Trader Joe's Cookie Joys (Joe-Joe's are not even close) Hair mousse from the late 80's that was gold colored and made my hair look like it was golden all over...it was really a beautiful color. Can't even remember who made it...

WTM people, you ROCK!! I feel like we can actually make an informed, wise decision now. Thank you soo much for your help :)

Wait..is Acadia on an island?? Clearly it is now time to pull out my atlas and start figuring it out with all this fabulous info.

Roger that. Will see where we end up... :). :thumbup1:

Ok, so Boston is only 2 hours from Portland...that is definitely doable. And I would be very content just driving through where the leaves are turning. It is like medicine for my soul :). Thanks for this info.. I do think, unless we decide to base camp at Burlington, Vermont (as suggested), Canada is probably out. But I am going to look into Burlington before we call it.

Oh, Burlington sounds great if we can get to Montreal or Quebec sort of easily! We visited all the New England states and Quebec during the fall when I was younger and I have wonderful memories of Quebec...and pretty sure that was where my LARGER THAN LIFE attachment to autumn began :). Thank you for the info on drive times...very helpful.

That's two comments on Camden...would you mind telling me more??

Thanks for the PEI tip, Parrothead...doesn't sound like we will be able to do that :(. Are you in Bangor??? I would LOVE to meet Parrothead :)

Ok, good to know. Going to look into Williston. I have heard many times that Vermont has best foliage. Why is that? Is Burlington a fun town? Thanks for the heads up on leaf times...spring rains affect that, right?? Camden?? Ok, will check that out! As for Boston, see previous post :). Although I would love to see it...may try and drive there depending on where we wind up.

Heh :). That was our first thought: NYC and a Broadway show, good food, boom, done. But then Boston. I gotta tell ya, I am not normally very fearful but I am now leery of flying into/out of The Big Cities....but that's another thread :).

Oh my gosh...you all are amazing! Thank you so much for the info. I am running out now so will check out links and comments more thoroughly this evening.

Sparrow, we are definitely outdoorsy people as well but since we have only two full days, and have to stay in a Marriott, decided to just stay in a city and then try to get around. Is Acadia National Park closer to Bar Harbor than Bangor? That sounds wonderful :) Datgh, thanks for all the info! Especially when are peak foliage times...definitely will plan around that. I would love to fly into Quebec but our tickets can be used only for US domestic. Portland and Bangor are as close as we can get since we also have to stay in a Marriott. The Manchester idea might be a good option as well. Do you know how long the boat tour of the lake takes? We are on such a limited time schedule. I also like the idea of Acadia National Park...maybe Bangor would be a better start point.

Dh and I were given airfare and hotel (has to be a Marriott) anywhere in US. I love autumn and we thought it would be fun to go to New England in the fall so we think we have settled on Portland, Maine. I would like to go further north in Maine so we could take a boat to Prince Edward Island or closer to Quebec (which is where I really want to go) but the most northern Marriott is in Bangor. Any thoughts? What's a must-do in Maine?Is there a better place to visit in the fall? Would it be doable to drive to Quebec from Portland? We will have only 2 full days.

Very cool :) ETA: We follow the Dirty Dozen list as well, then I compiled a list of the top 20 foods our family consumes most....those we do organic as well. That includes milk (which we get raw from a local homeschooling family) and meat but thankfully, we have a source here for reasonably price sides of beef, which we purchase every year or two; plus dh and ds have kept our freezer full of wild elk...

Thought I'd answer and also bump for you :) My dh and I both have MA Counseling degrees. We do not have our LPC licensure, although dh has all the hours and supervision..just has to take the test. If I am understanding your post, you really just want to ensure that you have a degree that will let you work with flexibility, will stay relevant during up and down economy and not require too much time away from family to complete? My thought is a Master's is definitely enough. We have never been at a loss for work with an MA, even without licensure. If you want to private practice, you will want to get that but a PhD is not really necessary, in my opinion. We have a friend with a phd in psychology and although he can charge more per hour, he does not necessarily have more job security during down times than we do. Plus, our degree is highly versatile...I worked as the director of an adoption agency with it and dh has had county mental health and school counseling jobs. ETA: Just to clarify..the school counseling that dh does is through county mental health; as the next poster stated, to be an actual school counselor, you have to have a specific degree (and maybe a teaching degree as well).