From the newest accommodations to the best festivals, we've rounded up the latest information on these New England states to help you plan your travels.
Vermont
The VINS Nature Center (tel. 802/457-2779; www.vinsweb.org) formerly located in Woodstock, reopened to the public in new digs in mid-June. Now located beside popular Quechee Gorge, the Center's showpiece remains the delightful Raptor Exhibit, with one of the nation's most intriguing holdings of birds of prey.
Come here to get eye-to-beak (well, almost) with a variety of owls, falcons, hawks, eagles and other raptors. There's also a new gift shop on the premises, and a set of trails leading directly to the gorge. The new facility was designed by architect Peter Bohlin.
New Hampshire
There have been a number of recent changes in downtown Portsmouth's cafe and dining scene. Most notably, the popular French bakery Cafe Brioche, formerly located right on Market Square, shuttered its doors -- only to be swiftly replaced by the hip coffeehouse Breaking New Grounds (tel. 603/436-9555; 14 Market Sq.), which moved just across the square, so you can still get a cup of Joe and a view of the main square. New Grounds' coffee drinks, sweets, and treats remain superlative.
Also, there's a hot new fish restaurant in town. Chef Mark Segal's Pesce Blue (tel. 603/430-7766; 103 Congress St.) serves an upscale menu of seafood with an Italian accent. Lunch might be a piece of grilled flatbread topped with maple smoked salmon and white bean puree, a tuna burger, a smoked trout salad, a salad Nicoise, or a crispy cut of Icelandic char with roasted fingerling potatoes and lemon caper sauce. Dinner might be a grilled tuna or some prawns, or a small plate of seafood-inflected pasta such as linguine with Maine peekytoe crab or spaghetti served with mahogany clams, white wine sauce, and peporoncino.
Entrees here cost anywhere from $9.50 to $26.50 depending on the portion; meals of lobster, whole sea bass, and bream can also be ordered at market prices. It's open daily for dinner (beginning at 5pm) and weekdays only for lunch from 11:45am to 2pm. There's also an outdoor patio, open May through October.
Yet again in Portsmouth, the historical Strawbery Banke museum/neighborhood (www.strawberybanke.org) has launched a summer-long series of live craft demonstrations taking place each weekend from July through October. You can watch pewterers fashioning tableware, spy on wood-turners as they hand-craft furniture, get an up-close look at the arts of spinning and weaving, or watch as bookbinders hand-make books.
In Concord, the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen's gallery, known as Gallery 205 (tel. 603/224-3375; www.nhcrafts.org) has unveiled its biannual exhibition "Continuing the Tradition," showing through mid-September 2004. The gallery, located at 205 N. Main St., is open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30 pm, and Saturdays 10am to 4pm.
Driving to New Hampshire? Take heed. In 2003, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (prodded by Governor Craig Benson) began experimenting with a summer-only one-way toll system between the Massachusetts state line and Portsmouth that collects double tolls northbound and no tolls southbound. Locals complained that tourists and truckers are now clogging local streets southbound in an effort to skip the fare, but it's back again in 2004 nevertheless. Thus, be prepared to fork over 2 bucks in summers going north but nothing going south between July and late October.
The department also reports that it will be tied into the East Coast-wide EZ-Pass system by the summer of 2005, meaning you'll then be able to cruise through the gates (slowly) without stopping to pay the buck.
Maine
In other turnpike news (you can never get enough, right?), the Maine Turnpike Authority (www.maineturnpike.com) decided to renumber all the exits in Maine in 2004, basing the new numbers on mileages north from the state line. If you've been coming for years and became accustomed to the old numbers, you've got some serious adjusting to do.
York (formerly exit 1) is now exit 7. Wells (formerly exit 2) is now exit 19, Kenneunk (formerly exit 3) now exit 25, I-295 to Portland (formerly exit 6A) now exit 44, August (formerly exits 31A and 31B) now exit 112, and so forth. Get a brochure at state information center in Kittery on your way in if it's important to you, or check the authority's web site for more details. The Turnpike is also considering another toll increase, slated to take effect in 2005, to finance the cost of road repairs and continued widening of the toll highway. Stay tuned for news about that.
The small and charming Inn at Portsmouth Harbor in Kittery has been sold to a former state tourism official and his wife and renamed itself as the Portsmouth Harbor Inn and Spa (tel. 207/439-4040; www.innatportsmouth.com). But the same good rooms remain, and the spa service is attracting a growing local and tourist following.
Sadly, the long-popular Maine Festival -- held annually in such places as the campus of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Portland's Deering Oaks Park, and most recently Thomas Point Beach outside Brunswick (and a great place to experience Maine-made music and crafts) -- seems to have come to an end.
But the Maine Lobster Festival (www.mainelobsterfestival.com) continues going strong, and this year there's a new way to get there. The Maine Lobster Festival Train will run once daily between Brunswick and Rockland from August 5 through August 8, taking in coastal views for two hours along the way; it's said to be a very comfortable ride, if not exactly a cheap one. (The state is considering extending rail service north along the coast, so this is a kind of test run.) It's a good choice for kids. Tickets cost $40 per adult, $30 per child age 2 to 15.