegant Inn, described by guests as “SPECTACULAR BREATHTAKING…”

“A FAIRY TALE ESCAPE…”

“THE ULTIMATE MAINE COAST EXPERIENCE…”

All honoring the sense of place and Cuckolds history. Your island adventure begins with an ocean cruise to this rocky island. The sounds of the ocean waves lull you to sleep each night.

Reservations: 855.212.5252 InnAtCuckoldsLighthouse.com

BEST HOMESTYLE COOKIN’:

DEB’S DINER, Waldoboro

Another local diner draws the tourist crowds, but locals fill Deb’s, a no-frills spot dishing out scratch-made classics like to-die-for biscuits with sausage gravy, fried chicken, clam chowder, and scrumptious pies. Entrées: from $3. 1495 U.S. Route 1. 207-832-6144

BEST FARM STORE:

BETH’S FARM MARKET, Warren

Not only does Beth’s have freshly picked produce, but you’ll also find pickled vegetables, relishes, oysters, lobster, and an in-house bakery making breads, pies, and seasonal favorites, such as strawberry shortcake. 1986 Western Road. 207-273-3695; bethsfarmmarket.com

BEST NEAPOLITAN PIZZA:

MEANWHILE IN BELFAST, Belfast

Certified Neapolitan master pizza chef Alessandro Scelsi, a native of Turino, Italy, handcrafts crisp sourdough-crust pizzas, baking them for only a minute or so in his wood-fired oven. Try the “Côte D’Azur,” with fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, prosciutto di Parma, and sun-dried figs—or keep it simple with the “Visionary,” a classic Margherita that never tasted so good. Pizzas: from $10. 2 Cross St. 207-218-1288; meanwhile-in-belfast.com

BEST SWEET SHOP: BLACK DINAH TASTING ROOM, Blue Hill

An original soda-fountain counter is now an espresso bar offering locally roasted 44 North coffees as well as Black Dinah’s signature chocolate drinks, ice cream, and truffles in a space shared with Fairwinds Florist. Truffles: from $2. Chocolate drinks: from $2.75. Ice cream: from $3.50. 5 Main St. 207-374-2228; black dinahchocolatiers.com

BEST FEEL-GOOD BREAKFAST: THE COMMON GOOD COMMUNITY, Southwest Harbor

Hot popovers, flavored butters, homemade jams, and slow-simmered oatmeal are offered every morning, along with occasional live entertainment, at the Community Kitchen. Proceeds from the donate-what-you-can, allyou-can-eat, buffet-style spread help local families. 19 Clark Point Road. 207-266-2733; commongoodsoupkitchen.org

BEST RESTAURANT FOR PICKY EATERS: CAFÉ MIRANDA, Rockland

Pizza? Check. Burgers and dogs? Yes. Glutenfree options and vegetarian choices? Yup. Pasta? Of course. Seafood? Ayuh. Meat and poultry? You betcha. Soups and salads? Uh-huh. French, Mexican, Asian, Indian, Greek, Italian, Polish, and other internationally inspired dishes? Oui. With small plates, large plates, and everything in between, Café Miranda’s humongous menu has something to satisfy everyone. Entrées: from $14. 15 Oak St. 207-594-2034; cafemiranda.com

Themed Dinners River Lights Boat Parade

of the Fleet

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Be gin a tradition in the heart of Ogunquit .

BEST SPORTING-CAMP RESTAURANT: BALD MOUNTAIN CAMPS, Oquossoc

Most sporting camps serve home-style comfort food, but not so Bald Mountain. Although the dining room’s lakefront setting and pine-andantler décor are traditional, locally revered chef Brian Anderson’s menu elevates the experience, with entrées such as Moroccan roast rack of lamb, pan-seared duck breast, and Caribbean fish tacos. Big windows in the main-lodge dining room frame sigh-worthy sunset views over Mooselookmeguntic Lake. Entrées: from $14. 125 Bald Mountain Road. 207-864-3671; bald mountaincamps.com

BEST ACADIAN FARE: DOLLY’S, Frenchville

Ask anyone in the St. John Valley where to taste traditional Acadian fare, and aside from a family home, the answer is Dolly’s, which earns accolades for its ployes, cretons, and chicken stew. Entrées: from $4. 17 U.S. Route 1. 207728-7050

BEST 24/7 FOOD: DYSART’S, Hermon

Sure, it’s a truck stop, but where else can you get huge portions of fresh-made food around the clock—never mind breakfast at 11:00 p.m.?

