North Shore

A couple days before New Years Day we drove to the North Shore to explore. Alot of the museums and shops were closed for the season, but it was still beautiful. I'm looking forward to going when its a bit warmer, but I will say this...fresh clam chowder tastes so good when its cold outside!!

In Salem, we visited a beautiful, very old cemetery. Some of the dates were so old you could barely read. Nathaniel Hawthorne's stone was there, with many family members. The picture below struck a cord in my heart...a child's stone and someone had left a stuffed monkey. It drew questions from our boys...

Nolan would only sit on the branch after Daniel sat up there (assisted):

This is where the day got scary. I didn't know until days later I had actually had a picture of this...notice Joey is running through leaves. Notice how he isn't looking where he is going. If you look close enough, you'll notice he's leaning, because as I snapped the pic, he had tripped. He landed on one of the tombstones. Head first. Blood spewing from his head...I took him and ran into nearest deli. They gave us ice and a wash cloth. I was asking them where the nearest ER was, when I realized that although there was quite a bit of blood, the cut was very small and not a deep gash. Whew. What's even stranger...he had a small cut on his forhead and a long cut on his nose...somehow, by a miracle his eye was untouched. It doesn't add up or make sense, but we joked that the angels at the graveyard were watching over him!!

After lunch at a cute little spot on the water we headed up the coast to Gluocester, where we found an amazing little playground and a beautiful view. There is a gorgeous castle you can tour in warmer weather that I want to go back and see. Danny loves the swing...notice the water in the background?

On a huge hill overlooking the water : Cannon!

Joseph and I: