New England Vacation: Lobster, Liberty, Lighthouses, Literature

If you’re thinking of a New England vacation,  you might want to read this post to get some ideas. Earlier Recently Kim and I visited five states in seven days — Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island.  Some family and friends have asked for a recap, so here we go.

First, let me say that I visited Boston about 10 years ago with the Association of Food Journalists. I fell in love with lobster rolls at Legal Seafoods, stopped in at the historic Omni Parker House (where Parker House rolls originated), enjoyed a clam bake at chef Jasper White’s Summer Shack, spent an afternoon with Chris Kimball at America’s Test Kitchen, and ate an authentic Thanksgiving Dinner at Plimouth Plantation.

So this time around, I wanted it to be a New England vacation, visiting surrounding states on my “bucket list.”  (Now I only have Wisconsin, Alaska and North Dakota left!)

I got to eat my favorite protein — lobster — four different ways. Yay for lobster!

We relaxed on the beaches,  breathed in the salty sea air, and admired the lighthouses in the distance. We visited historical sites to get a better sense of our country’s fight for liberty. We paid homage to literary figures like Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Early on, we decided not to try to see and do EVERYTHING. Enjoy the journey, right?  Here’s a recap:

We arrived in Boston’s Logan Airport at 6:30 a.m., having taken the red-eye flight that left Salt Lake City at midnight. No matter if you think you’ll “just sleep on the plane,” you won’t. Unless you are flying first-class, where you actually have breathing room. Which, we weren’t.

We weren’t scheduled to check in to our hotel, The Four Points Sheraton in Wakefield, until 3 p.m., so we drove to  Salem, figuring we would try to stay awake until then. We both nodded off a few times during the film at the Salem visitor’s center.

Kim struck up a conversation with a guy, probably around 80 years old. When Kim mentioned we were from Utah, he told Kim we needed to visit a house just a few blocks away. It was the home of  Nathaniel Henry Felt, who presided over a group of Salem-area Mormons in the 1840s, and later trekked West to Utah. Mormon apostle (and later church president) Brigham Young visited several times, and in spring of 1844, Brigham Young’s 14-year-old daughter, Vilate, stayed with the Felts to attend school. During one of Brigham Young’s visits, the news came that the prophet Joseph Smith had been killed at Carthage, Illinois on June 27, 1844.

The following year, Felt and his family brought Vilate with them on their journey West, and eventually made it to Salt Lake City.

We weren’t didn’t visit any of the witch museums; you could say we didn’t know “witch” would be best, since there are several of them, along with witchcraft/Wicca shops, witch souvenirs, etc.  Kim found himself a girlfriend!

I found out later that one of those accused and executed for witchcraft was an ancestor of my friend, Carma Wadley. I also found out that my direct ancestors, Edwin and Sarah Bishop, were imprisoned for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Their main crime seems to be owning a tavern. They escaped from jail and fled the area. Otherwise, I and the rest of my posterity wouldn’t be here.  I wish I’d known so that I could have looked for more of their story.  We walked around, visited the old cemetery and memorial garden for those who were killed.

We walked to the House of Seven Gables, which inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book by the same name. I have to confess that Nathaniel Hawthorne wasn’t one of my favorite authors. To a seventh grade English student forced to read “The House of Seven Gables,” it seemed his descriptions ran on and on forever!

Since we hadn’t eaten since leaving Utah the night before, we were getting hungry and started looking for a lunch spot. But it was only 10 a.m. and a lot of the restaurants weren’t open yet. We found Derby Joe, a little place on Derby Street, not too far from the House of Seven Gables. The owner recently got out of the Marines. In the past, he worked at some high-end Boston restaurants. When he saw the building was for rent, he decided the area needed a little coffee and sandwich shop.

Judging from my turkey/pesto sandwich, Joe is doing a pretty good job of it.

By 11 a.m., we decided to find our hotel and see if we could have early check-in. Yes! We were in luck. We caught a few hours of much-needed sleep.

For dinner, we didn’t want to venture too far. We stopped at a Whole Foods near our hotel, for a few snacks and supplies, and decided to take advantage of the store’s salad and soup bar.  Since we didn’t seem to know our way around very well, a fellow customer pointed us in the direction of the utensils and napkins. We mentioned it was our first time eating dinner at Whole Foods,  and the guy said, ‘Well, that’s probably a good thing, because there’s a reason why they call it Whole Paycheck.”  Actually, the price was pretty good, considering the quality of food and the convenience.

