Cheryl had some odd paperwork things to take care of so Andrew took off on his bike and explored. When he returned we headed to town. We wandered around all the "witchy" areas. Salem is most famous for its witch trials in the late 1600s, even though it has an amazing marina and maritime history and other things going for it. Everything has a witch or wicked connotation attached to it: Wicked Good Books and Witch Pix. There were lots of tourist places and most everything charged admission. We did walk through the cemetery where those prosecuted for witchcraft were ultimately buried. There were 20 hanged for witchcraft; the "burned at the stake" way to get rid of witches stayed across the pond in England. One young lad refused to testify at a trial and was pressed to death. Yes, pressed. They put boards on him and then just kept adding weights. Yikes!
Interesting sight: they were renovating a house next to the cemetery. Literally there were tombstones propped up next to the netting next to the house!
We went to the Witch House, which is one of 2 of the oldest houses in town, dating back to the mid to late 1600s. One is the House of Seven Gables which was made famous in a scary book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the mid 1800s. The other was the house of the magistrate of Salem. Mr. Jonathan Corwin. He inherited a bunch of money and property and married a wealthy widow so that sort of gave him that honor. He was then responsible for listening to and deciding the fate of those accused of being witches. There were some 125 trials; they finally quit trying those accused when his own wife was herself accused! The house itself was very interesting as it was furnished the way it would have been in the late 1600s even though it wasn't true to this house in particular.
We drove into our 47th state, New Hampshire (!), and stopped by the remains of Fort Constitution. It was called many things over its long and active career, starting with Fort William and Mary for the Royals in England! There are three lighthouses protecting the cove and even though we couldn't get close to them, we got close enough. Andrew had to heave up the gates in order to gain entry! :) Nah...they were opened already.
We left the coast behind for now and headed to the mountains. There were some waterfalls we wanted to check out but once we got to our first choice it was too late to start the hike The sign said, "One hour, one way." It was already 6 and we didn't want to get stuck in the dusk. A family with small children and a dog had just come out of the trail and said it did in fact take an hour but it was an nice hike and even the little one (guessing 2 1/2?) could walk it the entire thing herself. The mom was also carrying a little one (maybe 9 months?) on her back in a backpack so it couldn't have been too rigorous!
We drove further down the road and tackled a shorter distance even though the trail was sort of rigorous with the boulders and elevation and mud and roots. The waterfall was worth it as it featured 100 foot drop of water flowing over a sheet of rock at a 60 degree angle! Wow! Very pretty! This particular falls, Ripley Falls, were also on the Appalachian Trail! So, we can say we hiked the Trail, or at least some of it, like a very small part of it as it really goes from Georgia all the way up to Maine!! We are hoping to catch the other falls tomorrow after our train ride to the top of Mount Washington. :) More on that tomorrow!
We are camping at a lovely campground called Green Meadow and it has wooded campgrounds, hot showers, many bathrooms that are indeed very nice, and kids running around everywhere! There is a massive green meadow in the middle with an extensive playground, heated pool being readied, and "tractor" rides. It was fun to see the kids of all ages running around with flashlight "bracelets," and just playing and laughing and riding their bikes and playing on the playground. There are lots of campers that take camping to a whole new level, sparkly lights in the trees, lights all around the campsite, and furniture!! We assume they are here the entire week, unlike us just passing through.
When we checked in, the gentleman reminded us to put our food away so the bears don't come into camp. He said they are in the woods and they need to stay there! Sigh. Still no bear bell. We also encountered Bear Crossing signs while driving, as well as Moose Crossing signs although we saw no signs of either.
When we were looking through pictures, we found a few we didn't feature in our blog. One is of grave diggers in Plymouth!! Well, they weren't actually digging specifically for graves, but they were digging for artifacts and they happened to be in the corner of the cemetery. It was neat to watch them work.
The other picture is of Andrew and Cheryl posing in the entry to Acorn Street in Boston. It is one of the few if not the last "cobblestone" street in luxurious Beacon Hill district. It is the most famously photographed street in all of Boston!
Until tomorrow!
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