Well the weekend did not quite go according to plan. (What ever does?) Instead of just working in the morning Saturday I worked the better part of the day. I did get to enjoy a nice dinner in Quincy at what is becoming my favorite Mexican Restaurant - La Paloma.
Its small and unassuming but its got great food, and some of the best Margarita's I've ever had. My favorite (because its the only one I order) is the Pepper-ita! Its a got everything you would expect to find in a regular one but with the addition of Tequila that has had Jalapenos fermenting in it. The result is a sweet, salty, sour, spicy drink that goes down well. Seriously almost like kool-aid but with a kick!
Sunday though we had originally planned to go to Newport, but those plans were changed when we discovered that the store we had wanted to visit was not quite what we wanted when we checked it out online. So we tabled that trip for another time. We did head up to Salem. Now I have never been to Salem so I was a bit curious about what goes on up there. To my surprise however the answer was, not much. Or at least not much right now. It was really quiet. There were a lot of shops and we checked out quite a few but I have to be honest. I understand and support Wicca as a religion, but it does nothing for the cause when you sell fake blood, fangs and fake dog poo. Don't get me wrong there were a few stores that did seem authentic but for the most part it was all very commercial.
Another thing I noticed was the proliferation of herbs all over the place. I know there are "magical" qualities that are suppose to come from them, but those are based roughly on the medicinal benefits you get from them. One would take the herbs and fashion a tea, tincture or salve from them and apply as needed and directed. No its not magic its actually science. Where do you think the pills in the bottle came from. Alot of them are chemicals these days but medicines were once made from nature so its not as strange as it may sound. Where am I going with this? Well the herbs I saw all around were all sealed up, but it was quite obvious they may have been packaged during the Nixon administration. What once was dried green, is now brown dust. At this point I doubt they would be any benefit to anyone. By now all the essential oils, and medicinal properties these items once had are long gone, so I would think that it would reason that so would its "magical" properties.
Maybe I just realized how to make a buck off all those old spices I was just going to through away.
After we stopped by The House of Seven Gables. I took some photos. One of the house and one of the view from the house. It was next door to the birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who personally is not my favorite author but I can appreciate his work. He spent time in the house growing up and lead to him writing the story of the same name.
For lunch we stopped by Woodman's in Essex. Its rumored to be the place where Fried Clams were invented. I have yet to find the truth to that but I do know they make a damn fine clam. Just about everything is award winning and its all homemade. From Onion Rings to Shrimp its all fresh and its all fried golden goodness. I skipped out on my usually Clam Chowder, I know I know! I get the clam chowder, wherever I go. Just not today and not here. I was not feeling it. Besides as I am beginning to discover this is New England, you can't go two feet without seeing someone's "award" winning clam chowder. Hell I think even Friendly's claims they have award winning chowder. So I passed on it. What I did have blow my mind was the onion rings. They were just perfect as well as everything else. Except for maybe the coleslaw I didn't try it but Rob didn't like his. Oh well nobody is perfect.
I was in Salem during the summer once and it was probably busier, but no more impressive. I was really let down when we went - I think I was thinking it would be like a recreation of the crucible or something and it's really, really, really touristy instead.
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