I do have the pictures all developed from this trip and some are scanned for posting but still working on the photo editor here for the others to be posted ... *smile* And I got some awesome pictures ... but way too many post all of them here, I will be posting just the "personal" felt highlights of the trip. There are a few from my trip posted now though for you to enjoy ....

It was near the end of September, and the job assignment was taking longer than anticipated ... we had already toured the heck out of the area of the country we were in. So FP- decided to use one of few week-ends that he had off, while we were in the Princeton, New Jersey area, to head towards Boston area and hopefully manage to meet some of the many folks from #30plus that reside around the area. I have to admit, it wasn't one of our better planned trips -- as on Monday things at his work appeared to be OK, Tuesday they were less than OK, Wednesday was a possibility he and I would be heading back to Pittsburgh instead, then on Thursday things were OK once again. So we were leaving notes on Simone "yes we are coming ..." then "may not be able to come ..." back to "we are definitely coming!!..." (Thinking here, oh my -- poor, poor Simone on #30plus)

Finally the week-end came, and it was a "go", so we packed what we felt we would need for the trip and located a coupon in the travel book to try to use. FP- was given directions from someone where he was working at for most of the way thru New Jersey and New York area that they said "was a great route" to take. Off we headed to the New England area Friday evening after FP- got home from work!! We paid the $4.00 toll to cross the George Washington Bridge, though I have a reputation for snapping pics from the front passenger seat of the car -- I didn't manage to get a picture of this bridge as I ran out film at the toll booth, and by the time I reloaded the camera ... well, it was too late. I did manage to get a couple of pictures from the car window as we drove the Bronx area of New York City though. *chuckle*

We got mildly hung up in the New York rush hour traffic, which we expected ahead of time that we would ... but not as badly as we did in Conneticutt. 20 miles of back-up on the main interstate due to shoulder work in near an exit ramp!!! No lie!!! It took us an hour and half to travel 23 miles ... and FP- didn't like it one bit, so I heard him say over and over and over .... *chuckle*

Having enough of the Conneticutt head-achy traffic and the passage of valuable time (as the sun was starting to dip in the sky for the nite), he pulled over and figured out an alternative route -- vowing all the while to give the guy with "the great route" directions an earful when he got back to New Jersey. Hahahaha!!! We had planned on being on the road about 8 hours, stops and all, ... wound up that we were driving almost 10 hours before we finally arrived in the Danvers area of Massachussettes. We had already decided to stay in this area, picking out two motel possibilities off of a web page ... and both had coupons in the travel book we had. We got into our room and set up Robby's porta-crib so he could stretch out and play while I unpacked and FP- called a couple of folks in the Boston area to let them know we arrived safe and sound finally.

We made plans that while in the area to tour about a bit in Salem , a town that I had mentioned I would love to visit if I was ever given the chance to be anywhere near it. FP- and I was surprised and delighted in how they handled the tourist theme of this area. Yeah, there was the witch trials and pirate themes played upon ... as we expected in advance. To be honest, we had feared it would be a tourist trap and was pleased to see that it didn't have that tourist trap feel to it at all. Items were very reasonably priced as far as general merchandise and souvenirs. I was more than content walking around the town, snapping pictures every 20 feet or so as something caught my eye ... wether it was something to do with the witch trial history or the artwork on the building (as the picture I will post here when sized down from the scanning shows)... or windows displays of a couple of the businesses. *smile*

One thing FP- likes about my shopping habits while we are out touring about is that I buy low priced souvenirs. Generally post cards of some sites that I feel that are better pictures than what I could muster with my camera, possibly a coffee mug for my desk that I can stuff rubber bands or pens into, and "penny crunching" machines are a weakness for me... spending fifty-one cents to have a penny transformed into a little medallion embossed with an image associated to the area we are in. *chuckle* I did see a t-shirt I liked in Salem ... but we didn't happen back into the store on the way back to the car for me to get it. (But when we were in DC area later on, I did buy t-shirts for me and my daughters while there ... and a half a coffee cup for my souvenirs *grin*) His major expenditure from my touring habit being the price of the rolls of film and the development fees for them ... to which when I tell him this, he just rolls his eyes and says, "Oh yeah, and the savings are *really* noticeable" in his usual sarcastic tone of voice.

We toured around the heart of the town, then ventured to the House of the Seven Gables -- where one of the women who worked there came over and offered to take our picture under the grape arbor (shown earlier on this page). The people who worked or volunteered in the town were all like this ... very nice feel to the town. *smile* Many of the homes from the mid-1600's were still standing -- often in their original sites, although some had been moved to new locations. What sites were no longer visible due to the passage of time were marked all the same with a plaque. Though the witch hysteria of the Puritan times in the area were an embarrassment of sorts, they have not swept it under the carpet either.

