Topsfield and the North Shore
Restaurants
Boston was one of the first Cities to really adopt Yelp, the restaurant review website. Pretty much everything is on it and what Yelp says is 4+ stars is generally good. It is intuitive to use and has the most complete restaurant listing of the city. This is a sampling of our haunts but there is a ton of food in Boston that we haven’t seen.
Hotels
Shopping
Antiques: For reviews of a handful of Antique shop’s I’ve visited in the greater Topsfield area, visit my blog: http://www.diysarah.com/?p=29
Essex Antique Dealers Association A collaboration of antique dealers in Essex, MA.
Essex Merchants Group Essex Merchants Group is dedicated to advancing Essex as a year round destination for dining, shopping, antiquing, recreation, & appreciation of its natural beauty.
Salt Marsh Antiques Salt Marsh Antiques is located in an historic 1805 barn, offering a fine selection of antiques and decorative accessories. Many dealers keep the shop full to the rafters with a constantly changing assortment of merchandise.
Things to Do
Peabody Essex Museum: A well respected Art museum that’s actually in Salem on the north shore (that’s code for the places on the shore north of the Massachusetts Bay). Just south of Topsfield, this is a great place to see in the vicinity of the venue. We’ve never been but it’s been on our list for a while.
Salem MA: Crawling with Witch Museums, it always seemed a little to creepy for me but I hear the pirate museum in Salem is quite good. http://www.piratemuseum.com/
Hammond Castle Museum: Eccentric John Hays Hammond Jr, “The Father of the Remote Control”. built this castle in the late 1920s to serve as a backdrop of his immense collection of Roman, medieval and Renaissance artifacts. Again, we’ve never been but Stefan loves to look at old armor and stuff so I’m sure we’ll take a trip out here at some point. http://www.hammondcastle.org
Gloucester MA: (Pernounced Glawster) has a really cute, artsy downtown area that I haven’t explored but would really like to.
Essex Ship Building Museum: Another museum on the north shore that’s been on our list for a while. www.essexshipbuildingmuseum.org/