Things you can't do in the Midwest..you can do in New England (oh,by the way whatever happened to Connecticut).. <BR><BR>These are off the top of my head....everybody can jump in...<BR><BR>Go on a whale watch to see those gentle giants<BR><BR>Walk the Freedom Trail and see Paul Revere's House and the Old South Church. Toss tea overboard <BR><BR>Museum of Fine Art in Boston, the Isabelle Gardner Museum, a real jewel. The Science Museum and I-max<BR><BR>Traffic jams in downtown Boston..lol Copley Square on a sunny warm day.<BR><BR>Visit old cape cod and Provincetown<BR><BR>Witness the Big Dig.. the largest construction project ever in the world that you are paying for..and it's nearing completion maybe in my lifetime.<BR><BR>In Rhode Island visit the Mansions, discover Newport, find the wonderful new wineries. Go to Federal Hill with all the little restaurants, go to the Waterfront Fire Festival.<BR><BR>Maine..inhale that wonderful fresh sea air, eat lobster at a bench outside next to the water, shop in Kittery and Freeport (okay that's me)..visit a real desert in Maine. Arcadia Park, Booth Bay, Portland and the Old Port..<BR><BR>Then there is New Hampshire and Vermont...and so much more..<BR><BR>Okay New Englanders jump right in..<BR><BR>

Okay, I'll ask a silly question about the mountains---------What's a NOTCH?

Has anyone mentioned one of the best reasons for driving around New England is that everything is so close together? The drive time from Mt. Washington in NH to the Maine coast is less than two hours. Can't do that in most other regions. Driving is fun because you never know what's around the next bend (antique shops? Historic marker?) and unless you're in a car, you can't stop and explore. Just for perspective, Denali National Park is larger than the State of Massachusetts! We are compact. <BR><BR>In answer to Linda (btw, there are no silly questions). According to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) a NOTCH:<BR> 3. U.S. A narrow opening or defile through mountains; a deep narrow pass.<BR>(Common in local names in the New England States.)<BR>

Lobster and ocean beaches. Do you need anything else?

A "notch" is a deep space between two mountains.

Cyndi. I got your sarcasm and I just laughed when I read it. It's like when I lived in Seattle area, I didn't want more people up there, esp those moving up from CA and bringing their smog with them. Some people just cant' take a joke..

Sorry if I got on someone's nerves. (Yes, I'm a regular.) But I admit, it gets on my nerves when people seem to need others to talk them into travel, or when they ask what amounts to "what's so great about...., anyway?"<BR><BR>I remember having dinner at one of Boston's best seafood places with some in-laws from the midwest (not Ohio, further west), to which Mr. and Mrs. J. asked to be taken so that they could get "real" seafood. It was both embarrassing and annoying when Mrs. J. kept asking the waiter whether this fish dish or that fish dish tasted "too fishy." Scrod, halibut, bass, etc., it was "does that taste too fishy? I don't want fish that tastes too fishy." Finally, the poor French waiter said, quite gently, "well, ma'am, fish tastes fishy, I think." <BR><BR>Mrs. J. spent the rest of the meal complaining about how high the Mystic River Bridge was, about traffic rotaries, about streets that weren't perpendicular running straight north-south or east-west the way they did at home, about how you had to walk and take the T everywhere and couldn't drive where you wanted to go, and on and on and on. <BR><BR>When Mary asked what the big deal about driving in New England was, I heard Mrs. J's voice asking why anyone would want to just drive around "out east", since "back home" it would be boring to do just that.

Cyndi, I got it too, and laughed!<BR><BR>There is nothing to see in New England. Those beautiful, quaint villages, gorgeous beaches, charming homes incredible rocky coastlines well- they aren't all that special. <BR><BR>Must be why whenever we travel anywhere other than home my husband says "Can you believe how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place as we do?"<BR><BR>No matter how far and wide we travel, we always take several vacations every year right here in New England. We never get sick of it's beauty.

The Red Sox and clam chowder..... <BR><BR>The beautiful beaches of Cape Cod and bike riding through the protected paths of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Deep sea fishing, whale watching and the artsy shops of Provincetown. <BR><BR>The history of Boston- the North End, the Freedom Trail, Newbury Street, Copley Square. Taking the T over to Cambridge and strolling the bookstores in Harvard Square. Culinary treasures and lots of lobster.<BR><BR>The mansions of Newport. The Jazz Festival.<BR><BR>Vermont and New Hampshire- the green and white mountains. The lakes, the farms, the year round activities.<BR><BR>Mystic Conneticut and its historic seaport.<BR><BR>The raw beauty of Maine<BR><BR>The Red Sox and clam chowder.....

a "notch " is to a mountain,what a "crotch" is to a tree:)<BR><BR>The woods in the fall.<BR>The smell of the leaves that are knee deep.<BR>The colors,all year round, the greenest greens to the reds and golds to the whites and greys and blues.<BR>The food.<BR>The nice laid back attitudes.<BR>People are happy to live there, so they have good attitudes about people visiting.<BR>The Atlantic Ocean.<BR><BR><BR>

I used to be a regular here, too, until there were too many Cyndi's. People who are just plain snotty and sarcastic caused a great many of us old regulars to just leave here. I check in every now and then to see if the Cyndis have left yet, but there seem to be even more now than there used to be. <BR><BR>In my opinion, Mary (the O.P.) seems to be sitting somewhere in Ohio and wondering if taking a week or so to drive through some of the New England states would make a wonderful vacation. (Her experience seems to be just driving through some midwestern states. I understand her hestitation and her curiousity. Most of us only get a couple of week's vacation and we want to make sure the place we are going is worth the time and the money. I see nothing wrong with her question.<BR><BR>And it warms my heart to see that many posters here replied in such friendly, helpful and encouraging ways. <BR><BR>Don't let the Cyndi's discourage you, Mary. Please feel free to ask any other questions you have.

