Fun Driving Day!! (Day 16) 9/24/09

On day 16 of our journey, we awoke, packed up and left the Residence Inn at Boston. We then left for Salem.
Salem, in a nutshell, is the maritime town that dates back to the 1600s and has a history of killing people that it thinks are witches. Well, not exactly. The whole witch scare happened only in 1692 and never since then, but you get the idea. Lately it has become a tourist attraction with many shops and wax museums.

We arrived, and went to the highly touristy Salem Witch Museum. We got there just in time for their creepy witch presentation. The presentation was in a completely dark room, and started out with just an illuminated red circle with the names of those killed on the floor. This light went out, and then a spotlight pointed at objects on the wall (ie, a wax-figure diorama of the trials, hangings, and the devil) as a narrator told the story. It was done quite decently as it did actually scare me. After the presentation, the curator took us through a small exhibit with the stories of how midwifes ended up being blamed as witches, the history of witches and modern day witches.
Once this was done, we left for the historical maritime area. We watched another video presentation explaining the trade ships of different eras. The height of Salem was after the Revolutionary War, as privateer ships were converted easily to well-armed trade ships. It is said some people thought Salem was a country, for as many ships as it had. Sadly, the shipping was frozen during the War of 1812. When it re-opened, the ships of the day became too large for the harbor and the major shipping business shifted to Boston. The business slowly declined, until the last ship of an era tied finally tied up for good in the early 1900s. Salem's economy switched to mills, and is now a prominently tourist town.
After this visit, we went to the House of Seven Gables. The actual story of the house is somewhat different from that of the book, so when a woman bought the house in the early 1900s to save it from demolition, she altered it a bit. She also added a small ‘cent shop' (which were typically mad e by middle-class families in the day to make a little profit) in one room. This is somewhat innacurate as the family actually had no financial need for it. They also added a secret stairway to the third floor of the house, which was also in the book. The house reminds me of something between a maze and Hogwarts!
After visiting this, we drove down to the tiny state of Rhode Island to meet Jon and Daniel. We had dinner at Angelo’s which is a great Italian restaurant. I would recommend it for it’s high quality food and surprisingly low prices. After this, we went to Daniel’s dorm, which is a lot bigger than mine was in CTD. He actually got a shared room with three girls that has a kitchen and living space; not to mention that it is right next to the entrance. It's a nice dorm.
Apparently this building was designed in the 70s to be ‘riot-proof’ after the crazy riot era of the 60s. He showed us the parallel stairways, confusing walkways and many a feature that I’m sure would have befuddled the average hippie.
Daniel then showed us around the Dining Hall, Library and where Emma Watson is rumored to have her dorm. En route, we saw two college students climbing a statue for unknown but presumably mischievous reasons. Ah, college life.

We wrapped up around the Science building, and left for our hotel. Pretty good for a driving day!