bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday-  The best laid plans, oh well! We had planned to go to Salem today as the weather is perfect, temp in the low 80’s, sunny with low humidity.

Bob accidently knocked over his 12 oz.  glass of water. HIs pills were in his hands. The water spilled on the table, my computer, the floor, and the dogs. We got the water cleaned up and realized that we could not find two of the three pills. One of which was his Fleconide, the atrial-fib med. Roxie will eat anything, so we were worried. We searched the floor, counters and everywhere. So finally we thought maybe she ate the pills. We had found one pill on the floor, but could not find the other two.

So we gave her some hydrogen peroxide to get her to vomit. She did not. So we packed up the dogs and ran to the emergency vets. On the way to the emergency hospital, we saw a vet office, so we pulled in. Right after we arrived, the Doc arrived. She gave her more of the hydrogen peroxide, but it was now over an hour. She  eventually vomited up the H2O2, but we did not find any evidence of the pills.

She was looking good and the Vet just said to watch her and if her heart rate dropped to take her to the Emergency Vet Hospital.

We left and went to Petsmart for dog food and Petco for new harnesses. We returned home thru Tewksbury.  Bob went to pick up lunch at a local deli.

Bob noticed that the hydro-hot was leaking, again, so he changed clothes and worked on tightening all the bolts. We are watching to see if it is still leaking. I took a nap, and we kept watching Roxie, who had no problems. We still have not found the two pills!

We finally decided that Roxie was okay, so we went into Lexington to Rancatories, a local ice cream parlor, where we had a ‘buy one get one free’ coupon. We each had a micro hot fudge sundae, with a really great homemade chocolate ice cream, total $5.

We returned and Bob went to walk the dogs, and Karlie’s leash broke, so we off we went to Target and bought a new leash,plus some other items on our list.

We returned, ate dinner, and I worked on the blog. Bob made reservations for a Tall Ship cruise in Boston Harbor for Tuesday. We wanted to go tomorrow, but they only have a brunch cruise tomorrow and it was much more expensive.

Sunday- We were off to Salem in the morning. We drove right into a free 2 hour parking place. We climbed out of the car and realized we were parked right in front of the Salem Witch History Museum. We walked about a block to the visitor center. We walked in and spoke with the NPS ranger. He gave us a nice map and told us that it was about a mile around the tourist area. He also told us that since it was Sunday, it was free parking at all the meters and in the metered parking lots. Across the street was a big parking garage, which cost $18 per day. By walking over and asking we saved $18 dollars!

We watched the nice 15 minute NPS movie about the town, then walked back to the Salem Witch Museum $8 ea..

It was interesting. Part history and part tourist trap. They used statues, music, lighting and other theatrics to tell the story for about 1/2 an hour in life size scenes. Then a guide takes you through another area and tells you about a timeline through history, of episodes of ‘hysteria’ about witches and other events. When you look at what they said, it makes sense for what is going on today. They talked about Salem, the internment of the Japanese after Pearl Harbor, the Jews and Hitler, Joe McCarthy in the 1950’s, the AIDS epidemic and the Gays. Now of course it is the immigrants. 

We went outside to the car, and moved to the city paid parking lot behind the parking garage, and parked for free! We started the tour by walking through the inside mall to the Salem outside mall.

We followed the red line on the brick for the town tour route. There were all sorts of witch scenes on the statue below.

On our walk, we of course had to stop and say hello to Samantha!

We also saw this sign about Alexander Graham Bell.

It is hard to read in the picture, but it talks about Bell living in Salem and working on the telephone and how the people in this house, where he was staying, helped to pay for his work. 

Our first destination was the Witch’s House. It was the house of the judge in the Witch’s Trials. It was where the accused persons were taken before being taken to the jail(dungeon). It was the judge’s house, and he basically decided if there was a case. If so, then you went to the dungeon until your trial.

Above is a painting of Cotton Mather. Was he a piece of work! One of the people convicted of being a witch was a minister. He was against the whole process and spoke up for others. As a result, he was sentenced to hang. The Puritans believed if you were a witch, you could not say the Lords Prayer correctly. This poor man recited it correctly. They asked Cotton Mather if they should stop the hanging. He said no, justice had to be served! So they hung the poor minister.

Below are other pictures of the inside of the house.  The original walls, the parlor with a one piece of wood table top and very uncomfortable looking chairs. 

 

 

Above on the right is the original floor, which was still there.

Above is the master bedroom. In this room, and in this bed, the lady of the house birthed their 10 children. In those days, the women of the town came to the labor and birth. No men allowed. They closed all the shutters and even covered the lock on the door to make sure that the devil did not get into the child. Sure hope they were not delivering on a really hot day, as this was on the second floor and with all the windows and doors closed and sealed, it must have gotten pretty toasty in there!

