Salem Cross Inn
260 West Main Street (Rte 9), West Brookfield, MA 01585
(508) 867-2345 http://www.salemcrossinn.com

Yankee Cricket Bed & Breakfast
106 Five Bridge Road, Brimfield, MA 01010-9703
(413) 245-0030 http://www.yankeecricket.com

(August 2007)

Our kids sent us a small pile of traveler's checks for our 40th wedding anniversary this past July and suggested that we, well, travel a bit. Apparently they think we are a little boring and stuck in a Dave's Diner rut.

It's true - we really haven't been out of the area since we moved here, so I suggested that we do something we haven't done in a long time: dinner theater. Linda reminded me of how unhappy we had been the last time we had tried that form of entertainment, but I reminded her of why we were so displeased: that was way back before Massachusetts passed no smoking laws for restaurants. In today's world, we'd be able to have a nice time and not drive home hacking up our lungs and stinking horribly. Linda agreed, and I started searching the web for dinner theater.

Pickings were slim. I was really surprised to find that our choices were fairly limited, but after some digging we settled on the Salem Cross Inn. We'd never been there before, but the restaurant sounded excellent (check out the various special "feasts" they offer) and is far enough away to qualify as "travel", yet close enough (roughly two hours from Oak Point) not to leave us worn out from hard traffic.

But we really didn't want to finish up dinner at 9:00 PM and then drive back here - we're just a little too old for that. I set Linda searching for a Bed & Breakfast, and she soon settled on Yankee Cricket - half an hour from our dinner theatre destination and, as it happened, also offering a package price in conjunction with the Salem Cross Inn. For $205.00 total Linda and I could stay there Friday night, enjoy our meal and theatre, and have a nice breakfast Saturday morning.

We set out early Friday afternoon intending to beat the weekend traffic and be able to enjoy a leisurely drive. We were mostly successful at that, running into only a little bad traffic on the Mass Pike. We arrived a little before 4:00, which gave us plenty of time to meet our inn-keepers and settle in.

The Yankee Cricket looks like a well maintained but very old home. It's actually six years young, having been built in 2001. Sherry, the female half of the husband and wife team, designed the home herself in early American style: wide plank floors, large stone fireplace, stencils and murals (Sherry again) and period looking trim and accessories throughout. The home does have a few things a real home of its period would not have enjoyed: six inch insulation, modern plumbing, air conditioning..

The only caution I would make is to ask about handicap accessibility before choosing your room. They do have some ground level rooms with direct access from the driveway, but the ordinary entrance to the house is up a rugged stone walkway. I kept a tight hold on Linda's arm whenever we went up or down that climb.

Sherry and Bill Simonic are gracious, friendly and interesting. Bill bakes cherry almond scones that are always out on the sideboard alongside the coffee and tea water. They moved here from Ohio after Bill's career in the steel industry was cut short from company downsizing. This Bed & Breakfast was actually a dream of theirs years before it became reality.

Our room was cheerful and clean. It has a shared bathroom, but no guests were staying in the other room, so we were free to commandeer it entirely. Thoughtfully, there is a separate sink in the room itself.

We unpacked, cleaned up, changed and then went back downstairs to chat with our hosts for a few minutes before heading off to the restaurant. Bill and Sherry are about our age and were very warm and fun - we got along well. They are both creative - Sherry sews and is extremely artistic; her artwork is visible everywhere - from curtains, bed skirts, pillows to the wall murals I mentioned above, ceramic tile and table stenciling and much more. Bill is very handy at woodworking in addition to his cooking skills and has created lovely furniture and many unusual cabinetry items, shelving, etc. We had a nice chat and then were on our way.

At the Salem Cross Inn, we were seated family style at 6:30 (the Inn requests being on time for these shows). A very nice salad was brought very soon after we sat down, and the bar opened at 6:45. The Murder Mystery began promptly at 7:00 PM, performed by a group from the local theater company. This show was "Who Wants to Murder a Millionaire?!", the last performance of the season. "The Doo-wop Murders" starts September 21st.

Dinner was baked stuff chicken with a nice side of potatoes and vegetables. I honestly don't expect great food at this sort of thing, but we were surprised: the meal was excellent by itself - simple fare, of course, but quite good. We enjoyed our meal and the Murder Mystery, though our table was completely off base as to the real murderers.. we had fun just the same. The Mystery wrapped up, dessert and coffee were served, and we left happy and very full.

We got back to the Yankee Cricket about 9:45; Bill was still up watching TV and invited us to join him, but we were stuffed with food and ready for bed. As we are accustomed to not using air conditioning, we just shut that off and used the ceiling fan to make ourselves comfortable.

In the morning, we showered and headed downstatirs for the 8:30 AM breakfast. We could smell ham cooking as we came down the stairs and joined Bill and Sherry and two other guests in the dining room. Breakfast was that very nice ham plus stuffed pancakes with peaches - or was it stuffed French Toast? Linda insists it was that, but I think it was pancakes; whatever it was, it was very good and we both would have gone back for seconds if we hadn't eaten so darn much the night before. We did manage to find room for another scone with our coffee.

After repacking and saying goodbye to our hosts, we had a leisurely drive back home, stopping at a few shops in Sturbridge. Traffic was light until we hit Rte 140 on 495; it became nearly impassable then. We crept along to exit 16, ducked off, and turned down the road for the Franklin Industrial Park. We knew that would lead us through to Rte 121 which we could take to Wrentham and pick up 495 again, or continue on Rte 140 to Foxboro if traffic had not cleared up. We also knew that road passes by The Big Apple, so we took the opportunity to stop there and pick up some blueberries and peaches.

We were back here by 2:00 PM or so, not at all worn out. We had a fun, inexpensive half weekend away.

Yankee Cricket also offers discounted admission to Old Sturbridge Village and other attractions; see http://www.yankeecricket.com/html/packages.htm.

Advertise Here - Free for Oak Point Homeowners

This website has no affiliation with the management of Oak Point Homes.

Subscribe to automatic notifications of new posts

1 1 1 1 1 1 22 21