3 years ago I stayed in the village of Lexington where the famous “Shot heard round the world” was fired. And of course Concord is close by. Definitely 2 sites for any history buff to visit while in New England.
My family was sentenced to 3 years in Maine when I was a kid. I’d stay in Iowa if I were you.
There’s a country bar in downtown Portland Maine with saddle seats and live music thats fun even for the 55+ set. Kennebunk Port is a quaint stop for lobster roll at The Shack. The Bush compound should be empty but not sure if they’re taking reservations /s.
Fall foliage is beautiful in New England. Way better than here in MO where I am now.
I grew up in the land of the Pilgrims so Plymouth(or Plimoth as it was) wouldn’t be a bad place to start.
My parents always liked the White Mountains of New Hampshire and even honeymooned there back in the early 40s.
Maine of course would be coastal seafood area and cool to visit. Gloucester anyone? Proper pronunciation would be Glousta where a lot of lobsta comes from, ayup.
A week isn’t much time to do much but sight seeing. Plymouth has plenty of historical stuff as do the towns to the North. Salem Witch Museum, Sturbridge Village.
Also, Massachusetts is under complete and total CCP rule and is dangerous so if you take i90, get up to VT asap as its much less totalitarian if you can believe it then check out NH or ME. Avoid Mass as much as possible.
From DC you can travel a little west to get to 81 then up thru the pokies in PA, then head north thru catskills, taconic parkway in new york, see cooperstown if you want it’s the headwaters of the Susquehanna river. and then the berkshires in mass.
I hate to say it, but leaf peeping is a big business here in New England and places may already be booked.
It gets very crowded on the most scenic highways in Oct. Expect to spend a lot of time sitting in traffic.
Plus peak color can vary a lot by how the fall goes. There are no guarantees of what weekend will be the best.
You may want to consider borrowing or renting a camper and doing that and taking in some of the less touristy routes. You will still get breathtaking scenery, but likely with less traffic, and it will give you more flexibility as far as what weekend you do.
I have always wanted to see the Gilded Age “cottages” in Newport, Rhode Island.
https://www.newportmansions.org/explore/the-breakers
Rural western NY State’s sugar maples are stunning in the fall.
Lexington, Mass. Take the tour of the village green & colonial buildings - fantastic.
Go up through western NE instead of around Boston. I used to take Rt 302 from VT to Portland, ME. Very, very rural. Nice ride and you can avoid any urban sprawl.
Figure out a route now and start booking. I just booked a room in Central VT during foliage season..l$450 a night. For a mid range hotel. These places book early, so don’t dilly-dally.
For political buffs, Dixville Notch, way up in northern New Hampshire makes for an interesting visit. This is the site of the Balsams, an old resort hotel. Here, in the Ballot Room, located on an upper floor, the first votes of every presidential election are cast just after midnight on Election Day by the hotel's staff, the only voters in the area. In the past, every presidential candidate paid a visit to Dixville Notch. The hotel closed for several years, but I believe it is back in business.
Another interesting place to visit is Chappaquiddick Island, near Martha’s Vinyard. In 1986, I rented a bicycle at Oak Bluffs and pedaled to the island, about three miles away. The bridge where Ted Kennedy ended his presidential ambitions was still there, but on either side were stout railings made from logs that weren’t there in 1969.
For places to stay in Vermont, there are a number of motels along Rte. 7 in South Burlington and Shelburne, Vt.
Good places to eat in the area include Mr. Up’s and Fire & Ice in Middlebury, Vt.
Bump for later.
Part of the scheduling is it starts earlier up north. So if you time it right you can slowly drive south as the season change creeps south.
See the Marine Corps Museum by Quantico.
We did not find Colonial Williamsburg to be worth the time/money.
Northwestern VA Luray Caverns, also has a cool antique cars museum.
Sturbridge Village and Plymouth, MA. Maybe Cape Cod? Mark Twain house in Hartford, CT?
I lived in the DC area for over 20 years.
I’m not the greatest expert in leaf viewing, but Skyline Drive asking the Blue Ridge is famous for leaf viewers and is near the DC area.
I don’t know the last time you visited your son but a couple of things for a general-purpose visit to the area:
1) Tolls. There are toll roads everywhere that depend on camera tolling (no toll booths) and variable tolling depending on the time of day and volume of traffic. Rental car companies will sometimes have an EZ-Pass installed on the car and will charge you a huge surcharge on top of the toll. Famous for outrageous tolls are I-66 from Dulles to Arlington and I-395 from Springfield to Arlington.
2) Speeding cameras. Certain localities in the DC area are famous for cameras. Be careful.
3) Hotel pricing. Hotels in the immediate DC area are outrageous but are a lot more affordable immediately outside of the area. That’s primarily because of how the government calculates per diem rates. The point being that in some cases you can go just a few miles away and save a massive amount
4) Local sales taxes in Virginia. Each county / independent city in Virginia has their own sales taxes that can be applied to different things. Arlington County has some of the highest prices due to local taxes. From my experience, Fairfax County has noticably cheaper prices because tax is not so high.
5) Speaking of which, if you want to buy booze, Costco in Washington DC sells booze at Costco prices. Virginia Costcos (to include the one in Crystal City) only sell beer/wine. There are a couple of decent Class VI stores at Ft Belvoir, but otherwise beer/wine are run by Virginia ABC so pricing and selection is not as good as elsewhere.
6) If you like Turkish food (kebabs), Atilla’s on Columbia Pike has pretty respectable food (and nice people running the place too). I recommend their Iskendir Kebab. Not as good as in Turkey, but fully edible. For Thai food, Bangkok 54 is pretty good. Again, nowhere near as good as here in Thailand, but fully edible. The Thai market next door has a little shop where you can get Beef Noodle Soup (Thai version of Pho). Very authentic as 90% of the people that eat in the market restaurant are Thais and not whites...
Hope the above helps