Agritourism and Plymouth, Massachusetts

This was my favorite day! I started off the day at Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stowe, Massachusetts to go apple picking. 

Honey Pot Hill Orchard Entrance

I've had berry picking on my list of things I want to do forever now, so I was excited to do something similar. When I arrived I purchased a "peck bag" and a ticket for the hayride. The bag options (bushel or peck) made me smile--my mom used to sing a song called "A Bushel and a Peck" when I was little. Once I had my bag, I headed into the orchard to begin picking!

Peck bag for apples

Thankfully there were signs that said what to do: grip the apples then turn upside down and twist, which would break them from the tree without shaking it. I realized how important the technique was once I incorrectly removed one from the tree and saw another apple fall loose--it came very close to falling on my head!

Apples on the tree

As excited as I was to see the apples growing on trees, I was probably even more excited to see there were ladders, and a special kind, to climb up into the trees! The ladders were A-shaped and you'd rest them on a sturdy branch then climb up to pick. SO cool. And so surprising--that has to be such a big liability.

Ladder leading into apple tree

Ladder leading up into apple tree

View of the orchard and surrounding hill

Apple growing and Fall forest behind

When my bag was about two thirds full, I saw a path through a forest area that led to pears. I'd overheard someone from the farm say that the pears were all gone, but I figured I'd venture over there anyway. It turns out there were also apples on the other side so I was glad I went. I was also able to find a few pears still on the trees as well.. yahoo!

Path to more apples and pears

 The view from this part of the orchard was so beautiful.

View of the orchard

Once I filled my bag up, I headed over to the hayride. Oh my gosh, it took forrrreeeverrr to get back to the entrance I came from. We stopped at the first stop after I was picked up for probably 15 minutes. Then I got off at the next stop only to find I was at the wrong entrance. It might have taken me an hour to get to the correct entrance by the time I took two hayrides. The second hayride got stuck for a bit behind a broken-down tractor that was blocking one of the platforms where they unload people. Haha.. It would have all been fine except I had a packed schedule and long day ahead of me so it was frustrating.

My apples and pears

Once I dropped off my apples, I went back around to the farm store to try the cider donuts I'd learned about online and have some apple cider. I was so happy to see they had a lineup of all the apples with their names--I'd wished there was something with pictures of them in the orchard.

Apples and their names

I ended up getting a half dozen cider donuts because they didn't come in any other quantity. They were sooooo good. Oh my gosh and the apple cider was fantastic too. Yum! I ate three of the donuts on my way to my next destination.

Apple cider and apple cider donut

My next stop was at Ward's Berry Farm in Sharon, Massachusetts. This one was hard to find--I specifically wanted to go to a farm that grew pumpkins. Everyone seems to have a pumpkin patch this time of year, but most haul them in from elsewhere. This was the only website I found that talked about having growing 30 acres of pumpkins... over 100,000! So crazy! At the front, they had tons of pallets of all kinds of pumpkins. I'm not sure I knew there were so many varieties.

Pumpkins

This time I skipped the hayride and walked to my destination. It was at the back right corner of the farm, past strawberry plants, tomatoes and lots of other produce. It. Was. So. COOL!!! Oh my gosh. It was like... Halloween Easter eggs in a pasture. I couldn't stop grinning and taking pictures. And I found miniature horses and a "Miniature Horse X-ing" sign like what we have at home!

Pumpkins growing!!!

Different areas had different varieties growing... so cool! I love the.. well... I call them zitty ones. They're fascinating! I'm sure there's a better or actual name for them but.. it works.

"Zitty" (according to me) pumpkin

And look at these! These were cool too! OK so I've now looked up these pumpkins for an official story/name. The Mosaic virus can make a smoothe pumpkin look lumpy like zits (coming from under the skin). That said, the pumpkins on the market that look like they have warts (sitting on top) are genetically engineered. There are multiple varieties of these "warty pumpkins," some official names are Knuckle Head and Goosebumps.

This one was so weird, it was like a.. melted ghost pumpkin.

"Ghost" pumpkin (according to me)

Well. This is the last pumpkin picture and I'm sad about it. I want to go back.

Never enough pumpkins

Shockingly I was able to make it out of the pumpkin patch without buying any pumpkins. I already have two decent ones and five small pumpkins and gourds (yes some zitty!) at home. Once I was done at this farm, I headed to Plymouth, Massachusetts for my final sightseeing.

My first site to see in Plymouth was National Pilgrim Memorial Meetinghouse. It's not an original building, but the fifth that has been in the spot and one the community is working hard to preserve. I had some beautiful stained glass windows that had been removed from the front of the church where they're doing construction and moved to be beside the pulpit, on display.

National Pilgrim Memorial Meetinghouse

Stained glass in the National Pilgrim Memorial Meetinghouse

 The meetinghouse backs up to Burial Hill Cemetery (1622) which was the next spot I went to. The cemetery is where the first pilgrims were buried. While it's full of tombstones, a sign at the entrance noted that in the 1600s markers were made from wood, so none of those survive today. The oldest stone present is from 1681.

