Animal Attack Part II

*My artsy take on the Massachusetts State House*

I have been back home for almost two weeks and finally have a chance to sit down and write. I've been busy starting my own business while waiting tables (sob!) a few days a week to generate some income until I can generate my own income without schlepping food I could make better at home (the fiance and I have become quite uppity about our own food preparation skills). But I have my first client lined up, so things are moving right along!

Boston was lovely! I forget how vibrant some cities are. Detroit, not so much. I spend quite a bit of time in Ann Arbor, which is pretty lively, but Detroit itself can be a bit of a downer, and while my suburban home is no downer, it is pretty sedate. However, it was nice to come home and get working again.

We went to Boston to go to a wedding in a beachy area north of Boston. We road-tripped there, a good 12+ hours each direction, all through beautiful, green-lined highways practically free from traffic until the Boston burbs. We stayed in Essex, a cute town on a marshy river, at a hotel with loads of personality (I could tell by the website and the room prices that it was b.y.o.shampoo!). Can you see the Massachusetts-appropriate name of our room?

We were right across the two lane road from Woodman's, a popular seafood restaurant that had the best scallops I have ever had, and some darn good lobster too. I had lobster every day. I miss eating lobster every day. Here is a picture of a 3 pounder the fiance picked up for lunch one day, eaten at the picnic tables on our hotel's waterfront lawn.

The wedding was gorgeous. It was held at the Crane Estate, which has been featured in movies requiring a super-fancy giant house, like The Witches of Eastwick and Flowers in the Attic. The ceremony was beautiful, overlooking the ocean, and the reception was nice, until we were ATTACKED by swarms and swarms (and swarms and swarms) of mosquitoes. The wedding bartender gave me ice to bring down the swelling on seven or so bites on my back. I had more than 50 bites and looked like I had the chicken pox. So I tucked away some hard-won info for planning my own wedding: either it's going to be before/after mosquito season or it will happen in a land free from nature's most questionable creation. Here is the view of the lawn leading toward the ocean from the reception patio (not the best picture, but the others had flash malfunctions).

Other than a lovely but itchy wedding, we checked out downtown Boston's historical sites. I took this picture in the Granary Graveyard (Cemetery?). I took reams of photos at this and other cemeteries. The gravestones are so cool, very thin and most displaying a skull and/or bones.

The only mediocre part of the trip was Salem, a place I would not have chosen anyway had I been travelling alone (I'd much prefer seeing Concord, being the book-reader that I am--Alcott, Thoreau, Hawthorne, oh my!). Salem is not even the site of "Salem!" The witch trials apparently happened in Danvers, not Salem. But I did have a tasty lobster roll in Salem, so it was all good.

Last but not least, Niagara Falls. We debated back and forth about going or just skipping it, but the quintessential, road-trippy, American-ness of it won out, and we made the detour. Worth it!