Today, I had an appointment for a paddleboarding lesson at
Paddleboard New England in the town of Beverly.
I had some time before the lesson, so to go to the
Salem Woods in Salem for some hiking there. Along the way, I passed through the town center of Peabody, which had some interesting architectural structures.
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| Memorials in Front of City Hall |
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Old First Unitarian Church,
7 Park Street |
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Monument,
Central Street and Lowell Street |
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| Heritage Industries, 22 Foster Street |
Finally leaving Peabody for Salem, I arrived at the entrance to
Highland Park, half expecting a wooded area. The place is actually pretty nice, due to the
Olde Salem Greens Golf Course being part of the park.
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| Olde Salem Greens Golf Course |
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| Highland Park |
The trailhead to the woods is located in the rear of the parking lot here, and the trail I then took is shown below in pink.
The walk, which I did clockwise, was pretty much a walk in the woods, until I came out at the Thompson's Meadow area, where there were excellent views of the wetlands below.
After coming out of the woods, I decided to head over to Beverly to see where the paddleboarding place was, passing by 2 churches in town along the way.
Unfortunately, by the time I reached the place, which is situated on the shore of the Beverly Harbor, the rain had started up a little. I went in and told the guy sitting at the counter that I would come back later when the rain stopped. I then headed out to do some sightseeing in Beverly, and to grab a bite to wait out the rain.
The first place I went to in the rain was the Beverly Pier on the corner of Essex Street and Water Street, which had a nice view of the harbor area and the
Veterans Memorial Bridge.
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| Beverly Pier |
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| Veterans Memorial Bridge |
I had a tough time deciding what to have for lunch, and I was delayed in doing so due to the abundance of interesting buildings in the area.
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Beverly Cooperative Bank,
254 Cabot Street |
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Memorial,
Abbott Street and Endicott Street |
Finally, I decided to get some Thai food at
Siam Delight in Beverly. I decided to try the Thai Wonton Soup, a clear soup with minced chicken and shrimp wontons, spinach and parsley. The soup was simply just a bowl of dissolved MSG, and the other ingredients simply had no flavor at all.
For the main dish, I decided to try the Duck Panang Curry, which was good, but pretty typical like what I have tried at other typical Thai restaurants like this.
Finally, I decided that it was time to head back to the paddleboarding place, with the rain having stopped and all. It was still pretty cold however, so I decided to rent a wetsuit to stay dry and relatively warm during the paddleboarding.
According to my guide, my fears about flipping the board were pretty unfounded, as it was very wide, and I was very light. The principles of paddling were pretty much like canoeing, except that I was standing. It was pretty hard to brake though, and once I headed to the shallow water, and instinctively moved to the front of the board instead of staying in the center and kneeling back down, literally tipping the board forward into the water and getting myself a little wet.
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| My board for the day |
After familiarizing myself better with the motions of moving the board around, I was left to fend for myself for the day. It was at this point that the sun began to come out, so I took some pictures of the harbor.
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| Me on my board |
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| Me Paddling |
I thing I found hard about paddleboarding was fighting against the current. For a time I kept moving away from my start point when I was trying to paddle back, and I could do nothing to reverse my direction of motion. In the end, I had to resort to holding on to the docks in the area, then pulling myself along. While kneeling down, I was able to beat the odds, and finally make it back safely.
After my paddleboarding experience, which thankfully was not marred by the weather, but just a little by the strong current, it was time to head back into Salem, where I decided to visit the
Peabody Essex Museum.
Before that though, I decided to walk onto the Vetarans Memorial Bridge and take pictures of Salem Sound at low tide from it.
Back in Salem, I decided to park near
Collins Cove Beach as I could hardly find any parking, and walked to the museum from there after taking pictures of the beach area at low tide.
The streets of Salem were a bit more busy today than the last few times I visited, mainly due to the proximity to Halloween this time of year. The museum itself was large and interesting in terms of its exhibitions, which ranged from Maritime Art, Chinese porcelain and Japanese artifacts, to even an exhibition on all sorts of hats. Pictures of the beautiful interior of the museum and the exhibits follow.
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| Inside the Peabody Essex Museum |
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| Maritime Art |
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| Halo |
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| Willy |
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| Automaton Clock |
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| Jangseung (Village Guardians) |
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| Chinese Porcelain |
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| Chinese Artifacts |
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| Moon Bed |
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| Tusk Art |
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| Mega Megaplanet |
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| Hats |
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| Island Bride (made of seashells) |
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| Native American Art |
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| Pair of Cycad Trees |
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| Box of Eggs |
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| Taj Mahal Model |
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| More Hats |
After I finally left the museum, I decided to walk around a little, and found another museum, the
Salem Museum, which happened to be open and had free entry.
This museum, which is situated within the
old Salem Town Hall, was pretty small though, talking about the history of the town, which I had heard from my many tours here already.
With that, I headed back to my car, but if you thought that was the end of my day, think again. I wanted to use my Groupon at
Cupcake City in Reading, but when I got there, they were already sold out for the day. I guess I will go earlier next time.
Next, it was on to the
Davis Farm MegaMaze in Sterling, where I had yet another Groupon to use for
Fright Night events.
I did not know that we could use torchlights in the maze, but thankfully I had a light on my compass, so I used it to navigate in the maze, but I still got lost several times, even going back to the entrance at one point. As it was really dark, it made it really hard to see the "monsters" hiding out everywhere in the maze, so they did a pretty good job of scaring me out of my wits half the time, especially with the sudden whir of "chainsaws as they started them up in the night. All night while being lost in the maze, it was pretty fun to hear other people screaming elsewhere in the maze as well. In the end, out of frustration, I had to ask one of the volunteers to show me the way out, and apparently I was already very close to the endpoint at this juncture. Oh well. Pictures I took while being lost in the maze and of the monsters follow.
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| The endpoint as viewed from the start point |
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| Getting lost in the maze |
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| I don't want to go in there |
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| Knight at the start point |
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| I spotted you |
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| Monster in the corn |
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| Stair to freedom? |
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| Shrunken heads |
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| Evil clown |
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| I did it!!! With help of course |
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| The real stairs to freedom |
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| My prize for winning the maze |
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| Heading out the door |
Overall, I have to say that this was a really fun experience, and I definitely recommend trying out a haunted corn maze like this one, even if you think you are too old for this sort of thing.
Finally, it was time for dinner. I decided to head to
Ixtapa Cantina Mexican Restaurant in Lunenburg for some Mexican food, where I had yet another Groupon to use. This place is a nicely decorated place in a town with nothing much else to show for it.
I decided to go with the
Ixtapa Trio Amigos (char broiled marinated steak, grilled chicken breast, jumbo shrimp sauteed with mushroom, onion, peppers) for my main dish. I was not disappointed, with even the chicken being juicy and flavorful.
The desserts I ordered to make up the rest of my Groupon though, were a different story. The Sopapillas and Chimi-Cheesecake I got were just lukewarm, and soft instead of crispy, and my being quite full by then did not help much with all the flour in the dishes, which were actually pretty big portions for dessert.
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| Sopapillas |
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| Chimi-Cheesecake |
I guess this restaurant is pretty good in terms of food, but don't go there for the desserts, as far as I am concerned.
With that, a fun day of paddleboarding, visiting museums and getting lost in haunted corn mazes finally came to an end.
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