A Letter to Our Readers
This special travel guide issue is a conversation between Yankee and you, our readers. We are talking about places we love in a unique corner of the world: New England. We all know that surge of excitement when we discover a new place and, whether by foot or bike or car, we set out and […]
This special travel guide issue is a conversation between Yankee and you, our readers. We are talking about places we love in a unique corner of the world: New England. We all know that surge of excitement when we discover a new place and, whether by foot or bike or car, we set out and explore. For me the experience has always felt as if I’ve been given new eyes for a few days. I see things I don’t notice at home. In fact, all my senses seem to sharpen. I pay attention to the details: where the locals love to eat, the little shops on Main Street or the ones tucked on back roads; the advice offered by the innkeeper or from a fellow traveler soaking up sun on a beach somewhere.
Often those newly discovered places become as comfortable to us as a favorite robe, and we develop that delicious sense of well-being when we return to a place year after year, like birds to a nesting spot. It’s a time we mark on a calendar months in advance, a reunion of sorts, with memories and anticipation of memories to come.
That’s what this special travel issue of Yankee is all about. It’s a celebration of place, a guide to enjoying these destinations to the fullest, page after page. “Guide” is one of my favorite words, for all that it suggests — a welcoming hand, a nod in a certain direction; it says, “Follow me, let’s see what we find around the corner.”
I had many such guides when I first came to New England. This was in 1970 in Maine, and I had no car. The people I met wanted me to know the places they loved, so they took me there. I saw the north country wilderness above Greenville and the long, sloping sands of Popham Beach. I saw islands in Casco Bay and hiked paths that snaked upward through a forest until I reached the top and saw the vast expanse of Sebago Lake shimmering below. In time, I had my own car, and I found more of the beauty in Maine and all our New England states. Then I, too, wanted to take friends to see my discoveries. That’s what is inside these pages: a chance for you to come along with us and find treasures together.
With each issue of Yankee, my hope is that readers will sit down and take it in with a single gulp, unable to tear away from the photos and words. But not with this issue. Keep picking at the pages; let the smells and sounds and the essence of place come at you in bits, slowly, like watching a sunset. It’s the best of armchair travel, and better, with so much plain old-fashioned guiding, you can go to these places. We let you know our favorite places to eat and stay, and the shops with special items in their nooks and crannies that you won’t find in the malls.
Enjoy the pages that follow. And now that we’ve told you some of our favorite places, it’s only fair that you reciprocate. Send me an e-mail at editor@YankeeMagazine.com, or write to me at Editor, Yankee Magazine, 1121 Main St., Dublin, NH 03444. I like to say I’ve been everywhere in New England, but surprise me — I’ll let you guide me to your own treasured spot.
P.S. For hundreds more travel tips, be sure to go to YankeeMagazine.com.
Mel Allen
Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.
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