New England Travel and Vacation Gazette and Other Wicked Good Content

The Milk Bottle Restaurant in Raynham, MA, is not your typical homogenized, pasteurized restaurant. With a gargantuan milk bottle structure jetting above the trees and no sign out front, the truly unusual-looking Milk Bottle Restaurant stands out as a curiosity to uninitiated drivers passing by and as a wonderful hometown restaurant to the locals. Open for breakfast and lunch, the Milk Bottle is best known for their delicious omelets, but this diner/restaurant also features a nice variety of other familiar selections like pancakes (excellent chocolate chip), waffles, sandwiches (they make a great tuna melt) and even ice cream ( I guess it's no surprise, given the dairy theme). Once inside the Milk Bottle, you'd never known you were inside a milk bottle. The ceilings are normal height and the booths and counter space look like any other local breakfast and lunch place. Perhaps the Milk Bottle's greatest accomplishments reside in the well-prepared food served in big porti...

Article and Photo by Eric H. Our latest VisitingNewEngland.com feature travel story is on the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, MA. Far more than a museum with just boats and whale skeletons, this modern, spacious museum educates and entertains in an interactive, non-stuffy way. The staff is tremendously knowledgeable, personable and focuses on thoughtful answers, not generic sound bites left to leave you clueless. Located in the heart of the charming New Bedford Whaling District, the New Bedford Whaling Museum truly captures the historic flavor of New Bedford's presence as the most well-known whaling industry city, back in the mid-1800s -- and one of the richest cities in the country, at that point. The complete article on the Whaling Museum can be read here . Additionally, photos of the charming Whaling District -- a terrific New England urban coastal travel destination -- can be viewed here .

Article and photo by Eric H. The latest travel review at VisitingNewEngland.com is on Putnam , a small town located in northeastern Connecticut, and known as one of New England's best places to shop for antiques. The antiques scene is indeed amazing with more than a collective 50,000 sq. feet of merchandise amongst the several shops! Equally appealing in Putnam is its small-town feel, perfect for a day trip of relaxation, combined with shopping. Once a dying mill town, Putnam has really come back to life with its nice downtown array of antique stores, mom and pop stores, several restaurants, boutiques, galleries and some wonderful historical preservation in its buildings.

The latest restaurant review at VisitingNewEngland.com is for Lakeview Farms in Bellingham, MA. A family-style restaurant that also features a seasonal outdoor ice cream stand, Lakeview Farms has undergone extension renovations and looks terrific in its gleaming, knotty-pine look. Lakeview Farms has also hired former Daniel Webster Inn chef John Hollis to create some wonderful house specialties -- all under $10.00 at this writing. Turkey pot pie and fresh-roasted turkey dinners are two signature specialties, as well as a meatloaf dinner with pommorodoro sauce and provolone cheese. To read more about Lakeview Farms, please click on the link above.

Article and photos by Eric H. If you're looking for a traditional New England restaurant with wonderful Yankee-style food and Colonial ambiance, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better place than the Salem Cross Inn in West Brookfield, MA. This charming central Massachusetts landmark, with its original building dating back to 1816, features some delicious, classic New England fare, including Yankee pot roast, chicken pot pie, apple raspberry roasted duck, Indian pudding, butternut squash, pumpkins muffins, homemade breads, New England clam chowder and homemade pecan and apple pies. With the post-and-beam ceilings, dimly-lit Colonial atmosphere featuring a roaring fireplace and polite and personable waitresses dressed in Colonial apparel, the Salem Cross Inn looks like the kind of place George Washington would have frequented for a hearty meal and beer. To add to the trip-back-in-time ambiance, the Salem Cross Inn features a brick beehive oven, restored from 1639, that turns out...

