22 Sep A New England Photo Essay -5 Reasons it’s a Magical Place to Travel

It’s hard to believe we’re almost into October, but here in Texas with temps above 90° summer tends to linger a little bit longer. That suits me just fine because I always have a hard time saying goodbye to summer. Especially after a terrific New England vacation. Whether you’re clinging to summer or longing to cozy up for fall, please enjoy A New England Photo Essay – 5 Reasons it’s a Magical Place to Travel.

1. Sumptuous Scenery
2. Amazing Architecture
3. Gorgeous Gardens
4. Passionate People
5. Fabulous Food

This post is a photo essay of New England through my eyes and experiences. I love to take photos and hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Instead of telling you about everything, I’ve included links for you to learn more about each place at your leisure. Please explore the websites as they have intriguing stories, history, and beautiful photos for each.

I’ve always loved taking photos as a way of documenting life. I believe photography is a powerful way to share stories and inspire others. As the quote says, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I’d like to communicate more through my photography by practicing to improve the quality of my phone photos during my travels. In addition, I’ll be studying and practicing into 2022 and beyond by taking an online photography course with Linda Holt. Be sure to see at the end of this post how to get on Linda Holt Creative’s SmartPhone Photography Course “Wait List.”

Full Disclosure

I was born in Beverly, Massachusetts in a home built in the 1700s just two blocks from the beach. While I grew up in Kingston, New York, in the Hudson River Valley, New England is in my bones and I love the classic architecture and homes. I went to high school at a private boarding school, Hyde, in Maine. Then undergrad in Boston (and later, graduate school) and had my first adult job on Newbury street. With tons of family and friends to visit, I know I am very blessed. I wanted to share this particular travel experience with you because I love New England and enjoy discovering and getting inspired on my travels there.

Below are a few sites, accommodations, and restaurants I recommend for the three New England states I visited – Boston, Vermont, Maine. Are you ready? Come along for the ride and I promise I won’t bore you with umpteen family photos. Instead, I want to inspire you with all the beauty there is to be had in magical New England, any season of the year.

First stop – Boston

• Boston Common
• Brownstones on Commonwealth Ave. (locally called Comm Ave.)
• Newbury Street
• Beacon Hill
• 75 Chestnut Restaurant in Beacon Hill
• Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
• Faneuil Hall

Boston is such a beautiful city surrounded by the ocean and the Charles River. This trip, we stayed in a brownstone on Commonwealth Avenue with a dear friend, interior designer and design blogger, Laurel Bern. (Check out her fantastic, award-winning blog HERE.) I hadn’t been IN Boston for years….only the airport, which, believe it or not, I’ve been flying in and out of since I was seven. I must say, being in the heart of Boston Common area, even briefly, made my heart pang for when I used to live there. Boston Common is steeped in history and is known for its beautiful gardens and famous swan boats. There is so much to do in Boston, and I’ve done a little bit of everything over the years. If you go, I suggest carving out a few top places you want to see. I’ve put a couple more on my list above.

Below is a peek inside Laurel’s gorgeous brownstone. I have more photos I’ll be sharing throughout the fall on Instagram. Please follow me @thepillowgoddess.

The architecture in Boston is incredibly inspiring. Laurel showed us the Comm Ave “Twin Sisters” (below; apologies for blurry photo), which I must confess I only learned about on this trip. Here’s a great article with the history (and better photos) of these homes HERE.

We enjoyed an evening stroll and dinner in Beacon Hill, known for its charming cobblestone streets, shops, restaurants, and very expensive homes. Window boxes were everywhere!

Photography Side Note

Photography teacher, interior designer Linda Holt share’s a lot of very helpful phone photo tips on her Instagram. Even though I’ve only recently purchased her SmartPhone class, I’ve been using the App she suggested, Snapseed, to fix the perspective of my images. Top image is a bit skewed. Note the image below has the perspective adjusted to line the fence up better. I can’t wait to learn more photography tips in her new online course; details at end of post.

Please PIN for easy reference

Second Stop – Shelburne/ Burlington, Vermont

• Lake Champlain
• Shelburne Farms
• Lake Champlain Yacht Club
• Creamees
• LakeChamplainChocolates
• Folino’s Pizza and Fiddlehead Brewery
• Spot on the Deck restaurant

Driving up to Vermont you enter the vast forest and are enveloped on either side by dense, green trees in the summer, and gorgeous colors in the fall. My husband David and I visited my best friend Andrea and her husband in Shelburne, Vermont. Both Shelburne and Burlington (10 minutes away) have the best of both worlds, the rich blue water of the expansive Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains as a backdrop. My friend loves to garden and created a little beautiful garden right outside her door. Down the street is Shelburne Farms, a 1,400 acre working farm and education nonprofit on a mission to inspire and cultivate a sustainable future. It is also a gorgeous Inn serving farm-to-table gourmet food, all right on the shores of Lake Champlain. I didn’t spend any time there this trip, but we had delicious brick oven pizza and got a sail in one day which was absolutely heavenly. Oh, and not to mention a couple “Creamies”, particularly the delicious maple and black raspberry. Don’t know what a Creamee is? Check it out above.

