Road Trip 2011: Day 15 of 20 (Boston, MA to Brunswick, ME)

Salem Maritime National Historic Site

Remembering the Salem Witch Trials and commemorating those who fight against crazy (and I don't mean the witches)

Salem Witch Museum

The Salem Witch Memorial next to the cemetery contains benches with the names and execution dates of the 20 "witches" who were wrongly executed  

Samantha was a witch too

Salem Witch House - home of the trial judge

Witch Dungeon Museum

We threatened to get this shirt for Derek

Nathaniel Hawthorne's  House of the Seven Gables (also wrote the Scarlet Letter)

In Marblehead we first saw the little signs on houses that show when the house was built, the original owner, and the owner's occupation. We would later see these signs in some other New England towns.

Fort Sewall

Helen wishing she had packed warmer clothes

Loved all the little New England ocean towns with their hilly streets sloping down towards the sea

Hammond Castle Museum in Gloucester

Fishermen's Wives Memorial

Fishermen's Memorial

There were 10 or so of these lists of Gloucester men who have been lost at sea

Lobster traps

Lobster Pool in Rockport, MA

We didn't intend to spend so much time piddling around Cape Anne - there's just always so much to see, but now it's time to put some miles behind us and get within striking distance of Bar Harbor, ME and Acadia National Park

We really wanted to get a lobster roll from the best, Red's Eats, but we were not going to make it before closing. We called ahead and they offered to save one for us and said they would be around cleaning up for an hour or so after closing.

We tasted a lot of different lobster rolls -  salad types, mixed with mayonnaise, etc, and don't understand why everyone doesn't just serve them like Red's - a fresh roll, lobster meat only, and warm butter to pour on top...simple and delicious

The kids found a use for the sandwich wrappers

Tuesday June 14, 2011

We stayed the night in Peabody, an hour or so north of Boston, and the plan was to get to Bar Harbor, ME, but to see some places along the way. Our first destination was just a short drive east to Salem, MA. We were surprised at how popular the town is. We parked in a big parking deck that seemed oversized, but I guess Salem is that popular.

We spent some time in the Salem Maritime Visitor Center where we looked at some exhibits and watched a film. We walked around town and checked out some of the sites related to the Salem Witch Trials. Salem was a cute town with a good number of things to see.

We left Salem and traveled a little south to Marblehead where we started our tour around Cape Ann (aka Massachusett's other cape). We visited the ocean towns of Marblehead, Gloucester, and Rockport. There were lots of beautiful views of the water and the rocky coastline. We enjoyed all the cute little seaside towns that seemed to be doing fine without big box national chains anywhere in site. It was so refreshing.

We stopped for dinner in Rockport and realized that most of the day had been spent and we really hadn't made any progress towards Bar Harbor, so we had to put our blinders on and ignore any other neat stuff. Still, whenever we would get near a town, I would look the town up in the AAA travel guide and, usually there would be something worthwhile to see. It was a relief when we would pass a town that was lacking anything interesting in the travel guide. Then I didn't feel like I was missing anything.

We had been driving a good while and we passed through Portsmouth, New Hampshire and entered Maine. We really wanted to make it to Red's Eats before they closed. I called to see what time they closed and it was obvious we weren't going to make it before closing. I told them how we had traveled a long way for a Red's lobster roll and asked if they could leave one out for us. They said that they would be cleaning for at least half an hour after closing and they would have a roll for us. We were so happy. But as we approached Wiscasset, the town where Red's is located, it got really dark and it was already raining. Our GPS sent us onto some really remote looking backroads and we were lost. We called Red's to tell them we would be late and they tried to help us with directions. We finally arrived, about 45 minutes after closing, and we were so thankful that they were still there and had our lobster roll waiting for us. Whew - what an ordeal!

We thought about powering on to Bar Harbor but it was still a couple hours away and we were tired, so we opted for the closest Hampton Inn. We had to backtrack some to the Hampton Inn, but we learned the lesson on Long Island to take a short backtrack for a known, rather than continuing on and risking the unknown.