Joan and Tim Porta have literally made a career of interior decorating. They travel to several gift shows a year to purchase items for three shops they run in conjunction with Migis. Much of the ambience they create in their guest rooms originates on these buying trips. Joan’s specialty is the lodge look. Her advice […]
Travel
Sebago anchors Maine’s Lakes Region. The state’s second-largest lake (after Moosehead), its shoreline is dotted with summer camps and cabins where children swim and canoe while grown-ups fish and hike. Migis Lodge, tucked into the northeast edge of Sebago Lake, is a resort known for rustic refinement. Here generations of outdoor enthusiasts have been nurtured. […]
Massachusetts
Sterling, MA: Davis Corn Maze
You’ll need a few supplies with you while getting lost in Davis’ Mega Maze in Sterling, Massachusetts: sturdy shoes, sunblock, snacks, and either a keen sense of direction or a horseshoe in your pocket. Visitors start by viewing a three-minute introductory movie; then the trek through the labyrinth begins … Each year, this three-dimensional, eight-acre […]
Travel
Cuddles for Cats
my cats are sitting up in their bed, laying next to each other.
Travel
Watching My Kingdom
my kitty cat looking out the window.
New Hampshire
Still Golden After All These Years
Can it really be 25 years since “On Golden Pond” (much of which was filmed on New Hampshire’s Big Squam Lake) touched our hearts on its way to winning three Academy Awards? Yes, and you can join the anniversary celebration this month at Plymouth State University. On September 22, the movie screens again. The next […]
Massachusetts
Ipswich, MA: The Inn at Castle Hill
Vacations are a time for relaxation, good food, dreamless sleep, and quiet morning walks. The Inn at Castle Hill in Ipswich, Massachusetts, delivers all — except for quiet mornings. Honking geese pass overhead, red-winged blackbirds chatter in the reeds, and ever-present seagulls squawk relentlessly — nature’s vocal welcome to one of the most beautiful places […]
Vermont
Weekend: Woodstock, Vermont
Among the villages in New England that beg you to park your car once and return to it only when it’s time to go home, Woodstock is without rival in its variety of outdoor and indoor treats within a short walk of its center. Across the village green from the stately Woodstock Inn & Resort, […]
Islands are the perfect places for Betsy Wyeth. Of the numerous islands in her life, some are metaphoric, created as home and refuge for herself and the man — the artist — she loves. But there are also the islands with actual moats of distance and challenge, the islands she has bought and lived on […]
Calling the Old Canada Road (Route 201) a scenic byway does a small injustice to this 78-mile drive between Solon and Sandy Bay Township along the Canadian border. It’s not just scenic (think moose) but also grandly historic. Benedict Arnold led troops through this wilderness on his spectacularly ill-fated mission to sack Quebec in 1775. […]
Vermont
A Recommended Drive: Vermont
The 18-mile stretch of Route 108 that connects Stowe and Jeffersonville via Smugglers’ Notch is a destination in itself, as well as a way to get from one town to another during the spring, summer, and fall. It starts out looking like any other easily negotiable Vermont road. But after it courses past the resort-area […]
Massachusetts
A Recommended Drive: Massachusetts
If you could survey the generations of Cape Cod visitors and draw a composite picture from their most lasting impressions, the result would almost certainly be a sketch of Route 6A, Old King’s Highway (named after the cart path that early settlers used to travel to and from Plymouth Colony). This section of the Cape […]