Article Preview and Photo by Eric H. Suffering through the freezing New England winters frequently requires a tasty bowl of soup as an antidote. It is warming, nourishing and filling, but sometimes the store-bought brands throw in too much salt, MSG and mediocre source ingredients bordering on something that tastes like it came out of.. well... a can. The New England Soup Factory, in Newton, MA, brings fresh-made soups to perhaps the highest level we've experienced, not to mention truly unique and wholesome concoctions you won't find anywhere else. We recently featured the New England Soup Factory in a VisitingNewEngland.com article . Like us, we think you'll find the New England Soup Factory a staple of your dining out preferences during the New England winter!

Article and photo by Eric H. If no have no plans to travel someplace warm during February School Vacation, then we heartily give a thumbs-up recommendation on visiting the Children's Museum in Easton , located in the North Easton, MA, neighborhood in this South of Boston suburb. This is one terrific museum that could meaningfully fill up a morning or afternoon at an incredibly low admission charge of $6.00 per person (and plenty of parking in the Museum's own lot, or around the corner on Main Street in North Easton Village). Located in a former fire station, the Children's Museum is certainly the Little Engine That Could -- small in square footage but larger-than-life in regards to cultural, education and social opportunities for the kids. You can read the entire article here, featured this morning on VisitingNewEngland.com As you can see, we have covered North Easton quite a bit this week, and deservedly so. It's a real New England hidden gem. Next week, however, we...

Article and Photo (of the West Brookfield Town Common) by Eric H. Today, we bring you to West Brookfield, MA, a traditional Massachusetts community that perhaps best represents the classic, rural flavor of small-town New England. As part of The Brookfields -- a region also including Brookfield, North Brookfield and East Brookfield -- this Central Massachusetts area remains one of the last relatively unspoiled parts of New England that is relatively close to the industrial seaboard. West Brookfield might be The Brookfield's shining jewel with a stunning town common, and its entire downtown district placed on the National Register of Historic Places. You can read more about West Brookfield at VisitingNewEngland.com

Northeast Harbor, Maine, is scenically located where the ocean meets the mountains in magical Acadia National Park, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. North Easton, MA, is a southwest Boston suburb with stunning examples of H.H. Richardson architecture, nice tree-lined streets, a quaint historically preserved downtown and many trails, ponds and streams. What do the two communities have to do with each other? Absolutely nothing, but they do share a hauntingly similar looking downtown district. So as to not stretch the truth, Northeast Harbor's downtown is a bit longer in size with more shops, but the general architecture strikes an uncanny resemblance: Northeast Harbor, Maine... and North Easton Village, MA! Incredible isn't it? We'd actually like to start a "Separated at Birth" section on the blog. If you know of communities that strike a resemblance with each other, please feel free to post on this blog!

We love New England. It is a place we live and love with its great mix of mountains, ocean, history, excellent quality of life and all the fun attractions. But winter 2008/2009 in New England has become unbearable -- one nasty storm after another. Before you break your back shoveling snow once more, consider a warmer destination vacation getaway. Have Junior down the street do the shoveling (and please pay him!) while you're walking a nice warm beach in beautiful places like Aruba, Cancun, Bermuda, and Cleveland (just kidding on the last one). After this winter, you deserve it! Don't get us wrong: Winter is a nice place to be in New England. The snow-covered villages, the skiing, the winter community events -- this is the place to be if you like a quaint, cozy winter vacation. But to live here year-round and endure a tougher winter than usual has its limits. With a higher than average snowfall this winter, we feel stronger than ever that a warmer climate would provide a ni...

Article and photo by Eric H. We recently reviewed -- and reflected upon -- our experiences at the Main Street Cafe in North Easton, MA . In the article, we not only focus on the delicious breakfasts and lunches at the Main Street Cafe, but how this restaurant brought back childhood memories of a revered bakery in Northeast Harbor, Maine (Acadia National Park). We think you'll enjoy the connections we draw -- and photos to validate the possible nexus between the two businesses. Strictly from a food point-of-view, If you're looking for an excellent traditional, old-fashioned breakfast and lunch dining experience, we heartily recommend the Main Street Cafe!