To the Cape

Another incredibly warm day, with 66F forecast.  We decided to head for the coast, just south of here, to Cape Cod.  We’ve heard plenty about the place, had vivid pictures in our minds of smart coastal living, Kennedy family haunts and cool sea breezes.  Just the thing to keep us awake and amused for our last full day here.

Of course, we drove through places with familiar names once more – Massachusetts is full of them- and stopped for breakfast in Falmouth at Crabapples.  The corned beef hash fan was fully in favour of this choice and the pancake girl wasn’t disappointed either!

Taking the suggestions of the wise lady in the Falmouth Visitor centre on board, we headed along the coast slightly south of the town, to Wood Hole.  We expected a cosy, charming coastal town, sleepy in this closed season, but what we actually found was a busy build up community centring on the Coastguard HQ and a marine science research facility.  We drove a little further north along the coast and almost by mistake, stumbled upon the beach.  Aha!  this was the kind of thing we were expecting.  We decided to drive a little further up the coast and stop for a while to take a walk.

Sadly, it took many miles of driving through what seemed to us like ordinary US suburbia with no sea or sand in sight before we arrived in Chatham.  At last, we could get out of the car and stretch our legs, admire the views and feel the wind in our hair.  Chatham itself looked just the kind of place we’d imagined – but we’d had to travel quite a way up the Cape to find it.

Once again, the National Parks came up trumps.  We stopped at the Visitor Centre for the National Seashore and chatted a while to the lady on the desk, gladly hearing that the northern part of the Cape was going to be the windswept coast we were looking for.  Whilst we were there, we learned a little about cranberries, too.

We’d driven past several “dried up ponds” – or so they appeared, but here we caught sight of a photograph of a cranberry bog and realised what we’d been passing by earlier in the day.  Of course, once we’d learned to recognise a cranberry bog, we didn’t see another…until we were about to leave the Cape behind later in the afternoon and I was able to catch a snap through the car window. 

Sorry, a truly hopeless photograph but hopefully having shared it, we’ll all recognise a cranberry bog when we next see one!

We managed to get as far as Wellfleet before feeling that we ought to turn around and start heading back.  We’d seen horrendous traffic on the way out this morning and we didn’t want to risk having to pay another day’s hire for the car because of it.  Nevertheless, we had time to park on the pier and enjoy a wander around the harbour, which was very quiet today.

I enjoyed taking some pictures of the kind of thing I sometimes take pictures of – if you know what I mean!  I have no idea what these things are, but I have a couple of dozen very interesting photographs of them from all angles and degrees of zoom.

I then discovered I had company!

And a namesake.

But half an hour and the light was beginning to go.  Time to head on back.

We negotiated the “Rotarys” once again and amused ourselves with possible interpretations of another road sign we’ve seen for the first time today.

Of course, we were back in Boston well before closing time at the Hertz facility and in plenty of time to consider the one remaining dilemma of the day.

Where to eat dinner tonight?!

At the Mill

OK, enough shopping!  Regardless of the bargains to be had, we have our limits and this morning, we drove northwest from Boston towards Lowell, formerly the textile capital of the USA and now home to a collection of buildings in the care of the US National Parks.  I had read about the city here on one of my favourite blogs a few weeks ago and had made a note, hoping to visit before long.

Well, the day dawned a little cooler and as we drove out into the suburbs it turned rather damp and foggy.  Still, we had fun driving through places with familiar names, spelled a little creatively perhaps!

In no time at all we were there – Sunday morning on the freeway after a busy weekend was a good time to negotiate unfamiliar territory.  We were to find ourselves the only visitors for most of the time, with National Park staff going out of their way to show videos “on demand”, start slide shows as we reached particular locations and generally do what they could to make our visit rather special.

Having learned enough about the city to begin finding out more, we strolled through empty streets over to Bootts Mill, where we could visit the museum proper.  See how damp and dreary a morning it was – even the newly lit Christmas trail of lights couldn’t lift the place and it all felt very bleak indeed.

