Day 6 July 2, 2018
Dear Adventure Avenue,
We woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel (Salem Waterfront Hotel and Suites). It was pretty good! I had an omelet with white toast and little fried potatoes. My dad also had an omelet, my brother had pancakes, and my mom had eggs benedict. It ended up being free because the hotel had given us vouchers to use.
After breakfast, my mom and I started to walk to the House of Seven Gables. On our way there we stopped at a visitor’s center where the guy said to check out the Custom House and the Lighthouse. We decided we’d do those after the House of Seven Gables as they weren’t open yet.
The House of Seven Gables
The House of Seven Gables is really cool! It’s what inspired Nathaniel Hawthorn’s book by the same name. One of the reasons the house is so cool is that it has a secret passage around the fireplace! And we got to go through it!
My tour had a bit of excitement during it. After we had gone through the secret passage into the attic, a girl almost fainted! Luckily, she was okay. She had probably just locked her knees or was a bit dehydrated because once she had some water, she was good.
Also at this site, we met some rug hooking ladies. Watching them craft was very interesting!
Custom House and the Salem Lighthouse
My mom and I met back up with my dad and brother at the Custom House. According to the National Park Service “Nathaniel Hawthorn, the famous American author whose three-year-long stint in the Salem Custom House inspired his classic novel, The Scarlet Letter.” (Note from the present: I want to read the Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables! I can’t believe I haven’t read them yet.)
Make sure you go behind the Custom House because there is another section called the Public Stores where you can see where cargo was held. It’s nicely themed and there were some interactive components.
Then we started walking to the lighthouse. It seemed small from where we were. It was out on a peninsula. We walked out to it but stopped a little more than halfway when we realized that it wasn’t an optical illusion: the lighthouse really was that small.
Lunch
For lunch we went back to Essex’s N.Y. Pizza and Deli because we wanted a fairly inexpensive lunch. It was still as delicious as yesterday!
The Witch’s House
The Witch’s House is the black building where one of the judges of the Witch Trials lived. I enjoyed this building because I learned a lot about the lifestyles of people. I liked learning how they treated illness or the different cakes they’d make to discover their true love. These cakes were made of ½ flour, ½ salt, and urine. (I don’t think I’d want to try one of their cakes).
Ice Cream & Dinner
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Maria’s ice cream. I enjoyed the Green Monster. It was mint ice cream with oreos in it. My mom seemed to enjoy her almond joy. My dad got the Kona coffee, but didn’t think it was coffee-y enough.
We rested in the room a bit before going out again for dinner at Brother’s Tavern. My brother liked his chicken tenders and my mom liked her shrimp scampi. My dad had clam chowder and I had a grilled chicken pesto panini.
Ghost Tour
After dinner my dad and I walked to the fake Revere bell across from the Visitor’s Center. We met with our tour guide from Spellbound tours. A lot of the ghost stories we had already heard from the movie and the other tour we had seen yesterday. Although, there was new information on vampires. Apparently, they still exist today.
Signing off, until tomorrow,
A
From Salem
Check out the other posts in this series:
Throwback Thursday Boston 2018 Day 1
Throwback Thursday Boston 2018 Day 2
Throwback Thursday Boston 2018 Day 3
Throwback Thursday Boston 2018 Day 4
Throwback Thursday Boston/Salem 2018 Day 5
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Sources:
https://www.nps.gov/sama/learn/historyculture/customhouse.htm
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