LYNN, Mass. – A century ago, if you purchased a pair of women’s dress shoes, they probably came from this neck of the Northeast, on Boston’s North Shore. Lynn, now a city of 80,000, was the self-proclaimed ladies’ shoe center of the world.

No more, of course, with virtually all shoe production gone overseas. Some light manufacturing remains, but Lynn is now mostly a resort town of bed and breakfasts and businesses designed to lure the tourist trade. Its oceanside locale is the main attraction, and this corner of coastline features a placid cove where the Atlantic gently laps at the shoreline, at least in October. Sidewalks, including a three-mile-long beachfront promenade, are flush with visitors who mingle amid the local citizenry – a melting pot of multiethnic Bostonians and more recent immigrants from Eastern-European nations such as Belarus.

My extended family and I are here for a wedding – my niece Rebecca is getting married in nearby Salem this weekend – and Friday afternoon and evening a dozen of us check into the Diamond District Breakfast Inn, a rambling Georgian-style lodging ringed by a meticulously manicured hedge. Our party occupies six of the 11 guest accommodations, which sport names such as the Buttonboot Room, the Slipper Room and the Sandal Room.

The catchy room names are appropriate: The lodging was built in 1911 as a private estate for P.J. Harney, a local shoe manufacturer. Clawfoot tubs, pedestal sinks, opulent chandeliers and other original furnishings remain intact. Inexplicably, the art adorning the walls is contemporary. There’s an outdoor hot tub on the premises, but a spacious open-air back porch which sights toward the ocean, just a block away, quickly becomes my favored place of repose. Gentle sea breezes keep temperatures in the 70s, and the Northeast’s dreaded summer humidity is gone for the season.

A witchin’ wedding

Becky and her finance Josh are to be married in Salem, a city a few miles north of Lynn famous for its 17th-century witch trials. Saturday, wedding day, a bunch of us stroll around the historic district and admire the 200-year-old churches, public buildings and storefronts.

City fathers also are marketing Salem as the country’s Halloween capital, and their efforts are bearing fruit: More than 1,000 people are expected for an upcoming four-day Harry Potter conference, appropriately entitled “The Witching Hour.”

Amid the multiple witch museums, a pirate museum, the black magic concessions and palm-reading parlors are numerous sidewalk cafes and restaurants. We pause for liquid refreshment and sweet treats in a juice bar-coffee stop. A strawberry-carrot-and-orange smoothie tastes spot-on, but the chai turns out to be nothing more than a tea bag and milk.

Becky and Josh have reserved the top floor of a theater-turned-restaurant-and-lounge to exchange marriage vows. None of us have attended a Wiccan wedding before, so we’re at a loss about the ceremony. At least we assume there will be a ceremony.

Sure enough, a bona fide witch named Shawn who’s licensed by the state of Massachusetts – and, he claims, the State of Magic – does the honors. Hats, skeletons, vials filled with potions and a sawed-off broom all are symbolic of the trust, love, reliance and independence so important to any successful marriage, Shawn announces to the gathering.

Some of the 50 or so guests come costumed in witchy regalia, and it’s difficult to determine who’s connected to whom until the masks come off. A sit-down dinner follows, and my brother Dave and I sneak downstairs to the bar to sample a pint apiece of Ipswich Ale, one of the local brews.

Dining ups and downs

“Gourmet breakfast” is a relative term. At the Diamond District Inn, a.m. fare revolves around Belgian waffles, eggs Benedict, sausage patties, fresh fruit, yogurt, boxed cereal, and store-bought pastries.

I limit my intake; better to save room for the Italian fare we later enjoy at Bella Verona, a tiny Salem trattoria. The restaurant sits across the street from the Hawthorne Hotel, a restored 80-year-old lodging that reminds one of Astoria’s Hotel Elliott and is situated a block from Salem’s Common, a lovely greenspace.

Bella Verona can barely accommodate our group, which has swelled to include the groom’s family. Yet the staff does a fine job serving the type of fare Northeast Italian eateries are renowned for, dishes such as chicken parmigiana, gnocchi and an array of simply sauced pasta plates. I opt for an evening-special stew brimming with seasonal vegetables and lusty chunks of veal. The accompanying crusty bread is ideal for soaking up the excess earthy-brown liquid. For dessert, we head into the heart of Salem’s historic district for double-dip pumpkin ice cream cones, then become lost driving back to Lynn and spend 45 minutes locating our lodging.

A four-state excursion

Next day, our route back to New Jersey takes us a short way along the Massachusetts shoreline, through Swampscott, Ipswich and environs. We avoid the Boston traffic (the Yanks and Red Sox are battling it out at Fenway Park) and cruise the countryside near Lexington and Concord, then dip down into Connecticut past Hartford, Waterbury and Danbury. At Tarrytown, N.Y., we cross the Hudson River into Jersey via the Tappan Zee Bridge. From there, it’s a short drive on the Garden State Parkway to Paramus, where my sister Pat and her husband Larry, the bride’s parents, reside.

That evening, we kick back and order take-out pizza from a strip-mall joint where my nephew Mike is employed. In between noshes of greasy-good New York-style pepperoni pizza, someone remarks: “Bet we’ll never attend a wedding ceremony like that again anytime soon.” We all nod and take another bite.

Contact the Mouth at The Daily Astorian, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 or phone (503) 325-3211 or e-mail mouth@dailyastorian.com

Lodgings: Diamond District Breakfast Inn, 142 Ocean St., Lynn, Mass., (800) 666-3076, www.diamonddistrictinn.com, $145-$270; Hawthorne Hotel, On the Common, (800) 729-7829, www.hawthornehotel.com

Restaurants: Authentic East Coast Italian fare can be had at Bella Verona, 107 Essex St., Salem, Mass., (978) 825-9911; Salem Beer Works, 278 Derby St., (978) 745-2337, www.beerworks.net, is New England’s oldest restaurant-brewery; try Boston Hotdog Company, 60 Washington St., Salem, Mass., (978) 744-2320 for snacks and micro-brewed root beer.

More info: Destination Salem, (877) 725-3662, www.salem.org; North of Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, (800) 742-5306, www.northofboston.org