Not really a camera question...but

[MiniChris]

I am heading for Maine and New Hampshire this summer...and then a long, convoluted meander back home via Niagra Falls. Can anyone suggest some absolute must see places, shooting areas, buildings, towns, whatever I should not miss?

I will have two full days in ME, will be doing a workshop in Manchester, NH for a week, then off to convolute my way home. I will leave Staunton, VA on the 20th of June and join a herd of other Minis on the Great Ice Cream Run (which is even more convoluted than my way back home). I will arrive in Bar Harbor on the morning of the 20th and from there take the coastal route up to Calais and back down to Bangor where I have a freind to visit.

The Workshop lasts from June 26 to July 2. I wold love to be somewhere exciting for the 4th, but I am also thinking a nice NE hometown burg might be more fun...so, hep me, hep me please.

[mythlady]

Can I come with you?

Sounds great --

[MiniChris]

Sure, but you have to have a note from your husband...I ain't getting whacked by a jealous husband...

[mythlady]

[MiniChris]

[Shadowman]

Mt.Washington Observatory in New Hampshire. I read about it when I visited in January but it was ice covered and closed to the public unless you called ahead for an exterior tour.

[stevewe88]

The only place I have been to on your list is Niagara. Apart from the ridiculously obvious thing to capture, I went to a small town called Niagara on the Lake. It was a really nice place with the typical architecture you would expect to see in the area. That is of course on the assumption that the Canadians will let you in

[AlanP]

The view of Niagra Falls is much better from the Canadian side.

[Katy Noelle]

Oh, gotta think about this one. I'll ask Tom, too!

[Sam Smith]

Chris,

I lived in Maine for a total of 6 years, with 3 in Winter harbor, ME. When you get to Bar Harbor look straight across the bay and that is Winter Harbor. At winter harbor is Acadia National Forest. It has a hill that see the sun first in the US. It also used to be a Naval Base with a house built for the Navy by Rockefeller to get them away from bar Harbor. It is a exact copy of the house in Bar Harbor. Winter Harbor is the post card for the small Maine fishing town. Local pier, no red lights, and most people don't lock their doors. 1 stop and shop, ice cream shop and eatery. It is less then 2 hour from Bar Harbor up route 1. Also up route 1 is Hancock, there is where Steven King shot Pet Cemetery. There are lot of statues, markers and little shops all along route 1. Have fun. Remember "you can't get there from here".

[Chesil]

You might swing by the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY on the way to Niagara. Some great photo exhibitions there and some interesting things in the house.

[dake]

There's a Butterfly Conservatory on the Canadian side if your into that. There's also a good place for wildlife (mostly birds) in the Hamilton/Burlington area about an hour from NF. It's right near the Royal Botanical Gardens. It's referred to as Valley Inn. Woodland Cemetery up the hill is a good spot, on the right day you may even see bald eagles. If you like footlong hot dogs, ask the locals for directions to a place called Easterbrooks. I stop there almost everytime I visit.

[rpcrowe]

"I would love to be somewhere exciting for the 4th, but I am also thinking a nice NE hometown burg might be more fun..."

One of the most memorable Fourth of July celebrations for me was in a small coastal Oregon town. They had a parade that was so funky that it really impacted me. Boy scouts pulling floats on little red wagons, a color guard of old men from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post (you can wonder just what foreign wars they fought in) and just home-town people celebrating their freedom and the birth of freedom for their country.

I have attended some magnificent parades but, no parade has ever impacted me a deeply as the one I attended in that little town in Oregon. I would expect that most new England towns would have this same type of "down-home" celebration.

[MiniChris]

You might swing by the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY on the way to Niagara. Some great photo exhibitions there and some interesting things in the house.

Good idea...always wanted to go there.