Burial Hill Cemetery

After that, I walked down the hill to Pilgrim Memorial State Park so I could see Plymouth Rock. It sits under a covering that overlooks the Plymouth Harbor, and after being chipped away, split in half and a number of other things happening to it over hundreds of years, it is quite small today.

Plymouth Harbor and structure covering Plymouth rock

Plymouth Rock

 The water was so beautifully calm. The harbor is protected by a three-mile-long barrier beach.

That was all for Plymouth. I had hoped to see a Mayflower replica but it wasn't in the spot I'd marked on my map.

A weird closing picture.. I kept seeing these signs around Massachusetts. So why does everyone think Texans ride horses around everywhere, yet it's Massachusetts that has the no horse riding signs all over the place? I've NEVER seen one of these in Texas!

Boston, Massachusetts

The next day I headed to Boston with a ticket for Old Town Trolley Tours. I started off in Boston Common and Public Garden, Boston's largest park, founded in 1634. The park is 50 acres and was so pretty!

Boston Public Garden

Boston Public Garden

From there I walked to the corner of the park and crossed the street to arrive at the Cheers bar. Only the exterior of the bar was used for the TV show, but they've made a set replica bar upstairs above the.. well.. already existing bar for tourists' sake. I never watched the show so I just walked through quickly then went back outside to wait for the trolley.

Cheers bar Beacon Hill location

I'd debated whether I wanted to get a trolley ticket or not and decided to do it because I'd walked so much in Salem and didn't want my feet to start hurting... plus the sites in Boston looked a lot more spread out. With my ticket, I could hop on and off all day which was nice. I rode around until I arrived at Copley Square. One side of the square had the beautiful Trinity Church, the other had the Boston Public Library.

Trinity Church 

The library opened a couple of minutes after I arrived so I went in. It was beautiful! I was so glad I got to go in. Bates Hall was on my list, a huge reading room that reminded me a little bit of Harry Potter and the libraries you see in the movies, with the green lamps on all the tables. So pretty!

Boston Public Library

Boston Public Library Bates Hall

There was another area of the library where the ceiling was covered in paintings.. amazing! It reminded me of the US capitol's friezes.

Pagan Gods (ceiling), Israelites Oppressed (half circle) Frieze of Prophets (bottom rectangle)

The final area of the library I visited was its courtyard. Yet another beautiful area!

Once I was done looking around the area, I headed back to the trolley and it took me back past the Cheers stop, headed in the opposite direction past the Massachusetts capitol.

Massachusetts Capitol

 When we arrived in the Seaport District, I got off again and walked halfway back over the bridge to look at the Boston Tea Party replica ships, museum and gift shop. On my way over I saw a small boat (seen at the far right of the pic below) with a bunch of teenagers or preteens on it. One of them was in a swimsuit, climbed onto the top of the boat, then dove into the water! He did it several times. While it wasn't cold, it wasn't exactly warm and I imagine the water had to be pretty uncomfortable. His friends were filming him.. guess that was his motivation to freeze!

Anyway, I walked around the gift shop and tea room for a bit and watched some tourists throwing big replica bundles of tea over the edge of the ship, then headed back to catch the trolley again. This time we drove by Chinatown and the driver said Boston has the third-largest Chinatown in the country, behind New York City (largest) and San Francisco.

Chinatown

View from Longfellow Bridge

Unfortunately, there was a Columbus Day parade going on so all the main stops around the Freedom Trail were closed and the bus route was a bit hard to keep track of because it was going to the remaining stops out of order. There was one street I thought was interesting, where the driver said neon signs aren't allowed, and that hundreds of years ago the shops would place a picture of what they sold outside to help those who couldn't read. One of the places we passed as a chiropractor who had a model spine at the edge of their sign! I was able to catch a picture of the one below, Helen's Leather Shop, with a boot hanging outside.

Store on Charles Street

The next time I got off of the bus, it was so I could walk to Faneuil Hall (1742) and Quincy Market (1826). Faneuil Hall had a LONG hallway that ran the length of the building and was lined with food vendors. There was even one with clam chowder samples which was nice!

Faneuil Hall

Quincy Market

After wandering around the area for a bit, I hopped back on the bus to ride it all the way around and make sure I heard the full tour. Or at least as much of the tour as they were doing. About an hour later around 5 pm I arrived back and found the Freedom Trail to finish up my tour of Boston as it was getting dark. Freedom Trail was another trail that was marked by a red path--love it! Again, it made it easy to navigate. It led me to the Old State House (1713) which was the seat of the Massachusetts General Court for some time and is one of the oldest public buildings in the US.

Old State House

The Freedom Trail

Freedom Trail marker

 The last site I saw along my walk was the Granary Burying Ground (1660). The cemetery is pretty close to Boston Common and has roughly 2,300 markers, though 5,000 are estimated to be buried there.

After that I arrived back at Boston Common, was done for the night and made my way back to my hotel.

