Wednesday, October 11, 2006
1st Road Trip Continued...
Hi Guys,
Sorry this post came late again... the truth is... I tried to post after I came back from my 2nd road trip this weekend but after writing and uploading pictures for 2 hours... my laptop went bonkers and shut down by itself! Argh... anyway, its damn sian. But I will try to re-do everything now... :) Yupz, even though I am very excited to tell you guys all about the 2nd trip... which was filled with beautiful scenaries... I will finish up on my first road trip before that. So here it is...
On the 2nd day, we went to this cute little town called Salem. Its located to the north of Boston and beside the ocean. As some of you might already know, Salem is well known for being the "witch place". Well to cut long stories short, very long ago in Salem, women used to practice medicine using herbs. As they became better and more respected, some people started to fear their power and thus created this whole witch story to persecute them. (there's actually an interesting side story to this. Women back then weren't allowed to do much and were always expected to stay at home. However this girl did not want to conform to the norms and went out to "party". When she was caught, she claims that she was under the influence of witchcraft, and thus the whole witch hunt begins...) Anyway, in the end most of the east coast were affected and 5 people died eventually. (the museum stressed that no one got burnt at the stake or anything in America, that happened in Europe). So yeah... the whole history behind Salem being a witch town. Nowadays, its mainly a tourist area with a nice seaside view and many eclectic shops selling things related to Salem's rich history. Here are the photos...
America's oldest candy store... right here in Salem!
Salem was also a very important harbour and seaport during its time... now there are mainly leisure boats...
Alright... off to Rhode Island!
New Port, Rhode Island. This next place is all the way south of Boston so we had to drive through Boston to get there. New Port is well known for its mansions, and by mansions... I mean really really huge mansions!!! Most of the mansions are lined along the ocean front over looking the cliffs so you can imagine how majestic they are. We did the cliff walk, with the ocean on one side and the mansions on the other, and we also did the scenic ocean drive which was super cool! (we caught the sunset on the drive). Well... New Port is so beautiful that words can't really do justice to it... so here are the pics...
After the scenic ocean drive, we went to downtown New Port where the restaurants and pubs are all located on the wharfs along the shore. Sea breeze, good food, beautiful people... what more can you ask for?
Anyway, a little side story. We had to wait for 40 mins to get a table for dinner at one of the restaurants, so we decided to have some Ben & Jerry's ice cream first. (Its probably about 12 to 15 degrees there?) Anyway, we had too much ice cream, and when our food came, we didn't even manage to get to the main course. Haha. The appetiser and soup wiped us out and in the end we had to take out the rest of the dinner and eat it as breakfast the next day. Look at the portions!!!
Anyway, I guess MArk, Weijie, and Yiping will all agree with me that New Port is the highlight of our trip. It's really beautiful and the people are great... Definitely a must go if you come to the east coast. And the end to a wonderful day...
Sorry this post came late again... the truth is... I tried to post after I came back from my 2nd road trip this weekend but after writing and uploading pictures for 2 hours... my laptop went bonkers and shut down by itself! Argh... anyway, its damn sian. But I will try to re-do everything now... :) Yupz, even though I am very excited to tell you guys all about the 2nd trip... which was filled with beautiful scenaries... I will finish up on my first road trip before that. So here it is...
On the 2nd day, we went to this cute little town called Salem. Its located to the north of Boston and beside the ocean. As some of you might already know, Salem is well known for being the "witch place". Well to cut long stories short, very long ago in Salem, women used to practice medicine using herbs. As they became better and more respected, some people started to fear their power and thus created this whole witch story to persecute them. (there's actually an interesting side story to this. Women back then weren't allowed to do much and were always expected to stay at home. However this girl did not want to conform to the norms and went out to "party". When she was caught, she claims that she was under the influence of witchcraft, and thus the whole witch hunt begins...) Anyway, in the end most of the east coast were affected and 5 people died eventually. (the museum stressed that no one got burnt at the stake or anything in America, that happened in Europe). So yeah... the whole history behind Salem being a witch town. Nowadays, its mainly a tourist area with a nice seaside view and many eclectic shops selling things related to Salem's rich history. Here are the photos...
America's oldest candy store... right here in Salem!
Salem was also a very important harbour and seaport during its time... now there are mainly leisure boats...
Alright... off to Rhode Island!
New Port, Rhode Island. This next place is all the way south of Boston so we had to drive through Boston to get there. New Port is well known for its mansions, and by mansions... I mean really really huge mansions!!! Most of the mansions are lined along the ocean front over looking the cliffs so you can imagine how majestic they are. We did the cliff walk, with the ocean on one side and the mansions on the other, and we also did the scenic ocean drive which was super cool! (we caught the sunset on the drive). Well... New Port is so beautiful that words can't really do justice to it... so here are the pics...
After the scenic ocean drive, we went to downtown New Port where the restaurants and pubs are all located on the wharfs along the shore. Sea breeze, good food, beautiful people... what more can you ask for?
Anyway, a little side story. We had to wait for 40 mins to get a table for dinner at one of the restaurants, so we decided to have some Ben & Jerry's ice cream first. (Its probably about 12 to 15 degrees there?) Anyway, we had too much ice cream, and when our food came, we didn't even manage to get to the main course. Haha. The appetiser and soup wiped us out and in the end we had to take out the rest of the dinner and eat it as breakfast the next day. Look at the portions!!!
Anyway, I guess MArk, Weijie, and Yiping will all agree with me that New Port is the highlight of our trip. It's really beautiful and the people are great... Definitely a must go if you come to the east coast. And the end to a wonderful day...