You’ll find all the classics—eggs, sausage, pancakes, French toast, waffles, more than a dozen varieties of omelets—plus signature dishes such as the “Kitchen Sink” omelet (you can guess), the “Truckers’ Special,” and sirloin steak. And Dysart’s even has an in-house bakery, turning out homemade pies, pastries, biscuits, and desserts. Breakast entrées: from $5. 530 Coldbrook Road. 207-942-4878; dysarts.com

BEST ACADIA TRADITION:

JORDAN POND HOUSE, Acadia National Park

The view of Jordan Pond and across it to the two “Bubbles” mountains is reason enough to stop by this iconic restaurant—but the popovers with strawberry jam are legendary. After hiking one of Acadia’s peaks or biking the carriage trails, reward yourself with tea and these classic egg-batter rolls. Go ahead—slather on the jam, and while you’re at it, splurge on some ice cream, too. Heaven! Sandwiches, salads, soups, and full entrées are also offered, for both lunch and dinner. Tea and popovers: $9.50. Off Park Loop Road. 207-276-3316; acadiajordanpondhouse.com

BEST COLLEGE-TOWN EATS:

BOWDOIN COLLEGE, Brunswick

Locals and Bowdoin parents have long known that there’s no better food for the price than what you’ll find at the college’s Thorne Hall and Moulton Hall dining rooms, open to the public, and consistently rated among the top five in the nation. For $8 (breakfast), $14 (lunch), or $15.75 (dinner), you’ll enjoy exceptional food, and your dining companions will be among the best and the brightest of their generation. bowdoin.edu/ dining/when-where/index.shtml

TOP 10 MAINE EVENTS

MAY 13–15: FRYEBURG, Northern New England Home, Garden & Flower Show. If you’re looking for home-improvement and gardening inspiration, Fryeburg Fairgrounds is the place to be. More than 350 booths, along with seminars, cooking demonstrations, and garden and landscape displays are sure to provide food for thought. 800-359-2033; homegardenflowershow.com

MAY 19–22: BAR HARBOR, Taste of Bar Harbor. Featuring local establishments committed to creating epicurean delights, this three-day festival serves up cooking classes, pub and brewery tours, tastings, “waiter wars,” and a local-producer showcase. Don’t miss the chef’s table and the dessert-night competition! barharborinfo.com

MAY 27–30: TRESCOTT/COBSCOOK BAY AREA, 13th Down East Spring Birding Festival. Identified as one of the most important avian areas in the U.S. by the American Bird Conservancy, Cobscook Bay presents a special birding experience, with independent explorations and professionally guided hikes, sightseeing boat rides, sunset cruises, and a lineup of expert speakers at the Cobscook Community Learning Center. 207-733-2233 x330; cclc.me/birdfest

JUNE 12: PORTLAND, 43rd Old Port Festival. The Forest City kicks off the summer season with a downtown celebration featuring live music on multiple stages, locally made arts and crafts, a variety of food, kids’ activities, and more. 207-772-6828; portlandmaine.com/ old-port-festival

JUNE 17–19: KENNEBUNK, Launch! A Maritime Festival. Three days of events in Kennebunk and the surrounding area celebrate all things seafaring. A boat launch, a “Sailors & Sirens” 5K road race, indoor and outdoor historical tours, and a craft fair are capped off by a summer lobster bake on the water, complete with live music. gokennebunks.com

JUNE 25: DOVER–FOXCROFT, Maine Whoopie Pie Festival. Celebrate the state’s signature treat with a day of fun, music, and sweet snacking, as dozens of bakers serve up thousands of whoopie pies. Vote for your favorites in the Big Whoop competition. maine whoopiepiefestival.com

JUNE 26–JULY 2: BOOTHBAY HARBOR, 54th Wind jammer Days Festival. Relax while watching windjammers sail into beautiful Boothbay Harbor, and celebrate the occasion with races, pancake breakfasts, concerts, a craft fair, parades, a golf tournament, and

fireworks over the harbor—a fun day for the whole family. boothbayharbor.com

JULY 15–17: YARMOUTH, 51st Yarmouth Clam Festival. Now entering its second half-century, this fun weekend event includes a parade, fireworks, craft and art shows, road races, competitions, raffles, and, of course, plenty of clams and other great food, with proceeds going to local nonprofits. 207-846-3984; clamfestival.com