I like to pop in the Shelburne Country Store, a lovely local place built in the 1800s, because it has a little bit of everything. One year I picked up some placemats and napkins on sale.

Sailing and dining on Lake Champlain

Third Stop – Deer Isle, Maine

• Burnt Cove Boil
• Pilgrims Inn
• Deer Isle Arts Association
• Brooklin Inn and Restaurant
• Deer Isle, Maine
• Stonington, Maine
• Eggemoggin Reach Regatta
• Acadia National Park

To visit my cousin in Deer Isle, Maine we had to drive seven hours across New Hampshire. It was a beautiful drive through the White Mountains. We didn’t have time to stay in N.H, but at a rest stop I picked up an Ice Cream Tour map. That’s right! I couldn’t believe it either. Next time you can be sure I’ll be building that into our travels.

New England Ice Cream

One thing you have to know about New England, is ice cream is king! New England ice cream tastes completely different than any other icecream, so when I travel there I am known to eat two ice cream cones a day. Like in Texas we have barbecue stands, New England has lobster shacks and ice cream stands with lines a mile long. I love nothing more than a scoop of black raspberry and chocolate chip. Note, my happiness in above photo with my husband David in Stonington, Maine.

Driving to Deer Isle, seems like you’re driving to the ends of the earth. You have to cross the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge to get there, and a few causeways, but once you’re there it’s absolutely magical.

Deer Isle is near Stonington, Maine (a quaint fishing town with art galleries, shops, and restaurants) and south of Acadia National Park about one hour. There’s so much to do from hiking, to kayaking, to picking wild blueberries, eating fresh lobster and clams, and relaxing and doing nothing. Or, you can take a day trip to Acadia.

My cousin lives in her father’s homestead, a classic, almost Edward Hopper painting-like, New England home built in the early 1900s. One of my favorite things to do there, besides eating lobster, clams, and ice cream and doing nothing, is to hang laundry out on the laundry line in the backyard. One of her cousins’ family visited to see the Eggemeggon Reach Regata and dug up fresh clams to give us all a lobster bake. Yum!

These clams below were dug up that day at the beach. Can’t get any fresher than that. I’ve been known in the past to put away two quarts of “steamers” (that’s what they call New England clams), two lobsters, a couple of ears of corn, and of course ice cream. My family and friends used to call me “Hollow Leg.”

Sorry bout blurry photo below, but that’s the only pic I could get of the Eggemoggon Reach Regatta. Above we’re sitting out at what’s called “The Hub” waiting for the ships in the Regatta to sail past.

Fun Discovery –

If you’re lucky during the summer, you’ll meet Jake McCarty who runs the Burnt Cove Boil. What a wonderful person who pursued his passion to open a coastline lobster dining experience. Although we missed the sunset (see the website gallery for gorgeous photos), we had the time of our life. Jake’s playset on a little recorder is 1940’s music and after dinner, David and I danced. It’s such a wonderful Maine atmosphere dining al fresco at picnic tables overlooking the coastline. And, the lobster and crab are incredible – fresh off the Fifield Lobster Company dock! One thing I learned is you can crack a lobster/crab with a rock. There are two giant pots boiling the lobsters and Jake and his team toss them out onto lobster traps and then serve you. It was a fantastic experience with a super friendly team and we finished it off with an ice cream cone in Stonington.

Maine Weather

The weather changes from day to day in Maine. Therefore, when packing for your trip you have to be prepared with warm and cool weather clothing/gear. I love to sit out on the rocks in the silence when it’s foggy and misty.

Quaint New England Homes

I must tell you about this house below that I’ve been swooning over. I fell in love with this little cottage and it’s gardens were worthy of House Beautiful. I stopped to take photos and a young man came out the front door with his dog. I said I hoped he didn’t mind and he told me all about how passionate his mother is about gardening. That she gets up at dawn every day and doesn’t finish until dusk. He then invited me (while he was gone walking the dog) to go on the property so I could take pictures of all of her garden. I’ll be sharing a video on Instagram.

Brooklin Inn

A quaint Inn and new restaurant focusing on farm-to-table fresh ingredients.

