Salem Bound Day 4, Salem part deux, Resting Witch Face

Beautiful Day! Sleep last night was precious. Morning walk had a purpose. Despite the slight miscalculation, I headed out to one of the bakeries. Round trip was just under 6 km. Picked up some lovely treats like the mandatory baguette, a sticky bun, a croissant or two or three. It was a nice walk along the streets of Salem past many of the things we would also see later in the day. I am normally obsessed with walking pace but I forgot to pause the watch at some of the traffic lights and other city distractions. So let’s not talk about pace.

When I got back to the van at about 0830, Mrs Milddogs was just finishing making her coffee. Perfect timing to add a croissant! Hey, we are on vacation. All vacations go better with baked goods.

We hit the road to find a parking lot in Salem and arrived at one around 0930. Nice thing about the van is that we can fit in a normal spot width wise and if we exploit the outer parking spots and back over the curb we are ok on length.

We had purchased a self paced walking tour app and picked a parking spot near the origin of the tour. Part of the interest in this location is the family members Mrs Milddogs has sleuthed out that were part of the witch trials. Our tour went by some old houses of significance. I took some pictures. The tour also went by some of the sets for the movie Hocus Pocus.

OK, we watched the first half of Hocus Pocus last night. I may have watched it a bunch of years ago. I am not sure it has aged well. I can’t say that out loud here as there are too many Hocii Pocii around. Good on you, Hocus Pocus fans!

Salem has many people that choose to dress in black and wear black wide-brimmed hats. Many of them have resting witch face. It’s kind of like seeing all the people dressed as Harry Potter characters at Universal Studios. I suspect the witch wardrobes here were less expensive. Some are a tad creative. I wonder if the witch dressed people have houses they belong to like the Harry Potter dressed people.

Back to the tour. It was pretty good. As you arrive at a notable thing, it tells you about it. In between it shows you a live map to the next attraction. We did all of the optional steps. Good that we did as that took us past The Witch House. Someone lived there. I think he was involved in the prosecutions. I am not your tour guide. Halfway through the tour we went past the van so we stopped for a break and an apple. “Here, just take a bite of this shiny apple”. While getting our apples I noticed the guy in the car across from us adjusting his gun that was oh so carefully tucked in his pants pointing at his man parts. I think Massachusetts is a conceal carry state. America!

This is a building used in the movie Hocus Pocus. Original town hall I think.

One sad fact about all of those witch executions is that the last batch took place on my birthday. Just 372 years before I was born. There are many sad facts about the witch trials. Hard to ascribe our morals on our ancestors, but even people that were alive at the time knew the trials were wrong. Protest too much, must be a witch.

In Salem they have trespass rules that you can’t go to certain spots after dark. The cemeteries, for example I guess too many ersatz modern witches making mischief in the dark trying to conjure up the Sanderson sisters or someone else

Post tour, and with tired legs, we drove the van to Walgreens which just happens to be right near Gallows Hill where they hung all of the convicted witches. We walked up to the memorial. Thanks for the parking lot, Walgreens. I bought a toothbrush!

We then headed to Marblehead to the one of the oldest burial sites in the area. Turns out that the cemetery was also a filming location for Hocus Pocus. How do we know that? Our camp neighbours were there and showed us the framing for some of the shots. It pays to be camping near a Hocii Pocii. Marblehead was a pretty cool stop. Very old town with cool buildings and views.

View of Marblehead cemetery. Maybe a shot from Hocus Pocus.

Oh no! Mrs Milddogs had a look and we were only a few hundred meters from a lobster pound. Off we went and she ordered up some steamed lobster to go. We had to wait a bit so we hung out in the van back up the hill. Once they were ready we headed back to the campground. When we arrived we filled up the water tank at a different site (our water line is broken) and then we parked. Mrs Milddogs enjoyed the lobster for an early dinner while I observed and fetched supplies required for the feast.

After dinner, Mrs Milddogs did some genealogy on her side and my side. Turns out we both have ancestors buried in the cemetery we went to. On of my great (times many) grandfathers on my maternal grandmothers side. He was born in England in 1661 and emigrated to the area with his parents. We did not observe his gravestone.

Before calling it a day, we wandered around the campground area and took in the ocean views.