Get Outta Town

Do you ever get that itch, that feeling that you just need to get in the car and drive?I do.No matter if you call it the ya-yas, cabin fever, spring fever, hay fever, or Bieber fever, sometimes it just feels so right to put some distance between yourself and the normal day-to-day goings on of your life.So last Saturday I took myself to Plymouth (yup, that Plymouth—the one with the rock and the pilgrims). It's a short hour drive from Boston, and a welcome change of scenery. There's ocean, some historical plaques, lots of tourist shops (quiet still at this time of year), and at least a handful of quaint book shops and bakeries. I walked around for a couple hours, taking in the sights, snapping photos, thinking about everything and absolutely nothing. It was a nearly perfect day trip. And just the sort of reset I was looking for.

$1 45's at the Plymouth Candy Store

That's Plymouth Rock. It's as small as it looks.

The Mayflower II

Lots of big bolts on the dock behind the Mayflower II

The Plymouth Jetty— I walked almost to the very end, got a little freaked out by the ominous looking sky (and my 2 hours of parking expiring), and turned around just a little early.

Update: I've been catching up on my favorite radio shows and podcasts via Stitcher Smart Radio, and caught the weekend edition of Fresh Air. They spent a segment interviewing Jonah Lehrer, who has written two books on where creativity comes from. 

He made two points that really stood out to me: first, that inspiration often strikes when we least expect it (not so much when we're staring at a blank sheet of paper.) Second, children are typically more creative because the part of their brains that limits outlandish thinking hasn't matured yet. You can hear the episode of Fresh Air—which I highly recommend—here.