On another fine but colder day, we picked up our hire car from the airport and with some difficulty due to roadworks made our way out of Boston and headed west into the Massachusetts countryside. We were soon into hilly areas covered by trees which were beginning to turn into their Autumn colours. We stopped at a farm shop which was selling pumpkins and squashes of all shapes, size and colour to buy some food and then headed to our first American ski resort, Wachusett Mountain, for a picnic lunch, eaten admiring magnificent views. Our next stop was at Shelburne Falls which is well known for its old trolley bridge which has been planted with many varieties of flowers by the the local Womens’ Club. We are staying for the next two nights at the oldest ... read more

The weather for our first full day in Boston was terrific but our journey around this historic city was to a certain extent frustrating. We started with a bus tour which was on a single deck trolley. Neither the views from the vehicle nor the commentary were particularly good. We then took the harbour ferry to Charlestown which gave us a grand outlook over the city skyline. The two main attractions in this area are the USS Constitution, a two hundred year old warship and the monument to the battle of Bunker Hill that took place against the English during the American War of Independence. Both were closed! From then things got better. We had excellent sandwiches at a local café, walked the Heritage Trail back to Downtown, visited Paul Revere’s house dating from 1680 ( ... read more

What a day! The falls lived up to and probably more than we expected. The weather started dull but cleared up later to give us perfect viewing conditions. We visited both the American and Canadian sides of the gorge to see the different aspects of this wonderful natural phenomenon. We saw spraybows from several different locations. We had a ride on the Maid of the Mist boat right underneath the Horseshoe Falls and got wet. We walked on the Cave of the Winds boarded walks really close to the Bridal falls, experienced their power and got soaked. We went to the tunnel behind the Horseshoe Falls and got wet again. At the end of a long expedition, we returned to Park Place bed and breakfast exhausted but happy. Th conditions weren't as misty as some of ... read more

Our last full day in New York started with a delightful walk across Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of New York for our cultural fix. From there we caught our final bus tour around Uptown Manhattan including Harlem. In the evening we explored Greenwich Village which reminded us of Wimbledon in London. As well as enjoying the vibrant atmosphere of the place, we were entertained by a street play taking place outside the restaurant where we ate. ... read more

In fairly dull but dry weather, today was our day on the ferries in New York. We took the Circle Line boat first to Liberty Island for a tour around the Statue and then to Ellis Island to visit the museum in the former immigrant reception centre. This took most of the day but we did have time to walk to the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge to catch a good view of the financial district in Manhattan. After a meal in Chinatown which is also close to the hotel, we took the Staten island ferry both ways to see the impressive New York lights after dark. For an unexpected treat there was a superb firework diplay taking place over the harbour. ... read more