Plymouth, Mass – After my crisis of conscience that occurred along the Mohawk Trail, I jumped at the chance to give a proper, accurate introduction to local Native American tribes. If the twins are so interested in Native American culture,…
Mohawk Trail
Shelburne, Massachusetts – The route we drove this weekend–from Boston to North Adams along Rte 2–has been dubbed the Mohawk Trail. It’s just a rural highway, but it was built along an old trading route that Native American tribes used to cross…
Mass MoCA
North Adams, Massachusetts – Many people (er, grown-up people) have a hard time appreciating contemporary art if it isn’t pretty, or if it doesn’t clearly depict something concrete, or if it doesn’t make sense. Kids, of course, don’t have this…
Mount Greylock
North Adams, Mass – After an inauspicious start to our Father’s Day weekend extravaganza, we had nowhere to go but up. And I mean that both figuratively and literally. On day two, we got an early start and headed straight for Mount Greylock, the…
Historic Deerfield
Deerfield, Mass – For Father’s Day weekend, we decided to take the whole family on a working weekend in western Massachusetts. Our first stop was Historic Deerfield, by special request of Daddio. It’s an authentic 18th-century village–back then a frontier settlement–that…
Hiking in Acadia National Park
This year, the US National Park Service is celebrating 100 years. In honor of the anniversary, Lonely Planet asked eight travel experts (including me!) about ways to explore the USA national parks. Here’s my blurb about family hiking in Acadia…
Fruitlands Museum
Harvard, Mass – One of our local heroes–and certainly a hero of the 19th-century Transcendentalist movement–was Bronson Alcott, a teacher, philosopher and reformer (and incidentally the father of the famous author Louisa May Alcott). As a transcendentalist, he believed that…
Witch City
Salem, Mass – It’s a strange thing, how the city of Salem has turned something so horrific into something so fun. In total, 20 people were executed for practicing witchcraft, while many more were accused and saved themselves by confessing and…