Guide to Holiday Travel & Holiday Getaways:

Holidays!  We love them when they include paid vacation days and deals, packages, or specials offered by hotels and restaurants.  We don’t love the traffic, but that’s why we have GPS!  Planning a getaway over the spring and summer holidays?  Start here.

MOTHERS DAY: Think your mother is worthy of fame?  Get her into the National Women’s Hall of Fame!  Write a letter detailing her achievements, and it will be placed in the Hall’s Book of Lives and Legacies.  The Hall of Fame is in Seneca Falls, NY, the site of the first women’s rights convention in 1848.

Why not take your mom to tea?  Many historic sites, cultural institutions and museums host special Mother’s Day teas, providing a unique setting for your sipping.  The Liberty Hall Museum at Kean University in Union, NJ hosts a tea accompanied by a program describing the many mothers who lived in Liberty Hall since it was built in 1772 by William Livingston, New Jersey’s first elected governor and signer of the Constitution.

The Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry, CT invites families to their colonial tea party, which includes a house tour, colonial crafts, and refreshments.  A “Mothers and Others Tea Musicale” takes place annually at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, NY, the former Mediterranean-style estate of the Rosen family.  The afternoon includes a tour of the Rosen House, followed by a recital in the Music Room and a special tea served in the Summer Dining Room.

MEMORIAL DAY: The birthplace of Memorial Day is a contended battle between Waterloo, NY and Boalsburg, PA, with 22 other communities nationwide also claiming ties to the earliest observance honoring our country’s fallen service members.  Boalsburg’s first celebration, known as Decoration Day, was held in 1864.  Today, there’s a parade, a historical house tour, and other family activities.  The Alleghenies are a collection of scenic towns perfect for outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and fishing.

Memorial Day festivities in the small town of Waterloo include a parade, arts and crafts show, a strawberry festival, music, tours of the town’s Civil War museum and an antique car show. Civil War buffs in period attire hold a two-night encampment with live cannon fire demonstrations.  The surrounding Finger Lakes region offers wineries, historic villages, and outdoor recreation.

Public celebrations of Memorial Day range from small, quiet and reflective to large, energized and spirited.  The Cathedral of the Pines in Pines Rindge, NH holds a moving ceremony honoring veterans, especially poignant since the site was founded in honor of a WWII veteran by his father.  The picturesque, open-air "Altar of the Nation" is a national memorial dedicated to the honor of American men and women, military and civilian, who have lost their lives in wars.  At the other end of the spectrum, Fleet Week takes place in New York City over Memorial Day in celebration of the U.S. sea services. Hundreds of sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, and their ships, stay in port for days of parades, musical performances, competitions, and public ship tours.

FATHER'S DAY: We love dear old dad, even if it wasn’t until 1972 that President Nixon instituted national observance of Father’s Day.  But it was the nation’s first president, George Washington, who is most often deemed the “Father of Our Country.”  There’s no shortage of “Washington-slept-here” sites open for public tours.  For example, “George Washington’s New York” is a self-guided tour of seven sites in lower Manhattan. The jewel in the crown is Federal Hall National Memorial, the site where Washington was inaugurated President in 1789 and where the first United States Congress met.  There are even entire towns named after him, including Washington, CT, Fort Washington, MD, and Port Washington, NY.

Forget the necktie; this year take Dad out on the water for Father’s Day.  The 1900 three-masted sailing schooner “Victory Chimes” sails a 3-day Father’s Day cruise out of Rockland, ME.  You and your Pop can help steer the ship, raise and lower sails, visit islands and fishing villages, and enjoy the scenery.  Sailing Excursions of Newport, RI operates the 1890's-style pilot schooner “Adirondack II,” which runs tours and excursions in the Newport Harbor.  Since Father’s Day coincides with the Summer Solstice, you’ll get over 15 hours of daylight to enjoy the sights. 

If Dad is a landlubber, hit the links instead. Deer Run Golf Club in Berlin, MD is offering a Father’s Day Weekend Special with discounted greens fees and complimentary cart use.  Or, make an entire golf weekend out of it, with the “Father’s Day Weekend Package” at the Penn Hills Resort in the Poconos.  Accommodations, meals, and greens fees at the Evergreen Golf Club in Analomink, PA are included.  At the Water’s Edge Resort in Westbrook, CT, the “Stay and Play Golf Package” includes lodging, meals, and golf for two at Lyman Orchards Championship 36-hole golf course in nearby Middlefield.

FOURTH OF JULY:

Even without the over-the-top pyrotechnic shows we now associate with the 4^th of July, the earliest Independence Day celebrations were still lively, patriotic events.  You can party like it’s 1859 at Washington Irving’s Sunnyside, a historic site in Tarrytown, NY which holds its Independence Day event with period music, rousing speeches and traditional country dancing.  At Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, VT, the annual “Old Vermont 4^th” replicates a traditional celebration featuring the reading of the Declaration of Independence, wagon rides, historic debates, a spelling bee, ice cream making, and period games.  Fonthill, a historic site and museum in Doylestown, PA, re-creates an early 20^th-century celebration with a decorated bike parade, a baseball game, a watermelon eating contest, old-time games and live music.

To get an early start on 4^th of July celebrations, go to Boston several days ahead for Harborfest, a festival showcasing the city’s colonial and maritime heritage.  More than 200 daily events take place in Boston's historic downtown and waterfront districts.  Alternatively, you can celebrate Independence Day a little later in Exeter, NH.

After the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia in 1776, it was transported by horseback to be read aloud in the colonial capital of Exeter.  Since it didn’t get there until July 16th, the annual Independence Festival is celebrated on the weekend closest to that date.

What’s the 4^th of July without fireworks?  Each year, Macy's launches the world's largest fireworks display from two locations in NYC, the East River between 10th and 24th Streets and the South Street Seaport.  Four barges set off 20,000 aerial shells and special effects, fire boats shoot water 300 feet up, and a score sets it all to music. **( 2009's show will be from the Hudosn River to commemorate the Quadracentennial)

The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular in Boston is another highly-regarded celebration, as thousands gather along the city’s Esplanade to enjoy a two-hour live concert followed by a fireworks show.  In Rehoboth Beach, DE, more than 80,000 people traditionally take over the boardwalk and shoreline at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware for their impressive annual fireworks display, free of the obstructed views from tall buildings.

LABOR DAY: The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on September 5, 1882, in New York City, having been devised by the Central Labor Union to honor the social and economic achievement of the country’s workers.  Manhattan still hosts an annual Labor Day parade, along with many other cities like Washington, DC and Pittsburgh, PA.

Don’t let the summer end without one last celebration. Try a music festival.  The sounds of rock, jazz, country, blues, and R&B flood the Virginia Beach oceanfront for the 3-day American Music Festival, the largest outdoor musical event on the east coast.  Local, regional, and national acts play on the beach as well as in parks along the oceanfront.

Over 30,000 people head for Revelation Farms, a 140-acre countryside site in Frenchtown, NJ, for the Revelation Generation Music Fest. All musical genres, from country to hip-hop, fill the open air at this annual Christian and cross-over music weekend.

Fans of “The King” can check out the Annual New England Elvis Festival in Manchester, NH.  This music festival takes place in conjunction with a competitive event featuring 20 of the world’s most seasoned Elvis Tribute Artists, vying for the crown and prize money.