Nervous Nellies Jams & Jellies

This year while getting my annual fix of jams shipped back to my home in Austin, I was in Hydrangea heaven! Nervous Nellie’s is a Deer Isle institution with Peter Beerit’s quirky sculpture garden and a little shop. He even gives tours too of his ever-evolving museum. Be sure to check out their website and you can order their delicious jams from anywhere in the world.

Lunch break in Portland, Maine at Boone’s Fish House

Please PIN for easy reference

Fourth Stop – Bath, Maine – Nieces wedding in the sunken garden of Hyde School

• Kennebec Inn Bed & Breakfast
• The Cabin
• Popham Beach State Park
• Downtown Bath
• Reid State Park
• Cool shops including a kitchen gourmet shop
• The Fountain Ice Cream & Deli

Bath is a very historic town dating back to the 1640s and has always been known, and still is, as a ship building town. Below is the historic mansion of the fully restored campus of Hyde School, where I went to high school. With it’s sweeping lush green lawns and wood-paneled library, the mansion was designed by Maine’s leading architect of the early 20th century, John Calvin Stevens. It was completed in 1913 and built for John Sedgewick Hyde, the son of Bath Iron Works founder Thomas W. Hyde. You can see the grounds, and the beautiful sunken garden where our niece’s wedding was, in a video on the website. Read the history of this Maine property HERE.

Kennebec Inn Bed & Breakfast

Highly recommend this historic Inn. Rachel the Innkeeper cooks an amazing breakfast and is such a welcoming host. And it helped they had a pool (a rarity in Bath) as it was a shocking 90 degrees on the day of the wedding. See full photo gallery of this historic Inn HERE.

The beautiful bride in the sunken garden of the Hyde mansion below

Fifth and Final Stop – York, Maine

• York Harbor Inn
• The Cliff Walk
• Sun & Surf Restaurant
• Lobster Cove Restaurant
• Fox’s Lobster House
• Nubble Lighthouse

I can’t say enough about York, Maine. I love this area. As a teenager, I was a chambermaid one summer in an Inn in Ogunquit, Maine, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the area. Ogunquit being overrun with tourists in the summer, I discovered York, and the York Harbor Inn, while meeting friends for lunch in 2018. I’ve been smitten ever since. What I love about the York Harbor Inn (which has four properties and three restaurants) is that it is not only charming and historic (read HERE), but it has its own park across the street and the York beach, right below it. Plus, after you’ve dined at one of their wonderful restaurants, all you have to do is drive up Route 1A to discover more restaurants, which is what we did. That’s when we learned of the Nubble Light House. I’m hooked! We’ll be back again someday.

Right across the street from this delicious restaurant, while we waited for our table, you could walk the rocky coast and witness the changing sky, or, as I attempted to do, sit on the rocks and listen to the waves. It’s just getting back up that can be challenging. LOL

Historic Nubble Lighthouse

The real treat after this entire vacation was discovering the Nubble Lighthouse in a park right next to the Fox’s Lobster House where we had our last dinner. Families were climbing all over the rocks, sitting on benches, and taking pictures as the sunset. As I was already sad that I had to leave, this couldn’t have been the more perfect spot to say goodbye to New England. My happy place that feeds my soul is sitting and staring at the water on the rocky coast of Maine. I was in heaven!

Please PIN for easy reference

Fall Colors in August

That about does it for this New England travel experience. As you can see, everything, from the scenery to the architecture to the gardens, food, and people was magical. It also felt wonderful to see my entire family and hug them. I hope you’ve been inspired to start planning a New England vacation for you and your family either next summer or even this fall. If you don’t have family in the Northeast, there are numerous charming inns to stay at which make your experience even more fulfilling.

Here are a few fall images I took on our travels in August, as fall was beginning to come.

Smartphone Photography Class

Lastly, I want to tell you how excited I am to have purchased Linda Holt Creative’s Smartphone photography course. Linda is an interior designer and professional photographer and, like us all, she has pivoted in the last couple years to offer an amazing iphone photography online course. She also offers many phone photography tips on her instagram every Tuesday for her #TwoTipTuesday. I kept asking her when she was going to do the course for us Android users, and she launched it early this year. I snuck in the September one right before the cut off.

If you too would like to improve your phone photography, please sign up for the “Wait List” and you’ll get an email from Linda sometime in late November letting you know when the next course is open. Each time she offers the course, you can sign up for iphone or Android. I can’t wait to get started on the course and I hope that in 2022 you’ll see even more improvement in my phone photography. Again, sign up for the “Wait List” right HERE.

Till next time, I think I felt the first cool breeze here in Austin today, so maybe fall is on its way. Enjoy! XO PG