The Fiddling Tourist's fall colours tour

Lisa Butchart
Oct 30, 2018
3 min read

Eight sessions in eight days! New England, Pennsylvania and New York. The Fiddling Tourist fall colours tour.

The fall is a great time for a driving vacation, the colours are beautiful and most accommodations are off season rates. Our first stop was in Ludow, Viermont, where we stayed on Thursday. We had fish and chips at the local Irish pub The Killarney. The session players were very welcoming and our Bed and Breakfast a charming old house on Main Street.

The next day we drove through scenic Vermont and into New Hampshire where we saw this charming covered bridge. We checked into the gorgeous Victorian B&B the Henry Whipple House which has been lovingly restored. The evening session was at Kathleen's cottage a pre-revolution building from 1760. The pub was crowded as the weekly Irish session on Fridays is very popular. I played a few tunes and we had a wonderful meal.

The town of Bristol has many historic homes. The nearby Newfound Lake feeds a river where once over 40 mills used to power their businesses. Henry Whipple, the original owner was a wealthy woolen mill owner.

Quaint and inviting, Bristol's Irish pub is a centre for music and good food and drink.

From New Hampshire we drove to Massachusetts to a session in Reading. The weekly afternoon session was lead by Liam a great singer and multi-instrumentalist. What a great way to spend a Saturday. Also in Reading is a historic Parker Tavern built in 1694 and now a museum.

Woonsocket, Rhode Island was our next stop and we stayed at the Pillsbury House B&B. Our hosts were the Bouchards and there are many residents with French names in the city. At the turn of the 20th century French was the dominate language spoken as so many French Canadians moved there to work in the textile mills that was the large industry of the town's economy.

Our next stop in Rhode Island was Newport, famous for "America's Castles" , the mansions the rich industrialists built as their summer"cottages. We stayed at the Jailhouse Inn, a building which was once Newports Jail. Across from our inn was the oldest tavern in America.

Yes, it really was once a jail!

The Fastnet pub is in the historical centre of Newport and they host a session every Sunday evening.

Our inn was across the toad from America's oldest tavern built in 1673.

The "cottages" built by rich industrialists during the Gilded Age where examples of opulent architecture and these mansions were used for only a few weeks each summer. We visited five The Breakers, Marble House, The Elms, Rosecliff and Chateau-sur-Mer.

On Monday we visited Plymouth rock on our way to the evening session at The Snug in Hingham, Massachusetts. We ate seafood at a restaurant in New Bedford for lunch.

The Snug is in a very old building and fills up every Monday as people come to listen to the Irish session, in which I participated.

The players were very welcoming and I knew many of their tunes.

Before we left Newport we walked around the town. The church is decorated for Halloween and the graveyard had many old tombstones.

Our last stop in Rhode Island was Providence. We stayed at a B&B a short walk from Patrick's Pub which is in the Irish area of Providence and hosts a session every Tuesday night.

A big session and a great time; I enjoyed fiddling there.

Our next stop was Easton, Pennsylvania. Porter's Pub hosts a twice monthly Irish session. Great entertainment (I played a few sets) and wonderful food!

Easton is known for the first Crayola factory and the Canal Museum.

Canal boats were pulled by mules and tourists can experience the unique transportation on the canal waterway.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, but before we returned to Canada we visited Jack Quinn's in Lima New York and enjoyed the thickest prime rib EVER!

There was a lovely vibrant atmosphere at the pub and we met the owners. As the pub is close to the Canadian border I hope to visit again soon.

Wow....what a huge slab of meat!

We spent our last night at a B&B in nearby Scottsville. We spent our last night at a B&B in nearby Scottsville. That morning we drove straight home to Southampton and I got the a gig I had with my Dad and his wife with five minutes to spare. I love travelling stateside and will be doing so again next spring.