Happy Friday and Hello, November! I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween yesterday/last night. While I enjoyed a couple of parties during the day and evening, unexpectedly won Bruins tickets for a game in Boston next week, and managed to close out the night with a whole lot of leftover candy since I went a little crazy with stocking up in advance – I’m still in the mood to watch a few more horror movies and play some scary video games through this weekend before it’s time to make the gradual transition into all things Thanksgiving & Christmas!
In keeping up with some last minute spookiness, I had recently treated my mom with a trip out to Stockbridge, Massachusetts where we had a reservation at The Red Lion Inn for their Halloween-themed high tea in their study area. It’s been a long time since my mom visited the Red Lion Inn, so we got there early so she could do some exploring both in and around the grounds and Main Street area. It’s always so beautiful and picturesque there, and it helped that it was such a beautiful afternoon that day. I’m so glad she got to see and experience it again!
We enjoyed Paris Tea with honey, and a variety of savory sandwiches, scones, and spooky-themed cookies and truffles. Everything was presented so adorably, and it all tasted delicious. I hope they do something similar around the holidays, because we would love to go back and experience it again and see all of their Christmas decorations!
The following day, it was off the opposite side of the state for a day spent in Boston so I could check out some of the decorated brownstones in the Beacon Hill area, grab lunch on Boylston Street, and photograph a couple of unusual, somewhat morbid monuments in the city to keep up with my “Historic Halloween” posts I like to put together this time of year. There’s just so much bizarre history here in New England!
The first, located in the North End, is the recently installed plaque commemorating the location of where the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 took place. Now a baseball park, the site is where a storage tank filled with molasses exploded, flooding the neighborhood with a wave of molasses that came barreling through the area at 35 miles per hour. The incident resulted in the deaths of 21 people and the injuries of over 150 more.
The second, located in Bay Village, is the site of the Cocoanut Grove Fire of 1942, in which an overcrowded night club with illegally sealed/blocked exits caught on fire due to an electrical malfunction during the Thanksgiving weekend – resulting in the deaths of 492 people and 130 injuries. The incident is the third deadliest nightclub fire in history (followed by 2003’s The Station fire in Rhode Island, which I was alive for and vividly remember happening,) and the third deadliest single-building fire.
The memorial, around the corner from where the nightclub once stood, is a small plaque cemented within the sidewalk – and can be missed easily if you’re not paying attention to where you’re walking!
And while there are plenty more morbid monuments around the Boston area – I think I might save those for next year’s Spooky Season posts!
Although I’m not particularly looking forward to next week’s high tension and political unrest as Election Day approaches, Troy will be visiting for his birthday – so I’ll have some recaps of our weekend, a look at my Fall 2024 skin care/hair care collection, and another “Local Loves” installment I’m excited to share!
See you all soon!
xo
Coffee & Chiffon 