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Post by madeline on Jul 20, 2017 19:26:16 GMT -5
This year, instead of a festival, there’s a Dark Shadows cruise, so we’re going to attend a 1-day DS event in NYC on September 16th, given by Friends of the Dark Shadows Cast Reunion. After the event, which is only for a few hours, I think, we’re going to get together with some other DS fans for a private DS party. We only plan to be in NYC for 2 nights and instead of either of the recommended hotels, we’re staying at the Hotel Wolcott. It no longer has a restaurant, but it’s historic and haunted and the decor is traditional, not modern horror. While in New York, we’re going to see the musical Anastasia at the Broadhurst Theater.
On Sunday the 17th, we’re driving from NYC to Bennington, Vermont, which is only about a 4-hr. drive, where we’ll be staying at a B&B, which I don’t think is haunted. We want to see where the people disappeared from the Long Trail and where Shirley Jackson lived and wrote most of her books and stories.
From Bennington, we’re driving to Maine and this year, instead of a hotel, we were able to rent a 5-bedroom, 3-bath house in downtown Bar Harbor, for the week. The rentals are all full in the summer, but Labor Day is the end of the Maine tourist season.
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Post by kitty on Jul 24, 2017 3:41:11 GMT -5
The house where Shirley Jackson lived that was No. 57 in the Mystery Locations is lovely and Bennington sounds like an interesting place to visit. I always look forward to reading about your Dark Shadows trips.
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Post by jason on Jul 25, 2017 20:33:06 GMT -5
September might be a little early for the fall foliage in Vermont and Maine has more evergreens than deciduous trees. I suppose you're all hoping for stormy weather, as usual.
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Post by kitty on Jul 26, 2017 19:08:16 GMT -5
Is the B&B a historic old house?
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Post by pat on Aug 1, 2017 12:56:05 GMT -5
On Sunday the 17th, we’re driving from NYC to Bennington, Vermont, which is only about a 4-hr. drive, where we’ll be staying at a B&B, which I don’t think is haunted. We want to see where the people disappeared from the Long Trail and where Shirley Jackson lived and wrote most of her books and stories.
From Bennington, we’re driving to Maine and this year, instead of a hotel, we were able to rent a 5-bedroom, 3-bath house in downtown Bar Harbor, for the week. The rentals are all full in the summer, but Labor Day is the end of the Maine tourist season.
I'd love to visit Bennington and not just because of the strange disappearances. I'm a Shirley Jackson fan. When I was a kid, I read everything of hers that I could find.
You said the house is in downtown Bar Harbor, but is it close enough that you can walk to restaurants, like the one where ya'll always have lobster pie? Or is that in Portland?
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Post by madeline on Aug 2, 2017 12:08:57 GMT -5
I'd love to visit Bennington and not just because of the strange disappearances. I'm a Shirley Jackson fan. When I was a kid, I read everything of hers that I could find.
You said the house is in downtown Bar Harbor, but is it close enough that you can walk to restaurants, like the one where ya'll always have lobster pie? Or is that in Portland?
I'm looking forward to Bennington because I've never been there either and neither has Catherine and Kate. We're going to try to see the Shirley Jackson sites and haunted houses while we're there.
The house in Bar Harbor is in the middle of town and just a few blocks from the waterfront. It used to be a B&B, but the 3 rooms on the 2nd floor all have to share a bathroom and the owner said that people don't like sharing a bathroom with strangers, so they rent out the whole house now and the rental comes with daily maid service. Yes, we can walk to the Bar Harbor Inn, where we usually stay, that has the lobster pie. Our favorite restaurant in Portland is where we have baked stuffed lobster.
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Post by Kate on Aug 15, 2017 7:05:42 GMT -5
Does anyone know what the weather is like in the Vermont mountains in mid-September? We need to decide what clothes we're going to take.
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Post by jason on Sept 12, 2017 13:40:39 GMT -5
Does anyone know what the weather is like in the Vermont mountains in mid-September? We need to decide what clothes we're going to take.
Are you necrophiles going to be able to make your trip this year with all the damage and closed airports from the hurricane?
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Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 14, 2017 18:59:11 GMT -5
Here are two photos of the inn where we have reservations in Bennington:
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Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 14, 2017 19:07:58 GMT -5
More Bennington photos: The top photo is the sunroom at the inn. Middle: one of the bedrooms. The bottom photo is the Bennington Monument, a 301- or 306-foot (no one is certain) monument that towers above the city commemorating the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington.
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Post by pat on Sept 14, 2017 22:21:00 GMT -5
Thanks for posting the photos. Bennington and the inn are lovely. I hope that the leaves have started to turn. New England villages are always spookier during the fall.
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Post by kitty on Sept 15, 2017 6:29:21 GMT -5
Good luck on your trip and please don't forget to post daily reports. I really enjoy them; they're the next best thing to being there.