Salem, Massachusetts

My favorite Halloween movie is "Hocus Pocus." I remember the first time I saw it, probably in 1993, at a horse awards banquet in Denton, Texas, and it's a movie I own today. The movie takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, so I recently decided to travel there for a long weekend.

I started off my day having clam chowder and stuffed clams at Turner's Seafood. Ohh my gosh, it was so good! I was glad I ordered both; the stuffed clams were amazing.

Stuffed clams and clam chowder

From there I started wandering! After a block or two I got to an area with lots of street vendors selling witches hats, tshirts and all kinds of random things. I also saw one of the famous sculptures in Salem, one of Samantha from Bewitched. The show featured Salem in several episodes when it was on in the 1960s, and TV Land donated the statue to the town in 2005.

Bewitched Sculpture

Heritage trail

While wandering down the street, in and out of various witchy-themed stores, I eventually found the Salem Heritage Trail. The trail guides tourists using a red line that's painted on the ground throughout the town going from one site to the next. Brilliant! I can't remember ever seeing this done before and it was so helpful.

The first notable spot I came across was the Witch House, a 1600s style house that was the home of Jonathan Corwin, a magistrate and judge in the infamous Salem Witch Trials. It's said to be the only building still standing from the time period of the trials. Since I was visiting in October, the town was packed, and this house was not an exception. There was a line, a long one, to get in so I continued on my way after snapping a picture.

Witch house

Of course, being a Hocus Pocus fan I had to visit all the movie sites. Just down from Witch House I found the Ropes Mansion, known in Hocus Pocus as Allison's house where the main characters expect to go bobbing for apples.

Ropes Mansion front

Ropes Mansion back

The Ropes Mansion charges a fee to enter and see inside, but there was a garden behind that was free to look through. I was amazed to see so many beautiful flowers when it's fall and so far North!

Ropes Mansion gardens

From the mansion I looped back toward town and ventured into a building where they had a bunch of vendors selling items. Kind of creepy! One vendor was selling dolls that she had painted to be zombies, bleeding, all kinds of creepy stuff. Others were selling bones and... yep. Not my thing! I definitely love Halloween, but Salem helped me find my limit very quickly!

When I left that vendor area, I started making my way toward another Hocus Pocus spot to check out. I went into a few stores on the way and thought this picture was funny.... "Wonder Witch." Again, the witch theme is 100% throughout the town!!

The next sight was the Town Hall, the building where the Sanderson Sisters in Hocus Pocus sang, "I Put a Spell On You." When I snapped a picture of the building, there was a tour group being led into the building by 1600s dressed actors for a mock witch trial.

I followed the path until I got out to the edge of town, where I walked out on Derby Wharf to the end to see Derby Light and Salem Harbor. Derby Wharf was built in 1762 and later became Salem's longest wharf, while the light was built in 1871 and was a very simple looking lighthouse.

Derby Wharf and Light overlooking Salem Harbor

When I walked back to the path and continued on my way, the next sight was the House of Seven Gables. The house faces Salem Harbor and they sell tickets to tour it. I wasn't familiar with it to care to take a tour, and like everything else it was crazy busy so I decided to just get close to the fence for a picture!

The House of Seven Gables

From there I followed the trail back into town and saw The Burying Point, Salem's first graveyard as of 1637. Right beside the cemetery, you can find the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. The memorial features 20 granite benches that are cantilevered out of a stone wall. Each bench shows the name of one of the accused from 1692 along with the date and method of their execution.

Salem Witch Trials Memorial

The Burying Point

Memorial for Giles Corey

 By the time I was done in this area, it was starting to get dark and I still hadn't finished finding my Hocus Pocus photo opportunities. I looked up the next one, Max and Dani's house, which was a bit over a mile away.. so I started walking. It was far from the center of town and all the other sights, but when I got there, there were several groups of people taking pictures of the house. The most interesting was a family of three with a little board that said "Whinnie I smell a child!" They were taking a picture with the sign in front of the house (Hocus Pocus movie quote) as a pregnancy announcement. So cute! The house faced the water and was inhabited.. I can't imagine living there and having people taking pictures of the house all the time.

Max and Danni's house from Hocus Pocus

From there I walked up the street a bit to Forest River Park, trying to find the final scene I had on my list, Thackery Binx's village. Unfortunately, it was getting dark pretty quickly and there were some shady characters hanging around the parking lot, but I really really wanted to find the village. After a bit of debating, I went ahead and went into the park to try to find it. I got almost to the back of the park, super uncomfortable the whole time, and decided to turn around and leave. When I got back to the parking lot I realized the area I was looking for, Pioneer Village, was to the left of the lot and I'd turned right! That said, it was locked up and I couldn't see inside. I reached over the fence with my phone to snap a picture though... sure enough, I found it!

Salem Pioneer Village, Thackery Binx's home

I debated taking a Lyft back into town but ended up deciding to walk the mile and a half or so. I went to a place called the Bit Bar for dinner, I'd read about it online. It was a cool place, but not that great of food. After eating I headed back to my hotel.