I don't know how anyone could miss Cyndi's sarcasm, it is so heavy-handed. And not funny at all, only mean. <BR><BR>We have lost a lot of regulars because of people like Cyndi. <BR><BR>And a lot of people's enthusiasm for their trips have been ruined because people like Cyndi respond to their questions with mean, sarcastic remarks. <BR><BR>Cyndi, why don't you go away so the regulars will come back?

I moved to New England (from Washington DC) right after college. Started out in Maine, then Massachusetts, now New Hampshire for the last 12 years. Just before turning 30, I went to a bookstore for a book on planning a trip to Europe, thinking I ought to get started on yearly excursions over there. Instead, I came home with a book called "Recommended Country Inns of New England". This got us touring all over New England and it was 20 years before we got around to visiting Europe, San Francisco, even New York City. One year, we spent an entire week's vacation in Connecticut. Because all of New England is within an easy drive for us, we've explored all over on long weekends over the years. Some things, we do over and over again. FALL could not be more spectacular. One fall, we went to Paris, and on our return frantically searched for last minute lodging because we could not bear missing driving all over for the foliage. Nantucket (not in July or August) could not be more charming. There's an inn/restaurant in Sconset where after dinner you can sit on the huge porch with your coffee and brandy and enjoy the moon shining upon the ocean with the sound of the waves on the outside and Cole Porter coming from the piano from inside. So many places in New England are a real step back in time. Towns with no gas stations or chain anything. Drugstores with wooden apothecary shelves and original soda fontains. Another such destination is Stockbridge (final home of Norman Rockwell). Those NOTCHES in the White Mountains are one thrilling scenic drive. We have our favorite inn RIGHT on Lake Winnepesaukee where the desk virtually hangs over the lake with the most magnificent scenery in every direction. The coast of Maine is positively glorious and we return whenever we can to the outdoor deck of our favorite surfside restaurant for a lobster roll with the waves lapping at our feet and the seagulls flying all about. And, don't even get me started on the history all about. My husband has turned down one promotion after another to the home office of his company in San Francisco area. We just can't bear to leave New England, because we still haven't seen it all, and couldn't possibly give up fall.

I've gotta put a good word in here for Cyndi, who I thought was being facetious, rather than sarcastic. I found Mary's inquiry most impudent. As the nuns in Catholic school taught us "You can't be down on something unless you're up on it". For "regulars", sometimes an impertinent inquiry is just impossible to resist. Those "is it worth it?" and "where can I get a Real Nice room in NYC for $75" and "not too touristy" posts are just all too much some days...

Mary, Hon, you shudda asked all those people what they were talking about. In the alternative, you could do some web searches or visit the travel section of your local bookstore. So, I guess I can scratch Ohio off my list of places to visit before I die. Eh?

All of these wonderful posts on New England are making me very homesick. I used to live in Boston and got a chance to see many sights in New England, but obviously not all you've pointed out that's worth seeing. New England is my very favorite part of the country -- I think the people are very friendly and the character of the scenery and towns cannot be matched. I like the grounding in history. <BR><BR>In recent years I have been back to Boston and Cape Cod with my family--toured Martha's Vineyard, went whale watching, visited vibrant Provincetown, and had a wonderful trip. Also visited Maine for the first time and loved it but 5 days was not nearly enough. <BR><BR>After reading all of your posts I'm thinking of going back again. I wasn't born there, and I only lived there for 4 years, but I definitely feel a strong attachment to New England.

Where is Franconia Notch? Queechee Gorge? Mt. Monadnock? North Haven?<BR>No fair mentioning these places and not telling us where they are! Thanks.

I think the attraction of New England is best described in the first sentence of your second paragraph - "If you drove around the state ... day after day with things to do". Since everything is more geographically compact than most of the rest of the country, you can do beaches, mountains, city, history, in a relatively short amount of time or distance. The ocean is a major draw to those from the middle of the country. And while Boston and other cities ARE relatively new compared to anyplace in Europe, they are old for the US, so the history is generally that much deeper.

Bravo to Cyndi! The original question was simply STUPID beyond words!! And if you can't figure out WHY then I feel desperately sorry for all of you!!!

Isn't it all about what you're used to, and what therefore seems exotic and appealing? I grew up in southern California. Beaches, ocean, etc. are lovely, but they don't make the impact on me that they do on a visitor. Hollywood? Whatever. I also saw the western national parks (Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon) at an early age, so when I saw Queechee Gorge, I thought, huh. But small historic towns, acres of colored leaves, the rocky coast-- now that was special. Same thing when I first visited Europe. I didn't go there for beach resorts in Majorca. I went there for Notre Dame and the Alps.<BR><BR>What I mean to say here is that I understand why Mary may not "get" New England, given her particular life experience. And that's OKAY. It's also important to note that every year many people visit places that someone has told them are fantastic, only to be disappointed. But isn't that what makes travel-- that none of you can ever have my exact experience, nor can I have yours?