More New England Adventures - Waterfires and Ipswich

A few weekends ago, my parents came to Boston for my 30th birthday!  Travis, who had been in Vermont the week prior, came back to Boston Saturday to spend some time with us too (awwww),  Saturday morning we decided to go to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which is one of my favorite museums in Boston (check out some of my others here).  You can't take pictures inside, so if you want to see it, you'll have to go yourself!  :)

Saturday night we headed south to the Waterfires in Providence, Rhode Island.  Travis and I had been there once before (read about it here!) with some friends, so we knew mom and dad would love it.

If you think that's pretty, check out some pictures from our last trip to Waterfire.

Sunday (my birthday), we decided to spend the day in Ipswich, MA.  Ipswich is another little town on the north shore of Massachusetts (in addition to Gloucester, Rockport, Essex, and Newburyport).  Ipswich is a much different from its north shore counterparts - there are lots of really old homes and properties you can tour, wildlife reserves, and places to eat.  We decided to take a walk around and look at some of the old homes - most were from the 1660's to 1750's.

After walking all over downtown, we went to lunch at the Clam Box.  The reason we picked this place was because of it's shape - it looks like a clam box!  We were pleasantly surprised at the food - it was fantastic, so it was no surprise when I saw the Clam Box won best clam shack in MA.  I had fried shrimp...mmmmmm.  Honestly, the fried shrimp were better than The Lobster Pool, but The Lobster Pool's atmosphere is far better.  Go to either and you'll be happy.  :)

After lunch we went to the Crane Estate.  There was a wedding going on later that day, so we couldn't go in, but there was plenty to see around the estate.  We took a loooong walk up the hill to the home, walked through the gardens, and then down their huge lawn.  The lawn had three huge hills, and at the end you were rewarded with a beautiful view of the water.  So pretty.

Later that night, Travis went back to Vermont to finish up his conference, and the three of us went out to dinner.  Such a fun day!  Check back later and I'll tell you about our trip to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Museum of Science!