The charming seacoast town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, has a National Historic District where you can take a walk along winding lanes, hidden alleyways and rocky cliffs to admire the colonial homes, some built in the early 1700's. As you read the plaques on the houses telling of "Joshua Martin, Wainwright, 1786", you'll truly feel you've stepped into the past. Many of the Marblehead bed and breakfast inns capture this atmosphere of long ago. You'll see both elegant and tiny homes, some clustered close to their neighbors, mostly clapboard, painted in a wide range of colonial colors, with shutters, small paned windows, and elegant doorways. Charming little gardens are tucked into every conceivable spot of land. While you're exploring, you can browse through boutiques, antique stores, galleries and restaurants, and never be more than a few blocks from glorious Marblehead Harbor, and its thousands of sailboat in the summer. The Marblehead Arts Association supports and displays many regional artists, and is located in the King Hooper Mansion, one of the lovely old colonial homes which is open to the public. There are folk singers every Friday night at the “Me and Thee Coffeehouse”, and first class jazz concerts on alternate Saturday nights during the summer. And of course the biggest party of the year is the Marblehead Festival of Arts, held over the Fourth of July, featuring exhibits of painting, photography, crafts, sculpture, performing arts three times a day, and numerous activities and events for children. If you’re a history buff, Abbot Hall has a Marblehead museum, and the stunning original painting of "The Spirit of '76". At Fort Sewall at the mouth of Marblehead Harbor you can climb the old gun embankments where Marblehead men saved the Constitution ( “Old Ironsides”) during the War of 1812. The Marblehead Historical Society has changing exhibitions of aspects of Marblehead history, and a permanent display of paintings by primitive painter J.O.J. Frost, showing images of life in old Marblehead. The Historical Society also conducts 2-hour guided walking tours of the town on the first Friday of the month during the summer. The Jeremiah Lee Mansion, built in 1768, is open to the public in the summer, and is one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture still standing. It has original wallpaper, and furniture original for the period, built by Marblehead craftsmen. The town has no hotels, but there are numerous Marblehead bed and breakfast inns which welcome travelers. Availability, plus more information about Marblehead can be found at www.visitmarblehead.com.