A Northern Vacation

FINALLY!!  My vacation certainly took it's time coming but it is finally here.  Ten days of peace and quiet and lots of stuff to see.



I woke up before the crack of dawn, which feels really unnatural, and headed to the airport.  Thankfully, unlike last time, there was no traffic and I got to the airport bright and early.  After running the Southwest 'find-a-seat' gauntlet, I settled in and before I knew it, we were coming into Boston for landing.  If you're a skittish traveler, it might be good to know that as you approach Boston Logan for landing and you look out the window, you'll probably see quite a bit of water.  I personally think this was a nice addition but others have told me that it freaks them out- as if they are going in for a water landing.  But we landed on terra firma and I made my way to baggage claim.  Of course I wasn't ten feet off the plane before I was greeted with a Dunkin Donuts sign, stereotype CONFIRMED!  



Nicole, my travel buddy for this trip, picked me up at the airport and we set off on a very important mission. Mission Buy Out British Food Shops.  Turns out that there are two British food shops in the greater Boston area, one in Peabody and one in Westford.  It might seem like a weird thing to be excited about, but if you have spent any time in the UK, you know that British sweets are superior.  I mean, it will always be a mystery to me why prawn cocktail crisps (AKA potato chips) never cracked the US market.  Seriously, they are so divine.  I could go on and on about that but I'll spare you!



After stocking up, we set off to visit Salem, Mass and to explore the Witch Trials of 1692.  The first thing to explain is that back in the day, there was a town of Salem and then Salem village.  The village was where everything happened; the official stuff, like the trials, happened in the town.  Salem village was founded in 1636 and today it's known as Danvers.  Of course, not a lot exists from Salem village.  *Though after the fact, I did discover that you can visit the homestead of Rebecca Nurse, one of the Witch Trial victims.  Right off the bat, Salem was not what I was expecting.  I envisioned it more like a reconstructed village with people in Puritan gear and stuff like that.  I think I've pinpointed where the misconception came from, an episode of Scooby Doo.  I can't believe that dog mislead me!



Our first stop was the Witch Dungeon Museum.  We were treated to a short play that recreated one of the actual trials; the acting left a bit to be desired but what do you really expect?  Then we were led downstairs into a recreation of the gaols where the victims of the witch hysteria would have been held.  They were truly horrible conditions and the conditions would have been bad enough for actual criminals, but to know that these people did nothing wrong and had to suffer like that made it worse.        



Our next stop was the Witch History Museum.  We walked through the main part of town to get there and along the way, we saw the Bewitched (as in the TV show) statue and a bunch of costumed 'villagers' dragging off an accused witch.  At least, in retrospect, that's what I hope it was!  The Witch History Museum had a similar setup, little song and dance at the beginning and then off to the basement for waxy recreations.  This one at least gave a little more historical substance to the whole thing.  You learned about the background issues that most likely helped the hysteria take hold.  The wax museum downstairs reminded me of the one Nicole and I visited in Dublin, AKA the cheesiest wax museum ever!



The last stop of Salem was to the memorial to the victims.  It was a very nice memorial.  Each of the 20 victims (14 women and 6 men) had a small bench with their names etched on the side, along with their fate.  Most of the victims were hung and then taken to the woods for 'burial'.  One of the men accused, Giles Corey, was pressed to death when he refused to enter a plea.  While it was a shame that nothing remains from the time of the Witch Trials I understand that the village wouldn't have exactly been eager to preserve things from such a dark time.



With Salem seen, we headed up to Gloucester, where we would be staying.  Gloucester is the quintessential fishing city.  It was first founded in 1642 and is called "America's Oldest Seaport."  After getting settled in, we went down to the promenade that ran along part of the harbor.  Along the promenade are memorials to the fishermen of Gloucester.  If it looks familiar, it was shown in the movie A Perfect Storm.  Gloucester was the home port for the  swordfishing boat Andrea Gail.  There are plaques around the memorial that have the names of the fishermen lost at sea each year; the most recent was from 2011.  It's surprising that there are still fishermen being lost at sea.  It really shows how dangerous of a job it is.  Farther along the promenade was another memorial.  This one is to the fishermen's wives.



We headed out to dinner at the Gloucester House and was joined by my other travel buddy, Tiffany, who was in town for a conference.  We naturally all went for some seafood (I had lobster mac and cheese)and it was yummy; a great way to start the trip.  We walked along the promenade and soaked up the salty sea air as the sun began to set on the first day of vacation.  Not a bad way to start things!

Tomorrow: Boston