I often  feel like I have to fly across the country or an ocean before I am truly on a tourist vacation.  What an idiot I am.  Recently some good friends of mine wanted to get away for the weekend before summer was over in New England.  These are the friends that I have traveled to Ireland, Greece, England, and France with over the past years.  We brainstormed staying in New Hampshire at a lake or even traveling to Maine umm to do the things you do in Maine.  We kept hitting a financial wall as none of us wanted to spend money.  We did want to relax and drink wine.  Enter Salem, MA.  I lived briefly in Salem and considered it a local-schmocale town.  I lived their long enough that it didn’t phase me to get my nails done next door to the Town’s Witch’s office.  So when my friends said that they had decided that we would just spend the day shopping in Salem and see the sights I thought it would be a snooze fest.  Oh but no, they also wanted to go “sailing”.

 

 

People, I come from The Mountains (that one was for you Drunk Mama).  I crave protection in the form of forests and hills. Up and down and around is perfectly normal.  But a boat that is dependent on wind and is just on flat water?  What the heck do you do on a sail boat besides grip the sides (wait, were there sides at all) and wear a life jacket?  I am here to report that you do not grip the sides because there is only a rope as rails and oh yeah, you drink wine silly.  We spent $25 on a trip on the Schooner Fame for a 2 hour trip around the Salem Harbor.  Amazing.  I am hooked.  I had the wind in my hair and a glass of wine in my hand, yep, I was in love.

 

 

Now the wine.  This was one of those occasions where the environment enhanced the wine experience.  Put a cheap bottle of wine on a gorgeous sailboat and you have a winner.  Sadly it was a Barefoot Chardonnay.  I personally am becoming more aware of mass produced wine practices and know I do not want to drink that wine. (See this article from Wine Geeks for example.) An exception to this is special circumstances like when you are a sailboat and it is your only choice.

But please don’t let my wine snobbery muddy the view on the experience.  It was wonderful and I loved having the white wine in my hand as it fit the occasion and matched my the scarf around my hair. If you have the chance please visit Salem, MA and particularly the Schooner Fame.  The Skipper loves his boat and loves sharing it with the public.  Information about Schooner Fame can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Disclaimer:  I was not paid to advertise the trip.  I just loved it and wanted to share.