Exploring Salem: Day One

[Ever been to Salem, MA? Me neither. Fortunately, Jessica Tennant of My Path to Mommyhood took a road trip there this summer from her home in upstate New York and is telling us all about it! –S]

My husband Bryce and I go to Maine every summer. There is nothing quite so beautiful as coastal Maine, and we get to see many different parts of the state because my in-laws live in the capital area, which is central to just about everything.

It just takes a REALLY long time to get there, so we’ve started stopping partway on the way there and the way back, which gives us the added benefit of exploring New England.

Weekend in Salem

This year, we decided on a romantic weekend in Salem, Massachusetts to break up the trip to Maine.

I had actually never been to Salem before, which is a shame. Salem is a tremendously kooky town, full of serious and tragic history (ahem, witch trials) as well as an affinity for ghosties, ghoulies, and all things Halloween, and a literary history involving Nathaniel Hawthorne and H.P. Lovecraft. It has cobblestone streets, tremendously old houses, and a red line painted throughout town called the Heritage Trail – following it sends you past many interesting historical attractions.

Bed and Breakfast

We stayed in The Coach House Inn, a bed and breakfast on Lafayette Street. It was built as a Victorian ship captain’s house in 1879. The inn was great, the innkeeper was very helpful and hospitable, and the breakfasts were continental and came in a Red-Riding-Hood style basket to your door at 8:30 in the morning, like magic.

One thing about the Coach House that wasn’t so great was the location. It was right on the street that leads you straight into historic Salem, but, to get there, you had to walk through a fairly sketchy (and, as we heard from locals, heroin-plagued) section of town. We walked once and used Uber to go home and then took advantage of street parking after that…so if you don’t mind driving instead of walking, it’s perfectly lovely.

Geek Pizza

Our favorite place to eat was Flying Saucer Pizza Company, which sounds like a strange choice for me as a person with Celiac disease, but it had delicious and safe gluten-free options. AND, it was decked out in art and action figures and all kinds of paraphernalia from Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, the Avengers, Ghostbusters…it was a terrifically geeky place! All the pizzas were named after various things from sci-fi, and they have a Space Pug, Charlie, who is their mascot.

I had The Vision pizza, TWICE (for dinner the first night and lunch the next day, because it was THAT GOOD), which had walnut pesto, cheese blend, fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and balsamic fig. Does that not sound amazing? The regular pizza was excellent too, with Bryce mumbling “This is THE BEST pizza I have EVER HAD” to the server with his mouth full of a Hawaiian-style pizza with jalapeño peppers.

Ghost Tour

It was an appropriately thunderstormy night for a ghost tour with Black Cat Tours. Our guide was dressed in old-timey clothing and delivered a great mix of historical and paranormal tales. He brought us through the burying ground, past an original house that was restored and, apparently, has a very Ring-like ghost of a girl who was quarantined in the attic for having scarlet fever and peeks out the windows.

Giles Corey

There was a section of the burying ground that had stone benches jutting from a stone wall, with each bench etched with one of the names of the witch trial victims and the date of their death.

All were hanged except one – Giles Corey, who was accused of witchcraft in his 80s (but, lest you think he’s a good guy, he also accused his wife), and knew that if he was convicted or confessed he would lose his property to pay for his time in jail (yup, they had to pay for their meals and everything they got in the deplorable jail conditions themselves). He refused to confess or consent to be tried. He was tortured to death through “pressing” – they lay a board on him laden with more and more stone weights every time he refused to consent.

Although he died, he saved his property from confiscation this way, and now you know what it really means to be pressed for an answer (!)

Supposedly, he haunted the head of law enforcement who had him arrested, hanging out at the end of his bed and causing chest pains.

Favorite Haunts

We also learned of an angry divorcee ghost who haunts the space where they have weddings and dances and other events, tries to push people down the stairs, and wreaks havoc on art displays, stomping around the top floor and going down invisible stairs that don’t exist anymore to frighten people on the first floor.

We didn’t personally see any of the ghosts, but thought the tour was fabulously spooky and informative. (Who knew the inspiration for The Tell-Tale Heart was a real-life murder of a stingy old captain by his caretaker right there in Salem?) I am a sucker for a good ghost tour, and this one was atmospheric and not corny at all.

So much to do and see in the first day, how could our second day in Salem compare?

[Part 2 is coming up on Monday!]

Photos –
1, 2, 6: Jessica Tennant.
5: Doug Kerr on Flickr, color corrected. CCL.
3, 4, 7: Robert Linsdell on Flickr, color corrected. CCL.

June 30, 2016

California Citrus Historic State Park

On the way home from Anaheim last year, we discovered the loveliest park, made a friend, tried some amazing citrus, and learned a little history.

And it all started with a craving for donuts.

Corona

The donut shops around our hotel were partly to blame, but what really did it is stopping for gas late Sunday afternoon on our way back to Phoenix and noticing a vintage sign across the street that said “Donut Pantry”.

Sadly, it was closed, as were the other 3 donut shops we found driving around the town of Corona. But by then, we had decided donuts and a cup of coffee would be essential for our drive home.

Riverside

So Phillip got back on the freeway, and I got on Yelp. There was a listing for a place in Riverside, just past an intriguing big green rhombus on the map called Citrus Historic State Park.

Before we even got there, however, Phillip saw Mister Blue’s Donut Shop (open 24 hours) and we pulled in. We got an apple fritter, chocolate cream donut, and a large coffee to go and went to check out the Citrus Park.

California Citrus Historic State Park

The gate was open but there was no one around. We drove in past orchards of citrus trees, parked near some rustic wooden picnic tables and enjoyed our donuts and coffee. The donuts were great. The coffee was drinkable.

Just past the picnic tables, behind some hedges, Phillip discovered a rose garden with a dry fountain in the middle.

Across the parking lot was a visitors’ center that had closed at 4pm. We wandered around the back and saw more picnic tables, (locked) restrooms, and a pair of rotund black and white guinea fowl that seemed quite at home. There was a trail that wound up a hill between young avocado trees, but we didn’t want to stay too long.

Ranger Samuel

We were headed for our car when an official-looking truck pulled up. I assumed we were about to get yelled at for being there after hours or not having a parking permit or something.

Instead, Ranger Raphael Samuel handed us a park brochure, assured us it didn’t close until 7, and asked if we had questions.

He seemed truly disappointed we weren’t able to enjoy the park to the full extent. “I just wish you had been here earlier when the visitors’ center was open.” He explained how volunteers not only run the visitors’ center but lead weekend tasting tours where visitors learn about the citrus trees and sample fruit. If you like it, you pick some to take home.

We chatted about California/citrus history, traffic, and the Star Wars convention we had just attended. When he realized we were from out of town and wouldn’t be able to come back for the next weekend’s tour, he couldn’t let us leave without showing us around and picking some fruit for us to taste. His favorite tree had a variety of oranges that were sweet and complex and unlike anything I’ve tasted.

We’re hoping to stop back by for the full tour next time we’re in California!

– More Info –

Citrus Historic State Park

Parking is $5 per vehicle.
Park is open 7 days a week, 8am to at least 5pm, depending on the season.
Visitor Center, Museum & Gift Shop hours are Friday through Sunday, 10am to 4pm.
“Tour and Tastes” are most Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30am, 12:00pm, and 2:00pm.

Riverside, California is about 45 minutes east of Anaheim. In addition to being the site of Citrus Historic State Park and at least two 24-hour donut shops, it’s known for the historic Mission Inn. The hotel is the size of a city block, and you can see its mission bell logo stamped into the concrete freeway walls as you pass the city.

March 24, 2016March 23, 2016

Michelangelo in Draft

By the time he was 37, Michelangelo was finishing up painting the Sistine Chapel.

Um, reading that kinda made me wonder what I’ve done in my life.

I was at the Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum with my mom and art-history-major aunt looking at a collection of his drawings. They were drafts, really, studies for later works, mostly in thin lines of red or black chalk – but still breathtaking.

These permanent works-in-progress normally reside in Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy, but 26 of them are on tour and have made a stop in Phoenix.

Usually, when you see artwork, you see the final product. It is a complete thing: a painting, a sculpture. It’s easy to forget it didn’t just leap fully formed from the artist’s head.

In these drawings, you see so much more of the process – an arm sketched in multiple positions, geometric lines that determined the position of a face, an architectural drawing on the back of a letter.

Maybe like the Renaissance equivalent of cocktail napkin sketches, or, as Cammy Brothers of the Wall Street Journal put it: “Masterpieces on a Shopping List.”

