Jacqueline’s Jaunts

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

September 01, 2022, Thursday, Salem, Massachusetts Part I

Salem, Massachusetts

Part 1

JTH Steps 10,168

The Salem Ferry it was bigger than I
thought it was going to be

Today we went to Salem via Ferry. The first ferry left at 9:30 so we decided to walk down to Starbucks, get a coffee and pastry. We sat in an area with tables and again enjoyed the view, we can't get enough of it. It was a beautiful day and we couldn't have been more lucky. The ferry ride was about an hour to Salem and follows the shore. You also can see the ship lanes marked by buoys all along the route. Even though it was morning everyone on the ship was in shorts and short sleeves. The entire trip we could see huge houses along the coastline. They must get hammered during a storm. I can't even imagine.

Deck we waited for our ferry while
enjoying our Starbucks. Look how clean it is!

Even the littles were in short
sleeves it was so nice

Coastline view all the way to Salem

Large homes along the coastline

Our ferry arrived at 10:30 AM and we had an 11:00 AM tour scheduled at the House of the Seven Gables, the home Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about. Once we landed we needed to make our way to the house promptly to make our tour. Again, who decided on these early morning tours.....meeee but don't tell anyone. We arrived in plenty of time and was able to walk around a bit. Our tour guide was quite the character, with some sarcasm I found amusing. Nathaniel Hawthorne's cousin, Susan Ingersoll, became the owner after her sea captain father died at sea. She never married because she would lose her wealth....smart woman for the times. We got to walk up the "secret door" stairs to another room. It was added onto the house later because she thought it was cool, not the word used then. It has 17 rooms and 8,000 square feet. It's the oldest colonial mansion in North America. I loved this tour and the gardens. Beautiful property. The ocean views from the windows were priceless. I especially loved the diamond shaped window panes. I know there are many photos posted of this house but there is nothing like touring yourself and taking your own photos. I took many photos and had a hard time deciding what to post. These are my choices below and hope you appreciate them.

Garden View of the home

Garden outside the house

View of the ocean from the garden

Apothecary room but I think this would
be a great craft room!

Diagonal windows I love

The House from the garden

Nicely hidden liquor closet

One of the children's' room but they also used
this room to entertain which is an interesting concept

The secret stairway-If you look closely you can
see how small the stairs are

Our next stop was Nathaniel Hawthorne's home he was born in. He didn't live there long and it was moved next to the House with the Seven Gables much later when the Hawthorne Hotel was built. The house sat on the site the new hotel was being built on. This home was much smaller so this was a self guided tour. So cool to see these old colonial homes in person after only seeing them online.

Home was built circa 1750

Front of the house

Information about the house

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Children

His son died in San Francisco in 1934
and I wonder where he is buried?

The room Nathaniel was born in

These stairs are wider than any
in the Seven Gable house

Monday, September 5, 2022

August 31, 2022 Wednesday, Boston, Massachusetts , Liberty Clipper Cruise

Liberty Clipper Cruise

JTH Steps 10,003

This gives you an idea of the area we walked.
Our hotel is in the red square at the bottom.

We slept in this morning and it felt so good. I was a little sore from our walking tour yesterday. Showered and headed down for breakfast. After, we headed to the Boston Tea Party Exhibition across Fort Point Channel, just outside our hotel. We decided just to walk through the gift shop because the exhibit was geared toward kids. Great little shop. I only bought postcards. They didn't sell stamps but one block away was the post office. Pretty darn convenient! Made our little trek to get stamps and back to our room to drop off stuff.

Boston Tea Party Experience

We headed down to Boston Harbor and walked along the water the whole way. Just so awesome to be able to enjoy this beautiful weather we are having in Boston. We have been told it's unusual but we will take it. We found the dock where we will be boarding the clipper ship and she was docked so we were able to see her before the trip.

What a beautiful ship, the outside was painted green and beautiful wood work on the deck. We found a sign that gave her specs, built in 1982 and others. She has 2 masts about 108 feet each. We still had time before our cruise so we walked to the bar area on the wharf. I've decided that Bostonian's don't know how to make a margarita.

Specs information

Before we boarded our ship the captain introduced himself and gave an entertaining talk on using TP and a few other points. Once on board he gave another talk on safety and using a life jacket...and we are off.

Once out in the bay volunteers were asked to help hoist the sales and Barry helped. It was fascinating to see the process and the sailors explained each step. The sailors live on the boat and some help move the boat to the Bahamas after their summer here in Boston. You can also pay for staying on the boat while it sails to the Bahamas. Might be a great experience.

Barry help hoist the sails with other guests. He said it was fun but can't imagine doing it all day long. It was windy most of the time we were out and hearing the wind in the sails was something I have never experienced before.

Below are photos of Boston Harbor from the clipper ship. Such a different view of the city. We also passed by an old wharf area on the other side of the bay. The wood was rotting and didn't look at all safe. According to one of the sailors, this was the wharf area the Victory Ships sailed into during World War II. For me this was one of the highlights of the day. We also saw a seaplane land not to far off our starboard bow. Apparently it's a commuter plane. What a way to commute to work. We arrived back at the dock right at 5:00 PM. What a fun experience.

We decided to eat an early dinner and headed for Legal Sea Foods at the end of Long Wharf. We ate outside and the warm evening weather made it so enjoyable. We both loved our meals. We headed back to the hotel. We needed to be up early tomorrow for our ferry ride to Salem.

Legal Sea Foods

Boston Harbor Hotel at Rowes Wharf

Looking through Portholes

Custom House Tower

I don't know what this building is but

I like the architecture

On the Liberty Clipper

August 30, 2022 Tuesday, Boston, Massachusetts, Walking Tour

Boston, Massachusetts

Freedom Trail Tour

JTH Steps 19,760

Getting up this morning was difficult but we did it. Showers felt good and rejuvenating. Downstairs for breakfast. Busy restaurant. You could tell it was the working crowd. The majority of the people looked like they were all in their thirties....or we are getting old. We both agreed we do not miss working. It was fascinating to watch the interactions. Called for an Uber and headed to Boston Commons. We went into the Visitor Center and asked where the Robert Gould Shaw memorial is. We were to meet our tour guide there. We headed up a slight incline, past a bunch of purple flags to the top of the hill. The flags were in memory of the amount of people who have died of opioid overdoses in Boston. When you see the amount of flags it hits your heart.

Small Purple Flags on the Boston Common.
Each flag represents a person.

Robert Shaw Memorial

Found shade by the Robert Shaw memorial to wait for our tour guide. Read the words on the memorial and discussed the movie Glory. Barry has not seen it. I will never forget Denzel Washington's performance. This movie was great and so emotional for me I could not watch it again.

This tour is about a three hour walk. We walked up a few hills and stairs so if you plan on taking a Freedom Trail Walking Tour or do a self-guided tour just be aware. It is well worth it. The amount of history you learn is incredible. We went through Trip Advisor to book this tour and it was done by the Cambridge Historical Tours Inc. Our tour guide was Rob Crean (not misspelled). He was very entertaining and I'm sure embellished a few things.

Our guide was on time and got us going. We started at a tree that was the oldest in the common and not far from where they hung people in the early days of Boston. A few highlights below and in no way includes all the sites we stopped at.

Boston Common is the oldest public park in the United States (1634) outside the Park St. Subway Station, the first subway in the United States (1897). It was used from 1634 to 1830 as a common space for the grazing of cattle.

Old Corner Bookstore is the oldest commercial building in Boston. It's now a Chipotle restaurant. Built in 1718 and was first an Apothecary shop. In 1828 in became a bookstore and publishing house. It published people like Nathaniel Hawthorne, and some of our founding fathers. So sad it's a Chipotle. I don't have a photo of this. I just couldn't bring myself to take one.

Paul Revere's Grav

Granary Burying Ground dates back to 1660. Some of our most famous people are buried here, John Hancock, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams. Samuel Adams' grave is the first row closes to the street and right across the street is the Bean Town Pub. This is the only pub in Boston you can drink a cold Sam Adams beer while viewing Samuel Adams' grave.

Paul Revere's House - home to our famous patriot.
A lot of it is still original.

Copp's Hill Burying Ground

Copp's Hill Burying Ground is Boston's largest colonial burying ground and dates to 1659. This site was

used by the British to fire their cannons on Bunker Hill. The man responsible for building the USS Constitution, Edmund Hartt, is buried here. Beautiful view of the harbor.

Would love to come back and be able to go inside some of the buildings we walked by, especially the different churches.

Waiting for our drinks at the Dirty Crab

We decided to try the Dirty Crab across the bridge so we headed that way. We didn't have to wait and seated right away. What a great place to eat and hang out. Outdoor looked great but the inside looked fun. This restaurant was just a big open air tent. In the winter the sides roll down. I had my first lobster roll and it was yummy. The bread was so light it didn't even seem like I was eating bread. I try not to eat much bread. Barry had clam chowder and crab cakes and he loved both. The ceiling was hung with lobster traps and lights everywhere. A bunch of signs, metal and wood, hung all around. One said, "Don't ask us to turn down the music. Your request will be respectfully denied. This is not your living room or your company!" Another one said, "If you came here just to drink, please leave!" LOL LOL LOL LOL

Below are photos from our walk back to our hotel.

After dinner we sat behind the hotel with glasses of wine and just watched the evening pass by. There is an awesome area behind the hotel with tables and chairs, sofas out on the lawns and benches all along the Fort Point Channel. Just a beautiful setting.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

August 29, 2022 Monday, Oakland, California to Boston, Massachusetts

Oakland International Airport

Boston Logan Airport

JTH Steps 5,478

We left this morning for an entire day of flying to Boston. Our flight left on time at 9:40 AM. We had 2 stops, Santa Barbara, California and Denver, Colorado, and not changing plans. All stops were on time and leaving each airport was on time. We arrived in Boston around 9:45 PM, bathroom stop and onto the baggage claim area. We went to the taxi area and climbed into a non-yellow taxi. Onto the Intercontinental Hotel. Checked in and the hotel restaurants were closed. One of the hosts that checked us in recommended we do Uber Eats. We ordered a chicken quesadilla and fries. It's funny we had to come all the way to Boston to order our first Uber Eats meal. But luck was on our side and we were able to use a $20 off coupon for our first Uber Eats order. Food arrived around midnight and the quesadilla was great but the the fries were soggy....oh well. We hit the hay about 20 minutes later. We have a walking tour tomorrow at 10:30 and we have to be at Boston Commons around 10:15 AM plus eat breakfast. Who's idea was this anyway?