Photo A Day #104 Boston, Marblehead and Salem

After our time in Rhode Island, we headed back north to see some more of Massachusetts. I admit this isn't the most economical way to travel, but we took too long getting to RI and had to backtrack to Marblehead. As much as I love spontaneity, the ordeal of stumbling into a small town, not wanting to stay in any chain hotels and not having internet proved difficult and stressful at times. I ended up booking a couple of days in advance around this time to alleviate the stress.

This beautiful ship was probably my favorite thing in Salem. I wasn't exactly keen on visiting Salem as I'm not into the idea that the whole town is associated with the witch trials. I'm fascinated with the history, and I love a good horror themed museum, but it was a little much for me. Perhaps I wasn't in the right frame of mind. It was such a beautiful town, it seems a shame that the residents have to deal with the witch trials forever. We visited the House of the Seven Gables and did the tourist thing. We also popped into the Peabody Essex Museum, which was pretty nice, they had a Man Ray exhibition on, which was interesting I guess. (you know sometimes you find out too much about an artist and they lose their appeal a little?)

The fog of Boston

When we passed through Boston, we stopped into Bobby From Boston to check out the gorgeous menswear vintage range he has collated. C finally, finally acquired a pair of boots. Bobby was a real character and is friends with the owners of two of my favorite vintage clothing shops, Beyond Retro in London and Retro Star in Melbourne. Bobby said we could go to his warehouse and check out the stock in there, which had a lot more ladies items. I was so excited to have the chance to rifle through his stash! It was on our way to Marblehead, so we gave it a go. After driving around what seemed like a pretty dicey neighborhood, we parked the car and started searching on foot. I was sneaking peeks on my google maps on my phone trying to be inconspicuous. (I finally got a sim card in Boston so I had internet at last!) But we were in a vortex of streets with the same name and no numbers, and even with directions from locals, we were completely lost and gave up. Better luck next time I guess.

In what seemed like seconds, we were out of the suburbs of Boston and in Marblehead. I think Boston has sprawled so much that they are now joined. But Marblehead is still a quaint seaside town, and you would never know that you are so close to Boston and Salem. The picture above was the view from our porch. Such a peaceful and beautiful place, and a little eerie.

After a delicious dinner, C took me up to Old Burial Hill and we ate our pie in the gazebo overlooking the town. The cemetery here is so old, and the headstones jut out at all angles. It's quite a relaxing place. This was another location written about by Lovecraft in his story The Festival, which you can read online for free :)

The houses in Marblehead are so fascinating. There are many that seem jammed together, and others standing in the middle of a street (really!) It's like the houses were there forever and everything grew around them in the strangest ways. It was (is!) a beautiful place.

As you can see, the rainy weather continued, but it was so lovely.

Kitty
xo