After circling through the exhibition, I felt a bit better. Even this great idealist had projects that had to be simplified due to budget constraints. And works that were never completed. And more ideas than he had time for.

Even Michelangelo started with rough drafts.

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The Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane exhibition will be at the Phoenix Art Museum through this Sunday, March 27.

March 17, 2016February 13, 2019

Mounds State Park

Sharing some green with you today from Indiana last summer, specifically from Mounds State Park in Anderson.

The Mounds

Mounds State Park is named for mounds of earth built around 160 BCE by a culture known as the Adena-Hopewell, famous for pottery and mad mound-building skills.

Actually, they could’ve been two separate cultures, the Adena building the Mounds and the Hopewell leaving their more advanced stuff around later. Or the Adena could’ve just gotten Hopewell-levels of advanced over time.

If there’s a new car outside your friend’s house, is someone visiting or did your friend just get a new car? Way harder to clear that up when your friend is 2000 years in the past. So I guess hyphenating the two names is a way to hedge archaeological bets.

Why were they built? Maybe the Adena built them for ceremonies and then they were used for burials by the Hopewell (who may or may not just be the Adena 200 years later). The truth is we’re not sure what all people back then were into.

What we do know is that someone (ok, a lot of someones) purposefully dug out and built up earth a couple millennia ago into mounds you can still see today.

There are 10 of these earthworks in Mounds State Park, and they tend to be crater-like, with the mounded outsides surrounding a depression with a platform in the center.

The largest one has dents in it that align with the equinox, solstices, and rising of certain stars. Known as “the Great Mound,” it is 9 feet tall and has a quarter-mile circumference. So, yeah, whatever the Adena-Hopewell were up to, they were not messing around.

The Park

The visitors’ center has displays about the park’s ecosystem and a floor map of how the Mounds align with various astronomical phenomena.

Its observation room has chairs facing oversized windows, giving you a front row view of a pond, birdhouse, and a thick stand of trees, so you can watch for birds or frogs or maybe even deer.

Outside is a cute little children’s garden.

Also at the park is the historic brick Bronnenberg House, which dates from 1840. Compared to the Mounds, though, that seems like new construction.

The White River cuts through the park, and you can fish, as well as camp, hike or picnic. There are trails of varying difficulty levels winding around the Mounds.

Our Visit

Since we were in town for a family reunion, Phillip and I got to visit the park with my uncle, who’s been going there since he was a kid, and my cousin Allison, who made sure to photobomb the butterfly video I was shooting in the pollinator garden.

A video posted by stephanieliebold (@stephanieliebold) on Jul 6, 2015 at 2:24pm PDT

We started down trail #1 towards the Great Mound and met a harrowed-looking hiker coming from that direction, who asked if we had insect repellent – not to borrow it for himself but to make sure we were protected.

As we approached the boardwalk, we found out why. The mosquitoes were out in force that day. Despite our deet, they didn’t seem to be deterred. I could barely stop long enough to snap a photo without those tiny vampires swarming towards my neck and head.

I wrapped my scarf over my head and tucked my arms inside. Allison laughed at me, but I’m pretty sure it was just that she was jealous of my scarf/mosquito net and not that I looked ridiculous.

We cut our hike short after seeing the Great Mound.

We drove to a spot near the river, where the guys wanted to explore some more. Allison and I decided to take in the scenery from the safety of the car.

I wonder how the Adena kept the mosquitoes away.

January 19, 2016May 23, 2023

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

Yesterday was a free entrance day for US National Parks, and there are several more scheduled this year.

One of the first fee-free days we took advantage of fell on the same day as our nieces’ dance recital a few years ago. We searched “find a park” and saw that there was one – not exactly on the way – but in the right general direction.

Even though it’s just an hour south of Phoenix, I had never been to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Coolidge (not, incidentally, in the town of Casa Grande). Phillip hadn’t been since he was a kid, so we planned a pre-recital detour.

The “big house” it’s named for is a centuries-old adobe structure that’s still standing, now covered by a large metal roof constructed in 1932 to help protect it. Parts of walls from the surrounding complex remain, as well as an oval ball court.

It’s always fascinating to confront history like that and think about people living their lives within those same walls 600 years ago.

And then we went to watch our nieces dance their hearts out.

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