We started the day in Salem, site of the witch trials. Much of the charm of the town is just the town itself with federal style homes all over the place.






 
 
 
 
 
 

  


























































 You can find a lot of good info on the web about the witch trials...but a few things we learned. There was Salem Town dominated by tradesmen and sailors, and Salem VIllage, dominated by strict puritan farmers. The villagers were under stress from Indian raids and a lot of infighting amongst citizens. This was the same time there were witch hunts in Europe and people believed in witches and the devil.  
 


 This was before the Revolution, and under English law, you were guilty if you were accused and had to prove your innocence. How do you prove you are not a witch? Especially when the court admitted "evidence" such as if an accuser said they had a vision that so and so was a witch, the vision was taken as hard evidence. Or the touch test - if someone is having a convulsion and they are touched by the accused and the convulsions stop, that was proof that the accused had cast the spell. In this atmosphere the accused didn't have much of a chance. Between June and September of 1692 19 people were hung and 1 pressed to death. Finally Increase Mather, a preacher from Boston, put a stop to it all. Salem VIllage was so ashamed they changed their name to Danvers. There's a pretty good brief history of the period here if you're interested.

We walked around the town and toured The House of Seven Gables, from the story by Hawthorne of the same name. We learned that Hawthorne grew up there, and his great great grandfather was John Hathorne who was one of the witch trial judges who sent most of the condemned to the gallows. Nathanial was so troubled by this that he added a "w" to his name to distance himself. Notice the photo of the door - there are a bunch of nails in it which are not doing anything structural, they are simply there to show the world how wealthy the owner was, since nails were expensive. The 17th century version of Newport showing off.
 
 
 
 




































 
Then we were going to drive to Cape Ann and Rockport - what I remember as being a neat drive full of little fishing villages. We got partway there, the driver was tired, we got lost and then got behind a school bus, so we turned around and headed for Portsmouth, NH.

What a neat town. Another harbor town with colonial and federal style buildings all over the town, Maine right there across the river. We walked around awhile until it started to rain and then found a place to eat.  
 
 
 

 











I've looked forward to a whole lobster this whole trip, but when it was finally time to order it I ordered a lobster roll and seafood chowder instead. When I was in college, we used to get the most wonderful sweet, tender lobsters, and since the 70s I've never tasted one like that again. The lobster roll at lunch was okay, but the meat didn't really taste like lobster. I decided I didn't want to pay all that money and then be super disappointed. The lobster roll for supper was okay too but it didn't taste like lobster either.
 
 



 
It's raining tonight, but that's okay. So far we have had perfect weather the whole trip - it has rained 3 nights but not during the day. It has been springtime since we left - crab apple trees, cherry trees, daffodils, tulips - amazing tulips, lilacs, wisteria, dogwoods, forsythia - huge bright bright yellow forsythia, and a bunch of other blooming things I can't identify. I was told that one was supposed to go to New England in the fall, not the spring.....well, it's true you have the beautiful colors in the fall but you also have the crowds of tourists. No crowds here and it sure is beautiful.