We skipped the other tourist traps. Below is one, the Witch’s Dungeon Museum.

We went to lunch at Turner Seafood. On the building we found this plaque.

We had a nice lunch. I had baked scallops and Bob had clam chowder, a crab cake, and a local amber beer.

We continued our walk, and passed the Witch’s Memorial.  If you look along the wall, you will see attached shelves, and there is one for each person killed. Most were hanged but one man was pressed to death, by rocks being placed on him.

 

We continued past the next tourist trap, the Witches and Pirates Museum.

We arrived on to the waterfront. We stopped at the other NPS visitor center, again stamping our NPS passport, as we had also done at the first NPS visitor center. We have now completely filled the northeast pages of the book!

 

 

We looked at the long wharf and the buildings, then walked over to the “House of Seven Gables”. It is actually the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion from 1668. It is also the Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthplace(1750). We wandered through the gardens, deciding not to take the tour. $8 ea. just  for the gardens.

We left and stopped across the street at ‘Ye Olde Pepper Company’, the Oldest chocolate store in America.  We bought a small bag, 4 pieces, of ‘seconds’ and walked to a little park to eat them. One was a larger piece, cashew turtle like with chocolate and caramel. We split it and found it had chipotle pepper in it. It was spicey, but good!

We continued back to the wharf, and went into the Custom House.

Nathanial Hawthorne had been a Custom Agent working out of this building when he wrote the book. Even with writing the book and it selling 250 copies right away, with his salary and the book sales, he still could not support his family! The customs person really did a lot, not just the customs, he paid out pensions, kept the buildings in repair, and did a lot of tasks for not much money.

 

We walked back to the car and drove across the bridge to Marblehead. Originally, Marblehead was part of Salem. There were a few museums, but what we did was drive around the town, out on the peninsula that jutted out into the harbor. We visited Marblehead Neck, which is an island where some really rich people live. We ended up on a one way street next to the Yacht Club. We circled twice, trying to get to the lighthouse. We did, but it was mobbed. So Bob jumped out of the car, took a picture and we continued to the old downtown. That was a waste of time and gas. The streets were narrow and you could not see to the water, as the houses are so packed together.

We finally left and drove south. The GPS informed us there was an accident on I-95, so we went through town. An issue, as we ended up on toll roads, through tunnels right thru downtown Boston. Ugh, driving thru Boston is not fun!  Here is the Boston skyline.

We eventually made it to I-95, south of Lexington, and back to the MH. We ate dinner at home, watched TV and of course fell asleep in the recliners before going to bed.

Monday- We went to Lexington to take the Lexington Trolley Tour. This trolley is owned and operated by the town of Lexington. The older lady, who sold us the tickets on Friday, ($25 ea.) was the tour guide today. She was AWESOME! It was one of the best 90 minute tours we have ever taken. Not only did she know her stuff, she was funny and realistic. She also serves on the Town Council of Lexington.

We were told stories of the locals and how things occurred. The battle of Lexington lasted 5 minutes with no one knowing who fired the first shot. The American’s had 70 men and the British had 700. The American’s went to back off, and someone fired a shot. Then everyone started shooting. 8 Americans were dead, 10 Americans were injured, and 1 British soldier was injured.

The whole town could watch the battle from their homes. The area around Concord and Lexington had farms and all the trees had been cleared, so everyone had an open view. All the trees in the area are less than 150 years old!

The British then continued their march to Concord. They arrived in Concord and went to the North Bridge. The Minutemen were on one side and the British on the other. The Minutemen, by this time a larger force, took on the British. The British shot in the air and in the water to frighten the Americans, but the American’s did not back down. This astonished the big bad Brits, as they were used to everyone being afraid to fight them. They would go to peoples houses to check for the ammunition and guns and the folks would just say no to them entering their houses. At this point, everyone was still considering themselves to be British, and they believed that they had British rights

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Above was our tour guide. The statue is commemorating the shot heard around the world. The other picture is of where there are some British soldiers were buried.

Anyway, at the North Bridge,the Brits started backing up. This is where the shot heard around the world occurred, because a bunch of Militia Men took on the the famed British soldiers and won.

Above is the Minute Man statue. He is holding his rifle, for the militia, and next to him is a plow, which shows that he was a farmer.

When Revere and Dawes went to let everyone know that the British were coming, they started basically a “telephone tree”!  They brought the news to a point, then more men would fan out going to other towns, etc. So that the news traveled pretty fast. 

The Brits went scurrying back down the road, with the Americans in hot pursuit. By this time, the American alarm had been rung, and thousands of militia ( Minute Men) were arriving. They did guerilla warfare, shooting from behind rocks, houses and the few trees along the road back to Boston.

Muskets only had one shot before being re-loaded, so the militia would fire their shot and many then returned to their farms. This all occurred on April 19, 1775. Before the Declaration of Independence.

The poor British soldiers had crossed from Boston to quietly gather up the arms that the militia had been stockpiling. They were ordered not to fire their guns or do damage to the area.  It was an ill conceived plan, as the 700 soldiers had to go across in boats from Boston(one if by land and two if by sea). It took all night for them to cross from 10 PM ( Paul Revere and William Dawes started their ride at 10P) and they had to march for miles to Lexington, then on to Concord. They were wet, cold, hungry, thirsty, and now running for their lives. Many were poor men from England who only joined the army because they could not get jobs. Some of them just disappeared into the countryside and became Americans.

Now they were actually marching for their lives, in columns of six,  as the Minutemen were shooting at them as snipers. There were some skirmishes. They arrived back in Lexington, and stopped at Munroe Tavern. Mr. Munroe was out fighting, and had left poor Mrs. Munroe at home with the small children. He had just put up a new tavern sign, and the Brits thought what a great place to stop. When the Missus saw the soldiers coming, she fled with the kiddies, up the hills and into the woods behind the tavern. The Brits took over the tavern and made it a field hospital to care for their wounded and to regroup.

When they arrived in Lexington, they were met by were another 1000 British soldiers who were marching to assist. These soldiers put a cannon on a hill and fired into the town. That kept the militia at bay, until the Brits could care for their wounded. They only stayed an hour and a half, leaving a mess at the Tavern, as they ate, drank, and left a lot of blood from caring for their injured. Then they marched back up the road to return to Boston, with the militia still firing at them. There is a lot more to the story and it was very interesting! About 40 militia were killed and 70 Brits during this all day fighting.

The tour was’ not hop on hop off’, although you could get off anywhere, but it would be at least 90 minutes before the Trolley would return.  No one got off. They returned us to the visitor center in Lexington. We went back to The Petite Crêpe for lunch.

We stopped at the NPS visitor center for the Minuteman NP. We watched the 25 minute movie. It was unusual that the actual building was a long walk from the parking lot. We stamped our passport book, having a problem trying to find a place for the stamp!

We stopped at the memorial where Paul Revere was captured. Dawes managed to jump his horse over a wall and escape, but did not make it to Concord before he was captured. Dr. Prescott, who was with them, got away and made it to Concord to raise the alarm.

Paul Revere is a hoot!  When he was captured the Brits realized they had a prize. So they walked him back to Lexington. As they got closer, he kept telling them that there was an army waiting for them when they arrived. It was good manners that you shoot off your loaded musket when entering a Tavern, so you don’t kill someone by accident, so as they got closer to Lexington, they could hear gun shots. They thought that they would have to fight, so they let Revere and other prisoners go. They did not realize it was men going in to drink at Buckman Tavern!

When Revere gets to the Hancock-Clark house, where he had notified Hancock and JQ Adams that they needed to leave, the two of them were still there. This is when Revere went back to Buckman Tavern and retrieved John Hancock’s paperwork trunk from the Tavern and noticed the 1000 Brits arriving.

We returned to the MH to walk the dogs. We left and went to Concord to actually stop and look at the houses and the old cemetery. Below is the arbor where  the first Concord Grapes were grown. 

 

It is amazing, Nathanial Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Sidney, and Ralph Waldo Emmerson all lived a few blocks from each other and knew each other!

There were two old cemeteries. The Puritans believed that you could not take a dead body over a river, so they had a cemetery on each side of the river.

This Inn is still in business!

We also took a side trip to Waldon Pond. It looked a lot more like a lake, and there was a lot of construction there because they are building a visitor center. I dropped Bob off, he took the pictures while I drove down the road, turned around and came back to pick him up.

We drove back to Lexington and visited the Munroe Tavern, taking the last tour of the day. There were only 4 of us on the tour.

 

If it looks like a home, that is what it was. The tavern was on the first floor. There were steps to go to the third floor, which they rented out to people who were traveling. This building told us more of the British story.

The soldier in the first picture of the tavern was a soldier. The two in the picture above were officers. The one on the left was the Light Infantry and the one on the right was the Fuselier’s. Note the big hat and on both of them the shiny silver piece at their neck. They made great targets! Once the leaders were killed, the troops fell apart!

The family was very proud of the fact that George Washington ate here. He sat in the chair on the right. The family served the meal and became Washington groupies. They went into severe mourning when he died.

We returned to the MH, ate dinner, and relaxed at home.

Tuesday- We were out the door by 8:15, going back to the Alewife subway station. This time we ended up on the top floor of the parking garage. We took the red line, switched to the green line, then switched again to the blue line. The subway system runs every few minutes, so we arrived by 9:50 AM.

We walked over to the Liberty Tall Ship dock and waited to board. They of course took a picture of us, which we did not buy. We had a 90 minute tour of the Boston Harbor on the ship.

The Liberty Star is an 1800’s replica, built in Maine. It is 67 ft. long.

Passengers could help with putting up the sails.

At first the ship was slow moving across the bay, but when we turned, we started moving right along.

Above is the Bunker Hill Monument and to the right, the tall white mast is the USS Constitution.

It was a great adventure which we thoroughly enjoyed. We returned promptly to the dock at noon, and walked over to Legal Seafood’s for lunch. We had a nice meal, sitting outside overlooking the docks.

We left and reversed our trip to Alewife, and drove back to the MH. We walked the dogs, then drove back into Lexington in time for the 3 PM tour of the Hancock-Clark house.

  

We were the only ones there for the 3 PM tour. It started with a 15 minute movie, then John, the docent, dressing in appropriate clothing, took us on a private tour of the house. It was fascinating, and he was a great tour guide. The tour took almost 90 minutes. Below (L) is the door where Paul Revere arrived to warn John Hancock and John Quincy Adams that “The British are coming!”. He made so much noise, that the guard told him to be quiet, as he was going to wake up the household. He told the guard off! Hancock and JQ Adams were sleeping in the room to the left of the door.

 

Above is the formal dining room.  Below is the kitchen. The table and chairs are original furniture.

Above is the bed where Hancock and JQ Adams slept, yes together. It has a chicken feather mattress. Here is where the ladies slept. Hancock’s fiancé and Adams’s wife.

This poor house! It was moved twice. First, because the people who owned the house later decided that they wanted to build a bigger house. The town convinced them to move it. Then when the Historical Society took over, they moved it back to its original spot. As a result, look at the original door below which is crooked.

 

We left and went back to use another of our coupons, having another micro hot fudge sundae at Rancatories . They did not have the same ice cream flavor today, but the sundae was still very good. Fresh home made ice cream, home made scooped out whipped cream and homemade hot fudge! Yummy!

We returned to the MH, walked and fed the dogs, then used another coupon for dinner at Bertucci’s in downtown Lexington. We returned home, and both fell asleep in the recliners.

Wednesday- Moving day! We packed up and readied to leave. We walked over to the office and gave a thank-you card to Ann-Marie for taking walking the dogs for us several times during the 10 days we were here.

We hated leaving Boston, as it was so interesting and what a great time we had! I will miss the morning and evening bugler who at 6:30 AM played Reveille and at 9 PM played Taps. We will not miss being right next to the runway, but the noise really did not bother us. They did not fly past 10 PM or before 6:30 AM.

We drove south on I-95 to the I-90 west exit. We drove across Massachusetts and into New York, turning on to I-88 (south)west. We stopped at Susquehanna Trail Campground for the night. It was a PA park, $25 for FHU 30 amp.  We settled in to a pull thru site, and did not even disconnect the car.

Thursday-  We drove out of the park at around 8:40, and continued on I-88 to I-76 to I-81. We traveled into Pennsylvania, leaving I-81 to go to Lebanon PA. We turned into the Hershey Thousand Trails at about 1:50 PM. We disconnected the car from the MH and ran around to choose a campsite. We were able to get a nice site in the free 50 amp, FHU area. We set up and went to Walmart for groceries. Then we returned and sat outside reading and enjoying the nice weather. It was high 70’s, a little humid, but there was a gentle breeze. We ate dinner at home and watched TV.

Friday-  We had made an appointment for the dogs to be groomed today at Hershey Animal Hospital. As soon as we arrived, we realized we had been there before. When Karlie was younger, she had a bad ear infection, while we were in Hershey, so we had taken her to this Vets. Amber the groomer was very nice, and took the dogs right away.

While she was grooming the dogs, we ran to Intercourse to the Amish Farmers Market. I only bought a small basket. We stayed away from the delicious foods! It was hard passing by the awesome bread and cookies!

We returned to the park and stopped in the Activity Center. We picked up a bunch of books and will take our bag down to trade. They called that the dogs were ready, so we went to retrieve them. Do ya think they were happy to see us? LOL

We returned to the MH and settled in for the rest of the day. We ate lunch, took a nap, cleaned part of the refrigerator, sat outside enjoying the beautiful weather, ate dinner at home and watched some documentaries on TV.

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