🐝 A Note from Darcy - There’s Something About Fall
I love fall.
Give me pumpkins popping up on front porches, a cozy sweater, a little shift in the air and just about anything labeled caramel apple.
Caramel apple popcorn? Yes. Werther’s caramel apple candies? Absolutely. A caramel apple latte? Now you’re speaking my language.
An actual caramel apple? Oddly, no.
But there’s something else that happens this time of year. I start thinking about Gilmore Girls.
Long before Honeycomb Hollow Travel Co. existed, I worked in film and television. One of my first professional visits to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank was to “shop” the prop and costume houses for a film I was working on.
Somehow, I accidentally wandered onto the backlot. And immediately knew where I was.
Stars Hollow.
There was the town square and gazebo. The church. Stars Hollow High. Kim’s Antiques. Luke’s Diner. And Lorelai and Rory’s house, complete with the Jeep, backup Jeep and Gilmore mailbox.
I wandered around completely giddy, hoping no one would notice I probably wasn't supposed to be there and send me back where I belonged.
I even caught a glimpse of Richard Gilmore (actor Edward Herrmann) himself.
This was before we carried cameras everywhere we went, so I don't have a phone full of pictures documenting that first visit. I just have the memory of how surreal it felt to suddenly find myself standing inside a place I already knew so well.
Not long after, I was filming on another part of the lot where the Dragonfly Inn lived, and this time I got to bring my mom with me. We took pictures, explored, and even grabbed a photo with the Dukes of Hazzard car.
There was something particularly special about sharing the world of a mother-daughter show with my own mom.
And maybe that's part of why Stars Hollow has stayed with me.
That warm, quirky, small-town feeling even became part of the inspiration behind the name Honeycomb Hollow Travel Co.
Which brings me to September's theme: Harvesting Memories.
Because when I think about the places I love most, I don't remember them as lists of things I saw.
I remember how they felt.
Destination Spotlight
Exeter, New Hampshire
Maybe I have Stars Hollow permanently imprinted on my brain, but give me a New England town with a gazebo and a charming main street and you've already got my attention.
That's exactly what happened in Exeter, New Hampshire.
We were only there for one night, staying in an adorable B&B right in the heart of town. From the moment we arrived, it felt less like checking into a hotel and more like stepping into someone else's lovely little world.
Exquisite hand-painted floral wallpaper followed the period staircase upstairs, and every room had its own distinct personality. Out back was a garden made for lingering. That evening, the couple who owned the inn gathered with friends on the front porch over glasses of wine to watch the sun set on a warm summer evening.
It was such a simple scene, but I remember thinking: People really live like this?
And somehow, the inn set the tone for the entire town.
Exeter was wonderfully walkable, with the kind of quirky little shops you hope to stumble across in a small town, including a local bookstore that practically demanded a browse.
There was the picture-perfect Town Hall, looking as though a Founding Father might wander down the steps at any moment. A gazebo and green space along Swasey Parkway. The Squamscott River winding through town, with old brick mill buildings along its banks giving a glimpse of Exeter's industrial past.
We wandered. We ate well. We stopped for ice cream by the river. And for a little while, there was nowhere in particular we needed to be.
Maybe that's what I loved most.
Exeter wasn't a destination I'd spent months dreaming about. There wasn't a checklist of famous sights waiting for us. It was simply one of those places that invited you to slow down and notice it.
The porch at sunset.
The wallpaper on the stairs.
The bookstore you didn't know existed.
An ice cream by the water.
Little details that somehow become the memory of a place.
My biggest regret?
I wish we'd had another day.
Not every memorable destination announces itself with a famous landmark or a bucket-list reputation.
Sometimes you arrive somewhere almost by accident and leave thinking, I'd like a little more of that.
Exeter did that for me.
🧳 Travel Tips
Choose the Experience You'll Remember
When you're looking at tours and excursions, it's easy to ask:
“Which one is the best?”
I'd ask a different question:
“What do I want to remember about this place?”
Do you want to taste it?
Learn its history?
Get outside?
See the iconic sights?
Meet people?
Slow down and soak it in?
Do something you've never done before?
The excursion with the most stops isn't automatically the best one. Neither is the most expensive, most popular or longest.
Two travelers can visit the same destination and come home with completely different favorite memories because they experienced it differently.
That's why I look at more than the itinerary when I'm helping someone choose.
The right experience is the one that fits the traveler.
On My Planning Radar
Winter Break Isn't That Far Away
I know. We just started talking about pumpkins and now I'm bringing up winter break.
But if your household has been saying:
“We should go somewhere over winter break…”
…it may be time to turn somewhere into an actual plan.
Holiday travel naturally comes with less flexibility for many families. School calendars dictate dates, popular destinations draw more travelers, and everyone seems to want to leave at approximately the same time.
That doesn't mean you need to panic-book something.
It does mean September is a very reasonable time to stop procrastinating.
If winter travel is still sitting in the we should really figure that out category, Honeycomb Hollow Travel Co. can help match the people, timing and priorities to a trip that actually makes sense.
🍯 Sweet Find
Chasing the Northern Lights
There are some travel moments you can plan down to the minute.
Seeing the Northern Lights isn't one of them.
When I was in Alaska, Space Weather Live was recommended to me for tracking aurora activity. It gives you a lot of information, but it's also fairly technical.
Perhaps more information than this particular Travel Matchmaker wants to decipher while standing outside in the cold staring hopefully at the sky.
I've since found My Aurora Forecast & Alerts, which takes much of the information I'm looking for and presents it in a much more approachable way.
The app includes aurora forecasts, viewing probability based on your location, maps, activity information and alerts that can help you know when conditions may be worth watching.
In other words, useful information without making me feel as though I accidentally enrolled in an astrophysics class.
That's a win for me.
But I'm not giving it the full Honeycomb Hollow Travel Co. seal of approval quite yet.
I'm headed to Norway in November, and I'm hoping to see the Northern Lights.
So My Aurora Forecast & Alerts is coming with me.
Ask me again after Norway.
For now, it's winning the beauty contest on my phone.
DARCY’S MATCHMAKING CORNER
Are You Travel Compatible?
You found the perfect travel companion.
They're funny. They're adventurous. You love spending time together.
There's just one tiny problem.
You think vacation mornings begin at 7:00 a.m.
They think 7:00 a.m. is something that happens to other people.
Welcome to travel compatibility.
Try this unofficial compatibility check:
Early bird or do not speak before coffee?
Everything scheduled or let's see where the day takes us?
Three-hour dinner or grab something and keep moving?
Museum person or pool person?
Together all day or I'll meet you back here for dinner?
Checked suitcase or carry-on evangelist?
Here's the good news:
You don't have to travel the same way to travel well together.
You do need to understand where you're different.
Some of the happiest group, family and couples trips aren't the ones where everyone wants to do everything together. They're the ones where expectations were clear enough that nobody feels guilty for sleeping in, wandering off to a museum, skipping an excursion or ordering room service while everyone else goes out.
Travel matchmaking isn't only about matching you to the right destination.
Sometimes it's about designing the trip so the people you love still like each other when they come home.
✍🏻 ONE MORE THING…Harvesting Memories
I started this month's note with a memory I can't show you.
There isn't a selfie of me sneaking around Stars Hollow that first day. No photo of the moment I spotted Luke's. No evidence of how ridiculously excited I was to see that Gilmore mailbox.
But I remember it.
And that's the funny thing about travel.
We can plan where we're going. We can choose the hotel, reserve the tour and make the dinner reservation.
We can't always predict which moment will become the memory.
It might be the famous view you've waited years to see.
Or it might be ice cream by the water in a New Hampshire town you only visited for one night.
The smell of garlic drifting out of a kitchen.
A meal you still talk about.
A ridiculous latte you spend years trying to replace.
A quiet evening on a front porch.
Or an accidental wrong turn that puts you exactly where you didn't know you wanted to be.
So plan thoughtfully.
Choose experiences that matter to you.
Take the picture when you can.
Eat the elephant ear.
Order the seasonal latte.
And leave a little room for the moments you never saw coming.
📧 Email [email protected] to start your next journey!
Until next time, keep gathering moments worth remembering. 🐝