In the center of town is the Charter Burial Grounds, one of the old cemeteries in the area, where Jonathan Hathorne (one of the magistrates of the witch trials and grandfather to Nathanial Hawthorne -- the famous writer born in the area who later on added the "w" to his name due to his feelings of his grandfather's role in those trials) and Captain Richard More and his wife are buried, they were pilgrims who had arrived on the Mayflower back in the 1620's. Next to the burial grounds is the Witch Trial Memorial, the entrance to it engraved with quotes of the victims and stone benches on each side of the walls around the locust trees -- the benches are carved with the 22 victims names (though there is technically more than 22 victims) and the dates of the deaths, the locust trees to symbolize the grove of trees they were ordered to be hung from (except for two victims, the man who was pressed to death in an attempt to get him to confess to being a witch and the woman who had succumbed while in prison due to her already weak health).

In the main entrance to the town, across from the Salem Common area that was there in the Puritan days as well, is a statue to Robert Constant -- the founder of Salem Towne (as it was known back in 1632). It is here that you can chance upon a vacant seat on the bicycle tour of the town -- the cyclists explaining the sites and history of the area as they show you about the place ... and some little bits of trivia as well that aren't in all the history books.

All too soon we had to call it an end to the day, as FP-'s feet started to show signs of wear and tear as a result of my enthusiastic dragging him and Robby around the town. We headed back to the motel and got ready to have dinner with Quagga from #30plus. We all had a very nice visit over dinner at the nearby Outback Steakhouse (even though we were on an hour and a half wait for a table).

The next morning it was clearly evident that we weren't going to be able to meet anyone else we knew via the channel in Boston -- flu was running amuck in the town or they had prior family commitments that were unbreakable. So FP- decided that we would pull out the tourist maps I had purchased the day before and see what we could squeeze in before heading home. We didn't know that Danvers was once part of Salem ... being referred to in it's founding days as Salem Village. Now this is important because this was actually where the whole witch hysteria started to begin with.

Looking over the maps, we headed into Danvers where FP- drove me to places on the map and stopped to let me hop out and take pictures while he and Robby drove around the block then picked me back up. The parsonage that the girls met with the slave woman in is off the road and the drive leading back to it unsuitable for cars ... and almost easy to walk on past since it is right between two houses along the main street section of town. All that is left of the parsonage now is the foundation that has been unearthed in an archeological dig in the 1970's ... but many of the homes of the accusers and victims and the buildings the early hearings were held in the area are still standing, all but one privately owned.

The old meeting house on the map is actually another building from the same time period that looked similar to it that was moved onto it's former original site ... and across from the meeting house is the Danvers' Witch Memorial. On the outside areas of it, they have engraved quotations from several of the victims' trials. In the center is listed all the victims of the witch hysteria, including those who died in prison due to being unable to pay the fees for their keep after the trials were halted and the infant Sarah Osborne miscarried in prison just a few days prior to her hanging.

We drove to the Rebecca Nurse homestead, but it wasn't open yet for tours ... so I took some pictures of the grounds, we wouldn't be able to take the tour as it started after the time we had to be back on the road for New Jersey.

Having taken all the pics of the sites in Danvers, we drove thru Peabody -- known as Salem Farmes back in the 1600's and has some sites still existing from the witch hysteria era but we didn't take the time to try to find on this trip. We arrived back in Salem ... but the weather had turned cold and the winds had picked up since we were near the bay area. We went to a little deli called Brothers that I highly highly recommend ... the portions are quite filling (if not overfilling) and priced very reasonably. Just remember to give your order (regardless of what it is) to the man at the start of the kitchen's line or else you will loudly berated and accused of "cutting in the line" and sent back to the end of the line -- and the line is one that is almost always winding out of the door with tourists and locals alike waiting to get some food here. Another hint is to take time before ordering to scout up to the middle of the line to see what foods they have there that aren't listed on the menu since these items routinely change.

After eating, FP- and I decided Robby didn't need to be in the wind that day. So he sat in the deli while I did a quickie "last minute picture" tour of the area... trying to squeeze in all I could in the short time I felt I could leave them amused in the diner. I arrived back to the deli just in time ... as FP- was slowly running out of ways to amuse Robby, who thanked him by trying to see how many of the "on the way home" bottles he could consume before falling asleep in his stroller. *chuckle*

We hit the road at 2 PM, using the directions Trapper gave us the nite before to skirt most of the Conneticutt traffic (that he said always had a notorious traffic tie-ups reputation even when he lived in New York City) and we arrived home in the anticipated 8 hour driving time to unpack and get FP- ready for work the next morning. I carefully sorted out my 14 rolls of film I had taken of my Salem visit, and set aside the pencils I had purchased for the girls to use at school during October. I carefully set out my Laurie Cabot coffee mug (has a drawing she did of her cat that I thought was neat) and arranged my pencils in it that I use for my drawing or note taking moods. *grin*

I already asked FP- when can we go back .... *chuckle*

Posted November, 1997 by Carol aka Secretive