Trip to Northeast USA October 2005       In October of 2005, Tom and I went to the Northeast USA for a week and a half.  We explored Salem, Massachusetts; Boston, Massachusetts; Princeton New Jersey (no pictures); and Ashokan, New York. We flew the red-eye and arrived in Boston at o'dark early.  Then we took a taxi 15 miles north to Salem, where we had a reservation at a bed and breakfast.  As for Salem, it was my second pilgrimage, and Tom's first tour. There must be more than 2 dozen B&Bs in Salem, as the grand old houses lend themselves to exactly that.  We were incredibly lucky to book a B&B considering that we called for reservations on September first.  We phoned several B&B's that were entirely booked for all weekends in October and had been booked since the Spring or earlier. The Coach House was a little more than a mile from the center of town, making it one of the remote B&Bs.  Our hostess had only one opening available, for the first weekend in October, and only for guests who wanted two nights or more, which was exactly what we needed.  After Turkey, we were actually looking forward to doing a lot of walking, so the mile from town wasn't too much of a challenge. Several B&Bs in Salem say they don't accept guests on the last weekend in October because they reserve that time for family or friends or repeat customers who they particularly like.  When we were trying to get reservations, we reached at least one answering machine that announced "if we have no availability for the dates you want, we won't return your phone call."  (!).  Nice to know, I guess. I'm trying to convey something about Salem in October....  It isn't just a "leaf-peeper" phenomenon, it's well....  ... maybe the pictures will give you some idea. We arrived at the Coach House Inn (B&B), a little too early.  Check-in isn't until 4:00pm, but Pat has told us that we may leave our bags at 8:30am and we are about 45 minutes early.  I sit on the stoop and file my nails, Tom explores.             Created:  October 16, 2005 Updated:  September 21, 2006