Here we offer 10 fun things to do in New England during leaf-peeping season.

1. Go antiquing. The roads and small towns of New England are dotted with antiques shops, where you'll find everything from butter churns and painted furniture to collectible pottery and vintage record albums. But if you're more than a casual browser, New Hampshire's Antique Alley (www.nhantiquealley.com) has about 24 stores with more than 500 dealers. The alley is along a 20-mile stretch of Route 4 that runs through farmland west of Portsmouth and east of Concord.

2. Sample cheese. Artisanal cheesemaking is booming in Vermont, which has nearly 40 cheesemakers who create fromage from the milk of cows, sheep and goats. The Vermont Cheese Trail (www.vtcheese.com) runs the length of the state and includes about 15 cheesemakers, who invite the public in for tastings and sometimes demonstrations. Be sure to call ahead and see whether they're open - most are small operations and can't always accommodate drop-in tasters.

3. Celebrate the harvest. It's harvest season, and New England offers dozens of festivals to celebrate it. Here's just a sampling:

Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Harvest Festival, Oct. 11-12 (www.cranberries.org).

Gilfeather Turnip Festival, Waldsboro, Vt., Oct. 25 (www.friendsofwardsborolibrary.org).

Great Maine Apple Day, Unity, Maine, Oct. 18 (www.mofga.org).

4. Scale the heights. New Hampshire's Mount Washington, at 6,288 feet, is the highest point in the Northeast, and offers breathtaking views on a clear day. By "clear day," we mean a clear day at the peak, where conditions can vary from what you see at the base. Drive the eight miles, or take a van tour to the top, if fog, hairpin turns, sheer drops, and a lack of guardrails don't bother you (www.mountwashingtonautoroad.com). Otherwise, hike it, or try one of the other peaks in the Presidential Range - there are nine higher than 5,000 feet.

5. Learn to bake. Those of us who love to bake know King Arthur Flour (www.kingarthurflour.com) as the source of specialty flours and baking equipment. But its store in Norwich, Vt., is also a fine place for a novice baker to learn the basics or for a veteran to brush up on advanced skills. Adult half-day classes include baking pies, cakes and bread, but in the fall, the school offers autumn pastas and pies made with autumn fruits. There are classes for kids, too.

6. See one-of-a-kind museums. Tour museums you won't see anywhere else. You can find more at state tourism Web sites, but here are a few to get you started:

Antique cartoon toys and drawings at Fawcett's Antique Toy Museum in Waldoboro, Maine

(http://home.gwi.net/~fawcetoy).

Landscape murals by Rufus Porter at the eponymous museum in Bridgton, Maine, where he spent his childhood

(www.rufusportermuseum.org).

A working schooner and a replica gunboat at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, Vt.

(www.lcmm.org).

7. Sip the grape. Try the rieslings, gewurztraminers and dessert wines that do well in places with short growing seasons, but also be sure to sample idiosyncratic wines from local grapes, like Cayuga and Niagara, that you won't find at your local liquor store. Upstate New York's Finger Lakes region (www.visitfingerlakes.com) has nearly 100 wineries. Massachusetts (www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/wineries.htm) has 24. Maine and Vermont also have several wineries.

8. Cross that bridge. Vermont has 107 covered bridges (www.vtonly.com/brdgmap.htm) - some maintained well enough to support traffic, others neglected to the point that they are closed. The bridges were covered to protect the wooden trusses that support them from the elements, but the roofs also provided unexpected benefits. Covered bridges were also called "kissing bridges" because they offered a couple in a horse and buggy time and privacy for at least one kiss. New Hampshire and New York also have some covered bridges.

9. Take to the water. Most water-related activities close after Labor Day, but a few remain open til mid- to late October, including: