Day Two: Salem, and Back to Boston

I don't think that anyone really knew what to expect when we were going to Salem, but overall, I think everyone was pleasantly surprised. So many cool things there! The "witch" thing was a very small part of our tour there. There was a lot of information about Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family. His great-great grandfather was actually one of the Salem Witch Trial justices. His famous words were "hang 'em."
Aside from his embarrassment of his great-great grandfather, supposedly a witch put a curse on the Hathorne name.  Nathaniel wanted to disassociate from the "Hathorne" family, so he added the "W."


At one point, Salem's port was the most successful in the world. But, as the boats started getting bigger, Salem's Harbor was just too shallow.
When ships went  to different islands for the first time to trade, they knew the island settlements were friendly if they were offered a piece of fruit, often a pineapple. Because of this, pineapples here are a sign of hospitality.
*I love this* Many people here had four-post beds with pineapples on each post in their guestroom. The pineapples were removable. If a guest overstayed his/her welcome, the hostess would remove one of the pineapples and hide it!  When the guest saw the pineapple missing, they would know it was time to leave.

The House of Seven Gables was amazing. We got to see the oldest known living quarters in New England, from 1680's  (sorry; didn't write down the exact year!). The house had period pieces and replicas, so we could see how it most likely looked at the time various parts of it were in use. I say that, because the house was built as a small house, added on to to create the famous gables, then the gables were removed to turn it into a Federalist mansion, then renovated again to replace the gables. A very cool piece of architecture. I could definitely see why Hawthorne would be inspired to write a novel about it.

The only sad thing about it was were were not allowed to take pictures inside (but I was soooo tempted to try!)

We went back and got to really see some more of Boston... I will tell you (and show you) all about it tomorrow!