JULY 16–17: ROCKLAND, North Atlantic Blues Festival. This annual two-day event, held at the Public Landing overlooking Rockland Harbor, features some of the biggest names in blues music. Saturday night’s Club Crawl is always a highlight. 207-596-6055; north atlanticbluesfestival.com

AUGUST 5–7: UNION, Maine Antiques Festival. Union Fairgrounds overflows with vintage treasures during the state’s largest antiques festival, with more than 200 dealers selling jewelry, maps, prints, folk art, furnishings, ceramics, paintings, and much more. 207221-3108; maineantiquesfestival.com

Call ahead to confirm dates, schedules, and admission prices. To submit an event for possible publication, go to: YankeeMagazine.com/submit-an-event

FOR HUNDREDS OF FAIRS, FESTIVALS, EXHIBITS, SHOWS, AND OTHER FUN ACTIVITIES, GO TO: YANKEEMAGAZINE.COM/EVENTS-HOME

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The Pelatiah Leete House is one of the earliest surviving dwellings built in Guilford, CT in the early 18th century, by Pelatiah Leete, the grandson of Guilford founder, and Connecticut governor, William Leete. It is one of only a handful of properties in Guilford that is included on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1781, during the American Revolution, the Battle of Leetes Island was fought across the road from the house and its surviving 1705 barn, and Simeon Leete, who lived in the house at that time with his wife and three small children, was mortally wounded near the conclusion of the battle. He was brought back to the house, where he died, at age 28, the following day. His gravestone is around the corner from the house, on land owned by the Leete family since 1661, and an annual celebration of his life is held every June on the Sunday nearest June 19, the anniversary of his death date. The Sixth Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line performs musket drills and live firing at the event, which draws numerous neighbors and townspeople.

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• A diverse worldwide travel collection featuring first-class escorted land tours, exclusive chartered European river cruises, rail journeys, holiday tours, and more

• Specific Yankee Travel Club departures

• Save up to $400 per couple

• Yankee Travel Club Loyalty Program & “Yankee Dollars”

• Travel For Free Friends & Family Program

• Additional departures available for all tour programs

October 10, 2016 • from $3,495 pp dbl (land/cruise only) visit yankeetravelclub.com or call toll-free 877.953.8687

Travel Club

An Exclusive Club for Yankee Magazine Readers • FREE TO JOIN

7-Day Cape Cod & the Islands

August 14, 2016 • from $1,695 pp dbl (land only)

9-Day Alpine Countries & Oktoberfest

September 20, 2016 • from $2,595 pp dbl (land only)

7-Day California Rail Discovery

September 28, 2016 • from $2,095 pp dbl (land only)

8-Day New England Rails & Trails

October 8, 2016 • from $2,295 pp dbl (land only)

8-Day Discover Cuba

October 10, 2016 • from $4,295 pp dbl (land/air from Miami)

6-Day Rose Parade New Year’s

December 30, 2016 • from $1,995 pp dbl (land only)

For more details and to sign up, visit yankeetravelclub.com For reservations call toll-free 877.953.8687

All

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Sleep Better All Night

Live Free of Worry, Embarrassment, and Inconvenience

Frequent nighttime trips to the bathroom, embarrassing leaks and the inconvenience of constantly searching for rest rooms in public – for years, I struggled with bladder control problems. After trying expensive medications with horrible side effects, ineffective exercises and undignified pads and diapers, I was ready to resign myself to a life of bladder leaks, isolation and depression. But then I tried BetterWOMAN.

CLEARS THE AIR OF SMOKE, POLLEN, POLLUTION.

