Emma Zayer

I drove my younger sister and her stuff up to college in Vermont over Labor Day Weekend. On the way back, I stopped in New Hampshire and Massachusetts to visit friends - one who works in advertising, one in law school and one who is an undergrad. It was a compact version of the road trip I always told myself I'd do in college but never got around to. Despite a few minor hitches, the trip was a blast and I look forward to visiting them and New England again whenever possible.

Things I observed on my road trip:

11. Two hours driving will get you a lot of places traveling through New England.

10. Plans always manage to work out somehow when you're with good friends (even after getting locked out of the apartment or when everyone is too tired to go exploring).

9. You haven't tasted delicious till you've eaten an organic golden cherry tomato that you plucked straight off the vine.
8. Local offerings are quite tasty overall, including the beer, pumpkin butter and basically anything made from maple syrup.

7. There's more to reading a sundial than meets the eye.

6. You can't truly love a cause or a political candidate unless you have at least two bumper stickers about it on your car.
5. You can believe some articles on Wikipedia, because there really are self-appointed editors who put a lot of effort into editing them. I met one. (See Candide.)

4. There's a lot of fun to be had outdoors, be it walking through city streets, hanging out in playgrounds or cutting through corn fields to go to the store. (Eating homemade ice cream sitting a few meters away from the cows that produced the milk is another example.)

3. New England has an obscene amount of adorable quaintness and scenic locales...I want to go back to see more!

2. Good friends listen when you need to talk and care what you have to say. They finish their homework extra fast, risk getting to work a few minutes late and take you to rustic local bars with all the tasty peanuts you can eat, just to enjoy your company for a few minutes longer. I have some really great friends with whom I spent some precious, awesome time. I hope I proved to be just as good a friend in return. Thanks for everything, this trip would have been nothing without you.

1. New England has more Subaru Outbacks than you've ever seen in your whole life. New Englanders love their Subarus!