We visited the Boston LDS Temple in Belmont.  The architecture has a bit of New England flavor, but there’s no mistaking Angel Moroni on the steeple.

We drove to Sharon, Vermont, to see the birthplace of Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was a rainy day, so we didn’t spent a lot of time outdoors on the beautiful grounds.

A small visitor’s center tells the story the Smith family and their time in Sharon.

We stopped at the Lobster Claw II in Derry, N.H. I had a whole cooked lobster and did all the cracking and attacking. My cell phone died, so I have no photos of this awesome dinner.

I felt a special bond visiting Louisa May Alcott’s home in Concord, Mass.

 Besides reading “Little Women” as a child (I still have that old battered copy!), I was named after the story’s heroine, Jo (Valerie Jo).

I then named  my daughter Amy Jo for two of the book’s sisters, Amy and Jo.

My son,  Eric Phillips continued the tradition with his daughter, London Jo.

It’s so great that much of  t the Alcott home has been preserved. And it’s also fascinating how much of Alcott’s story came from her own family experiences. Hard to see where truth ends and fiction begins. Unlike Jo, Louisa never married. Her father was a religious idealist who never provided much of a living for his family. Hence, Louisa did all kinds of jobs to help the family survive. At an early age, she began using her writing skills for the family’s support.

At one point,  a publisher told Alcott to keep teaching school because , “you can’t write.” She showed him!

We also visited Author’s Ridge at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord where Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are all buried. While in Concord, we visited the Minuteman National Park and learned of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

We took a Hop-On, Hop-Off trolley tour of Boston. This was a good idea, since parking is at a premium, and Boston’s streets are so complicated and congested that it didn’t seem practical to drive around. You can ride the whole loop of sites on the Freedom Trail, and get off at the spots that interest you.

We got off at Charleston Navy Yard to see the USS Constitution and the USS Cassin Young, battleships from different eras.

We stopped at James Hook & Co. lobster shack, which won Boston magazine’s 2016 Best Lobster Roll designation. Plump, meaty chunks of fresh lobster! And more lobster than roll. Plus at $17,  I’m pretty sure it costs a lot less than Legal Seafoods’ “market price.”

We drove along the coast of New Hampshire to Kittery Point, Maine.

We stopped at one of America’s oldest stores,  Frisbee’s Market. It was owned by the Frisbee family from 1828 to 2009 and is still going strong today.

We stopped for lunch/dinner at Petey’s Summertime Seafood. Kim ordered fried haddock, a mild, moist white fish with a crispy, light batter. I almost offered to trade him my lobster roll, but I’m glad I didn’t. Because Petey’s had my favorite lobster roll, even better than James Hook and Legal Seafoods.

The casual vibe of New England’s lobster shacks are different from Utah’s seafood restaurants, where you usually dress up and eat on nice china because you’re shelling out some serious bucks. Although New England’s lobster still isn’t at the price point of a burger, I think $17 is pretty good for the quality and freshness. And the casual ambience suited us fine after a day at the beach.

We visited Fort Adams, a former United States Army post in Newport, Rhode Island, established on July 4, 1799 as a First System coastal fortification, and named for then-incumbent President John Adams. Its first commander was Captain John Henry, who was later instrumental in starting the War of 1812.

The current Fort Adams was built 1824–1857 under the Third System of coastal forts. Today, the fort is part of Fort Adams State Park, where the Newport Jazz Festival takes place.  Even during the Civil War, it was never attacked; likely because the South’s generals knew how well it was designed and fortified.

It’s fitting that the International Tennis Hall of Fame is in Newport, R.I., as the sport started out as a past time for the wealthy class.

Besides seeing lots of memorabilia such as Serena Williams’ “cat suit,” and Tracy Austin’s ruffly gingham tennis dress (homemade by a neighbor), you can actually play tennis on the grass courts and feel like you’re part of the “upper crust.”

Kim found the best seat in the house at one of the Newport beaches.

We didn’t get very close to most of the lighthouses.  This smaller one is at the National Maritime Museum in Salem.