EnergAire continuously purifies up to 4,000 cubic feet (a large room) of air and makes it breathable and invigorating. Restores natural ion balance to unhealthy environments caused by industrial pollution, automobile exhaust, central airconditioning, and heating, smoke, dust, pollen, animal fur. . . removes microscopic pollution particles not removed by any other method of air purification. EnergAire was rated Number One for speed of removal of cigarette smoke by the leading U.S. consumer protection magazine. It has no noisy fan, no costly filter, and requires no maintenance. Uses less than 2 watts. 9" high. 3" diameter. Weighs less than 1 pound. $59.95

RODAR is the super-powerful professional ultrasonic pest repeller with up to 60 or more times the power of other devices — and power is what makes RODAR so effective. RODAR ultrasound equals a jet engine — noise unbearable to pests but at frequencies humans and pets cannot hear. RODAR units are completely safe. RODAR drives pests out and keeps them from getting in. Handsome simulated walnut cabinet 5-5/8 high. Weight 1-1/2 pounds. Uses less than 5 watts. $89.95

90-day money-back guarantee — 12-month warranty.To order: Send cost for unit(s) plus $10.00 each for shipping and handling (in Mass. add 6.25% tax) by check, money order, MasterCard, Visa, or Discover number and expiration date to Micron Corp. Call Toll-Free 1-800-456-0734

Sladust®

The Original All Wool Dry Mop For Over 107 Years

White Birch Bracelet

without using chemicals.

Handmade in Vermont, this pure Wool Dust Mop is the ecological alternative to disposable chemically-laced pads. The swivel head provides maneuverability for easy cleaning. The new durable Velcro backing allows for quick & easy removal of the dust head from the 12 " frame for laundering. With 48 " wooden handle.

Dusting area measures 11 " x18 " $32 (plus $7.95 S&H)

Shop online: sladust.com

Sladust - PO Box 624 - Woodstock, VT 05091 802-779-2541

White birch. Silver birch

Sacred tree of the Northeast

Stark white, standing tall Green leaves summer, yellow leaves fall

Leaves fluttering in the wind

Leaves layered, cascading down Sterling silver birch leaf bracelet, fully articulated Secure box clasp

Matching necklace and earrings

White Birch Jewelry

Pendant X3892 $165 00

Earrings X3893 $245 00

Bracelet (shown) X3894 $345 00

Necklace X3895 $585.00

See pendant, earrings, and necklace on-line

Cross Jewelers

Portland, ME 800-433-2988

CrossJewelers com

bracelet_Layout 1 3/16/16 12:13 PM

The natural lanolin in the wool draws dust like a magnet and holds on tight until you give the mop a shake. Now you can clean

Wild Blueberry Stone

This

To advertise, please call Bernie Gallagher at 203-263-7171

ARTS AND ANTIQUES

CTOldHouse.com

An online magazine and directory of everything old-house in Connecticut

“Voted that the earth is given to the Saints; Voted, We are the Saints.’’ -Milford town record 1640

BRASS NAMEPLATES

CUSTOM ENGRAVED BRASS NAMEPLATES. Many styles to choose from. Online ordering available. www.USBrassShop.com

CHINA CRYSTAL SILVER

CHINA, CRYSTAL, SILVER, COLLECTIBLES

World’s largest inventory; vintage and new patterns. FREE item lists. Replacements, Ltd. 800-REPLACE (800-737-5223) www.replacements.com

COINS

HIGHEST PRICES PAID

Serving Dealers and Collectors for over 40 years

Will travel to home or bank Call 978-255-1127 or rickbagg@hotmail.com www.richardbagg.com

FERTILIZER

NEPTUNE’S HARVEST ORGANIC FERTILIZERS

Extremely effective. Commercially proven. Outperforms chemicals. Wholesale/retail/farm. Catalog. 800-259-4769 • neptunesharvest.com

HELPFUL AIDS

STAIRLIFTS, RESIDENTIAL ELEVATORS, DUMBWAITERS, PLATFORM LIFTS. Free in-home evaluation available. Freedom Lifts. 888-665-4387; www.freedomliftsonline.com

REAL ESTATE

OLD GREENWICH, CT $2.4M

1.1 acres land. Walk to school, village, R.R. and country club. 203-635-3327

No texts please.

REAL ESTATE

UNION, MAINE $695,000 Restored 18th Century Federal 54+ Acres - For Beautiful Details, Visit ebenezeraldenhouse.com Jim Ianello-Cates Real Estate 207-975-0022 • jim@catesre.com

SEBASTIAN, FL

Beautiful 55+ community. Voted 2012 “Best of Sebastian.” Manufactured Home Community. New homes starting at $84,900. 4 mi to the ocean. 772-581-0080 • www.beach-cove.com

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Great swimming. sandy beach. Dunes. Close to Canada’s Greenwich Dune Nat’l Park, 61-acre farm, borders shoreline. 3-Bdr/1Ba Farmhouse. $399,000 Canadian. 828-273-0915 summerpei33@gmail.com

PT. JUDITH POND, R.I.

