Connecticut Vacation -- Salem, MA

The drive to Salem was about 2-1/2 hours from Hartford. To get the 20 of us to Salem, we had a caravan of three minivans and a car tooling down the highway.....


There were stocks displayed at one of the "witch" attractions and Liz and Jayden, at left, and Kyle, below, had to try them on for size....

Don't know about stocks and Ray-Bans, dude!

We started at the Salem Visitor's Center to get an idea of some of the things we might want to see; we decided to take a 60-minute trolley ride first to get an overview and pick out the stops we would want to make later. It's a hop-on, hop-off trolley, meaning that once you have paid your fare, you can get on and off as many times as you want to that day.

In front of the visitor's center, waiting for the trolley; at middle left are Eric's grandparents, Rhea and Ron, sitting next to the bell.

One of the stops on the trolley is the House of Seven Gables, the inspiration for the novel of the same name by Salem native, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne's great-grandfather was one of the judges at the infamous Salem witch trials; the spelling of his ancestor's name was different because Nathaniel Hawthorne changed his name to distance himself from that particular relative.

Our tour guide was adamant that no witches were ever burned in Salem; she said that during one year, 19 witches were hung and 1 was "pressed" (this last was a man, who was evidently killed by having more and more stones piled on top of him until he eventually died after three days of this torture). It was my understanding that a) this went on for more than one year; and b) there were some people accused of witchcraft who were burned; and c) there were more than 20 people prosecuted for witchcraft -- but whatever the answers were to a, b and/or c, they were not to be found on this tour. What was interesting was that, according to some names that the guide mentioned, at least two of the "witches" were men.....

Do any of you have recollections of the Salem witch trials from when we learned about them in school?

The Purple Scorpion is a tattoo and body piercing studio -- with a birthday in November and purple one of my three favorite colors, I had to take a picture of this sign. We girls, including a couple of preteens and a 13-year-old, played with the idea of getting a tattoo (for about 30 seconds) to commemorate the trip, but couldn't decide on a theme, and didn't have the time anyway, so continued on with the tour....


One of the older seaside buildings in Salem that had a historical plaque posted next to it....










......still standing today, but it's all boarded up, so you can't go in and look around to see how it was used around the time it was built.

Another historical place is The Friendship of Salem, a replica ship on display in the harbor. Again there is a plaque explaining about the ship: that it is a replica of the original Friendship of Salem, built in 1797 for international trade. The original ship made many trading voyages around the world, bringing various goods to Salem for sale and distribution throughout the US. The replica ship sails to nearby harbors, increasing maritime knowledge at festivals and other events in the New England area.

Annette and Bob Procknow attended the wedding and stayed for a few days. Bob is a district manager for Brother International; Nuttall's Fabric Centers, the stores that Rhonda Lopez and her family own, are in Bob's district.

Behind Annette and Bob is the customs house where sailors would pay their taxes on the goods they were bringing into the port. This particular customs house is distinguished in that Nathanial Hawthorne worked there for three years while he was writing The House of the Seven Gables.

There was some shopping to be done, of course...











....much of it having to do with the "witchy" reputation of the area.

Kyle Lopez and his wife Monica waiting for the rest of the group....we were doing a lot of walking, so benches were welcome sights!

Some of the business names were catchy....

One of a stack of T-shirts with comic slogans --- one of Dan's favorites was: Pillage first, then burn! In case aspiring pirates need a written reminder of the order in which one should do these things!

If you get to Salem, you might want to have a meal at The Witch's Brew; we had lunch there and the food was excellent and the service was pretty good, especially considering the size of our group.

The plan is for Tuesday to be a relax day and then a trip to Boston on Wednesday; I've taught in the Boston area, but haven't been to the city in many years, so I'm looking forward to it. I love all the history and hope that we'll get to walk the Freedom Trail!