D.C. to the Northeast. What should I see?

Mystic

 

When I visited my buddy in Boston one summer we drove up through to Vermont (stopped at William’s College, own private Money exhibit!?!) and the. Countryside was gorgeous.

 

The Brandywine River Museum on Route 1 near Chadds Ford, PA is an undiscovered gem. They bill the place as a showcase for "local artists". It is a 3-story building and the third floor is exclusively devoted to the works of the 'local artist" known as Andrew Wyeth. Last time I was there, they had more than 80 of his works on display. OUTSTANDING!

His brother, Jamie, and his father NC Wyeth also have works on display on the first two floors.

If you are a history buff and decide to take in the Brandywine River Museum, you will be right in the neighborhood to see historic Philly and/or Valley Forge - - all of which is worth your time.

Enjoy.

 

I’ve seen none of these, but if a genie were granting unlimited wishes:

• NYC (probably equivalent to 3-4 trips by itself)
• Boston
• Poking around Chesapeake Bay
• Jersey Shore (although Atlantic City sucked)
• West Point

 

I lived in Westport, CT and Glastonbury, CT. I had to drive to Pittsfield, MA and Albany, NY a bunch for work and kept horses in central CT so I’ve done a ton of driving in the west half of CT. While Litchfield County, CT up into MA and some of the CT coastal towns are all quaint and charming, my advice is get on that train and take it from NY right through CT to Boston.

Finger Lakes region of NY is nice.

Acadia will likely be my next big National Park trip.

 

Saratoga Springs and Cooperstown are only 75 miles apart.

 

You've got a great list already and it'll be impossible to hit all or most of these on a short trip, but here are a few other suggestions from someone who's never gotten his mail south of New York:

@garrow's Mystic suggestion is a great under-the-radar choice. The Seaport is terrific and the town is so nice and quaint. And then you can go gamble your 401K away at the casinos less than half an hour away!

For other old-school small-town sights, I'd suggest Sturbridge Village, just over the Connecticut/Massachusetts border. If you like lobster, you must get to Portland, Maine. (I don't but my wife loves it and still wants to go back 20 or so years since our most recent trip) I've always been fascinated by how far north Maine goes. It apparently gets SUPER rural once you get north of Bangor/Orono (home of the University of Maine). That could be a fun weird trip. Old Orchard Beach just over the Maine border was also terrific when I was a kid, though that was a thousand years ago.

If you want to veer upstate and away from the big cities--and you love baseball--you'll love Cooperstown, especially if you're there in August, b/c the tournaments have wound down and schools are starting to open in the rest of the country so most of the summertime traffic has faded away.

If you want a really cool east coast experience, drive all the way east on Long Island to Montauk Point, dubbed "The End" because, well, it is. It's pretty cool just running out of road. Takes FOREVER, though it's well worth it. Also, some really strange shit happened there in the 1940s and 1950s. Have some fun Googling that!

If you're a baseball fan, my must-see rankings of the stadiums would go Fenway-Camden-Citizens Bank-Citi-Yankee. Fenway & Camden are still jewels and worth seeing once regardless of your rooting interest. Citizens Bank & Citi are nice for new parks and have been around long enough now to develop some character & history. Yankee is a bleak, soulless dump masquerading as the world's most depressing mall. Yankees fans will wax poetic/pathetic about sharing the same area as all the legends of yesteryear, but they were across the street. Go there only if you're a diehard Yankees fan.

As for cities, I love Boston and it's very easy to navigate by foot, public transit or car. You can see most of the sights in two days, unlike NYC...which is fine, regardless of what your lunatic right-wing friends are saying, but it is a lot to absorb and hard to navigate as a newcomer. It is cool walking around midtown at night though. Always has a good vibe, again, contrary to what your lunatic right-wing friends are saying.

 

If you go to Mystic, the old graveyard is a very interesting place to walk around. Headstones from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, you can trace the generations, see how many children died young, how big the families were, etc. And of course it's nice and quiet, with a great view of the harbor.

 

You can have almost everything in CT, hiking, state parks, beaches, all within an hour or so. If on Amtrak, you also have stops in Stamford, New Haven, Old Saybrook and New London. You can also take Metro-North for intermediate stops like Norwalk, Fairfield and Bridgeport.

As mentioned earlier, tons of history, town greens and old graveyards - if that’s your thing.

For food, try New Haven style pizza and the lobster rolls here are different than in Maine.

 

New England seems like more of an autumn destination. I still would love to see a Williams-Amherst football game in person in season, but sadly I am still employed.

 

All great suggestions, folks. Thanks.

I've been to Boston and NYC, so those aren't on my non-existent agenda. Basically, I'm just going to putter around like an old lady from church. The food entices me to many of these places.

I don't believe in GPS (and it's not included in a 1998 car), but I'll have an atlas with me, which will be good enough.

 

If you go to Mystic, do NOT go to Mystic Pizza. Grab a pint at the Harp and Hound, a stone’s throw away. I lived above it from 2006-09. It was fantastic.

if you find yourself in Connecticut, the lower Connecticut River valley is so nice. Essex is a good first stop - go to downtown Essex and the Griswold Inn, or the nearby Connecticut River Museum. Drive through Chester and Deep River, hop on the Hadlyme Ferry and go to Gillette’s Castle.

We live in Old Lyme and I can’t imagine being elsewhere.