5+ ac. $599,900. Beautiful rolling meadows “Down by the Sea.” Choose from four lots or entire 21.46 ac. $2.7m. Estate Quality. Marina nearby. 314-414-0070

RECORD COLLECTORS

TRANSFER TO CD YOUR COLLECTION OF 45s/33s/78s, cassettes and reel to reel tapes Call Alex at 603-905-9123 for pricing www.theotherguyrec.com

SHUTTERS

COLONIAL SHUTTERS, interior and exterior, raised-panel and louvered. Custom storm/ screen doors. Free brochure. Colonial Shutterworks, Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. Toll-free 888-295-0732; www.colonialshutterworks.com

SLIPCOVERS

CUSTOM AND READY SLIPCOVERS

For furniture, daybeds, chairs, futons, ottomans, fabrics, cushions, pet covers. All shapes. Made in USA! 888-405-4758 • www.slipcovershop.com

TRAVEL & RESORTS

KIAWAH ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA. Select 1- to 10-bedroom accommodations. Pam Harrington Exclusives. Call toll-free 800-845-6966 for a complimentary brochure; www.kiawahexclusives.com

VACATION RENTALS

SQUAM LAKE, NH

5th-generation family “Camp” on the Lake! With dock & raft. Sleeps 16. Many extras included. For details contact Susan at: 860-567-4894

alvordsquamnh@optonline.net

WANTED: OLD RADIOS, HI-FI/STEREO amplifiers, vacuum tubes, entire radio collections, radio & movie theater equipment, microphones, Western Electric tubes, Edison Cylinders & players. Call: 203-272-6030

Email: Larry2942@cox.net

Coin and Stamp Buyer Visits your home...

Traveling New England, paying highest prices for entire collections of coins, stamps, paper money, gold, silver, fine jewelry, and Tiffany. Complete privacy and safety of your own home. Payment in full on the spot. Call Anthony’s: 800-427-9897 Established 1958

There may be OLD POSTCARD TREASURES in that dusty shoe box. Avid POSTCARD COLLECTORS can’t get enough of them! Phone Dick @ 508-875-3697, 2-9 p.m. EST. Let’s turn OLD TREASURES into cash.

‘Little Puritan’

Two sisters, Frances and Mary Allen, found uncommon beauty in the people and landscape of Deerfield, Massachusetts.

or three decades, from the end of the 19th century into the early 1920s, the photographs made by two sisters, Frances Stebbins Allen and Mary Electa Allen, bathed the people and landscape in and around their home in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in a painterly, elegiac glow. They found beauty and even romance in reimagining the past; they rendered even cruel moments of history with tenderness. Little Puritan , ABOVE , shows a local child, 5-year-old Elizabeth Everett, portraying Eunice Williams in the Old Deerfield Pageant of 1911. Eunice Williams was 7 when she was captured on February 29, 1704, during the raid on Deerfield. On the northward trek, her mother was killed in front of her, and Eunice was raised as a member of the Mohawk tribe. Here through the eyes of the Allen sisters, the soft light belies no hint of the raid to come, no screams in the dark, only quiet assurance for a beautiful child that all would be well.

Once the Allen sisters became famous, their work was displayed in prestigious galleries. But, in time, obscurity and indifference followed. When the Allens died within months of each other in 1941, the world paid little note. Many of their glass-plate negatives sat in boxes on a porch, as if ready for a Sunday yard sale. As Suzanne Lasher Flynt, curator of Deerfield’s Memorial Hall Museum, wrote in The Allen Sisters, “Other Allen sister negatives were not so fortunate; frugal Deerfielders scraped the emulsion off some of the plates to use them for window or greenhouse glass.” But enough survived. Enough. And visitors today can lose themselves in these images, on display in the one museum where, more than anywhere else, the Allens would have wanted them to be. deerfield-ma.org/about/memorialhall-museum-and-library

—Mel Allen

FROM LEFT : Mary Allen with view camera; Frances Allen. Visit Memorial Hall Museum’s upcoming exhibition

Children of Deerfield: Photographs by Frances and Mary Allen, opening June 1 and running through October 31.