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Post by kitty on Sept 18, 2017 17:10:46 GMT -5
The left last Friday, today is Monday, and we still haven't heard anything.
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Post by madeline on Sept 21, 2017 0:05:08 GMT -5
Greetings from Portland:
First, we all apologize for not checking in sooner, but I tried a couple of times in Bennington and there was something wrong with the site, or the connection. Anyway, the main Dark Shadows event was canceled, but we didn't know that until we got to New York. We got together with some other DS fans who live in NYC on Saturday afternoon. We arrived in New York on Friday and had an early dinner, roast duck with port and cherries, at a restaurant called Pergola Des Artistes, and afterwards, we walked a couple of blocks to the Broadhurst Theatre and saw Anastasia. If you ever get a chance to see it, you should. We all liked it. We were all over-dressed; there were people there in cargo shorts who looked like they were on the way to a barbecue instead of the theater. But there were a few other decently dressed people.
But going back a little, in the past, we've usually rented a Cadillac Escalade, because it has a lot of room for luggage, but there have been some changes to the model and people say that the second row of seats aren't as comfortable as they used to be. Anyway, Kate checked out cars and decided that the one with the most room for luggage would be the GMC Yukon XL, so that's what we reserved. It's a nice, roomy car, but it's a gas guzzler and it seems that we've been having to stop for gas twice as often as we have in the past. When we made reservations at the Hotel Wolcott, we were told to park in a certain parking garage and take taxis to travel around town, which is what we did, sort of, because we had to order a car because there are 5 of us, but the concierge at the hotel called for the cars for us. On Saturday, after we met with the DS fans, we had dinner at Wolfgang's Steakhouse on W. 41st Street and we all had the porterhouse. We left New York around 11 Sunday morning for Bennington, stopped in Tarrytown at Equus, the restaurant at the Tarrytown Castle Hotel where we always go when the DS Festival is in Tarrytown, and had brunch. The highway we took is along the Hudson River. It must be breathtaking when the foliage is at its height. The weather was nice and cloudy.
We got to our B&B in Bennington around 5 p.m. and checked in. The rooms were all nice. My room was decorated in a sort of turquoise blue and if you look at the photo above that Lee posted, my room is on the third floor, the one with the three windows across the front. Catherine and Kate's room, which has bright yellow wallpaper with pink flowers, was next door to mine and Lee and Julia had rooms 2 and 4 on the second floor. The inn offered very good breakfasts. We were starving by the time we got there on Sunday and the innkeepers suggested the Grille at the Mount Anthony Country Club about a mile away, so that's where we went. For appetizers, we ordered 3 combo plates that had chicken wings, cheese, croquettes and potato skins. We had salads and New York strips for dinner.
On Monday morning, we went to the Bennington Museum and saw the Grandma Moses and Gilded Age exhibits. We then had huge hamburgers at a place called Jensen's, went back to the hotel and changed and went to Bennington College, where Paula Welden disappeared on Dec. 1, 1946, to retrace her trip into the mountains -- from which she never returned. Paula caught a ride to a place called Furnace Bridge on Route 9, so we drove there. She was the 2nd person of 5 people to mysteriously disappear in Bennington, which is a small town, over a period of 5 years, and they all disappeared in the fall. It's easy to see how a person who didn't know the area could get lost, but most of those who vanished were from the area and one was a hunting guide. After our long walk, we went back to the inn, changed again for dinner and had sautéed calf liver at a place called The Publyck House.
On Tuesday, the 19th, we visited the local library and looked at some old files about the disappearances and Shirley Jackson. We also went by the two houses where Shirley Jackson lived in Bennington. She died in the old Victorian house she lived in on Main Street, upstairs in her bedroom. We had hoped to tour a historic mansion in Bennington, but it was closed. We also went to Southern Vermont University to see the haunted Everett Mansion, which was one of the Mystery Locations in one of our old groups. The first Shirley Jackson house was also a Mystery Location last summer. The Everett Mansion is said to be one of the places that inspired Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House." For dinner, we went to the Bennington Station Restaurant, which is located in an old train depot. It's very atmospheric. It was Julia's birthday and we had called ahead and the waiter brought out a cake for dessert. For dinner, we had Baked Brie en Croute as appetizers and pork chops with apple stuffing. We shared what was left of the cake with the people at the inn this morning.
The drive from Bennington through the forests of Vermont and New Hampshire to Portland took a little more than 5 hours. It was overcast, but the temperature is still in the 70s. It's not as cool as I thought it might be this time of the year. We went to DeMillo's for twin stuffed lobsters, where we always go in Portland, and tomorrow, we leave for Bar Harbor.
We'll try to check in more regular in Bar Harbor. We have been told that there are no problems with the WiFi connections in the house that we're renting.
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Post by natalie on Sept 22, 2017 10:34:42 GMT -5
Well, that's a bummer, but it seems you made the best out of it, met other fellow fans, and had some great meals and sightseeing.
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