Salem, MA (3/10)

On Saturday the Walkers took a family trip to Salem to visit the Peabody Essex Museum. Even for people (like me) who don't consider themselves art lovers, the museum is worth a visit. The museum has thousands of pieces of maritime art. My favorite had to be the schematic which detailed how a battleship should be painted with a cubist pattern. Apparently the almost random shapes and colors made it very difficult to determine which direction the ship was heading. It must have been something to see though.

The Asian art was spectacular too. One of my favorites was a giant tusk which had been carved into an entire miniature town. The hours of work that must have gone into the piece must have been unbelievable.

After leaving the museum for a quick lunch we headed over to the docks to see what was on the water. There were scores of Red-breasted Mergansers and Bufflehead. I think that I spotted one Scaup amongst a group of Common Eider. And we did see one Common Loon... at least until it dove and vanished.