Recently in Massachusetts Category

Sheraton Harborside Portsmouth - what a great location. My arrival was anticipated by the staff and they had a great room on the club level ready for me as soon as I could check in. The view across the river was nice on a cold and sunny day. I was tired from my journey so I found my way down to the Harbor Restaurant and enjoyed an early bird menu item. A fine Pinot Noir helped me relax as I watched the sun go down.

The piano player entertained me and the other guests with some great music. My ovation was answered by a personal visit to my table and an offer for any special requests. I gladly informed the gentleman that I enjoyed the music of Floyd Cramer, especially the song "Last Date." The pianist left and I returned to my meal. An excellent dish of scallops and crab. As I enjoyed my meal, to my delight, off the strings of the piano sang a most beautiful rendition of my request. Sated, both physically and mentally, I made my way upstairs to the well appointed room for a most relaxing night ready to face another day of trying to understand why people do what they do as a consulting root cause analyst at a nuclear power plant. A fine start to a great week at a wonderful location.

Finally, a museum that's completely honest about the items it displays. Boston's Museum of Bad Art is exactly that, housing the country's finest collection of lousy, kitschy, and tacky artwork. Since its founding in 1994, MOBA has aspired to bring the worst of art to the widest of audiences, and they've succeeded beyond all expectations with a collection of bad art divided into portraiture, landscape, and "unseen forces," which describes amorphous shapes and blobs. If you're wondering what exactly, bad art is, the short answer is that you know it when you see it, but the museum's guiding principle states that it can range from the "work of talented artists that have gone awry, to works of exuberant, although crude, execution by artists barely in control of the brush." To wit, the museum was first inspired by the discovery in a trash pile of "Lucy In the Field With Flowers," (pictured) which is bad art by all definition. Painted by an unknown artist, the subject is somehow depicted in motion while sitting in a chair in a field (perhaps an earthquake is moving the chair?), against a bizarre, swirling green-and-yellow sky. It almost brings a tear to the eye. Guests at the nearby Four Points by Sheraton Norwood or Sheraton Needham Hotel might want to drop by this quirky gallery to discover how great bad art can be.

[image via the Museum of Bad Art]

On a street in Salem, Massachusetts that runs along the harbor, there's a large house made of wood with seven gables. To this house, in the early 19th-century, Nathaniel Hawthorne went to visit his cousin Susannah Ingersoll. During his visits, Hawthorne listened as his cousin told tales of the house's history, thus inspiring the novel, The House of The Seven Gables.

Also known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, the House of the Seven Gables, which was built in 1668, received National Historic Landmark designation last month, and though the Hawthorne link adds a dose of literary fame to the dwelling, the home's historic appeal ventures far beyond the book. The 9,100-square-foot, 17-room mansion became a museum in 1908. Outfitted over the last hundred years with English and American antiques, Chinese porcelains, and reproductions of 18th-century linens, it's filled with the types of relics which would have been collected over the years in a house its age. Hawthorne's own sofa resides amongst the cupboards and tea tables; and the 1668 house where he was born in 1804, was moved, in 1958, to the House of the Seven Gables property, and is now a museum devoted to the author.

Surrounded by gorgeous seaside gardens, with views of Salem Harbor, the property also includes the Hooper-Hathaway House, The Retire Beckett House, and the Counting House, where the little ones can learn about 18th-century trade routes and sea captains. The House of the Seven Gables makes a lovely visit during your stay at the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort, just five miles from Salem, and nineteen miles north of Boston.