Far East

My recent trip to New England was an experience of stepping into post card scenery and walking onto what appeared to be movie sets of small towns.  The country roads were bordered in all six states with golden leaved trees and topped with deep blue skies all basking in spicy fresh autumn air. The houses and buildings along the tour route were of Cape Cod or colonial style and most of them featured pumpkins placed on steps, fence railings or along wooden roof gutters.  The display of unbelievable wealth at Martha's Vineyard and the 70 room palace at the Vanderbilt mansion in Newport, Rhode Island offered me little or no connection to the lifestyle of people with names like Kennedy or Bush or Bouvier.  But I easily enjoyed peeping into how their lives were dictated by their fortunes.  The Norman Rockwell Museum overwhelmed me with the art work of a painting genius whose studio looked out to the autumn beauty of the Berkshire Mountains. We saw the fascinating birthplace and village of President Calvin Coolidge, took a harbor cruise in Portland, Maine and enjoyed an authentic lobster dinner in Kennebunkport.  One of my favorite spots was Mystic, Connecticut where we wandered around a preserved whaling village which presented a sharp contrast to the wealthy vacation villages of the famous.  I recognized my own hard work ethic here and loved seeing the many examples of the practical mindset of our early colonists.  You can't swing a Halloween black cat in Boston without hitting a Paul Revere this or a Freedom Trail that or a church steeple where you can almost see "two if by sea" lights glowing in warning to the early freedom fighters.  I saw the history lessons of my early education in action on this wondrous trip and sensed a warm welcome everywhere we went.