This year we settled on New England for our Fall destination. In planning a trip to that colorful cluster of states which, by the way, is neither "new" nor particularly "English," we had no argument over our mutual quest for fall foliage, quaint inns and, of course, lobster (pronounced "lobstah"). Also, for two California natives, a pilgrimage to historic towns like Boston, Plymouth, Lexington and Concord seemed to give "higher purpose" to our journey. Then our own personal preferences kicked in. A "must-see" for one was often a "pass" for the other. For instance, Norma invariably seeks out every art museum and famous author's home in the region; I will go miles out of the way to see an exotic automobile collection or anything to do with ships and sailing. But even though these interests seem diverse, we have devised a method of planning that seems to work for us. It a nutshell, it works on the old scientific principles of Analysis and Synthesis. Put another way: we examine everything, then (using a silly system of ranking which shall remain secret) we select the best.
We begin the process alone, each of us indulging our respective styles for doing research: my wife with her accumulated bundles of newspaper clippings, travel magazines and guide books; I with my Macintosh linked to the Internet. During this initial stage of planning, we concentrate on data collection only. I go straight to the World Wide Web, click on "Yahoo"or one of the other Internet search engines (see WWWiz November 1995, Travel.Line), and begin to browse the travel home pages, intermittently "cutting and pasting" relevant information to a master WP file. Norma, on the other hand, carefully pores over everything in her personal "travel libraryk," and compresses volumes of information into terse, coded entries on good, old, reliable 3x5 index cards.
Preparing for our arrival in Boston, I first looked for information on places to stay using Yahoo's search index and found dozens of hotels and B&Bs to consider from the listings of Business and Economy Hotels. I also found hundreds of places to dine and things to see (including the fabulous Freedom Trail with its popular Quincy Market) on the Boston Information Server. Norma busily transferred notes from the Michelin Green Guide onto 3x5s for all of the major Boston art museums, in the process discovering the less well-known Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Longfellow National Historic Site.
Scrolling northward, the World Wide Web's Berkshire Connection home page provided a list of tourist attractions for rural Massachusetts which alerted us to historic Stockbridge, the "typical American small town" made famous by legendary illustrator Norman Rockwell. Norma's review of materials received from local chambers of commerce and state tourist offices (a few of which already have Web sites; many more of which with home pages "under construction") found the crown jewel of Massachusetts small museums: the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute at Williamstown with its magnificent collection of French and American Impressionist painters.
While browsing newsgroups and Web sites in New Hampshire and Vermont, I stumbled upon a Classic MG Museum (24 models) in the little village of Westminster, New Hampshire. As the owner of a 1949 MG-TC and a 1967 MGB-GT, I placed this destination high on my priority list. During this surfing session I also found the Friday Project, my pick for travel site of the month. Though a bit slow (very flashy graphics!) it was a bonanza of information about New England, especially its timely reports on where best to view fall foliage—Mother Nature's magnificent magnet which attracts enough tourists to triple the region's population each October. In this area, my wife worked the AAA Tour Books which, while helpful for finding hotels, motels and country inns, often proved to be out-of-date. But I'm not knocking AAA! They're very good at most things which, to my embarrassment, I will explain later.
It should be mentioned here that the most thorough planning, electronic or otherwise, won't reveal everything. One must always be ready for that serendipitous chain of events that can lead to pleasant diversions not mentioned in any of the online or printed guides. While on the actual trip, "kicking tires" with fellow car collectors at the Classic MG Museum, we made not one, but two real finds. Badly in need of an afternoon snack, we were directed to "the best pastry shop in Vermont," the Baba a Louis Bakery on the outskirts of Chester. On the baker's recommendation, we continued into town to the irresistible Rose Arbour B&B for a splendid afternoon tea including the best scones this side of Devonshire.
Finally, we came to our online/offline exploration of the Maine coast with its rocky, thickly forested coastline dotted with numerous offshore islands that shelter countless quiet bays. Trying out the Web Crawler search tool, I located a promising though still incomplete home page for the state of Maine on the Maine Resource Guide, and using the awesome search engine Lycos, entering keywords "Maine maritime," I acquired an address for the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, featuring a classic Grand Banks schooner and a still-functioning 19th-century boat shop where master builder Lin Riotto and her small staff carry on Maine's proud nautical traditions. From the book, MAINE: An Explorer's Guide by Christina Tree and Mimi Steadman (Countryman Press), Norma created cards for a dozen "downeast" villages and lobster harbors promising peerless seafood dining to go with the State's rugged natural beauty.
For many evenings, I "surfed" while my wife "scribbled," each of us sharing tidbits (or tidbytes) of information that might interest the other. Finally, we called a halt to the many evenings of intensive, but pleasurable, research. Norma had assembled an impressive collection of handwritten 3x5s, and my digital references filled many kilobytes of disk space. Using a homemade Pagemaker template, I then reduced my own findings to 3x5 cards and added them to our growing bundle. Norma claimed her collection was "thicker and quicker," whereas I argued that my more "sophisticated" system was still "under development," and that when my new Filemaker II database was completed (a system that can print reports to 3x5 cards or any other format) there would be no contest! But who's keeping track? After all, it's not a competition, is it?
These questions still unanswered, we proceeded to the last stage of our planning: data processing. This is where "negotiations" began. As we selected our destinations, each of us insisting on some and compromising on others, an itinerary started to fall into place. On our maps, highlighted now with green roads connecting orange destinations, a snake-like route began to form, sometimes covering sinuous, scenic side roads, other times tracing arrow-straight turnpikes. Our fat stack of index cards was compiled into a compact two-hole binder, and we were ready to proceed to the final stage: VACATION!
The trip that followed went almost as planned. I say "almost" because even the most careful preparation can't predict the unpredictable. Our rental car, for example, was not a "non-smoker" as ordered, but Avis upgraded us from a small Chevy to a mid-size Dodge rather than making us wait for a suitable compact to be prepared. (They really do try harder!) At a couple of inns, the requested king-sized beds became queens or even twins; some of our nature walks were interrupted by rain showers; and at the top of Cadillac Mountain in Maine's Acadia National Park, I locked my car keys in the trunk—at dusk on a Saturday! Yes, you guessed it. AAA to the rescue!
Keeping everything in perspective, our three-week excursion into beautiful, historic New England was a big success. We have planned many outings, from year-long overseas sabbaticals to local weekend trips, using essentially the same system. The only thing new is the World Wide Web and its exponentially expanding resources. Many places we visited are already posted on the Net, or at least have email addresses. Many others are planning an online presence either in an Internet "mall" or on a home page of their own. Norma claims that there are still those obscure museums, tiny B&Bs and hometown restaurants that can only be found with old familiar methods and lots of luck. That may be true, but I'm willing to bet a "lobstah dinnah" that when we compile our cards a year from now, my "stack" will be higher than hers.