TripCart :: The Travel Blog

2009 Fall Color Staycations

Well, its that time of the year again and for our readers in the right parts of the country - a compact vacation on a tank of gas. Sure, the fall festivals and quaint white church steeples make Vermont Fall Foliage a world-class destination, but, with the right timing (check out our friends at Foliage Network) and a warm sweater - you are ready to hit the parks and forests of the United States and watch the transition from Green to Yellow to Orange. (And we are not talking about the Terror Alert Status!).

Thanks toCheapOair Buzz for this picture:

Here is our 2009 fall foliage destination guide:

Fall Foliage around Boston:

Massachusetts Fall Foliage  is a no brainer - early in the season - head north to New Hampshire, later follow the coast south - from Maine to Connecticut. Nearest to Boston - try Lexington, Concord and Walden Pond. To really see the fall colors in style, consider one of the many Fall Foliage cruises leaving from New England ports - Rhode Island up to Maine.

NY Foliage:

Each borough - Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens (Alley Pond Park - Leaves and Tashlich), Brooklyn and even Staten Island has good and accessible leaf peeping - just hop on the subway (or ferry). Feeling a bit more adventurous, but still no car? You can get a hour-long moving show of Hudson Valley Foliage  from the train (Metro North). Make sure to get a seat on the left side of the train going north or the right going south. Skip rush hour for better fares and less cellphone chatter.

If you have a couple of days to dedicate to New York State fall foliage (and wine tours and more) head north early in the season, while Central Park is still green and check out the Adirondack fall foliage in September.

Chasing Fall Foliage South:

Global warming or not, the leaves change later as you go south. If you'd like to combine some foliage viewing with an urban weekend and maybe take in a show or get tickets for a football game - pick a different city each weekend from Boston down to Washington DC. Philadelphia is a good place for your Fall Foliage PA headquarters and a drive up the Potomac is a great way to see the Maryland Fall Foliage 30 minutes out of the Capital.

Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Mountains lose their crowds and turn yellow, gold and red in the fall and late October is a good time to close out the West Virginia fall foliage season.

And for the 3 people a year who search for "Pittsburgh fall foliage" - we have two pointers - Grandview Avenue and Fallingwater.

For our fans out west:

Its a different experience, the Colorado fall colors, the wild-west towns, the snow covered peaks (and sometimes even, the snow) and the mix of evergreens and aspens. Fall Foliage in Colorado  can be less than an hour outside of Denver - try Georgetown, or a bit further, Estes Park.

Further south, you can even find some decent New Mexico fall foliage spots near Albuquerque, Santa Fe  and in the Four Corners region of the state.

And what would a back to school season trip be without visiting the shopping malls?

Well, its that time of the year again and for our readers in the right parts of the country - a compact vacation on a tank of gas. Sure, the fall festivals and quaint white church steeples make Vermont Fall Foliage a world-class destination, but, with the right timing (check out our friends at Foliage Network) and a warm sweater - you are ready to hit the parks and forests of the United States and watch the transition from Green to Yellow to Orange. (And we are not talking about the Terror Alert Status!).

Thanks toCheapOair Buzz for this picture:

Here is our 2009 fall foliage destination guide:

Fall Foliage around Boston:

Massachusetts Fall Foliage  is a no brainer - early in the season - head north to New Hampshire, later follow the coast south - from Maine to Connecticut. Nearest to Boston - try Lexington, Concord and Walden Pond. To really see the fall colors in style, consider one of the many Fall Foliage cruises leaving from New England ports - Rhode Island up to Maine.

NY Foliage:

Each borough - Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens (Alley Pond Park - Leaves and Tashlich), Brooklyn and even Staten Island has good and accessible leaf peeping - just hop on the subway (or ferry). Feeling a bit more adventurous, but still no car? You can get a hour-long moving show of Hudson Valley Foliage  from the train (Metro North). Make sure to get a seat on the left side of the train going north or the right going south. Skip rush hour for better fares and less cellphone chatter.

If you have a couple of days to dedicate to New York State fall foliage (and wine tours and more) head north early in the season, while Central Park is still green and check out the Adirondack fall foliage in September.

Chasing Fall Foliage South:

Global warming or not, the leaves change later as you go south. If you'd like to combine some foliage viewing with an urban weekend and maybe take in a show or get tickets for a football game - pick a different city each weekend from Boston down to Washington DC. Philadelphia is a good place for your Fall Foliage PA headquarters and a drive up the Potomac is a great way to see the Maryland Fall Foliage 30 minutes out of the Capital.

Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Mountains lose their crowds and turn yellow, gold and red in the fall and late October is a good time to close out the West Virginia fall foliage season.

And for the 3 people a year who search for "Pittsburgh fall foliage" - we have two pointers - Grandview Avenue and Fallingwater.

For our fans out west:

Its a different experience, the Colorado fall colors, the wild-west towns, the snow covered peaks (and sometimes even, the snow) and the mix of evergreens and aspens. Fall Foliage in Colorado  can be less than an hour outside of Denver - try Georgetown, or a bit further, Estes Park.

Further south, you can even find some decent New Mexico fall foliage spots near Albuquerque, Santa Fe  and in the Four Corners region of the state.

And what would a back to school season trip be without visiting the shopping malls?

BART Widget

If you live around San Francisco and you're lucky enough to have a Mac you should definitely think about downloading this nifty little widget.  The BART Widget is a trip planning tool for those taking public transportation around the Bay Area.  It'll let you know how long it is until your next train, and because it's self-contained it doesn't require a WiFi connection in order to work.  Pretty cool.

Related posts: Calculating Cab Fare • 5 Podcast Tours for The City by the Bay • Biking Like a Dork in San Francisco

Related travel guides: Getting around San Francisco • Shopping in San Francisco Bay Area, Carmel, Napa Valley, Central California • Romantic Vacation Getaways in San Francisco and the Bay Area • Fun Things to Do in San Francisco, California

Recommended Highlights in the region: Westfield Valley Fair Mall - Santa Clara, California • Stoneridge Mall - Pleasanton, California • Stanford Shopping Center Mall - Palo Alto, California

Picture of the Day (03/30/07) - From TripCart

Metro Center Station in Washington D.C.

(thanks nj dodge)

Interstates as Subway Lines

This is by far the easiest way to understand the nation's interstate system.  Artist Chris Yates has designed this beautifully simplistic map of the US interstate system in a style similar to subway maps.  Pretty neat.

Bill Sullivan on the New York Metro

Artist Bill Sullivan has taken a unique series of photos of people passing through the turnstiles of the New York city subway.  The series includes 48 different shots that are haunting and fascinating at the same time.  Bill describes his thought process-

I developed a situation so that various subjects could be defined by the constraints of exactly the same mechanical apparatus. The scenario consisted of someone passing through a subway turnstile. At the moment that the subjects passed through the turnstile, unknown to them, I took their picture stationed at a distance of eleven feet. I stood there turning pages of a magazine observing subjects out of the corner of my eye, waiting for only the moment when they pushed the turnstile bar to release the shutter.

(thanks kottke)

Picture of the Day (12/30/06) - From TripCart

The subway in Washington, D.C.

(thanks Teo)

Take the A Train

TripCart's still has its fetish for subways and we came across the two brave souls, Matt Green and Don Badaczewski, who apparently are subway endurance riders and will be trying today to beat the record for the fastest time riding the entire New York subway system. They're starting off at dawn around Rockaway Park and ending at Pelham Bay Park. For a complete list of their route check out their myspace site.

Apparently, Herman Rinke was the first one to attempt this feat in 1940 shortly before the different subway lines in NYC were unified. Some MIT students in the 60's built a computer program to help them devise the most efficient route after seeing a note on a subway map where someone had claimed to ride all the lines for a single subway token. Though the Guiness Book of World Records allows riders to exit the subway system, purists like Green and Bodaczewski believe it's imperative to remain underground, "We have a strong philosophical opposition to this set of rules.  If you're going to spend that much time in pursuit of such a ridiculous and pointless goal, why cut corners?  Plus, what kind of babes are going to dig guys who take the easy way out of such a manly challenge?" The current record holders are Mike Falsetta and Salvatore Babones who rode the rails in 25 hours and 11 minutes in January 1998. According to the Metro, Falsetta and Babones are willing to "come out of retirement and issue a challenge" should their record be broken. Green and Badaczewski have got 26 lines, 660 miles of track and 468 stations to hit up before they're through. You can call their voice mail (718-407-4697) to track their progress - at 8:30 this morning they were running "right on schedule" on the L between Canarsie and 14th Street.

(thanks gothamist)

Notes from the Underground

Many a city wouldn't be the same with out its subway. We're still tooling around Boston, now that we've got our Coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island guide online, and came across this beautiful page full of wonderful pictures of subway stations from around the world. Some of these stations house aquariums, museums, ancient chapels, and lots and lots of tiles - but we think Dostoevsky's motherland makes subway stations like no others. Take a gander at these impressive stations - New York, DC, and LA also made the cut.

(thanks digg)