A tour of Arlington Mass.

This past week we ent on a tour of Arlington , Ma. It is not always easy visiting a town and this week was particularly challenging giving we are in the middle of a pandemic and it is winter so there where very limited things to do. We did manage to eat a very good lunch from Fresh Pond Seafood. My mom and I both had a fried Haddock sandwich which came with a cup of chowder.It was very fresh. We drove to a nearby pond to eat and enjoy the view.

After a tasty lunch we tried to go to the Menotomy Rocks Park but the trail was very icy and it looked like we were parking in someone’s driveway. We will save that for another day. We were driving around the town and came across skyview park where a number of people were sledding on the small hill there. It was too chilly to get out so we drove to the Jason Russel House to go to the museum there. It was closed for the season but we met a very nice man outside who told us about the museum (and strongly recommended Jimmy’s steakhouse for lunch.)Paul Revere was at this site and it was also the site of the bloodiest fight in the revolutionary war. There are still bullet holes in the wall from that fight.Also there was a giant tusk from a Mastedon found in a local pond. We will save this place for another day as well.



We also tried to go to the Cyrus Dallin Museum which is a local sculptor showroom. It was closed. Also MassHole doughnuts is nearby but only open in the morning. We ended up our day walking thru down town on Mass. Ave. There are a number of shops, coffee places and also the Visitors center which is open seasonally. The Visitors center is located near a statue of Uncle Sam who was from Arlington. Also Olympia Dukakis and Dave of ShaNaNa are notable past residents.

While Arlington wasn’t our favorite town to visit I am sure if we went back in the summer or when more things are open we may enjoy it more. Perhaps we will visit again someday.

Our Trip to Andover

Today we continued our exploration of Massachusetts with a trip to Andover. It was a partly sunny day in the 40’s. It was a nice drive there. Our first stop was lunch at the Town Market. They have amazing baked goods there including many gluten free items. I had the shrimp and corn chowder which was thick and creamy and the caprese wrap which was freshly made on a sun-dried tomato wrap and served with homemade potato chips which were amazing!

Our next stop was the Addison Gallery of Art. This is on a college campus.The building was three stories with different galleries on each floor. The main floor was all about photography. The top floor had several exhibits including some paintings from Andrew Wyeth, Georgia O’Keeffe, and several other well known artists as well as many lesser known contemporary artists. The bottom floor had an amazing collection of model ships including one of the Mayflower.They have a very quaint gift shop which many things were on sale. My mom bought a souvenir mug for only a dollar! This was a great museum and it was all free!

After the art museum we decided to go on a hike we were going to go to the Ward Reservation for a quick walk to see the mountain top sundial but it was getting late and it cost $5 to park! We opted to do a little exploring downtown instead. We found a cute thrift shop to wander thru and then uptown we stopped at Caffe Nero for an expresso before we hit the road.

Overall it was a very nice day. Andover is an old college town with a very cute downtown with a nice mix of old and new. There are many interesting buildings downtown and its of beautiful houses in the surrounding area.It is a great place for a day trip.