Our stay was brief in this sleepy and breathtaking town, so we did not get to take advantage if all the sites, which include Edith Wharton's estate, The Mount, The Hancock Shaker Village, and a Shakespeare Company among many others. All of which I would love to go back and experience.
We did get in a few of nice walks around town and dine on some great chocolate and sushi. We stayed at the quaint Brookfarm Inn that boasted a delicious breakfast and a gregarious host.
Rocky Neck State Park along the shore is a sentimental place for Jim from his childhood and also the spot he has shot many a movie at. Romantically dreary in fall and winter and a super getaway for spring and fall, this is a picturesque New England spot any time of year.
I just found out they have campgrounds and crabbing in the spring (campgrounds open again May 30) and I intend to take advantage of both activities as soon as possible. There are also wooded hiking trails and a great looking pavilion building to marvel at.
Jim and I are moving this week and while we are only going a ten minute walk away, it's a whole new world of places and streets to explore.
It made me realize how much there is to see where ever you are if you just take a look outside the normal places you go. So if you don't have the money to travel, just turn right instead of left and see what you can find.
A monument of stone and stained glass to eccentricity and lavish creativity. The castle was built by William Gillette, an actor made famous by his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on stage. It took five years to construct and came with its own miniature, but ridable, train complete with a Grand Central Terminal which is still standing although, sadly, only bits of the trains tracks remain.
Go soon, on the weekends of November 25 & 26, December 2 & 3, 9 & 10 and 16 & 17, to me exact. The interior will be decorated in a Victorian Holiday Celebration style.
I got pulled over on it, Jim threw up on it, and it never ever ends.
The only distraction for miles (aside from a really creepy plastic santa next to a white shack with an arrow spray painted on it directing you to the dark and, in my imagination, blood splattered door on the side of the road) is a gas station that holds two very sad caged tigers behind the checkout and cigarettes.
To be fair to the owners, they are making the tigers at home as much as possible, as I've heard they prefer being near cigarette cartons in the wild as well.
There are signs for this spectacle for miles and when we finally arrived we got our gas, Jim stayed in the car moaning, and Stacy and I dared to go inside, where the man in front of us in line promptly farted long and loud. We declined a chance to pay to touch the sad tigers and booked it out of there.
My favorite creepy crazy place on Earth.
Here's what I said then (May 22 – 28):
I have mentioned Magic Forest previously on my blog, but after just spending another afternoon there, I decided it deserves its own entry. Full of scary fiberglass sculptures, petting zoos, rides, a diving horse, and a crooked house, it is most magic indeed!
One of my most favorite places to go. Make sure to take the stinky safari ride with some of the wildest scenery of crazy sculptures you have ever seen. An absolute must must must!
There are few cheesier and more touristy spots than The Slaughtered Lamb that are this fun in New York, let alone the West Village. Our waitress seemed puzzled by our presence there, and even more puzzled when I asked if it was okay that I had not reserved a table. I understood her confusion when I realized the place was empty, and it remained empty throughout our dinner and many drinks.
Now, I can not recommend it for its food, but my friends happily imbibed many Full Moon Ales from their impressively large beer menu. But the whole point of a visit is the ambiance with its fake corpses, “creepy” portraits and a life size model of a werewolf and his sexy prey.
I hear this place actually fills up with frat boy types and tourists on the weekends, and that is too frightening, even for me.
If you've got an appetite for fear and a thirst for horror and for whatever reason you find yourself cruising western Taxachusetts, heading north on Route 5 or 10 (or west on 9, if you're coming from university-saturated Amherst), directly into the heart of rainbow-friendly downtown Northampton (it's bound to happen eventually), you just have to make a left turn right before the gothic town hall-looking structure onto Route 66, drive past the Smith physical plant and athletic fields and glance up to your left. Behold, terror of terrors!
The Northampton State Hospital (formerly known as Northampton Lunatic Hospital) was built way back in the 1850s and has a really interesting history but, like so many of this area's proud mental hospitals, it was closed years ago and the deranged inmates were set free, loosed upon an unsuspecting public.
As scary (and partially inaccurate) as that sounds, the ruins are truly creepy and certainly worth a visit. The property has been slated for redevelopment for years and the buildings are bound to come down eventually so please, embrace your gothy side and make the trip up before it's too late.
But don't repeat the mistake a good friend of mine made when he and 3 pals were arrested for breaking in and now will be cruelly taunted for all eternity by their spouses and girlfriends who have absolutely no tolerance for such stupid, childish antics. Instead of getting cuffed, stuffed, shamed and blamed, do some serious research on the state of today's urban exploration (which I can only imagine isn't quite as low-profile of a crime as it once was with the war on terror raging and any suspicious behavior, as harmless as it may be, drawing the attention of an increasingly vigilant public). Please also read this account of an urban exploration perpetrated in Canada, it's one of my all-time favorites.
The president and I now officially have something in common! We both love to vacation in Kennebunkport, ME. With seagulls overhead, fudge shops, big trees, quaint cobblestone roads, white churches, and clam shacks, it is the quintessential picturesque Maine town.
In the tiny downtown area you will find the aforementioned (and dessert pick) English Fudge, Gibran Gifts, a wonderful gourmet food shop where we purchased pepper jam and blueberry honey, and bustling (by Maine standards) small streets with all sorts of knick knacks. We spent a good two hours just strolling and taking it all in after a homemade breakfast at The Port Bakery and Cafe.
But don't stop at the main square area, a super short drive takes you down to the Southern coast with rocky beach cliffs and outstanding architecture, including an awesome spooky house that was always in shadow even though it shouldn't have been. We stayed in a cheap alternative to the lovely B&Bs and Inns that grace both sections of town, at the Kennebunk Cottages in nearby Kennebunk, which is about a 10 minute drive away.
Also in Kennebunk we ate lobster for sickeningly cheap at Bull'n'Claw – a hillbilly Maine family style restaurant with bibs, paper plates, and a surprisingly decent Bloody Mary. But the best food was to be had at Clam Shack on the bridge as you enter Kennebunkport. $14 dollars gets you the kind of lobster roll I traveled six hours for.
Montpelier is a tiny little town nestled between the Green Mountains in central Vermont. It has an amazing farmer's Market on Saturday mornings where you can get organic veggies and home made maple kettle corn. Downtown is home to several restaurants run by the New England Culinary Institute as well as hip boutiques and shops.
Bush Speiler's record store has been a main stay of Montpelier's audiophiles for decades, and Damsels has been busily supplying Montpelier's young ladies in the finest fashions. I can't forget to mention World Famous Charlieo's. A down dirty saloon that been getting Montpelierites drunk since the War Between the States.
However, what draws you to Montpelier is not its shops and dining establishments, it's standing at the top Cliff St on a frigid November evening and watching the smoke billow out of everybody's chimneys as the sun sets behind the hills.
It's coming home after a day of sledding to house that smells like a woodstove and cozying up with a cup of hot chocolate and an episode of Star Trek. Montpelier VT is being 16 years old, sneaking out at 2:00 in the morning, and walking up to the Tower in Hubbard park to smoke cigarettes with friends. It's freezing in winter, muddy in spring, and perfect the rest of the time.