{"id":496,"date":"2010-12-07T11:49:01","date_gmt":"2010-12-07T11:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/?p=496"},"modified":"2013-08-23T15:04:13","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T15:04:13","slug":"autumnal-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/autumnal-retreat\/","title":{"rendered":"Autumnal Retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Autumn, my favorite time of year; you see with new eyes that which  you previously took for granted. Your routine commute, which you snooze  through suddenly, captures your attention and has your head on a swivel.  I try to get out every weekend to hike somewhere especially spots I  enjoyed during the spring &amp; summer and plan a long weekend or a  vacation somewhere where the leaves are at or near peak color. This year  it was Plymouth Vermont and Millinocket Maine and it was a wonderful  display of color, despite the storms that rolled through just days  before our arrival. Vermont seemed a bit past peak which had me  concerned as our destination in Maine was some 7 hours north and west of  Plymouth VT.<\/p>\n<p>We started in Plymouth, Vermont at Head North LLC, the birthplace of  President Calvin Coolidge. Todd Parkins has a fantastic house on a  picturesque 10 acres for rent and they can tailor a week, weekend or  more to make your stay memorable and relaxing. The house sleeps between  12&amp;16 including the cabin by the pond. Close by are Okemo and  Killington ski areas, Woodstock is just minutes away. I began  photographing the property for their marketing materials last winter and  we were there for the fall shoot. The weather was not cooperative  however Thursday cleared just long enough to get in a few shots. The  house is comfortable, warm and inviting with first class accouterments.  The fireplace well lets just say it is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">THE<\/span> place to sit and have a  glass of wine post activities and then there is the front porch looking  out over Okemo and Killington mountains. Did I mention the fishing pond  in back, no well just outside the cabin is the fishing pond &#8211; stocked  mind you, and in summer there is a swing to launch you into the  refreshing waters. Check them out at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.HeadNorthllc.com%2F&amp;h=9680e\">http:\/\/www.HeadNorthllc.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Friday we set off to Maine headed for Millinocket home of the  Pelletier Bros. from the Discovery show American Loggers.\u00a0I do not know  what they pay the logging truckers but they earn every cent! We saw  moose, fox, eagles, grouse and deer what a trip and what fun! We hiked  nearly every day the weather, fantastic and the company perfection. It  was nice to unplug and just be with that special someone for 9 days  uninterrupted. The views were not too shabby either. I did notice this  year more oranges, yellows and gold\u2019s than in previous years, very few  reds and when they were there they were either very sparse, de-saturated  or in small bunches spread out. I was disappointed in the fact that I  saw so many animals and was never in position or had enough light to  capture a good crisp image, however, I will be back next year that is  for sure.<\/p>\n<p>I cannot comment enough about how friendly everyone is there and the  food! Good ole New England comfort food, standard fare as my mom would  say nothing fancy however fancily done. We ate at Ruthie&#8217;s in  Millinocket and my friends; she fed us like kings and queens for a very  reasonable sum. So much so that we pretty much ate there every night and  a few mornings too. Ruth and her daughter run the place and I mean run  it. So Ruth THANK YOU and we will see you next year. So if you are  passing through or going to Millinocket ME stop in to Ruthie&#8217;s on Medway  Rd and ask for the corn chowda! Tell &#8217;em Jersey Dan recommended them.<\/p>\n<p>AS for our accommodations, Katahdin Cabins on Medway road was where  we called home for a few days. Our cabin was clean and comfortable with  heat, running water and reasonable as well around $50.00 a night. Skip  and his wife were wonderful and the cookies were delicious!<\/p>\n<p>We started our outdoor adventures at Gulf Hagas it was a wonderful  hike, all 8.7 miles of it; the falls spectacular and best of all the  company was grand. There were so many things to see and do that it will  take another trip or two to get around to them. We visited Jo Mary Lakes  area to hike and explore, drove the Golden Road and cruised Telos road  where we saw an enormous bull moose.We had no schedule no &#8220;plan of  attack&#8221; we were there to unwind, reconnect and soak in the beauty that  is nature and Maine. <strong><em>Worth a Trip, Worth a lifetime<\/em><\/strong> is  what was on the sign welcoming you to Maine and all I can say is how  true how true. Here are\u00a0a few images from this trip, these are for sale  through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.danielpstudios.net\">www.danielpstudios.net<\/a> and sizes range from 5&#215;7 to 36&#215;24. Enjoy and be well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Autumn, my favorite time of year; you see with new eyes that which you previously took for granted. Your routine commute, which you snooze through suddenly, captures your attention and has your head on a swivel. I try to get out every weekend to hike somewhere especially spots I enjoyed during the spring &amp; summer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog_posts","category-digital-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sitecompany.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}