If it hasn't changed much in the last 10 years, I wouldn't spend much time at all in Lynn. It was one of the cities with a large drug and gang problem and therefore high crime. My old supervisor ALWAYS said, "Lynn, Lynn, city of sin. You never get out the way you went in." Since I got lost almost every time I went there, I'd say the rhyme had a double meaning, at least.
If you drive North on 1A just a few miles, you get to Salem, which is more picturesque and somewhat safer (though it is a tourist town and you still need to be careful). My favorite town on the north shore is Rockport, MA (up 128 past Gloucester, which isn't bad either). Motif #1 is there and the harbor is scenic. There are also plenty of buoys hanging on shacks, etc... Or you can go sorta westish to Lincoln, Concord, and Lexington. Lincoln has the DeCordova Museum which has a sculpture park. The road to get there has some scenic spots on it (there's an IR shot of a pond on my website and maybe in my gallery here that was shot on that road).