This wasn’t only a place for those of us with an interest in textiles, either.

As we approached the museum, we were missing our Golden Pass holder!  Nonetheless, this was another shining example of the US National Parks at their best – beautifully preserved and presented buildings introduced by the most charming and knowledgeable staff.  In spite of the weather, we were so pleased we’d come here.

Above all, it looked very familiar indeed!

We loved comparing then and now

and spent a while trying to imagine how it must have felt to have been there in the early 19th century, when this mill was at the height of its success.

Inside, having “clocked in”, we watched as one by one, the looms clanked into action, prompted by our arrival.  Though only half a dozen or so were working, the noise was incredible and the one lady weaver was kept busy managing the process of keeping all of them running smoothly.  We watched as she reloaded a shuttle, resolved a small problem which had halted one of the looms here and there and summoned up all lipreading skills as we exchanged brief greetings.

The incredible noise of the working looms.

We wandered about, marvelling at the technological advances which resulted in the huge upheaval in manufacturing.  Such a simple process, relatively simple technology and yet enough to change the world for so many people.

Wow.

Though we’ve visited mills at home, I’m not sure that any have been as well explained or given such a clear impression of what it must have been like to have worked in such a place.

Upstairs, a museum told the story in greater detail with another well produced and thought provoking film about the Mill Girls (download a leaflet about them here) I spent a while marvelling at this great model of the mill and the activities which took place in each part of it.

The last part of the display centred on the products of this mill and finished with a few questions to provoke thoughts about why this and other cotton mills closed.  Particularly aimed at children and younger people, the dilemmas faced by us all were clearly outlined – do we want to pay more for quality or be satisfied with cheaper, less well made clothes?  Should we continue to rely on imported goods or show our support by wearing home produced garments?  Quite right to aim these questions at the generation who will face many more of this kind of problem and hope that they will use what they learn about what happened here and elsewhere to take wise decisions for the future.

We were certainly given plenty of food for thought and from time to time throughout the rest of the day, our conversation returned to such things.

How telling, however, that a brief stop in JoAnns to fulfil a little shopping list for one or two bits involved standing in a queue of people buying half price fleece fabric printed in ghastly designs.  Where was the beautifully woven woollen fabric?  The home produced fine cotton?  Sadly not in my hand either (I was buying tulle and polyester lining)  My curiosity got the better of me though and I had to ask the sales assistant what everyone was going to do with all of this fleece?  “Make tied blankets” was the reply.  Two large squares of fleece placed back to back and a fringe cut around the outside.  Each piece of fringe was then knotted to hold the two layers together, she explained, giving me “one of those looks” which revealed exactly her opinion of such things!

The bargain of the day?  A new cutting mat and a new pair of very sharp scissors, both at 60% of their normal price – $6 each.  Wow.

Oh, and Jordi, I paid homage to the building on the corner of Beacon as we passed by.  It now bears the sign “Sovereign” on the outside – a bank?

Fresh air and fun

We’ve spent the day out and about in the city and have returned to our hotel to relax a while before going to the Symphony tonight.  We’ve covered a fair amount of ground in a few short hours and we are pooped!

The day began with one of those peculiarly American sights (with apologies to our American friends here) – we shared the lift with a young woman wearing her pyjamas.  Now, my pyjamas are no less respectable than hers but there is no way I would dream of wearing them in a public place!  But, there she was, going out of the hotel into the shopping mall, most probably to Starbucks to buy coffee.  Pale pink velour at this time of the morning, complete with “bedhead” hair?  No thanks.

We didn’t make it that far before succumbing to a little breakfast ourselves – I’ll confess to this plate of “Cobblestone” (a variation on a Chelsea Bun with a mincemeat flavour….delicious!) and a Peppermint Mocha to drink.  The Corned Beef Hash fan made do with a breakfast panini and declared it a success too, though he was a little spooked when the guy over the other side of the shop, making the drinks, called over to ask, “Mark, do you want your drinks in mugs or paper cups?”  Had we met him before?  Did we know him?  Well, no, but of course here it’s often the practice to ask for a name when placing a hot drink order and the technology had done the rest.

