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One Day In Acadia With Dogs: A Local’s Itinerary

May 12, 2026

One Day In Acadia With Dogs: A Local’s Itinerary

One Day At Zion National Park

March 26, 2024

One Day At Zion National Park

One Day In Sedona, Arizona

February 1, 2022

One Day In Sedona, Arizona

One Day At Christkindlmarkt In Bethlehem, PA

December 7, 2021

One Day At Christkindlmarkt In Bethlehem, PA

Upper Peninsula Waterfalls: One Day of Chasing Waterfalls on Michigan’s UP

October 12, 2021

Upper Peninsula Waterfalls: One Day of Chasing Waterfalls on Michigan’s UP

One Day In Sleepy Hollow, New York

August 10, 2021

One Day In Sleepy Hollow, New York

One Day In Concord, Massachusetts

June 29, 2021

One Day In Concord, Massachusetts

One Day In Portland, Maine: The Perfect 2026 Itinerary

April 14, 2021

One Day In Portland, Maine: The Perfect 2026 Itinerary

One Day In Yellowstone National Park

March 20, 2021

One Day In Yellowstone National Park

One Fall Day In Shenandoah National Park

November 3, 2020

One Fall Day In Shenandoah National Park

One Day in Badlands National Park: The Perfect Itinerary

October 26, 2020

One Day in Badlands National Park: The Perfect Itinerary

One Fall Day in Salem, MA: An Hour-by-Hour Itinerary

September 18, 2020

One Fall Day in Salem, MA: An Hour-by-Hour Itinerary

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Everyone on Mount Desert Island heads to Bass Harb Everyone on Mount Desert Island heads to Bass Harbor Light for sunset. I’d send you to the Quiet Side of the island, but not to Bass Harbor.

By the time the Bass Harbor crowd is jockeying for a spot on the rocks, you’ve had the harbor almost to yourself and you’re sitting on a ledge watching the boats.

Park at the Seal Harbor town beach lot (in marked parking only), walk the shoreline east, and don’t check the time. Dogs on leash are fine. Little Long Pond is five minutes up the road.

Bass Harbor Light is beautiful, but it gets so crowded they have Rangers parking people. If you still want to go to the lighthouse for sunset, make sure to get there 2.5 hrs early (at least). They park people up to half a mile from the lighthouse.

☀️✨Save this for your Acadia trip. The rest of my quiet-side sunset list is on the blog (link in stories). 

🛑🚫 As always, be respectful of the locals and please leave no trace in this beautiful space 🚫🛑
The four questions in my Salem DMs this week, answ The four questions in my Salem DMs this week, answered at once…

🍁 Can I drive? You can, but there isn’t much parking and what exists is gone by 9 am (on a good day), every day in October. The train from North Station, the ferry from Long Wharf, or a rideshare in early before the surge. On Halloween, nothing with wheels gets downtown after noon.

🍁 Is it too late to go? No, but know what you’re walking into. Salem gets busier every single week of October, and the last two weekends plus Halloween are the biggest crowds of the year. Going now: pick a weekday, be downtown by 8 am, and have your museum tickets before you leave the house. If you want Salem without the line, that’s spring, summer, or the first week of September. The town is just as witchy with nobody in it.

🍁 What’s open on Halloween, and when? Shops at 10 or 11. Streets close to cars at noon. Drone show at 10:10, clearing the streets at 10:30, last train 11:05. 

🍁 Blackcraft’s line is 200 people long. Where else for coffee? Jaho on Derby Street, roasts their own and opens early. Gulu-Gulu on Essex by the Bewitched statue, crepes and a dog-friendly patio. Front Street Coffeehouse, small and no scene. Coffee Time Bake Shop on Bridge Street, two minutes from the train, a 1940s bakery where the crullers are the point.

🛑🚫 🍁 One more thing nobody asks but everybody should hear: 45,000 people live here, and most of them are just trying to get to work, walk the dog, and park in front of their own house in October. Stay off the lawns, don’t block the driveways, keep it down after 10, and remember that the Hocus Pocus house has people in it. Be the visitor they’re glad came.

The week-by-week version of all of it is in the Ultimate Salem Guide ($) and the Salem In October Cheat Sheet ($). 

🍁🎃 Comment WITCH and I’ll send you the links 🔗
If you were a 90s kid who watched Hocus Pocus appr If you were a 90s kid who watched Hocus Pocus approximately 847 times (like Me), this one’s for you. 😂🧙‍♀️

Because apparently I’m old enough to plan my Halloween around the filming locations of a movie I watched on VHS.

You can actually visit a bunch of the locations without spending your entire day in the car.

🛑🚫 A VERY Important PSA: Max & Dani’s House is someones actual home. Please don’t walk onto their property. Don’t go on the porch, don’t knock on the door. Be respectful.🚫🛑

It’s all in my Salem in October Cheat Sheet ($)

Comment SPELL and I’ll send you a direct link as soon as IG stops banning me!! But it’s at the link in bio and stories in the meantime 🧙‍♀️
🍁🍂 October in Acadia is the kind of pretty that ma 🍁🍂 October in Acadia is the kind of pretty that makes you pull over every five minutes.

It’s also the kind of busy that can have you questioning every life choice you made that led you to Park Loop Road at 11 a.m. 😂

I stayed on Mount Desert Island for 6 months, and October taught me one thing: timing matters.

Go midweek if you can. Start early. Have a backup plan for parking. Know when the shuttle stops running. Don’t assume peak foliage will show up on the same date every year. And maybe don’t try to cram 14 things into one day just because they all looked good on Instagram.

The payoff? Golden leaves, pink granite, cool ocean air, and those ridiculous Acadia views that make all the logistical nonsense worth it. 🍂

I put everything I wish I knew before visiting Acadia in Octobe, including foliage timing, crowds, Cadillac reservations, parking, what’s actually open, and how I’d plan the trip now into my Acadia in October guide.

🍁🍂 Save this for your Maine trip, then go read the full guide ($) before you start planning 🍂🍁 

Comment Fall and I’ll send you a direct link when Instagram decides to let me send links again (ASAP, hopefully 🤞)

Would you brave peak foliage crowds for this view, or give me a quieter week?
I didn’t expect much from the Upper Peninsula. The I didn’t expect much from the Upper Peninsula. Then I spent a day in a fairytale forest chasing waterfalls.

Sable Falls: 168 stairs to Lake Superior.
Miners Falls: an easy mile through the northwoods to a 40-foot drop.
Tahquamenon: 200 feet wide, root-beer brown

And then a ranger told me about Laughing Whitefish Falls on the way to dinner. It wasn’t even on my lis5, and somehow became my favorite waterfall in Michigan.

Fall is the best time to do this. Nobody tells you that about the UP either!

Save this for next October or this one if you’re already planning! The full waterfall day, with trail lengths, passes, and dog rules is on the blog.
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