As the annual fall foliage season draws to an end, hundreds of "leaf-peepers" are still flocking to Hanover to take in a last glimpse of the brilliant autumn colors.
Pat Bourke and Betty Conlogue, two leaf-peepers from New Jersey, stood on the Green Tuesday, with their cameras focused on Baker Tower. The two were taking a brief break from their week-long tour, which has already led them through Vermont and New Hampshire.
"I've always wanted to see the New England foliage," Bourke said. "This is the picture of tranquillity right here."
Both women said they find the trip very relaxing, and called it an opportunity to get away from the hectic pace of everyday life.
Bill and Maureen Billiter also took a break from their foliage tour on Tuesday to stop and eat lunch on the Green.
"We're from Huntington Beach, Calif., and we've always wanted to see the Northeast," Bill Billiter said. "Now that we've got our children educated, we had the opportunity."
"There's such a crazy quilt of colors," Maureen Billiter said.
Also out on the Green on Tuesday were the 46 other senior citizens that are touring through New England with Bourke and Conlogue as part of a trip run by Tauck Tours.
Most of the so-called "leaf-peepers," who are from states as far away as California, Texas and Nebraska, came to Hanover with their spouses.
"There are only about five of us who are alone," Conlogue said.
According to Scotty Johnston, Tauck's sales director, the company runs about 350 to 400 tours each fall.
"Most of them are not specifically designated as fall foliage tours, but that is pretty much what they become, since everyone wants to look at the foliage," Johnston said.
Johnston said the majority of people who go on the tours are from the West, Southwest and South.
He said people come to New England to see a "natural wonder of the world," just as many New Englanders travel to see the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
But Tauck Tours is just one of many companies that offer fall foliage tours. Barbara Fromme, of New Braufels, Texas, came with the Boston-based Jim Muluihill travel agency.
"We go out for a drive every day," Fromme said, "and go back to Boston every night."
Fromme said everyone on her trip is from Texas.
"The senior citizen group in New Braufels told us about the tour, so we're pretty much from the same area," said Ann Muschalek, another member of the Muluihill tour.
Fromme said she came on the tour for a change of scenery and was impressed by the colors.
"The reds are absolutely magnificent," she said.
Not every leaf-peeper chooses to come to New England with a tour group.
Peter and Shirley Osborne, from England, came on their own for a six-day excursion.
"We're independent and we like that," Peter Osborne said. "We can stop when we want and stay as long as we like."
Besides being armed with cameras and maps, the large number of people who come to Hanover to look at the fall foliage is a boom to local businesses.
"The Hanover Inn is full," said Jamie Birmingham, the Inn's sales director. "We could double the size of the hotel and still be full. It's the busiest time of the year, outside of Commencement and Reunion. Rocio Manoscal, who works at Traditionally Trendy on Main Street, said the store's business increases by about 20 percent in the autumn months due to the leaf-peepers.