We made our way as far as Macy’s, where the “Womens’ Intimate Apparel” department was our goal (Sorry, M&S, you just don’t make things like you used to!)  I stopped and smiled at this claim on some packaging – for sure I’d appreciate a whittled waist and smoothed thighs…but do I want extra swagger?!

Moving right along, then, to Paper Source, who are “Gnome for the Holidays” this year.

To Brattles Books too, where we browsed a little in Boston’s answer to Hay on Wye.

We took the Newbury Street route back, taking a look in the new location of Anthropologie where these spools of recycled fabric were tempting…though none of the colour combinations really spoke to me enough to find a way home.

I did, however, rather take to these shaggy trees which I thought had a kind of Addams Family twist to them!

I also fell for these little deer who would surely have found a place in my bag had they not cost nearly $80 – so much cosier than their Swedish cousins who appeared to be based on the same framework but made of paper rather than textile and as a result, were a little hard.

Soft or no, sadly, they had to stay there.

Throughout the day, we’ve been relieved to return to the fresh air after the stifling heat in the shops.  The topic of conversation everywhere is the weather and judging from the huge discounts being offered on Winter clothing here, the shops are feeling the pinch as a result of the unseasonably high temperatures.  Having come prepared for chillier weather than this, we haven’t got a great deal of choice when it comes to choosing what to wear for the best.

Perhaps we should go native and wear pyjamas?

Saved £10

As we left home, I was doing my mental checklist of things I’d remembered to pack, stopping abruptly when it came to “gloves”.  Did I want to go back and quickly grab a pair?  I decided against, but whilst at Heathrow yesterday morning, I dithered a little in Accessorise, wondering if I could really come to Boston on the last weekend in November without a pair of gloves in my bag.

But who needs gloves in these temperatures?!

Really, watching the TV weather forecast this morning we reflected that we could almost have left our coats at home.

And yes, sorry, Janice, it really is a year since we were snagging bargains here previously.  Time flies when you’re having fun!

Right, off to start our day in Macys this morning.  It opened at 7am, so the queue should have gone by now

Here we are (again)

It’s Black Friday and we are here in Boston after a completely uneventful and trouble-free journey (the kind we like).

Our travelling companions have found a spot on the windowsill from where they can view the goings on down below.

Shopping.

Hard not to, really.  I had spotted a jacket which I thought interesting and worth trying on.  When I asked if there was any discount on it, I was told that it had already been discounted by 30%.  Thinking that was that, I began to do sums in my head and didn’t really register the rest of the assistant’s sentence…”and because it’s already discounted, there’s a further 40% off as well”.  Take another 5% off because I have a loyalty card for that particular store (hmm…yes…!) and I took home a jacket priced at $150 for around $50.

Chatting to the assistant as she packed it for me, she asked how long we’d been in town.  She laughed when we said “oh, about an hour”.

Christmas has arrived here and I know someone who will recognise those decorations from previous years but as she doesn’t read my blog, I’ll be taking the photographs along to show her later.  Bettine (m-i-l) has been with us on our last two visits and it seems strange not to have her along this time – she felt she’d “been there, done that” this year, though when we spoke on the phone on our arrival, she was rather rueful that we were eating in Legal Seafoods tonight!

We did a quick run into the drugstore opposite and though we haven’t stocked up on Christmas chocolates yet, it’s good to know they’re there when we want them!

And though we didn’t eat in this particular restaurant, I couldn’t resist taking a photograph of the menu.  Peekytoe crab?  Johnny Cakes?  Research needed!!

Tomorrow, we’ll hit the shops for real.  The weather is unseasonably warm – warmer than at home, even, and this evening we both went out wearing sweater but no coat.  The forecast predicts gradually decreasing temperatures but well above freezing and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that it stays dry.

But first, a good night’s sleep!!