Boston Day 5

We had to meet our group at 9:30 again this morning, but before we could do this we had to drop our luggage off at Chris & co.'s room. They were staying at the Constitution Inn a day later than we were. Salem was on today's agenda, so we took the shuttle to North Station again where we took a commuter rail about 20 miles north-east to Salem. Breakfast was Dunkin Donuts coffee and a donut.

After what seemed to be a long ride, we finally arrived in Salem. It is a charming old city with a lot of high buildings. There are plenty of tourist and historical points of interest, but our group had wanted to check out the Salem Witch Trial Museum. The building itself looked pretty spectacular and so I thought so would be the tour. I was quite wrong. After waiting a long time, we all were allowed to enter a room and sit around a 9' red circle that had all the names of those who were hanged in the center. On each surrounding wall was a diorama of the events that lead up to and just after the hangings.

While sitting there, they narrated the event and highlighted the diorama as the narration continued. Once this was over, we were led through a hallway with statues of witches popular throughout history to demonstrate how they've evolved. There was a Celtic midwife, a stereotypical Halloween witch, and a modern day Wiccan dressed in ceremonial clothing. This, along with some other facts, just showcased what the museum's intensions were, tolerance, not the Salem witch trials. Then you exit through the gift shop which had a huge array of all things witch related....so go figure.









At this point we were all hungry so we decided to see what was around. Greg some how heard of this pizza place about 10-15 minutes away, so we headed in that direction. Salem is pretty neat, but if I had a nickel for every witch shop, museum, tour there was, I'd break even for this trip. Despite that, there was a really neat center street that was brick lain and surrounded by tall buildings, a majority that were over 200 years old. Finally we found the pizza place and with the thought that some were going to different places nearby and that Wendy and I just had pizza the night before, Pat, Wendy, Jude and I went next door to the Gulu-Gulu Cafe.









The Gulu-Gulu Cafe describes itself as a European style cafe. I would describe it as a cross between Hamilton's, Lestats, Claire De Lune, and Caffe Calabria. The menu features salads, beer, wine, meats, cheeses, wraps, paninis, and desserts. I originally selected the Jolly Pumpkin Madruga Obscura imperial stout on draught but they had just ran out. So reading the menu, a bottle of Stone Highway 78 scotch ale looked appealing. Come to find out, Highway 78 is a 2011 collaboration between 3 of San Diego's top breweries, Green Flash, Pizza Port Carlsbad, and Stone Brewing Co. Holy smokes was it delicious! For food, I ordered the Palermo panini (genoa salami, tomatoes, provolone and pepperoncinis). Sooooo gooood! Nichole got a creme brûlée latte and the Istanbul panini (turkey, mozzarella, tomatoes and pesto). Pat and Wendy each got a plate of toasted bread with a selection of meat and cheese. I had a sample, it it was equally delicious. Definitely will be coming back here if I am ever in the area again.












































So, after reconvening with our group, we walked around trying to figure out where to go next. We ended up at the House of Seven Gables. I don't know much about this house other than it is right on the water and was built in the 1600's. Walking through this area was neat because the streets were narrow and the houses were really old. We decided that it was getting later in the afternoon and the kids were getting tired, so we headed back to the train station. On our way there, we passed through the downtown area and I popped into a cafe while the others were checking out the shops. At Cafe Valdeverde, I had a Mayan spiced mocha and Nichole a caramel latte. They were good, I think I prefer Claire de Lune's Mexican mocha. Jude had a cookie, he was getting restless so I needed something to keep him at bay while we had our coffees. He fell asleep a few minutes later. On one hand it was nice because he slept a majority of his nap on the train but on the other hand he missed out on the last train ride of the stay.









The reason the rest of the group was staying a day later than we was because we decided it would be better to spend the last night at hotel that was a lot closer to the airport because our flight is in the morning. The Hilton is across the street. So, we went back to the hotel, bade our goodbyes, grabbed our luggage and took a car service to the hotel where we unloaded and rested in our room for 30-45 minutes. Being a Hilton, the hotel has a restaurant inside where we met Pat and Wendy for dinner. I was quite excited to see on the drink menu the Moscow mule. It has vodka, ginger ale (ginger beer is better), and lime. It was really good, but pales in comparison to that of El Dorado's back home (theirs has vodka, ginger beer, lime, and aromatic bitters). I ordered the Smoking Englishman burger, Colby, produce and bacon. It came with fries and it was a little pricey for the quality of the burger. Nichole had a sapphire royale (Bombay sapphire, cranberry juice and lemonade), and shrimp penne with pesto. Afterwards, we had coffee and shared a Boston creme pie.





































The weather was supposed to be warmer today, with a high of 56 degrees. With that in mind and with the sun shining through out window, I decided to forgo my peacoat and wore my thinner jacket. Well, it got colder and the wind picked up like crazy! I soon wished I had my peacoat (BTW, it is from H&M and is made from recycled wool and I had a gift certificate so it only cost me $11!). apparently this area is seeing weather that is a bit colder than average for this time year.

Our flight takes off tomorrow around ten, I think. So,we will grab breakfast at the airport and make our way back home, via a layover in Chicago again.