Day trip to Ipswich and Newburyport one fine August Sunday

Lately, my pal MPK loves to go on day trips. So this past Sunday (8/5) we drove up to Ipswich and Newburyport. It took about an hour and we were on route 1A and decided to see the Heard and Whipple Houses. But they were not open yet but at 1pm til 4pm on Sunday. We were there by noon, so we drove a bit up north to the Clam Box.

After a satisfying meal at Clam Box, we got back down to the Heard and Whipple homes. There is a great deal to go to the Castle House, Whipple and Heard Homes for $10 but since the Castle House was closed we paid $7 for the Heard and Whipple (on their own it cost $7 to enter EACH place!). First you had to take the Whipple House tour first which is Manor style Medieval house with no nails utilized. The guide lives there and was very enthusiastic and very cool.All the Manor Homes in England were using wood from the Colonies. Lace was a big deal industry for fashion conscious women and a big money maker. I liked hearing the stories of even rich residents only had two outfits and took baths once a month.Plus undergarments were not used at that time. Found out from the other people that parlor is from "parlez" from French to speak. It was the social room where the men would talk about issues. Women were about four feet tall and cooked in the fire places using two types of fires and with a chimney. They cooked barefoot so that way their feet would sense the heat and fires so they would not burn themselves. In addition their outfits were fire hazards with apron, petticoats and big skirt. The floors used to be strewn with grass and herbs (for deordorizing, health properties) and easily clean the floors (a quick sweep would do).

After having an hour and half tour (our guide Judy was fun) also mentioned a little about the little herb garden. Then we had to go over to the Heard home because we were only left with 50 minutes for that home. Our tour guide Bob was cool. The Heard house was built Federalist style (prevalent) within the new American government. They made their money from the China trade (lots of merchandise) made by the Chinese specially tailored for the Western markets. I did agree with one other visitor's comment, these items are nice, but a traditional Chinese home would not have them. Augustine Heard I never married and there was a portrait of his Chinese mistress. Her name is a mystery, she did have bound feet (so she came from a aristrocratic background) while versed in the culture and knowledgeable in English she helped him alot. Unfortunately due to the prejudice of the times, they could never marry. One room has a local artist Dow's art (the most of his artwork in one room can only be found here at the Heard home). Dow loved to use Gaugin like colors and did have strong Impressionist leanings and did teach at Pratt as a instructor. There is some local art gallery presentation in the other room beside the Dow room. Going up the stairs, you see a beautifully wood carved mirror with tales of the Three Kingodms. It was fabulous and beautiful! One room was filled with toys from that period and cool reproduction of the Heard residence on Park Street #3. The dollhouse was amazing with the cool stairs and doors and knickknacks were wonderful!

Now we only had less than two hours to have around the area before I had to get back into town. We drove past the Clambox en route to Newburyport (still long lines) and rightfully so.
There was a festival in the Downtown area. We just meandered around checking out the cute brick buildings (a rich seatown) and we got some ice cream. I could not help but get the Mississippi Mud (coffee, oreo and almonds) along with Maple Walnut ice cream. Then we looked around the cute shops which were nice. Then we walked around the water and I took some pics of the sculptures around the Visitor Center for Newburyport.

The weather was great and not too humid or hot (the past days prior was humid and in the 1990's). Thanks MPK for another great day trip!