Fall Mystery Trip 2012 Revealed

Our first Fall Mystery Trip was sold out weeks in advance.  We departed at 7 AM on a sunny October morning for Salem, New Hampshire where our first stop was America's Stonehenge, first opened to the public under the name Mystery Hill.  The builders of this 4000 year-old site are unknown, but its features correlate with those of Bronze age cultures of Europe.    

The wooded site requires a bit of walking, and most of our passengers braved the uneven terrain.  The rewards were astounding because our visitors got to trod on pavement stones that were set in place over four thousand years ago.  We got to enter stone age dwellings, saw the sacrificial stone slab, and observed the alignment stones where the ancients watched the sun rise and set just as we do today.

America's Stonehenge has a nice gift shop, a small cafeteria, and a theater where everybody enjoyed a film about the site.  After about two hours we boarded our motor coaches and departed for Manchester where we shared a sensational buffet lunch at The Puritan, a very popular restaurant established 95 years ago.  Our travel family were seated at round tables for eight in a private banquet room and dined on Teriyaki Sirloin Tips, Fried Chicken Tenders with signature sweet and sour sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, candied carrots, Caesar salad, and vegetarian lasagna.  Dessert was New York Cheesecake with Strawberries.  Nobody left hungry.

Our last stop was the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH.  This internationally acclaimed museum boasts  a renowned collection of American and European paintings and sculpture in an intimate setting along with furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, and sculpture.  At the center of the museum is a glass-roofed Winter Garden complete with cafe.  Our visit here was the first for most of our travelers and all agreed that the collection was very enjoyable.  Many purchased items from the excellent gift shop before we headed home.