Evie Mohrfeld, Mower County Senior Travel

This is the first of a two-part look back the Senior Travels group’s trip through New England

An extended 14-day tour took us to the New England states by deluxe motorcoach. It was a historic tour with  many special stops and visits with local guides.

Our tour began with the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Crossing the Mighty Mac bridge, which connects the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan, opening in 1957, it’s the third largest bridge in the world and is five miles long.

The tour continued as we made our way to Frankenmuth, Michigan, also known as Little Bavaria. A city tour of this community showed the charm of their heritage with the many blue-shuttered homes with window boxes adjourned with flowers and creative writings. Dinner was at the popular Zenders restaurant known for their famous chicken dinners. Servers attired in German attire were there to carry out the German theme throughout.

A visit to the world’s largest Christmas store, Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, was a must before leaving.

We took out our passports as we headed into Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. We were in awe of the beautiful falls and flowers throughout the city.  Our guide related that a schooling for students managing the flower gardens is a three-year program. We rode up in the Skylor Tower for a panoramic view of the evening’s light show.  Ninety percent of the water goes over the Canadian side and about 10 percent flows on the American side.

We entered back into the United States and made our way to Lake Placid, which is  nestled in the Northeast portion of the Adirondack wilderness of New York.  Lake Placid is also where the 1978 Olympic Winter Games  took place.

After viewing the Row of Flags at the Olympic site, we continued to Port Kent and got aboard a ferry boat which shuttled us across Lake Champlain into Vermont. The colorful countryside unfolded as we made our way into New Hampshire, through the White Mountains.

We made our way to Stowe, Vermont, at the Trapp Family Lodge, home of the original Von Trapp family, made popular by the “Sound of Music.” It’s decorated in the European tradition which has added new villas since 2007.  We learned about the family history and visited their burial sites and beautiful flowers.

Our drive took us on the scenic Kancamagus Highway, where we saw more leaf color as we move eastward. Our overnight stay was in North Conway, New Hampshire.  The day after our schedule took us into Maine for  a  Portland Lighthouse photo stop along the Atlantic Coastline.

Next column will continue our fall tour as we headed for Boston, Cape, Cod, and New York.

Upcoming

•Our next tour is planned for Nov. 11 for the musical comedy, “Sister Act.”  at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. It’s opened only a few weeks ago coming off of Broadway.  Set around the Christmas holiday, with the original music, it will be a great way to begin our holiday season. We will depart at 9 a.m. from Walmart and return about 6 p.m. We also plan to remember and honor our veterans on that day.

•Dec. 3-4-5: “Christmas around the World” in Omaha, Nebraska. Fee is due this week. A full schedule is planned.

•Dec. 16: “The Wedding Singer” at the Old Log Dinner Theater. Based on the movie, with Adam Sandler. This theater has recently remodeled and is able to offer more music, special lighting and sound. They also have new dining features. Sign-ups have begun. This will be our last show for 2015.