'Tis the Season...

....when we celebrate Lucy's Birthday!  This year, it's a week-long affair, it seems (maybe more!).

Today, since we all had off from school & work, *and* the weather was unbelievable beautiful, we decided to take our November Salem vacation day, which is now an annual event.  I believe it began back when Lucy turned five, at least if our blog is to be believed: http://thischarmingoldhouse.blogspot.com/2012/11/happy-5th-birthday-lucy.html

Once again, we hit the Peabody Essex Museum, which once again amazed us.  I think it is simply one of the best museums to visit with a kid (or without one!).  Right now, they have a Calder exhibit (yes, the guy who did all the mobiles) and it was so cool.  In addition, they have an exhibit called Branching Out: Trees as Art, which has a ton of hands-on features (it's in the gallery that previously had the human-animal exhibit, which was also very hands-on).  We recommend both exhibits highly.  Lucy particularly liked the tree room.

So we've taken Lucy to the Peabody Essex a handful of times, and every time we intend to go on the tour of the Yin Yu Tang Chinese House, but every time we end up spending so much time in the other galleries that we are exhausted and don't manage to get to it.  But today, we made it the FIRST thing. And it was awesome. The house was built in 1800 and housed 8 generations of the Huang family in southeaster China.  The house was taken apart and brought to Salem, where it was reconstructed in 2006.  Everyday objects (cooking utensils, clothing, games, etc.) are all placed in the home, and you can go into each room to see how people lived there at various times.  Lucy loved it (so did we).

We had both breakfast and lunch at our favorite Salem bakery, A&J King, and we also had a brief visit to Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables and to Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie (their spelling, not mine), where horehound candies abound. We walked along the waterfront and checked out the lighthouse.

All in all, a lovely day!  And don't worry, Alice was very happy, too.  She spent the day with all her dog buddies at the Social Pup.

Stay tuned for the further Birthday chronicles, including a surprise secret trip to see a show (she doesn't know about this), the SCIENCE-themed Birthday party, and who knows what else.

Happy November, folks!